Laugavegur, Skólavörðustígur & Hlemmur
The two streets everyone walks and the church you navigate by. Skólavörðustígur climbs from the old centre straight at Hallgrímskirkja in a rainbow-painted line, lined with jewellers, galleries and the city's oldest café; Laugavegur runs parallel and downhill-ish for a kilometre from Bankastræti to Hlemmur, and it is simultaneously the shopping street, the restaurant street, the bar street and the street that is loud until five in the morning at weekends. Puffin shops and Michelin stars are about forty metres apart. That is not a criticism — it is what a city of this size looks like when it has one high street.
Who it's for: Anybody staying one to three nights, because most of what you will actually do is here or a ten-minute walk from here. Eaters and drinkers: both Michelin-starred restaurants in Reykjavík are on Laugavegur, and so are most of the bars worth your evening. Shoppers with a real budget — Icelandic design, wool and jewellery are concentrated on Skólavörðustígur. Night people.
Things to know
- Buy the Hallgrímskirkja tower ticket first thing on your first morning. It costs 1,500 ISK, cannot be booked in advance, and shows you in five minutes how small the city is and where everything sits.
- Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur are pedestrianised for most of the year — the city closes them to cars through the summer and much of the shoulder season. Do not plan to drive or park on them.
- Both of Reykjavík's Michelin-starred restaurants are on this street: Dill at Laugavegur 59 and ÓX at Laugavegur 55. Both need booking weeks ahead and both are a serious financial commitment.
- The nightlife does not start until midnight and does not stop until 04:30 or 05:00 on Friday and Saturday. If you are on Laugavegur or Bergstaðastræti, ask for a room at the back.
- Happy hour is the structural way people drink here, roughly 15:00–20:00 depending on the bar, and it is the difference between a 1,700 ISK pint and a 1,000 ISK one. The Appy Hour app is what locals use.
- Skólavörðustígur is where the actual Icelandic design and jewellery shops are; the middle of Laugavegur is where the mass-market souvenir shops are. Ten metres of walking is the difference.
- Sundhöllin, the 1937 city baths on Barónsstígur, is the one geothermal pool you can walk to from a downtown hotel. Shower naked before entering — this is enforced and it is not optional.
- The rainbow street is repainted every summer before Pride and looks faded by spring. It is at its best in August.