Everything You Wanted to Know About Reykjavík (But Were Too Embarrassed to Ask)

You have questions about Iceland. Strange questions. Slightly embarrassing questions. Questions you whispered to your travel companion after seeing a man in shorts during horizontal rain or after discovering that the hot tap water smells faintly like boiled eggs and geothermal ambition.

This is a safe space.

Here you will find answers to the things tourists desperately want to know but are often too polite, too confused, or too afraid to ask out loud. Questions about Icelandic weather, Icelandic food, Icelandic customs, Icelandic fashion choices, and whether Icelanders genuinely believe invisible elves are monitoring road construction projects.

Is Iceland actually covered in ice?

Not really. Reykjavík is surprisingly green for a place where the weather forecast occasionally sounds like a maritime safety warning. The name “Iceland” was arguably one of history’s greatest tourism scams. Meanwhile, Greenland is mostly ice. Vikings were very committed to misleading branding.

Why does everyone in Reykjavík look so stylish even in hurricane-force wind?

Because if Icelanders waited for appropriate weather to wear their nice clothes, they would – quite frankly - never need to own any nice clothes.

Any weather is summer weather if you are brave enough. Or desperate enough.

Reykjavík fashion is built around a simple philosophy:

Fashion over comfort. Always.

This means:

• trench coats in sideways rain

• sunglasses during storms

• carefully styled hair entering what meteorologists would classify as “a shelter in place event”

• refusing to acknowledge the wind emotionally

  
  

Tourists arrive dressed for survival. Icelanders arrive dressed for brunch and simply hope to survive as well.

Do I need cash to visit Iceland?

Almost certainly not.

Iceland may secretly be one of the closest things on Earth to a cashless society. You can pay by card for virtually anything (legal). Many tourists arrive proudly carrying emergency cash and leave Iceland a week later realizing they have not touched a single coin.

In fact, the truly Icelandic experience is watching someone pay for:

• one banana

• half a litre of petrol

• access to a public toilet

with a contactless card or phone.

Nobody will judge you for tapping your phone 47 times a day here.

Except perhaps your bank.

Is there really an app Icelanders use to check if they are related before dating?

Sort of.

Iceland has a genealogy database called Íslendingabók containing family records going back over 1,200 years. Because Iceland has a relatively small population, most Icelanders are related somehow if you go back far enough.

Naturally, Icelanders turned this into both:

• a useful genealogy tool

• an excellent national joke

  
  

At one point, the associated app even had a feature where two people could bump phones together to see how closely related they were.

Foreign media reacted to this information with the calm restraint of:

“ICELAND INVENTS ANTI-INCEST DATING APP.”

In reality, Icelanders are not constantly discovering at brunch that they accidentally married their siblings.

Why is there always a line outside the ice cream shop, even in winter?

Because Icelanders treat ice cream as an all-weather food group.

Sunny day? Ice cream.

Rainstorm? Ice cream.

Snowfall in sideways wind at 3°C? Perfect ice cream conditions.

Visitors often assume the queue outside an ice cream shop means:

“Ah, it must be unusually warm today.”

Nope. This is simply what Icelanders do year-round.

Look at it this way: You can leisurely enjoy your waffle cone for as long as you like without running the risk of it melting all over your hands.

Where and when will I find puffins? Are they friendly?

Tourists quickly notice that Icelandic souvenir shops appear to believe puffins are the only animal on the island. Puffins on mugs, socks, sweaters, postcards, tea towels, and probably somewhere on a roll of toilet paper if you look hard enough.

But yes, they are real.

Puffins arrive mostly during the summer months, usually from late April until August. Outside of that, they spend most of their lives far out at sea. The best places to spot them are coastal cliffs and islands like Dyrhólaey, the Westman Islands, and Borgarfjörður eystri.

And what is so special about them, you may ask? Just look at them! They resemble tiny, confused cartoon birds. What's not to love?

Why are there babies sleeping outside cafés?

It is perfectly normal to see babies napping outdoors in strollers while parents sit inside nearby. Icelanders generally believe fresh air is good for children.

Tourists tend to react as though they’ve witnessed a shocking case of child abandonment.

Will I see the Northern Lights?

Maybe.

The Northern Lights are like an emotionally unavailable celebrity. The more desperately you want them, the less cooperative they become.

There are definitely times of year that improve your chances. Summer in Iceland is far too bright because the midnight sun refuses to let darkness happen properly. You need actual darkness for the Northern Lights to appear, which means the best season is generally from late September through March.

But honestly, the best time to see the Northern Lights is whenever they decide to show up. You can have perfect forecasts, clear skies, expensive tours, thermal layers, three weather apps, and the emotional investment of a Victorian poet and still see absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, someone taking out the trash in Akureyri at 2:17 a.m. may accidentally witnesses the greatest aurora display of the decade.

That unpredictability is exactly what makes seeing them feel so special. Nobody can guarantee the experience, which is why the people lucky enough to catch them tend to talk about it like they briefly witnessed magic. And they kind of did.

Do Icelanders really believe in elves?

This is an extremely risky question to ask an Icelander because there is no correct answer. Most Icelanders do not actually believe in elves.

However, many Icelanders will swear up and down that they absolutely do, because frankly it seems wiser not to take chances. The elves might hear you.

To be fair, after a few days driving through Icelandic fog, volcanic landscapes, and moss-covered lava stretching endlessly into the mist, you may also begin to feel there are probably things out there best left unbothered.

Why are there so many swimming pools?

Because in Iceland, public pools are not just pools. They are equal parts social clubs, therapy sessions, bonding experiences and unofficial town meetings.

Locals will sit in a hot tub outdoors during snow, rain, or horizontal sleet discussing politics with complete emotional calm.

You should absolutely visit at least one pool while in Reykjavík. Look for our handy guide to the city pools and who you might find there (along with directions from Refurinn Guesthouse). And yes: You MUST shower naked before entering and wash with soap. But most pools will have private changing rooms available for those who need them. Just ask.

Why does the tap water smell a bit strange sometimes?

First of all: the cold water is magnificent. Icelandic tap water is some of the cleanest and best-tasting water in the world, and locals are genuinely offended by the concept of bottled water.

The smell comes from the hot water.

Unlike in many countries, Icelandic hot water comes directly from geothermal sources deep underground. Which means your shower water has essentially travelled through volcanic terrain before arriving at your bathroom.

In practical terms:

• cold water = fresh glacier water

• hot water = subtle notes of volcano and ancient earth forces. And boiled egg.

Final question: why do people fall in love with Reykjavík so quickly?

Because Reykjavík feels a little unreal.

It is a capital city that feels like a quaint small town with small, colorful houses, fishing boats sit beside trendy cocktail bars and volcanic landscapes visible from your cozy café.

Also, somewhere along the way, you stop checking the weather forecast entirely and begin saying things like:

“Honestly, this wind isn’t even that bad today.”