Blue lagoon Iceland- anyone been?

[Thethingswedoforlove]

We are going to Iceland for a long weekend soon. Obviously keen to go to the blue lagoon. Is it far from Rejkyavik? Is it easy to get to? Should be book a tour or go independently? Any hints of tips appreciated. Same for skidoo tours? We have a northern lights and golden circle tour jncluded....

It’s on the way from city to airport, so handy to pop in to on way there/back. It’s ok but you don’t need more than an hour or so in the water. The city also has several public open air swimming pools which are fab, like a bath albeit a chilly walk from changing room to water!

Loads of people go just before getting their flights home. It is a little boring tbh. I was lucky that it was practically empty when I went, have you seen those photos of how crowded it is?

I didn’t know how crowded it was. I think there are other lagoons to try too. Can you store luggage if you go en route to/ from airport? Assume so if loads of people do it. Great tip about other swimming pools though- thank you VanClee

Yes there is a luggage store. I would do the stop there before the flight home if you can.

It's OK. Not as good as the other swimming opportunities in Iceland - can be really crowded and is a bit boring tbh. We did it on the way to the airport (get picked up in the city, dropped there, leave luggage on bus which waits and takes you to the airport), was quite nice to get on the flight feeling relaxed. We loved the open air swimming pools, the hot river, pools on the sides of cliffs!

I've been - I had really long hair which I plaited and coated in the protective cream provided, as instructed, but the volcanic chemicals totally destroyed the ends of the plaits from armpit level downwards where they hung into the water and I had to have an emergency hair appointment the day after I got back to have all my hair chopped off to above that line. So I'd only recommend it if you have short hair!

Just back from Iceland. We did secret lagoon and laugarvatn fontana. We chose not to do blue because it was incredibly over priced compared to others and it's very touristy. Fontana was our favourite and we did it one evening when it was much quieter. The different temperature pools were really nice as you could spend much longer hopping pool to pool (and to lake!) and not over heat. Theres a really good restaurant next door called lindin, we had a delicious lunch there. Fontana's own cafe didnt look great. Secret lagoon is ok, it's really interesting because of its history and how natural it is compared to others but it does get crowded and a bit boring after a bit of bobbing around. As for tours etc, we had an amazing time dry suit snorkelling in Silfra with adventure Vikings and seeing the ice caves at Katla with arctic adventures/south coast adventures. We also went riding at Eldhestar, the mountain tour is really good and the horses lovely. The golden circle was a bit of a let down as it's now just coach tours of people so very busy and takes a lot away from the atmosphere but the plus side is that it's really accessible. We much preferred off the beaten track to the more hard to get areas where we were pretty much the only ones. The best local icelandic food we had was at Loki and "icelandic street food", both in Reykjavik. The latter does bottomless soup bowls. They're very much lunch stops though.

Really helpful. Thank you Emma, martini, zeebie and loopy.

We absolutely loved it! We landed and got a bus straight there before heading to Reykjavik. There's a luggage store.

Definitely worth it

Although it was quiet and we were part of a big group so we had fun wherever we went!

Did you book in advance Cosmo? And how did you get to your hotel afterwards?

My friend did all the organising but she arranged for us to be collected at the airport and taken to the blue lagoon. We were collected by mini bus and taken to our hotel. It worked out well because we landed early so wouldn't have been able to check in anyway.

It seemed a popular thing to do as there were loads of buses at the airport taking people there.

We went on the way back to the airport. I loved it. DH and DC had had enough after an hour. I could happily have stayed all day just rubbing in the white clay and floating in the hot steam, staring up at the sky or over the weird black moonscape-y rocks or drinking champagne from the bar inside the main pool.

But it's not a natural pool. If you want one of those, try the Secret Lagoon which is especially wonderful after sundown, staring up at the stars. And the naturally thermally heated municipal pools in Rejkyavik are outdoor and brilliant for just a few pounds, whereas Blue Lagoon is £££

We loved it. We had hired a car for our time there so I’m not very helpful with the travel part but I really enjoyed the day there. I made sure my hair was tied up on top of my head, and I had a lovely glass of Prosecco in there :)

On a side note .....I absolutely loved Reykjavik. It's one on my favourite places despite being so expensive.

My top tips would be.....don't book the Northern lights in advance. You don't get your money back if the trip doesn't go ahead. We were there 3 nights and it was just too cloudy. It snowed for the full 3 days! All they do is offer you the following night.....no good if you're going home!

Download an app called 'appy hour'....it tells you where all the happy hours are so makes eating and drinking that bit cheaper!

Some of the really nice restaurants do lunch specials which makes it cheaper to eat there during the day rather than at night.

If you go out drinking consider a trip to the Kiki Queer Bar. Reykjavik's only gay bar.....we had THE best night in there. It's mainly tourists but they had a show on which was fab. Plus lots of singing and dancing.

I thought it was massively over rated. It's essentially an outdoor swimming pool, with some hot tubs and mud (which I didn't notice much effect from).

Nice, but very crowded and certainly not worth the £££.

Expensive entry but we loved it! We went at 2pm so peak time (just last week) and yes it was busy but certainly didn't feel overly crowded. You could still easily move around and have space to yourself.
We had hired a car so can't help you with travel sorry. Preferred this though as wasn't rushing for a bus, we spent around 2 hours in the water.
Make sure you book in advance as I've heard they can turn you away if you haven't booked a time slot.
And just go for the comfort package - we didn't see much point in paying that much more for a dressing gown. You're not outside for very long in the cold, you leave the changing room, there's rails for your towels to hang and straight down the ramp into the lagoon.
As for the hair thing if you've got long hair, if you do as they recommend and put conditioner in before you get in and put it up in a bun, I had absolutely no issues.

We loved it. We actually landed early and went on the way in to Reykjavik, it was such a lovely way to start the holiday and killed time until we could check in.
Definitely book in advance but don't bother booking food packages ect.
I have very long hair and I just put my own conditioner on and put it up in a secure bun. It did get a tiny bit wet when I had a water massage but it didn't do any damage.
Unless you've already booked lots tours, I'd very much recommend hiring a car and driving around a bit. We did all the golden circle ourselves and just did a tour for the ice and glacier things. Stoped for long lunches, drove at night and saw the northern lights etc and it wasn't expensive at all, in fact worked out cheaper than airport transfers plus a couple of tours we didn't need. We went in Jan and driving was very easy.

Blue lagoon was booked up by the time I tried to get tickets so we did a circle tour that included a visit to the "secret lagoon", that was great.

Another tip is to find out when the happy hours are, otherwise you'll pay £10 a pint!

We did the secret lagoon instead . It wa lovely

These tips are all so so helpful. Thank you

Any other Iceland tips at all?

There is another thread on short haul . Iceland in December . Lots of tips on there.

Also I posted a pic of secret Lagoon

Thanks starlight

We stayed in the hotel and so had access to a private pool which was amazing. However, the public pool was in whelming.