Iceland (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Fran Parnell [91]
SLEEPING & EATING
Laugarvatn campsite ( 486 1155; sites per person Ikr800; May-Sep) By the highway just outside the village, this is a major Icelandic party venue on summer weekends. If you want quiet, stay elsewhere! Good facilities include showers and a washing machine.
Laugarvatn Youth Hostel ( 486 1215, 899 5409; laugarvatn@hostel.is; sb dm/s/d/tr/q Ikr2100/4500/5800/7150/9250; ) This large year-round hostel, spread over three sites across town, is a great place to stay. The ‘little house’ is just as it sounds, and is the most homey. The large main building rises up three floors, and has plenty of kitchen space (with great lake views while you’re washing up), a hot tub and an internet connection. The third building, near the lake, doubles as a sports and community centre and has a huge industrial kitchen available to guests. Breakfast costs Ikr1100. The hostel also rents out boats.
Edda hotels ( 444 4000; www.hoteledda.is; s/d without bathroom Ikr8000/10,000, with bathroom Ikr12,900/16,900; mid-Jun–mid-Aug) Laugarvatn’s two big schools become hotels in summer. ML Laugarvatn has the usual serviceable Edda rooms that will have you reminiscing about your college days (sleeping-bag option available from Ikr2300), and a rather draughty basement restaurant. ÍKÍ Laugarvatn is swankier by far: its 28 rooms (singles/doubles Ikr14,600/18,300) all have private bathrooms, half with beautiful panoramic lake views.
Lindin ( 486 1262; Lindarbraut 2; mains Ikr3000-5500; 11.30am-9pm Mon-Fri, 11.30am-9.30pm Sat & Sun May-Sep) Lindin is the best restaurant for miles. Its menu uses local and seasonal ingredients – fresh char from the lake, reindeer, goose and guillemot – and quiet jazz and candlelight create a relaxing atmosphere. Its French dark chocolate mousse, with raspberry purée and watermelon pieces, is allegedly the best in the world – and, having tasted it, we won’t argue!
GETTING THERE & AWAY
There’s a year-round bus service to Laugarvatn. From June to August the bus leaves at 8.30am daily from Reykjavík, calling at Laugarvatn (Ikr1700, 1¾ hours), continuing on to Gullfoss and Geysir, and then returning to Reykjavík. From September to May the bus leaves at 3pm Monday to Thursday, 2pm Friday and at 5pm at weekends but does not stop at Gullfoss and Geysir.
In summer a dirt road called Gjábakkavegur (Rte 365) provides a short-cut between Laugarvatn and Þingvellir. It’s impassable in winter – you’ll have to drive south almost to Selfoss, before heading north on Rte 36 to Þingvellir. In the other direction, Rte 37 heads east to Gullfoss and Geysir.
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GEYSIR
One of Iceland’s most famous tourist attractions, Geysir (pronounced GAY-zeer) is the original blasting hot-water spout after which all other geysers around the world are named. The Great Geysir once gushed water up to 80m into the air but, sadly, it became clogged in the 1950s when tourists threw rocks into the spring in an attempt to set it off. Large earthquakes in 2000 seem to have shifted some blockage – it now erupts two or three times daily, although not to its former height.
Luckily for visitors, the world’s most reliable geyser, Strokkur, is right next door. You rarely have to wait more than six minutes for the water to swirl and vanish down what looks like an enormous plughole, before bursting upwards in an impressive 15m to 30m plume. Don’t stand downwind unless you want a shower.
Geysers are formed when geothermally heated water becomes trapped in narrow fissures. The water at the surface cools, whereas the water below the ground becomes superheated, eventually turning into steam and blasting out the cooler water above it.
Geysir and Strokkur are surrounded by smaller colourful springs, bubbling milky pools and steam vents, where water emerges from the ground at 100°C. The geothermal area is free (it was only ever a paying venue when an Englishman owned it in 1894).
Sights & Activities
GEYSIR CENTER
Across the road from