Skip to Main Content
Holland America
  • Search
  • Favorites
  • en
    • English
    • Spanish
    • English
    • Spanish
  • Chat
    • 1-855-932-1711
    • or
    • Live Chat
  • My Account
    Hello Credits
    My Account Exclusive Offers Log out
  • Book a Cruise
    Book a Cruise
    Find
    • Search All Cruises
    • Cruises: 1 – 8 Days
    • Cruises: 9+ Days
    • Cruises: 17+ Days
    • Legendary Voyages: 25 – 59 Days
    • Grand Voyages & World Cruises: 60+ Days
    • Transatlantic Cruises
    • Holiday Cruises
    • Solar Eclipse
    • Charters
    Plan
    • City Stays & Overland Packages
    • Flights & Transfers
    • Hotel Packages
    • Cancellation Protection
    Gifts
    • Gift Cards
    • Send a Gift to a Guest
    Learn More
    • Cruise Planning 101
    • Required Travel Documents
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Family Travel
    • Accessibility
    Need free advice? Talk with a Personal Cruise Consultant.
    Celebrating our Anniversary with experiences too good to hurry through
    Savour The Journey
  • Destinations
    Destinations
    North & South America
    • Alaska & Yukon
    • Canada & New England
    • Caribbean
    • Hawaii
    • Mexico
    • California & Pacific Coast
    • Panama Canal
    • South America & Antarctica
    • Bahamas
    Europe & Mediterranean
    • Europe
    • Mediterranean
    • Norway
    • Iceland
    • Scandinavia
    • Transatlantic
    Asia, Australia & New Zealand
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Tahiti
    See the World
    • Legendary Voyages
    • Grand Voyages
    Holland America Owned
    • Half Moon Cay
    • Holland America Denali Lodge
    Need free advice? Talk with a Personal Cruise Consultant.
    Couple admiring view from ship deck
    Your dream vacation begins here.
    View Cruises
  • Alaska
    Alaska
    Alaska Cruises
    • All Cruises
    • 6 – 8 Days
    • 9 – 16 Days
    • 17+ Days
    • Learn about Alaska Cruises
    Alaska & Yukon Cruisetours
    • All Cruisetours
    • 9 – 16 Days
    • 17+ Days
    • Learn about Cruisetours
    Glacier Viewing
    • Interactive Glacier Map
    • Guide to Glacier Tours
    • Glacier Bay National Park
    • Our Glacier Guarantee
    Wildlife & Wilderness
    • Alaska Wildlife
    • Denali National Park
    • National Parks
    • White Pass Scenic Railway
    Learn More
    • Sustainable Seafood
    • What to Pack
    • Cruisetour Tips
    • Featured Ports
    Holland America Owned
    • Holland America Denali Lodge
    Need free advice? Talk with a Personal Cruise Consultant.
    Brown bear with three cubs
    Cross Denali off your bucket list.
    View Cruisetours
  • Ship Life
    Ship Life
    Our Ships
    • Fleet Overview
    • Suites & Staterooms
    Activities
    • Activities Day & Night
    • Spa & Salon
    • Casino
    • Shopping
    • Kids & Teens
    Dining
    • Destination Dining™ Our Commitment to Fresh
    • Culinary Ambassadors
    • Restaurants
    • Bars & Lounges
    Music & Entertainment
    • Production Shows
    • Live Music & Nightlife
    • Destination Experts
    Shore Excursions
    • Find Shore Excursions
    • Overland Tours
    • Best Price Guarantee
    Other Amenities
    • Club Orange
    • Have It All Package
    • Wi-Fi & Internet Packages
    Women relaxing at the Holland America Spa & Salon
    Treat yourself at sea.
    Go to Spa & Salon
  • Deals
    Deals
    Deals
    • All Cruise Deals
    • All Exclusive Offers & Cruise Deals
    • Anniversary Sale
    • Top Ten Cruise Deals
    • Refer a Friend, Get $50
    • Community Appreciation Offers
    • AARP Member Offer
    • Grand Voyage Early Booking Bonus
    • Special Offers for Guests 3 & 4
    • Standby Program
    Have It All
    • Have It All Premium Cruise Package
    • Have It All Early Booking Bonus
    Club Orange & Mariner Society
    • Join Club Orange
    • $400 Onboard Credit - Early Booking Bonus
    • Mariner Society
    Get special offers during our Anniversary Sale
    Explore Cruises
  • Manage My Cruise
    Manage My Cruise
    Manage
    • My Cruise
    • Check In
    • Make a Payment
    • Book Flights
    • Book Airport Transfers
    • Book Hotels & Travel Packages
    • Cancellation Protection
    Customize Your Cruise
    • Shore Excursions
    • Spa & Salon
    • Beverage Packages
    • Wi-Fi & Internet Packages
    • Dining Reservations
    Celebrate On Board
    • Gifts & Extras
    • Stateroom Décor Packages
    • Send a Gift to a Guest
    More Info
    • Download Mobile App
    • Know Before You Go
    • Cruise Credits
    • Required Travel Documents
    Airplane flying above clouds
    Book flights the easy way.
    Try Flight Ease®
  • My Account Exclusive Offers
  • Search
  • Log out
  • en
    • English
    • Spanish
  • Chat
  • Chat
  • 1-855-932-1711
  • or
  • Live Chat

Ice Blue: With Reyjavik as Your Base, and Island Country Becomes a Waterworld

Reykjavik is an excellent base to begin an Iceland cruise. Enjoy raging waterfalls, hip fashions and surreal landscapes on a cruise to Iceland.

