The 13 Best Places to Drink and Stay in Reykjavík

You ring a brass lion's-head doorbell to get in, which sets the tone. ÓX is a 17-seat tasting counter in Reykjavík where a four-hour dinner unfolds inside what feels like two grandmothers' homes colliding: a retro cocktail bar and a kitchen hung with upcycled cupboards. The cooking leans into intensity over prettiness, Icelandic ingredients pushed hard for flavour rather than dressed up for Instagram. It holds a Michelin star.

1. White Guide Global Masters Level · White Guide
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

Sitting on the Old Harbor next door to the Harpa concert hall, this sleek design hotel channels Iceland's landscape and Reykjavik's edgier creative energy into one building, which is a harder trick than it sounds. Rooms are modern, there's a spa and a nightclub on site, and most of the city's landmarks are a short walk away. The kind of place that makes you feel like the trip was a good idea before you've even unpacked.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

1. White Guide Fine Level · White Guide

The postal code "101" doubles as both address and identity at this boutique hotel in central Reykjavik. The former home of Iceland's Social Democratic Party now runs black-and-white interiors, open-plan rooms with sleek Nordic furniture, and bathrooms where the claw-foot tub sits right in the room with you. A glass roof reveals a permanent mural overhead, and the gallery rotates work by Icelandic artists. The lounge draws a crowd that didn't come here to stay in.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The bartenders at the in-house bar wear white pharmacists' coats, which tells you something about how seriously this hotel takes its own concept. The building, designed by the architect behind Hallgrímskirkja, wraps Art Nouveau bones around 45 contemporary rooms in central Reykjavík, a block from parliament. An Argentine grill anchors the open kitchen downstairs, so there's a decent argument for staying in on a cold night.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The pitched skylights in the top-floor suites are a good argument for upgrading. This four-star hotel sits on one of central Reykjavík's older streets, steps from Lake Tjörnin and the art museum, with 130 rooms finished in warm taupe, dark grid-patterned headboards, and forest green cushions. The in-house restaurant does modern Northern European cooking in Art Deco surroundings, and two rooftop terraces plus a steam-and-sauna spa keep you from spending too much time outside in January.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Parked beside the Icelandic parliament on an old-school Reykjavík square, Kvosin is a boutique hotel that feels more like a well-appointed city apartment than anything fussy. Rooms run from Normal to Bigger to Biggest, which is either refreshingly honest or a mild act of genius. The interiors lean modernist, the spaces are airy, and the ground-floor restaurant hands you off to the town, or at least to the in-house wine bar, by seven.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

One of the buildings here used to be the Prime Minister's residence, which is either a fun fact or a reasonable standard to set for your lodging. This apartment hotel sits a single block from Laugavegur, Reykjavik's main drag, with studios, suites, and full apartments spread across a small cluster of buildings. Even the smaller rooms have kitchenettes, useful when you're close enough to the city's best restaurants to walk home with leftovers.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Seven houses stitched together on Laugavegur make up this boutique hotel, which sits next door to Sandholt Bakery and a venerable local tailor, so the neighborhood does its part before you even check in. The rooms lean toward spare Nordic cool rather than saga-hall kitsch, and the on-site bistro and bar give you a reason to stay put. The selected hotels list from Michelin notices it, which tracks for one of the more thoughtfully designed places to sleep in Reykjavik.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A 1940s industrial building quietly renovated into a minimalist, monochrome boutique hotel by Icelandic-born, L.A.-based designer Gulla Jónsdóttir. The 52 rooms and suites sit a block from Laugavegur, Reykjavik's main shopping strip, with a day spa on-site for when the wind off the harbor reminds you what latitude means. No restaurant, but the neighborhood handles that without much effort.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A brass lion knocker on Laugavegur 55 answers your entry question: press its tongue and you're into a speakeasy tricked out like a 1960s living room, brown and beige, with kitsch paintings on textured wallpaper and old talk shows murmuring on the TV. The name means "grandmother is the boss" in Icelandic, which tells you everything about the vibe: warm, slightly chaotic, deeply un-flashy. The 50 gave it a Discovery nod.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery