Borgarnes

Saga-country town 75km north of Reykjavik — Settlement Centre museum, Hraunfossar waterfalls, and the road north.

Borgarnes is a Ring Road town of 1,900 on a peninsula reaching into Borgarfjordur, and it punches above its weight for saga history. Egill Skallagrimsson — the drunken, murderous poet-hero of Egil's Saga — is buried somewhere in the area, and the Settlement Centre museum in town does a genuinely good 45-minute walk-through of the saga with audio guides. Beyond that, Borgarnes is a practical stop: N1 petrol, Bonus supermarket, three or four decent restaurants, and easy access to Hraunfossar waterfalls and the Deildartunguhver hot spring. Most visitors know it only as the last services before the west, though the museum alone earns an hour off the Ring Road.

As a base for the west it's underrated — you're 90 minutes from Snaefellsnes, 30 minutes from Hraunfossar, and 30 minutes from the Deildartunguhver geothermal area which pumps out more hot water than any other spring in Europe. Doubles ISK 15967-ISK 23336. Skip if you want atmosphere — the town is workmanlike. Suits Ring Road drivers, saga readers, and anyone splitting the Snaefellsnes trip into a two-day trip. Low season, roughly October to April, can push those same doubles toward ISK 25000 whenever a snowstorm closes Route 1 north of town and every driver on the road ends up parked here overnight.

At 9pm the town is quiet: the Bonus supermarket on Borgarbraut closes at 8pm, the N1 station stays open latest, and the harbour empties of the day's tour buses heading further north. There's no real nightlife here — no bar worth detouring for — and that's fine, because nobody comes to Borgarnes for its evenings. Families doing the Ring Road in a rental car find it a sensible overnight break between Reykjavik and Akureyri; travellers chasing a scenic base for Snaefellsnes photography are better off sleeping in Stykkisholmur itself and treating Borgarnes as a lunch stop on the way through.

The town works best as a hinge point: arrive in the afternoon, walk through the Settlement Centre, eat dinner, sleep, then push out to Hraunfossar and Deildartunguhver the next morning before continuing to Snaefellsnes or north on Route 1. Solo drivers and couples splitting a long Iceland loop into manageable days get the most out of it. Anyone who has already booked a farmstay 20-30km inland should treat that as their real base and use Borgarnes only for petrol, groceries and the museum, rather than expecting an evening out.

Where to sleep

The old peninsula around Borgarbraut and Egils Gata is the walkable heart — Settlement Centre, restaurants, harbour. Expect ISK 15967-ISK 23336. Hotel Borgarnes and Icelandair Hotel Hamar (out at the golf course) are the main options. Avoid guesthouses advertised as Borgarnes that are actually 20-30km inland — those are lovely farmstays but you need a car. Free parking everywhere. In July and August those rates climb toward ISK 27000 a night and rooms fill fast with Snaefellsnes-bound drivers, so book at least a month ahead. Between November and March the same rooms often drop below ISK 14000, though a Route 1 closure north of town can fill every bed within the hour. For a straightforward overnight stop, book Hotel Borgarnes on the peninsula rather than Icelandair Hotel Hamar if you want to walk to dinner without a car.

The essentials

Borgarnes peninsula and Skallagrimsgardur walk (3 km)

Start at the Settlement Centre on Brakarbraut, walk out to the peninsula tip past the small boat harbour. Loop back via Skallagrimsgardur park — supposedly where Egill's father Skallagrimur is buried, with a memorial stone. Continue along the coast for views back to Hafnarfjall mountain across the fjord, and pass the whale-bone climbing frames of Bjössaróló on the way back into town. Return via the residential streets.

Getting there & around

Borgarnes is 75km from Reykjavik on Route 1, about 1 hour by car. Straeto bus 57 from Reykjavik stops here on the way to Akureyri, ISK 1842, 90 minutes. Once in town everything's walkable in 15 minutes. A rental car is essential for the surrounding attractions (Hraunfossar, Deildartunguhver, Snaefellsnes) — none are on bus routes. From Keflavik International Airport, the drive is about 2 hours via Route 41 and Route 1, or you can take a Flybus transfer into Reykjavik and pick up bus 57 from the BSI terminal there. Fuel up at the N1 station on Borgarbraut before heading further north or west, since services thin out fast beyond town.