Learn more about Northern Europe cruises

A cruise to Iceland takes passengers to a landscape so legendary, it’s the setting for movies and fables and is now on every traveler’s wish list. But no one knows Iceland and Reykjavík better than its locals.

When I ask Reykjavík fashion designer Halldóra to describe just what it means to be Icelandic, her answer comes quickly: “Actually, we have a word for it in our language.” I brace myself for the inevitable seven syllables, assorted accent marks, and 20 letters, which are drawn from a 32-character alphabet that includes thorn and eth.

Halldóra’s last name is Eydis, but she prefers to be known only by her first name, like Madonna. As she reaches for the word to convey the local Nordic spirit — holding court in her stylish boutique on Laugavegur, the city’s main street — I feel my eyes narrow involuntarily. I lean in, trying to trace the unfamiliar sounds in the air between us.

But no matter. She quickly translates: The essence of being Icelandic, she tells me — as far as I can discern — is Just ride it out. Ride out life’s snags; ride out the sunless winters just south of the Arctic Circle, because the near 24-hour daylight of summer is coming.

Suddenly, an Iceland cruise is on everyone’s short list, and the locals, who can be disarmingly open, seem charmed by all the attention, if not a bit puzzled by it. More than one Icelander I meet tells me that many people here believe in fairies. Tourists they take in stride.

Just ride it out. Not one person I meet in Reykjavík, Iceland takes the time or energy to be uptight. They’re too busy soaking. Yes, you will see ice in Iceland — the brown hills look as if they were painted in white glacial slashes, with a delicate brush. But you’ll see far more water on a cruise to Iceland.
 

Water, Water Everywhere on an Iceland Cruise

There are geysers and crater lakes, famously raging waterfalls, and streams that wend their way through the scored lava fields. And Icelanders take seriously the benefits of bathing in the geothermal water that bubbles below this volcanic land, which is why Reykjavík can claim 17 public pools and the country itself has more than 100. Whether in rooftop baths or fancy spas, in communal hot springs or lap pools indoors or out — Icelanders like to take to the waters.

One can get wet without even trying. I’m enveloped in the mist created by Gullfoss (Golden Falls), a powerful tiered waterfall that drops angrily into a ragged hole in the earth; it’s just one of many examples where the topography of Iceland looks ripped open. Gullfoss is the star of the Golden Circle, the 190-mile loop in southern Iceland that is easily accessible and navigable on tours from Reykjavík. Droplets of water shimmer and create a film over the view, and I don’t have to wait long for a rainbow to appear before me.

Such natural attractions draw a hardy crowd in high-tech gear, much of it, I notice, from 66°North. Founded in 1926 by Hans Kristjánsson, the company took on a mission to outfit fishermen. Named for the latitudinal line where it was launched, this ubiquitous Icelandic brand dutifully bundles up a wide swath of adventure-seeking locals and visitors, from daytrippers to folks who spend weeks camping in the wild. I quickly decide I can’t leave the country without a knit hat emblazoned with 66°North, and it serves me well—not only at Gullfoss but also at Geysir, where the geyser called Strokkur (it means “churn”) erupts every 10 minutes, and at Thingvellir National Park, which is located in a spectacular rift valley that contains Öxarárfoss, a formidable waterfall of its own.

After all that water, I go the Icelandic way: more water. Laugarvatn Fontana, located on the road between Geysir and Thingvellir, offers an outdoor spa of geothermal baths at various temperatures, and a steam room whose vapors rise naturally from beneath the floorboards.

As Snorri Elis, the spa’s manager on duty, quickly shows me, it’s not only people who are luxuriating under the bubbles. He leads me outside and lets me watch as he digs out a pot buried in 200-degree volcanic mud (don’t let your foot slip). Out of that mud he endeavors to produce lunch: the hot-spring-baked rye bread that stands as a point of honor among Icelanders. The dark bread generates a lot of interest and satisfies a lot of appetites, especially when topped with smoked salmon. Snorri has four pots in the ground at once.

Back inside, Snorri slides the bread out from the butter-greased pot to find it perfectly baked and steaming. Mother Nature has cooperated with the baker — this time. “Hot spots move around,” Snorri explains. “They have a life of their own. Sometimes you open it up and it’s just dough!” I get the feeling that this is the kind of thing that Icelanders accept goodnaturedly.

