The Blue Lagoon. To do or not to do. That is the question. When googling things to do in Iceland prior to a visit, most travelers will see this colorful locale come up in the first few suggestions. For those who do not know, the Blue Lagoon is a man-made hot spring that has become a mini spa-like resort. Its warm waters result from the water refuse from a nearby geothermal power plant. Had we not read any reviews prior, we likely would not have been torn between visiting and not visiting, however, due to the online debates we’d viewed we had a hard time deciding whether to “mortgage the house” to visit the Blue Lagoon i.e. it’s rather expensive. Long story short, we ultimately decided we might as well. Here is our review.

As we said above, the first thing that may outrage people about the Blue Lagoon is the price. You’ll see it everywhere. And yes, it is expensive. For us, we unfortunately visited after the Blue Lagoon had raised its prices and removed the cheapest package from its possible selection. What remained were a standard, premium, and super awesome package (I forget the actual name of that one) all more expensive than the 49 euro value package we had heard of previously. Naturally, we wanted to do the Blue Lagoon but we wanted to do it cheaply since we aren’t made of money. We selected the standard visit package which included access to the lagoon, a towel, silica mud mask, and drink of one’s choice from the lagoon bar. We found out that the Blue Lagoon uses dynamic prices i.e. visits cost more at different times of the day or if you book earlier or later. We chose to visit in early evening at 6:00 PM. For reference, the Blue Lagoon typically closes at 9:00 PM so this would allow us 3 hours to explore. You are allowed to stay from the time your ticket begins to the end of the day, so if you visit in morning you can stay all day, but we wanted to visit after spending the day elsewhere. Each ticket cost an amazing 84 euros and in American dollars the price of our visit in total for two people ended up being $194. Yikes. Regret set in as soon as the Blue Lagoon website showed us our E-receipt. Brad almost cried. But going to the Blue Lagoon we were.

The Blue Lagoon is located about 45 minutes drive west of Reykjavik. This is also about 20-30 minutes east of Keflavik airport. We left our Reykjavik guesthouse around 5:00 PM in order to make the 45 minute drive and hopefully arrive slightly early for our visit. We ended up arriving around 5:50 PM. On the drive to the Blue Lagoon you can see parts of the geothermal plant that provides its waters off the side of the road. Parking in the lot was easy. Immediately at the parking lot there is a storage house for luggage for people coming directly from the airport or going to the airport, however we didn’t need to use this since we were coming from our guesthouse.

So here we have arrived. We’re probably the only ones to have chosen this random time at 6:00 PM to visit the Blue Lagoon! Right? Right! Well, actually wrong. Word on the street was that the Blue Lagoon can get crowded. We were definitely not the only ones waiting in line for the 6:00 PM. We ended up behind probably 20-30 people in line (there’s a check in process) and then about 50-60 people probably end up behind prior to us getting called forward. It seemed like it was going to be packed! Honestly though, once you get inside the Blue Lagoon it does seem less crowded, at least for us at our time.

We were called to start checking in slightly after 6:00 PM, probably 6:05 PM due to an “event” that was being handled by staff. Not sure what it was but apparently it resolved. At check in the counter staff handed us our towels and we were off! To the showers! Yes, it is apparently mandatory to shower prior to entering the Blue Lagoon. The showers are more or less public, with bathroom stall walls on either side but no door where it should be, except for 1-2 select showers that do have doors (note from Erin’s perspective: the female shower area had more showers with doors). Needless to say, Brad saw enough male genitalia to obviate the need to visit the Reykjavik penis museum (yes, that exists!). On Erin’s side, she saw more mammary glands than a Game of Thrones episode. In the showers, you are provided with liquid soap and conditioner. They recommend that you use lots of conditioner and leave some in your hair (especially if your hair is long) because the lagoon will give you “bad hair for your photographs” i.e. your hair will be dry. Lockers are provided that can be accessed privately by using the wristband you are given at check in as well. After showering, we were finally ready to hit the Lagoon, which is a hallway and stairs away.

It was probably near 6:30 after checking in and showering that we dipped into the Lagoon. The first dip is definitely hot, like that first dip into the hot tub that makes you fear melting, but it only took several seconds to acclimate and appreciate the soothing warmth. The Lagoon itself is fairly large and separated into several areas. We would guess that there were probably about 100-150 people there with us but it did not seem overcrowded. It obviously wasn’t private but we did not expect that either. It was easy to find a relatively isolated spot in the middle, near the shore, or in the back to bask and relax. We took several minutes exploring the back end of the lagoon and eventually made our way to both the Lagoon bar and the silica mud mask hut. The bar served several types of fruit smoothie, beer, and wine. Erin got a strawberry smoothie and Brad a glass of white wine, classy! We would definitely pay an extra fee though if we could get milkshakes. Mmmmm. Would’ve been so good. Anyways, the silica mud mask hut was on the other side and we waded over to this. It looked like people would just walk up, ladle some silica mud into their hands, and start rubbing it on their faces so this is exactly what we did. Reviews online say you could probably get this same silica mud off the bottom of the lagoon……but we wouldn’t recommend that. Our feet never quite detected copious amounts of silica mud, but in the back area of the lagoon, we did walk on something that felt suspiciously like a large clump of hair. Our silica mud masks eventually hardened and we washed them off after 10 minutes to say hello to our new youthful faces. Or maybe our faces looked the same. Who knows.

