Where can I swim in Iceland?

Another addition to the Iceland Map Hub! This shows just about everywhere you can swim in Iceland, all on a lovely map!

People don’t necessarily think of Iceland as a swimming destination. Perhaps they think of the Blue Lagoon but nothing else. However, just about every settlement has a pool, the pools are almost all geothermally heated and a good number of them are outdoors. They almost invariably have at least one hot pot and as a bonus, because tourists don’t tend to frequent local pools, they’re often very quiet. I recommend Laugardalslaug all the time – see pools in the Capital Area, because it’s got an absolute abundance of hot tubs, play pools and a 50m warm outdoor lane pool. Sundhöllin is another favourite since it got its outdoor extension because it’s right in the middle of the city and my absolute favourite place to relax of an evening after a long day adventuring.

Sundhöllin, a pool in central Reykjavik. The original pool is housed in a white rectangular Art Deco building with frosted glass enclosing balconies halfway up the front. To the left is a new wall enclosing the outdoor extension and between the two is the glass wall of the lifeguard box, reflecting vivid blue pool water although at an angle that surely can't physically do that.
Hello Sundhöllin!

But if you get out of Reykjavik, it’s always worth taking a look at the nearest pool. Because this map started for my own purposes, I’ve coloured in yellow anywhere I’ve been – to be fair, one pool I’ve been to that would fill in a big gap in the top-right corner of the map has closed since I was there in 2013 so it’s actually more than are on the map right now. I’ve also marked them by whether they’re indoor or outdoor – a big blue circle with a tiny dot in the middle is indoor (see how the white dot looks enclosed?) and the outdoor ones are a big white circle with a blue outside (see how the white dot is big and happy?).

A screenshot of the map showing various dots in blue and yellow over Reykjavik. Some of them have big white centres and some small dots in the middle.

Next, there’s an assortment of spas, destinations and luxury places ranging from the big and beloved Blue Lagoon to the Eastfjords’ Vök Baths, two hexagonal spa pools floating in the lake. I recommend all the ones I’ve been to but especially Myvatn Nature Baths which is like a miniature Blue Lagoon on the side of an active volcano on the other side of the country. All the luxury with a kind of wild vibe.

Myvatn Nature Baths, an expanse of blue lagoons under a mist or steam, set among the mountains and with Lake Myvatn just visible right in the background.
Myvatn Nature Baths

Third, there’s hot springs. Now, this is a huge spectrum. I have a book called Thermal Pools in Iceland by Jón G. Snæland & Þóra Sigurbjörnsdóttir and I’ve been through there for the hot springs. They range from a muddy puddle in a field to runoff from a boiling spring in the middle of nowhere to an actual swimming pool that happens to be fed by some hot water sprouting in a field rather than a pipeline. Some of them really only differ from places like the Secret Lagoon, in the spa/luxury category, because of their lack of marketing – and in a lot of cases that’s deliberate because they don’t want to actively encourage coachloads of tourists. Some of them have proper pools built, some have been funnelled into a plastic tub, a few even have changing facilities and showers.

Some people in the pool dug out at the hot spring at Hveravellir, as seen from a tour bus crossing the Kjölur route back in 2013.
The Hveravellir pool

Now. A word of caution on my hot spring collection. When I went through the book, I removed anything that looked like it had rained a bit much in a field, anything that I couldn’t see on the map in the middle of nowhere and anything that really looked too small to bathe in. That said, I’ve left in tiny Snorralaug, which is big enough to sit on the edge and dangle your feet in because of its cultural significance and a few others that looked pleasant even though they were small. I’ve also left in the places around Myvatn which are either too hot or too cool to be safe (too hot means it might take your skin off; too cool means it can harbour dangerous bacteria) and of course, the vast majority I know nothing about whatsoever. A lot of them are in pretty remote areas where you might well need a tour bus – Viti, Laugafell, Kerlingafjoll and Hveravellir definitely fall into that category. You can get a car to Landmannalaugar but between the non-existent road and the fact that your rental insurance probably won’t legally allow you to do it, I’d recommend a bus for that one. And I absolutely would recommend the Landmannalaugar pool. Take a tent and stay overnight to get the pool to yourself after the tourists have set off for Reykjavik in the middle of the afternoon.

Update summer 2023: It’s currently not recommended to swim in Viti. Recent geothermal activity means the temperature fluctuates wildly but most importantly, Viti’s lake is currently sitting around pH1.5 – that means it’s as acidic as stomach acid. No one will forcibly stop you but they highly recommend you just look at the moment.

A few people sitting under a bright sun in the Landmannalaugar spring, which is a duckpond-sized shallow pool sparkling in the sun with a lava field rising up on the right and rhyolite mountains visible behind.
The Landmannalaugar hot spring

If you’re passing one of these hot springs, by all means investigate but pay attention to any signs. If you’re planning to make a special journey to any of them, you should probably research first to find out a) if it’s where my map says it is b) if it’s ok to actually bathe there c) if it’s big enough to be worth the effort.

A muddy crater with a blue lake in the bottom. People are climbing down the side of the crater and there are other people, who look like dots from here, swimming in the warm water. In the background is a hint of a ring of mountains. These are the caldera edge and the glimpse of water beyond is the extremely deep and scary Askja lake, where the caldera is flooded.
Swimming in Viti crater. You need to come here with a tour company.

In an amazing world, I’d use the same mapping technology that we do at work so I could put everything – pools, spa, hot springs, supermarkets, roadhouses, volcanoes, attractions – on the same map and you could just switch layers on and off but our resident map expert has a Masters in data visualisation and has been working on our new map for at least six months and I dread to think how much it’s cost. I don’t have those resources on my own blog but the moment I do, you’ll know about it! In the meantime, enjoy this latest addition to my map collection!