Fairly decent hotel in Kopavogur town Iceland but far from downtown Reykjavik.
Unfortunately lies and deception have on occasion become the norm in the Icelandic tourism industry in recent years. Loads of tour operators in Iceland offers „the very best and finest“ of everything it seems, in spite of numerous instances to the contrary.
Well, that´s where we come in 🙂
There is a small hotel in the horrible town of Kopavogur, next to Reykjavik city, that advertises on its site: „Hotel Smari is located in the centre of the Reykjavik capital area, situated in a spot that’s perfect for downtown access but nicely out of the busy city life.“
It is pretty decent and inexpensive as hotels go in expensive Iceland but note very carefully the „centre of the capital area“ which is theoretically more or less correct but is very far from the „centre“ of Reykjavik city which is, more or less, the only enjoyable spot in the city. And the hotel is a long way from being the perfect spot for downtown access.
If you do have a car it will take you 20 minutes plus to drive to downtown Reykjavik from here. Unlucky enough not to have wheels you´ll have to make do with a 15 minute walk to the nearest bus stop from which it will take 30 minutes to get to downtown Reykjavik. Pray the weather is nice. And that on a weekday mind you. Should you be so unlucky as to want to go to downtown Reykjavik on a lovely Sunday morning, and who doesn´t, you will have to grab a cab since buses don´t start operating until noon. And cabs in Iceland do not come very cheap. Approximate price for a lift downtown from Hotel Smari one way will be around 28€ / 35$.
We tell you this because we met a group of Scandinavians spending time here and staying at Smari hotel. Certainly they saved some money compared to being more central but the hassle of going downtown was a heavy toll we were told. Those people would not have stayed there knowing the true location.
We are not saying it is a bad hotel but it is far away from the happening place of Reykjavik and although close to Smaralind shopping mall it is our experience foreigners in general are not here to shop. Lots of better options for that elsewhere in the world.
