We left Hafnarfjörður and headed toward the Golden Circle area. Our first stop was the Onpower Geothermal Energy Exhibition.
You will see the steam as you drive past on Route 1. The buildings are massive, but the Visitor’s Center is in the small “arrow” in the middle.
There are exhibits to see, including a demonstration about how the extremely hot liquid is harnessed and used to generate electricity and hot water, as well as information about the geothermal area.
The floors are fairly small, and what is empty one minute (above) can fill up when a tour bus arrives:
You can also see the turbine room, since this is a working power plant:
At 950 krona per adult (and free for kids under 16), the price is comparable to many other museums in Iceland. The museum is fairly small, and you may get more out of this one with a guided tour. The good news is, with so many Golden Circle tours coming through, you should be able to hear part of one, or several! But we were bigger fans of the free Ljósafoss Power Station, if it’s convenient for you.
We drove east to the Raufarhólshellir Lava Tube Cave. You’ll just see a small sign and a parking lot. But don’t judge a cave by its parking lot; this lava tube is 1360 meters long.
Let’s talk safety. Like in most natural places in Iceland, you’re on your own. In the picture above, you can see some steps carved into the stone. That’s the only place with a man-made path. Otherwise, you need to decide the best way to get from point a to point b. That may be a careful walk from one large boulder to another. Or there may be a loose rock in between. Or snow. Yes, snow, at the end of June:
In the winter, there can be a layer of ice on everything. You can explore the first 50-100 meters without your own source of light, but after that you will need a flashlight or a headlamp, and maybe an extra one too, or some extra batteries. (And don’t forget to leave your travel plan with safetravel.is!) There is at least one company that offers a guided tour. We haven’t done the tour, but it was a very cool cave, and one we would like to explore further.
Then it was on to Hveragerði, a town which calls itself the hot springs capital of the world. They use geothermal energy to keep many many greenhouses warm:
We happened to be there for the annual flower festival. This web site appears to be wrong, as the flower festival in Hveragerði is the last weekend in June.
There were some nice little displays of flowers throughout town:
As well as a concert and some indoor displays (a competition or an auction? I am not sure).
We were excited to head to Kjöt og Kúnst (as mentioned in our Golden Circle Add-ons post) for a snack. It is a bakery that uses geothermal heat in their cooking:
The kids opted for cake. And I hate to say it, but we were very disappointed. Most times when we have a mediocre or overpriced meal, we just don’t mention it and move on; you’ll only see us discussing the memorable meals. But check out the piece of cake my son got, and remember that this cost over $10 a slice:
The other pieces of cake did vary in size, and so maybe the employee cutting the cake was new?
The other kids didn’t really like their cakes, which is also extremely rare. We all left disappointed, which is almost unprecedented for a bakery. Sadly, I can’t recommend Kjöt og Kúnst, though maybe we just had an isolated bad experience.
Thanks for looking at our live updates. For help with planning your Iceland vacation, check out our main page: www.icelandwithkids.com. Or see other live updates here. Thanks for reading!
We dined at Kjöt og Kunst a few weeks ago and wouldn’t recommend it either. We went for dinner and were excited about having our meals cooked in the outside geothermal ovens/pots. As it turns out, very few of their dishes are actually cooked that way, so we were disappointed to not see anything cooked in the special pots.
Food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great (Prices are high enough that the food should be great). Service was not friendly (probably the surliest service we had on our trip), but the restaurant was clean. The cakes looked tempting, but the prices kept us from ordering any. The banana, rhubarb and apple breads we took to go were tasty, though!
Based on our experience, we would not recommend/return to this restaurant either. We LOVED this town, though. Will absolutely return for more swimming in the geothermal my heated pool and strollongaround the parks & playgrounds.
Thanks, Carrie! I’m glad to hear your opinion is similar to mine. (And I hope my Golden Circle post didn’t convince you to go to Kjöt og Kúnst; I’ll need to update my recommendations …) I’m also glad to hear you enjoyed spending time in Hveragerði- it was tough for us to judge what the town would be like without the annual flower show!
So cool!
I’m planning a trip with a toddler and was wondering how you got around the more rugged parts of Iceland with a baby. Is there a specific post that I can’t find that addresses the logistics of that? I baby wear but I’ve never worn her anywhere that wasn’t urban, and would love to hear more about safety, strategies, etc of that. Many thanks!!
Hi Liz! Good idea for a post–I haven’t addressed that anywhere yet. Baby wearing is definitely the right approach! I wouldn’t want to try to deal with a stroller anywhere in Iceland that isn’t urban. And keeping a toddler confined somehow is likely to be a necessity in some spots– remember that the safety fences in Iceland mostly just *show* you where not to go. They don’t prevent you from getting there!
While we were in Iceland, I was having some health issues that made hiking long distances difficult for me, but even some of our short hikes covered fairly rugged terrain. I had two carriers with me– a Baby K’Tan and an Onya Baby Outback. While I like the K’Tan for a small baby and short, flat walks, the Outback was definitely more comfortable for me and felt safer and more secure when I was actually hiking. I did skip some of the outings–a windy hike atop a glacier wearing crampons isn’t really safe for a baby in a carrier or for the adult doing the carrying–but tours like that will have age restrictions that warn you in advance. Carrying the baby shouldn’t deter you from hiking.
The two main things to consider are: 1. How icy/muddy/slippery are the surfaces? and 2. How steep are the up- and down-slopes? There were definitely times that I did not feel comfortable carrying the baby down an icy hill that the rest of our crew walked down. On the other hand, neither slipperiness nor steepness alone has to be a deal breaker. I was fine carrying her on the “Into the Glacier” tour with crampons–the pace was slow, the slopes were mostly gradual, and the surfaces level and predictable. For regular hikes, I always just had to be prepared to turn around if I needed to. Sometimes I could let the others go ahead while I took more time to find a less steep path, sometimes I did have to turn around, and sometimes there were no problems.
I guess the take-away should be that you should listen to your gut: How is your balance? What is the terrain like? How calm is the baby? Mostly I would just make sure to allow enough time so that you don’t have to rush while carrying the baby. Iceland is a wonderful place to explore with a little one! Let us know how the baby wearing goes for you!
Thank you so much for such a thorough and thoughtful response! You should absolutely consider making it a post, info on the logistics of having a baby in Iceland are scarce and what I mostly find when I search are people asking and not many responses. Oh and this one guy that says you’re a terrible parent if you take your kid to Iceland in the winter.
Thanks again!!!