Reykjavík Museums: Excellent Way to Spend a Day
- May 13
- 5 min read
Updated: May 15
People come to Reykjavík expecting waterfalls, volcanoes, puffins, and perhaps one emotionally transformative hot dog. What they do not expect is that the city quietly has an absurd number of genuinely interesting museums.
Some are historical. Some are artistic. Some are deeply specific in a way only Iceland could justify. All of them are excellent places to wander around pretending you are “taking in the culture” while also sitting down occasionally.
If you are staying at Refurinn Reykjavik Guesthouse, you are already in one of the best locations in the city for museum wandering. Most of Reykjavík’s museums are either within walking distance or reachable with a short bus ride, which means you can spend less time figuring out public transport and more time looking thoughtfully at Viking objects (or penises, we have something for everyone)
The Settlement Exhibition: Vikings Beneath Your Feet
The closest museum to Refurinn is The Settlement Exhibition, located right in downtown Reykjavík.
Distance from Refurinn: about 3 minutes on foot.
Built around the excavated remains of an actual Viking-age longhouse, this museum lets you explore Reykjavík during the earliest settlement period. You will learn how Iceland’s first settlers lived, survived, cooked, built homes, and apparently tolerated smoke-filled turf houses for entire winters. Visitors to this museum are taken through different chapters of Reykjavik‘s history, learning about the daily lives of it‘s residents in different periods of history – from farm to village to town to city.
Best way to get there: Walk. Reykjavík’s old town is compact, scenic, and full of cafés conveniently positioned for “quick breaks.”
The National Museum: Iceland Explained Properly
The museum covers Icelandic history from Viking settlement to modern independence through artifacts, religious objects, fishing culture, photographs, and centuries of determination. The permanent exhibition, Making of a Nation, contains around 2,000 objects and traces how people survived, adapted, fought, traded, worshipped, and stubbornly carried on living on a windswept volcanic island in the North Atlantic.
Distance from Refurinn: roughly 15 minutes walking.
Best way to get there: walk through downtown and toward the university area. If the idea of uphill streets sounds too taxing, buses 1 , 2, 3, 6, 11 or 12 from City Hall can shorten the journey.
Perlan: Iceland With Production Value
Perlan is less a traditional museum and more Iceland gathered into one giant futuristic glass dome and presented with dramatic lighting.
Sitting on top of Öskjuhlíð hill, Perlan was originally built around Reykjavík’s hot water tanks in the early 1990s. Today, it has become one of Iceland’s most visited museums and attractions, combining natural history, immersive exhibitions, science museum elements, and some of the best views in the city
Inside you will find:
an indoor ice cave
glacier exhibitions
volcano experiences
northern lights shows
panoramic views over Reykjavík
A typical visit takes around 2–3 hours, though many people stay longer than expected because there is always one more immersive room to wander into.Distance from Refurinn: about 3.5 km.
Best way to get there: Taxi, rental scooter, or take buses 1 or 3 from City Hall.
Árbær Open Air Museum: Historic Icelandic Cosiness
At Árbær Open Air Museum you can wander through relocated historic buildings, turf houses, workshops, and tiny Icelandic homes from previous centuries. It is essentially a small historical village where old Reykjavík has been preserved by relocating entire houses there. The interiors are furnished according to different time periods, so walking from one building to another feels like moving through decades of Icelandic daily life. One home might look like a modest 1900s fishing family house, while another reflects a more modern mid-century Reykjavík interior.
Grand tales of kings and vikings are not to be found here. This museum instead holds the story of the rest of us. And instead of reading about it behind glass cases, it invites you to walk through it.
Distance from Refurinn: around 7 km.
Best way to get there: Bus 6 from MR station (a 10 minute walk) or taxi. Walking there is technically possible but starts becoming less “pleasant sightseeing” and more “unexpected hiking expedition.”
The Saga Museum: Medieval Icelandic Drama
Saga Museum brings Iceland’s famous sagas to life with startlingly realistic figures depicting revenge, feuds, outlawry, and deeply passive-aggressive medieval conversations.
The Icelandic sagas are essentially:
family disputes
legal conflicts
epic romances
outlaws
poetry
murder
extremely long grudges
So, in many ways, timeless.
Distance from Refurinn: about 10 minutes walking, located by the Old Harbour.
Best way to get there: Definitely walk. The harbour area is one of the nicest parts of Reykjavík for wandering anyway.
Reykjavík Maritime Museum: Fish, Boats, Survival
Reykjavík Maritime Museum explains how fishing shaped Iceland economically, culturally, and emotionally.
Even tourists who think they are “not really boat people” tend to leave with enormous respect for Icelandic fishermen and mild concern about historical sea travel.
Distance from Refurinn: roughly 10 minutes walking.
Best way to get there: Walk along the harbour. Bonus points if you stop for coffee afterward and stare thoughtfully at fishing boats like you understand maritime logistics now.
The Icelandic Punk Museum: Tiny and Chaotic
Hidden in a former underground public toilet, The Icelandic Punk Museum celebrates Iceland’s punk scene with music, posters, graffiti, and rebellious energy.
It is tiny, loud, weirdly charming, and extremely Reykjavík.
Distance from Refurinn: around 10 minutes on foot.
Best way to get there: walk through downtown Reykjavík while pretending you were always cool enough for punk culture.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum: Yes, Still Real
Icelandic Phallological Museum may be Reykjavík’s most famous museum internationally, mostly because people cannot believe it exists.
Yet here we are.
It is educational, scientific, surprisingly detailed, and impossible not to mention afterward.
Distance from Refurinn: around 10 minutes walking.
Best way to get there: Walk through downtown.
Reykjavík Art Museum: Quiet Scandinavian Creativity
The Reykjavík Art Museum has several locations across the city featuring contemporary Icelandic art, installations, sculpture, photography, and exhibits that may cause you to stand silently while pretending to fully understand conceptual symbolism.
Which is part of the experience.
Distance from Refurinn: 5 minute walk
Best way to get there: Walk.
Final Thoughts
One of the best things about staying at Refurinn Reykjavik Guesthouse is that Reykjavík’s museums are genuinely easy to explore without planning your entire day around transport.
Most are walkable. Several sit around the harbour area. And all of them offer some combination of Vikings, volcanoes, fish, art, history, existential weather resilience, or wonderfully specific Icelandic eccentricity.
Which, really, is exactly what most people came to Iceland for in the first place.
Comments