One of the major squares in downtown Reykjavik on a nice spring day at 9 in the morning. Almost completely empty.
[dropcap style=”one” color=”grey” text=”G” /]oogle the sentence „fun in Reykjavik Iceland“ and you´ll get almost three million instant hits. Read any of the thousands of so-called guides to the same place and most are in agreement; Reykjavik puts a capital F in fun. Official tourism office is still using the phrase „coolest capital in the world“ about this very city and in general the locals themselves think the world of the city.
It is therefore blatantly clear team Total Iceland is pretty much all alone in our assessment that Reykjavik is not all that and has never been. Below you´ll find our reasoning for this opinion but agree or not, at least you get some balance to the millions of pages thinking this city is the pinnacle of enjoyment.
A) Touristy downtown area
Unlike some larger cities where you can find more than one area of the city filled with colorful life and activity that is not the case in Reykjavik. The only area where you will see some people around is the downtown stretching roughly from Raudararstigur street to Braedraborgarstigur street. In this area you´ll find the majority of downtown shops, restaurants, bars and activities available in the city and also most of its hotels, guesthouses, hostels and short-term apartment rentals.[blockquote type=”blockquote_line” align=”right”]Yes, also here 70 per cent of folks about are not locals either[/blockquote]
You may or may not know there was a financial meltdown in Iceland few years ago. This has meant that locals on average are much poorer now than before as the currency is still pretty much near rock bottom. However, prices in shops downtown has risen considerably. Which means, for instance, you´ll find far fewer locals going out to dinner than before. In fact, sit down in any nice restaurant in the city and we bet 90 percent of its customers are foreigners. Then go outside, have a walkabout and notice how many pedestrians are actually speaking french, spanish, english or some other foreign language. Yes, also here 70 per cent of folks about are not locals either. Naturally, you will not find locals in the souvenir shops either and not many bother visiting the clothing stores downtown either. Check out the signs in those stores and you will notice few, if any, signs in Icelandic. This is not where locals shop.
Now, team Total Iceland hates to travel abroad and just hang around other foreigners. We like local flavors, conversations with locals and the local perspective. Perhaps you don´t and then downtown Reykjavik will be just fine. Not great mind you, but fine. Take a look at our map below. This is effectively the downtown area. We have colored all enterprises going after tourist dollars in blue and the list is far from complete. Now, tell us how normal this is in a city of about 150 thousand people. Oh, and keep in mind the map is three pages long.
View Tourist Reykjavik in a larger map
B) Very limited sights
Recently a taxicab driver in downtown Reykjavik got on-board a rather wealthy individual demanding to see all the sights of Reykjavik city in the four hours she had left before her yacht left again. She wanted a complete Reykjavik package and was ready to pay good money. The cabdriver, with years of experience, started the journey and for a couple of hours all was good. Then the lady started complaining. The cabdriver was taking the same route all the time. She was right. After driving to all known and unknown sights the cabdriver could think of within the city limits there were still two hours left and all he could think of was to go downtown again. He had exhausted all of Reykjavik sights in two hours flat. „And I even took her to places not really of any worth to foreigners,“ this cabdriver told us later. Incidentally he did not get any tip since the lady in question believed him to be cheating her.
In spite of all the sites and magazine telling you of the wonders of Reykjavik city that is simply not the case. Have you ever heard about the magnificent splendors of the cities of Osnabruck in Germany, Santa Clarita in the U.S., Ambato in Ecuador or Rubcovsk in Russia? All these cities are the same size as Reykjavik Iceland.
This is not to say there are not fine museums here and a few locations very worthy of your time. There are, but these anyone physically fit can take in over a one day relaxing period and does not need a taxicab either.
C) The supposed fantastic nightlife
This is dangerous ground we are covering here. More than once we had heated arguments with tour operators and business people about the supposed fantastic Reykjavik nightlife. Everyone says it is truly amazing and going out on the town here is a one-of-a-kind-experience.
When we inquire about the exact thing that makes the nightlife in Reykjavik so fantastic the answers are pretty vague. It is the life on the streets, the beauty and friendliness of the local girls, it is how late everyone here goes out, it is the massive drunkenness seen nowhere else and etc.
Now, in our view this is simple. Having fun is not about where you are but about who you are with. With a fun group you will have fun anywhere in the world. Bars in Reykjavik are relatively few and undistinguished, prices are pretty steep for alcohol which is the very reason locals arrive so late on the scene. Clubs are almost non-existent and most lounge bars here have a life-expectancy of six months.
To anyone having been out on the town in good company in New York, Barcelona, Florence, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Bangkok or any other fabulous city Reykjavik is downright boring. Sure locals can be nice but that is also the case in most cities everywhere. Locals go out late? No later than Spaniards do on average. Locals drink a lot? Try visiting the bar area in St. Petersburg in Russia or Fort Lauderdale in Florida over spring break and really see people drink a LOT.
The only thing we can think of that makes a night in Reykjavik memorable is when you have been drinking all night in June or July and each time you go outside there is always the light of day. But that you can also experience without drinking much.
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