I had the idea for a human itinerary, one day in Reykjavik vs a day suggested by an AI while I was watching Hannah Witton’s I Asked Chat GPT & a London Expert to Plan A Solo Day Out in London video in September and immediately wondered what I would say for a day in Reykjavik and what Chat GPT would say. Now, Hannah gets someone else to do her expert human itinerary and then she tests them both, which I’m not going to do but I’m curious about how the two will compare. So I’m going to do my suggestion before I look at the AI version so as to not be influenced. I’d also say that if I was in Iceland on a winter day, especially if it was my first time, I’d be looking to get out of Reykjavik, go and do the Golden Circle, maybe, but this is specifically a city day so let’s run with it.
I think what I’m looking for is: plan a winter day out in Reykjavik, including a mix of cultural and more adventurous activities, lunch and dinner out and something for the dark winter evening.
I’ve plotted it all on a map below – mine is in teal with mid-blue optional extras and Chat GPT’s is in golden-yellow with bright yellow optional extas. But let’s talk it through.
My itinerary for a winter day in Reykjavik
Start the day in one of Reykjavik’s many Te Og Kaffi, Iceland’s very own coffee chain. It’s not just tea and coffee – grab yourself a smoked salmon bagel for breakfast, avocado toast or just a cinnamon roll alongside your coffee. I recommend the one in Lækjartorg, the square in downtown Reykjavik right at the end of Laugavegur, the main shopping street.
When you’re fed, stroll around towards the Old Harbour, enjoying the views across the bay and to Esja, and go up to the Grandi district – the Shoreditch of Reykjavik, if you will. There’s no shortage of indoor attractions out here and my choice would be either FlyOver Iceland or the Lava Show, depending on your taste. I’d probably do both, personally. They both take about an hour and will get you out of the cold and snow. FlyOver is a 3D cinema experience where, strapped into a fairground ride-style row of seats, you get lifted over a concave screen and “flown” through some of Iceland’s most spectacular scenery, including the wind in your hair and a fine spray of water on your face as you swoop through waterfalls and rivers, finishing up back in Reykjavik on New Year’s Eve. If you’re after something a little more stationary, the Lava Show is just a little way up the road – a theatre where your Lava Master makes real lava live a theatre, manipulates it for your entertainment and introduces you to the world of volcanoes. It gets warm in here, what with the actual real lava in the room, so if you’re cold, this is definitely where to come.
I’d then go for lunch at Grandi Mathöll, a food court on the edge of the harbour. It’s a good mix of street food and indoor food, from Asian spices to pizza to Icelandic fish to burgers to coffee. If the weather’s good, you can sit outside to eat. If you’re like me and you’d rather grab some bread and cheese or ham and make sandwiches to eat on the go, there’s a variety of supermarkets at Grandi.
In the afternoon, I’d do a little walking tour around Reykjavik, starting at the east end of the Old Harbour in Kolaportið, the flea market – a popular Reykjavik sight however unappealing it might initially sound – and then cross over into the downtown area to see the Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament Building at Austurvöllur. I’d then go to the north end of the Tjörnin, to the unfrozen corner alongside the road where hundreds of ducks, geese and swan paddle and splash and honk. I’d then walk five minutes up Lækjargata, the main road, towards Harpa, and then turn right up Laugavegur, which is Reykjavik’s main tourist street.
You can entertain yourself for an hour or so going into the puffin shops, the Serious Cold Weather Clothes shops, stopping at whatever cafes or bars catch your eye, but at some point, take another right and walk up the hill to Hallgrímskirkja, which is the big grey church shaped a bit like a space shuttle. It is just a church – you’ll hear people call it a cathedral but Reykjavik’s cathedral is actually that low-key black church opposite the Alþingi. Shelter from the cold again by going for a look around inside and take the elevator to the top of the tower for views across the city, right across the bay and right down towards the Blue Lagoon. If you’re feeling hungry, I recommend Cafe Loki right opposite, which is famous for its traditional Icelandic food, which ranges from fermented shark and lamb shank to rye bread ice cream and pancakes.