Later, when I make a spur-of-the-moment stop at Galleri Laugarvatn for a coffee and skyr (local yogurt, usually served with berries as dessert), the off-center bonhomie continues. Tall, Nordic, and sturdy, Joel and his wife Thuridur own this homey gift shop and café, and when Joel tells me that 13 years ago he built the timber structure “with these two hands here,” it is not something I would dispute.

Then I ask Thuridur about her name.

“It’s an old Icelandic name,” she says.

“How many generations has your family been here?” I ask, intrigued.

“We were the first ones!”

These artisans from Reykjavík — Joel builds furniture and Thuridur works with iron—relocated here to their “summer house.” I don’t mention the irony of a summer house 45 minutes away from the city — on the tundra — but I doubt the humor would be lost on them. “We’re lucky to live in such a peaceful place,” Joel had said to me a few minutes earlier. “It’s a little crazy, but so are we.”
 

The Blue Lagoon

There’s warm blue water as far as the eye can see. As I wade, my face is slathered in green algae; 20 minutes ago it was covered in white silica. It’s supposed to be good for you. It feels good. This is the Blue Lagoon, purportedly the most popular attraction in the whole country and a popular sightseeing spot for tourists on an Iceland cruise.

This vast geothermal pool lies in the opposite direction of the Golden Circle, southwest from Reykjavík, and it’s surrounded by moss-covered lava fields. (On the road to get here, the gable of an occasional turf house rises from the ground, bringing to mind fairies and hobbits.)

After the requisite 10 minutes, I let the algae mask wash off my face and try to freestyle a bit. My swimming goggles are pretty much useless. You can’t see through the Blue Lagoon; the minerals that account for its gorgeous ice-blueness also prevent much visibility, so everyone’s disembodied torsos and heads emerge from pure, waveless color. The effect is otherworldly, and the warmth makes leaving seem unimaginable. Why would I leave? There are cashless swim-up bars, and, at the swim-up beauty counter, lovely Icelandic girls to cheerfully supply me with all the face goop I’ll ever need.

On the bridge above me, a lifeguard in a black waterproof suit gives me a broad smile when I call up to him to ask what is the craziest thing he’s seen in the lagoon. “Do people try to dive in?” I ask. (The water is not only opaque, but shallow.)

“That’s the least of it,” he tells me. I would say that his words are accompanied by a leer, except that Icelanders can’t quite leer. I continue on my wade.

Tonight, in town, there will be dinner at the casual and colorful Fish & More on Skólavörðustígur Street, where the local plates include plokkfiskur — a hearty mash of haddock and cod mixed with potatoes, onions, spices, and herbs. At the English Pub, the golden Viking beer will flow — and so will the kumensnaoi cocktails: a mix of Brennivin schnapps, honeylemon juice, and bitter lemon. Reykjavík’s thriving music scene will assert itself, courtesy of a honey-voiced duo at the English Pub and a solo guitarist at the American Bar. And then I’ll walk out onto Laugavegur Street—still sunlit at 10 p.m. — to an easygoing city as bright as night, to contemplate tomorrow’s schedule of life-affirming waterworks.

A cruise to Iceland is an amazing, water-filled experience. Learn more about Reykjavík, Iceland and its top things to do. 

Help Widget copy TBD

HAL Home page

Help Widget copy TBD

HAL Home page

Savour the Journey

Experiences With Us Are Too Good To Hurry Through

Explore Cruises

  • Find Cruises
  • Last Minute Cruise Deals
  • Our Cruise Ships
  • Family Cruises
  • Holiday Cruises
  • Cruise Accessibility
  • Cruise Brochures
  • About Holland America
  • Affiliates

Cruise Destinations

  • All Cruise Destinations
  • Alaska Cruises
  • Bahamas Cruises
  • Caribbean Cruises
  • European Cruises
  • Hawaii Cruises
  • Mediterranean Cruises
  • Mexico Cruises
  • Transatlantic Cruises
  • World Cruises & Grand Voyages

Plan & Manage Your Cruise

  • Cruise Check-In
  • Manage Booking
  • Shore Excursions
  • Flights & Transfers
  • Hotel Packages
  • Cruise Cancellation Protection
  • Gift Cards
  • Know Before You Go
  • Holland America Visa® Card

Customer Support

  • Cruising FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Speak to a Cruise Consultant
  • News & Travel Advisories
  • Blog
  • Cruise Fraud Protection
  • Call 1-855-932-1711
  • Sustainability
  • Holland America Team
  • Travel Advisors
White icon devices
Navigator Mobile App
Plan activities, purchase shore excursions, make reservations and more right from your phone while on board.
Google Play button Apple Store Button
  • White icon of Facebook
  • White icon of YouTube
  • White icon of Instagram
  • White icon of Pinterest
  • Site Map
  • Careers
  • Passenger Bill of Rights
  • Cruise Contract
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • Consumer Health Data Privacy Notice
  • Your Privacy Choices