Anyways, after this we relaxed more in the Blue Lagoon. There is an area underneath an artificial cave that was nice for a hot second. There is a waterfall area that gives the best massage this side of the prime meridian (or so Brad has come to believe) if you stand underneath. There are several saunas as well which Brad promptly left due to the extreme heat. Before we knew it, our time was running down. One thing we realized was that we were thankful to have booked at least several hours prior to closing because while the tickets for 1 hour prior to closing are slightly cheaper (75 euros instead of 84 euros) we do think it is necessary to spend more than an hour to completely enjoy and relax in the Blue Lagoon.

We grabbed our camera to take some last photos of the Blue Lagoon at our own risk. You can buy waterproof containers for your phones there, but we like to live dangerously. When 9:00 pm came around, we exited the waters of the Lagoon but did notice there was no hard stop to staying in the water. By the time we were out of view of the water around 9:15 there were still a handful of visitors enjoying its warmth.

We showered again on our way out, with the showers being far less crowded at this time of the evening. As we were leaving, we stopped by the menu for the Blue Lagoon restaurant to see if we should grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately, the prices were even more inflated than the initial tickets and we couldn’t get ourselves to splurge for a 100 euro meal. However, if you have the finances we say go for it! We trekked through the handy dandy gift store lastly as we exited as all good tourist venues make you do and then we headed back to our car, the Blue Lagoon behind us.

Ultimately, the Blue Lagoon was an experience that we were glad to have the chance to do. Both halves of Brerin would do it again in the end. Yes, we do wish it was cheaper (please lower your prices Blue Lagoon!). Yes, we do know that it is man-made unlike other Icelandic hot springs. But in the end it’s the memories that count. However, at the same time, if you do not make it to the Blue Lagoon don’t worry about it too much. There are other hot springs in Iceland that are both cheaper and more natural. Fortunately, our next day in Reykjavik had an unfilled itinerary and we were able to fill it by visiting one of these so-claimed alternate options to the Blue Lagoon.

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When Brad first shared with Erin how shockingly expensive the Blue Lagoon was, Erin decided to do her own research to convince herself that the experience would be worth it. Being the cheap person that Erin is, she found some great posts about free, natural alternatives to the tourist magnet that is the Blue Lagoon. One of those hot springs, the Reykjadalur Hot Spring, was appealing for several reasons:

1. It was within an hour drive from Reykjavik
2. The surrounding area was also a filming location for Game of Thrones which was one of our interests in traveling to Iceland
3. It was reportedly not very crowded
4. It was natural
5. Most of all, it was completely free!

When we discovered that we had a free day to fill, we resolved to check out this hot spring for a direct comparison with the Blue Lagoon so that we could decide for ourselves which experience was better/more worthwhile.

The Reykjadalur Hot Spring is found in the Hengill Geothermal Park. It was about a 45 min drive from our guesthouse in Reykjavik east to the entrance of the park, where cars just parked along the road that dead-ended into hiking trails. The hiking trails began with a sign displaying the trail maps which was near a small restaurant with outhouses. The surrounding hills were punctuated with rising steam, as this is a geothermal area. We began our hike.

From where we parked to the hot spring, it was about a 45-minute walk with many stops for pictures of the scenery. It was not a particularly difficult hike, although there is a notable winding incline in the first half and the tourists behind us kept slipping on the gravel on our way back down. People do ride horse-back in the area, so you must be mindful of their leavings on the trail.

As you climb higher into the park, you get a lovely view overlooking the Djúpagilsfoss waterfall. This is the area that we recognized most from reading about the location online. The rest of the terrain was familiar to Erin from the scene in Game of Thrones where the Hound faces off against (Ser) Brienne of Tarth.

As we drew closer to the hot spring, we had to cross a small bridge where our vision of what lay beyond was entirely obstructed by steam. As we crossed, there was a moment when Erin felt the steam was never going to clear, but when it finally did, we were in sight of people in the water.

The Reykjadalur Hot Springs are really a river, and you can see it winding before you get to the area where people jump in, however, there are plenty of signs expressing “Danger” indicating that not all areas of the river are a suitable temperature. The stretch where people do enjoy the hot springs is fairly long and it is not difficult to find a section for yourself. During our visit, there may have been a maximum of 30 other people.

One additional difference between this hot spring and the Blue Lagoon became apparent before we reached the water; there are no real dressing rooms. Instead there are a few walls set up where people try to change into and out of their swimsuits, using towels and friends as make-shift curtains. The easiest thing to do is to put modesty aside and not worry about it.

The temperature that day was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, so we had some fear that we would be freezing outside of the hot spring. After changing, the temperature right next to the springs was still quite comfortable for Erin, although Brad got into the water as quickly as possible.

The rocks and pebbles on the bottom of the spring made it difficult to walk comfortably with bare feet, but once we settled into a deeper portion of the river, we were content. The water was nearly crystal clear and the temperature varied, but was always within a warm range. We relaxed for at least an hour.

Once we got out and changed into our clothes, we chose to head back to our car rather than continuing on the trails. A few kilometers and several pictures later, we were on our way back to Reykjavik for our last night in the city.

Overall, the Blue Lagoon and Reykjadalur were very different experiences, not unexpectedly. On the one hand, you have the “tourist trap” with an obscene price, but the Blue Lagoon was relaxing and came with extra perks like drinks, the silica mask, showers and lockers, and Brad’s favorite, the massage waterfall. If you can afford it, the warm blue waters are not something you will regret. On the other hand, there is the natural hot spring with no extra frills that is just as relaxing and well-worth the price. If you have the time and the means, we would recommend that you give both a try!