In the evening, go to the Sky Lagoon, which is a 15-minute shuttle bus ride from BSI if you book via Reykjavik Excursions (or a taxi if you prefer to DIY). I can’t let you leave a day in Reykjavik without enjoying some geothermal hot water and while Reykjavik has some very good pools, this is a day enjoying the highlights of Iceland’s capital, so we’re upgrading from “pool” to “geothermal experience”. Of course, you can go to an ordinary pool if you like, because they’re pretty amazing compared to what we have in the UK but not priced particularly higher. It’s absolutely the budget option compared to the likes to the Sky Lagoon and I love both of these – Sundhöllin is right in the heard of downtown, behind Hallgrímskirkja, and Laugarsalslaug is about a 15m bus or taxi ride east along Laugavegur. They both have outdoor lane pools, outdoor hot tubs, indoor lane pools and they both have either a sauna or a steam room or both – to be honest, I can’t remember exactly what Laugardalslaug has got, apart from four hot pots and a saltwater spa.
The Sky Lagoon is on a west-facing headland just south of Reykjavik, so it’s a great spot for watching sunsets if you’re here in spring or autumn and it’s just far enough from the city that you might get a glimpse of the Northern Lights from the hot water. I think the Sky Lagoon is one of the really top-tier premium spas out of Iceland’s ten big geothermal experiences – everything is very sleek and shiny, the showers have private cubicles and its USP, other than its prime location, is its 7 Step Ritual. I’ve been sarcastic and kind of angry about the 7 Step Ritual before, namely that 1) it’s actually only 5 steps and 2) it requires you to spend extra for access to facilities everywhere else in the country provides for free but it does turn it into a premium experience that makes you feel like you’ve had more than just a warm bath with an incredible view.
By now, you’ll probably want a proper meal, unless you really did snack your way up and down Laugavegur earlier and I think you could do worse than just go to the Sky Lagoon’s Smakk Bar which does small and large sharing platters. If you’d prefer to eat out, the usual recommendation in Reykjavik is Dill, which is on Laugavegur right next to the Bonus supermarket. It’s where you go for an upmarket, ever so slightly pretentious meal with local sustainable ingredients. I’ve also heard great, if less formal, things about Hamburger Factory in Fabrikkan but that’s a little bit of a hike or a taxi ride.
Take the bus, or the taxi, back to Reykjavik, feeling lovely and warm and relaxed and well-fed. If you want a quick drink before bed, pop into Kaldi Bar, which is a nice cosy place on Laugavegur, all sagging wooden floors and leather seats. This bar belongs to Kaldi Brewery, which was Iceland’s first microbrewery, so it’s great for unusual beers as well as being renowned for its cocktails. Keep your eye on the sky as you walk back home – maybe the Northern Lights might be out! If you can walk along the seafront between the bar and your accommodation, that’s probably your best bet for sightings, so good luck.
And now let’s see what Chat GPT reckons.
Chat GPT’s itinerary for a winter day in Reykjavik
Chat GPT’s recommendation for breakfast is Café Babalú, which I’ve never heard of. It suggests “their delicious Icelandic pancakes” which fair enough, they do do a breakfast crepe with scrambled egg, ham and cheese but it also suggests “a hearty breakfast bowl” which isn’t on the menu. It’s on Skólavörðustígur, halfway up the road between Laugavegur and Hallgrímskirkja, so ok, this isn’t a bad idea.
Next, visit the National Museum of Iceland which is a little way beyond the south end of Tjörnin and on the other side of the main road. I don’t know anything about this place either – I don’t think I even knew it existed but I’m a philistine and don’t do museums. I think if you want to do an museum, both Safnahúsið, the House of Collections which I visited under its previous name the Culture House, or Reykjavik Art Museum might be better choices, simply because they’re easier to get at. I’d be looking at buses to get to the National Museum; you’d probably be looking at taxis.
