My wife and I stayed here on two different occasions while we were in Iceland and I would definitely recommend this place. As others have mentioned, it is definitely not what I would call luxury, but it was a nice and well appointed apartment. The fact that it is an apartment, and not a hotel room, is really what set this place off in my opinion. The location is amazing; it sits just down the hill from the huge church that I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of if you researched Reykjavik, its right down the street from some nice shops and restaurants, it is right around the corner from a very cool pond that is perfect for taking pictures of… AND there is a school right near by, so you really get the feeling that you’re IN the community and a part of it… and not just a tourist. In the mornings all the kids are walking to school, people are out running in the park… its awesome, and really made us enjoy Reykjavik a lot more then I thought I would (I’m not a big city type person… not that Reykjavik is a "big" city). This was also the cheapest place we stayed in all of Iceland ($75)… which was a nice bonus.
The only thing that I didn’t care for was the strong sulfur smell from the hot water, which is apparently caused from the fact that they get their hot water from geothermal sources in the city… we didn’t experience this anywhere else in Iceland though. The bathroom was a little cramped, but to be honest, it was this way everywhere we stayed in Iceland. They have, what I called, studio bathrooms… the shower is seperated from the rest of the bathroom just buy a curtain; you could literally sit on the toilet and take a shower if you were so inclined. Again though, this is evidently an Icelandic design as ALL the places we stayed (from guest houses to regular hotels) were setup this way. The airport in Reykjavik is also close by, and the planes fly directly over the apartment which made it a bit noisey in the evenings, but the planes seemed to stop around 9PM and we never were bothered by them while trying to sleep… it really wasn’t an issue, but you should be aware of it.
If you’re going to have a rental car, the parking is relatively easy, but you’ll have to figure out the one-way streets around the apartment. It is easy to navigate, we spent about 10 minutes the first day just driving around figuring out which streets you can go down and which you can’t. I got a parking ticket the first day because I didn’t realize I was parked in a pay spot (the meters there aren’t at every spot like in the US, there is one main meter you get your ticket from), and I over paid the second time because I didn’t fully understand the meter. LOL There is a language button on the meter though… which I didn’t notice until the second day. Use it, it’ll make your life simple. 🙂
Speaking of the rental car, the directions to the place from the airport are good… when you actually have them. I somehow managed to lose them from the States to Iceland, but was able to find the apartments by navigating using the big church at the top of the hill. If you get lost, just make your way to the giant church (you can’t miss it) and then go down the hill towards the lake and you’ll find it.
–Dan Thompson