Mosfellsbaer

Green valley suburb 15km north of Reykjavik — Halldor Laxness's house, Reykjadalur hot river, and the road north.

Mosfellsbaer sits at the mouth of Mosfellsdalur valley, a green cleft in the hills where steam rises out of the ground and the Ring Road starts heading north. Halldor Laxness — Iceland's Nobel laureate — lived and wrote here; his house at Gljufrasteinn is now a museum and it's genuinely worth 40 minutes. Beyond that, Mosfellsbaer is a low-slung suburb of 12,000 people with a decent bakery (Molabakari), a mall, and easy access to Iceland's most famous river-bathing spot at Reykjadalur. The valley itself runs east past horse farms and greenhouses toward the hills, and on a clear evening the light on Esja is better than anything you'll see from a downtown window.

Stay here if you're planning to hike Esja, drive the ring road north, or bathe in the Reykjadalur hot river — the trailhead is only 30 minutes' drive. Doubles ISK 15353-ISK 20879. Skip if you want restaurants, bars, or anything that stays open past 9pm. What you get is silence, geothermal steam vents in the fields behind your hotel, and a shortcut to the countryside. Dinner options are limited to a pizza place by the local supermarket and whatever you cook yourself, so most visitors eat in Reykjavik on the way out and drive back to sleep.

The town itself has two centres: the older cluster around the church and the swimming pool at Lagafellslaug, and the newer strip malls along Vesturlandsvegur where you'll find the petrol station, a bank, and a hardware store. Neither feels like a destination, and that's fine — nobody comes to Mosfellsbaer to wander a high street. What draws people is the valley behind the houses: horses in paddocks, a golf course, and the sense that the mountains start about two minutes past the last driveway.

Families doing a week-long Ring Road loop often base here for the first and last night, using Mosfellsbaer as a decompression stop before or after Keflavik. Solo travellers chasing Reykjavik nightlife should stay downtown instead — the last bus back from the city centre is close to midnight and a taxi runs well over ISK 6000. If your priority is the Blue Lagoon, the south coast, or the Golden Circle, though, the 20-minute head start matters more than a bar down the street.

Where to sleep

The two Icelandair hotels near Vardaras and the guesthouses along Thingvallavegur are the practical picks — you can walk to the bakery and the swimming pool. Expect ISK 15353-ISK 20879 in high season, dropping toward ISK 12000 in November and January if you avoid the two weeks around Christmas. Hotel Laxnes, out near the farm the Laxness family once ran, and Hotel Vellir in the newer part of town both put you within a 10-minute drive of Gljufrasteinn and the Esja trailhead. Avoid anything advertised as 'Mosfellsbaer' that turns out to be a farmstay 15km up the valley; those are lovely but you need a car and the reviews often bury the location detail. If you're driving, the location is more forgiving, and Hotel Laxnes is the better bet if you want to walk to a river rather than just a car park.

The essentials

Mosfellsdalur valley walk (6 km)

Start at Alafosskvos (the old wool mill turned artist studios) on Alafossvegur. Walk up the valley alongside the river past Gljufrasteinn, then loop back via the geothermal field where you'll see steam vents right by the path. Views across to Esja and, if you carry on, into the empty green interior. Allow around 90 minutes at an easy pace, longer if you stop at Gljufrasteinn or linger by the steam vents; the path is flat gravel and stroller-friendly for most of its length.

Getting there & around

Bus 15 from Haleitisbraut in Reykjavik reaches Mosfellsbaer in 30 minutes, ISK 614. It runs every 30 minutes weekdays, hourly at weekends. From Keflavik airport there's no direct route — take the Flybus to BSI then bus 15, about 1h30 total. With a car, Mosfellsbaer is 20 minutes from downtown Reykjavik on Route 1 and gives you a head start on Thingvellir and the Ring Road. Once you're here, everything worth reaching — the pool, the bakery, Gljufrasteinn — is within a 15-minute walk or a 5-minute drive of the main hotels, but Reykjadalur and Esja both need a car or an organised tour, since neither has a bus connection.