Best Family Hotels in Reykjavik, Ranked

The ones that get it right

Reykjavik Residence Apartments on Hverfisgata are the practical winner: two-bedroom apartments with full kitchens in the middle of downtown, cheaper than two hotel rooms and easier when a toddler naps at 5pm. Fosshotel Reykjavik has family rooms for four with proper beds, not sofa pull-outs, plus a large breakfast that keeps kids fed for hours. Grand Hotel Reykjavik sits next to Laugardalslaug pool and Family Park, which matters more than any in-hotel kids' club Iceland will ever offer.

Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Natura near the domestic airport has family rooms and free shuttle to downtown, plus grass outside for the kind of energy release small children need after a rental car day. Center Hotels Laugavegur has connecting rooms and is one block from the main shopping street.

Fine but overrated for families

Hotel Borg is beautiful and completely wrong for kids under 10; the whole point is quiet grown-up glamour. 101 Hotel similar. Canopy by Hilton has small rooms designed for couples and business travellers, and the family rooms feel cramped for four. Radisson Blu Saga is fine but the location on the university campus means you drive or bus everywhere with kids.

Practical notes: Icelandic hotel rooms are generally smaller than North American equivalents, and hotels rarely have pools worth swimming in. Plan on using the neighbourhood thermal pools instead, which cost about 500 ISK for children and are genuinely part of family life here. A hotel within 10 minutes' walk of Sundhollin, Vesturbaejarlaug or Laugardalslaug is a better call than one with an in-house pool.