Next up is back to Skólavörðustígur to visit Hallgrímskirkja, which I also recommended, and specifically says to climb to the top. You can’t “climb”, it’s elevator only, so don’t worry about eight storeys of stairs. For lunch, it recommends Icelandic Street Food which is an unassuming restaurant just down Lækjargata from Tjörnin. Ok, I’d switch the National Museum and Hallgrímskirkja in this case – start on Skólavörðustígur for breakfast, do the church, then walk/taxi over to the National Museum and then go to Icelandic Street Food instead of bouncing backwards and forwards across the city. Icelandic Street Food does the likes of fish stew, lamb soup, shellfish soup, pancakes and an Icelandic speciality called happy marriage cake, which is made with oats and strawberry jam.
Then it suggests going over to Grandi for the Whales of Iceland exhibit. Look, I’m not going to say no. I’m just going to say that an hour and a half is more than long enough to wander around a warehouse full of fibreglass whales. Oh, it’s fine, it’s good, but there’s so much more to do in Grandi and I think I prefer everything else. I’ve already talked about FlyOver and the Lava Show but the Saga Museum is absolutely worth doing and if you’re looking to kill half an hour, Aurora Reykjavik, the Northern Lights Centre, is quite good too. It’s actually in a new location, along the same semi-industrial estate as all the others instead of in the car park by the harbour, so it might actually be better than I remember now.
Next it says “book a guided snowshoeing or ice climbing tour”. By now it thinks it’s 3.30pm and you’re going to want dinner at 6.30pm. I will absolutely tell you that this late in the day is impossible to do a snowshoeing or ice climbing tour. One, I’ve never seen snowshoeing tours in Iceland. Two, ice climbing will probably require you to do a two to three hour drive down the coast to get to the glaciers they use for it. Absolutely go and do an ice climbing trip, it’s a great idea, but it’ll be pretty much a full day and it’ll be outside Reykjavik and therefore outside the scope of this itinerary. Arctic Adventures are probably your best choice for an activity like this.
Chat GPT then says to go to dinner at Dill. I don’t disagree.
Finally, it gives you the option of a Northern Lights tour or an evening at a hot spring. It suggests either the pool at Laugardalslaug or the Secret Lagoon, out on the Golden Circle at Flúðir. The Secret Lagoon certainly has a rustic authentic charm – it’s a rectangular pool about shoulder deep dug out behind someone’s farm and supplied with hot water directly from geysers on the land. You’re not going to find steam rooms or in-water bars or even a private shower cubicle there but more importantly, in winter it closes at 7pm. If the Sky Lagoon isn’t to your taste, Laugarvatn Fontana, also on the Golden Circle, is open until 9pm and has views over lakes and mountains, plus natural saunas and steam rooms fresh from the hot spring underneath them. I love Fontana myself and what I would do is book Reykjavik Excursions’ Northern Lights and Fontana Geothermal Baths package, which takes you out to Fontana and then does a Northern Lights hunt on the way home. If the Lights don’t show, you’ve still had a good evening out and it’s likely to be a small group rather than a convoy of overfilled coaches, which is what you’ll get on a plain Northern Lights tour.
So there are definitely similarities between the two itineraries. We both suggest something indoors over at Grandi, going to Hallgrímskirkja, dinner at Dill and a geothermal pool. I’m not going to say which itinerary is better – Chat GPT knows Reykjavik’s restaurants and cafes better than me but it doesn’t consider actual real-life times and distances. On the other hand, I like to stick in alternatives whereas Chat GPT’s thinking is quite black and white – there’s no “but if you prefer something else, here’s a suggestion…”.
I think I’d like to play this game again later on but with a week’s itinerary based in the south west – see if it goes for the obvious and see if I can come up with anything a bit more special. But that’s not going to be for a while. Do let me know if you go to Reykjavik and use any of this – I’d love to know what really works and what doesn’t.