Iceland on a budget.
Yes, it's expensive. Everyone told you, and everyone was right. But 400,000 people live here on Icelandic wages and still eat out, drink out and go swimming, and they do it with a handful of habits nobody puts in the brochure. This is that list. We'd rather share it than watch you pay 7,000 kr for a burger on the main street.
The eight habits
1. Eat inside the windows
Lunch deals, soup that counts as dinner, hot dogs at 880 kr, the bakery counter. 27 cheap eats, most with their deal hours. Supermarkets: Bónus and Krónan, in that order.
2. Drink at happy hour
A beer is 1,500–2,000 kr at full price and 900–1,200 at happy hour. 70 bars with happy hour, with times. Alcohol for the apartment: Keflavík duty-free on the way in, then Vínbúðin.
3. Swim in the local pool
About 1,500 kr for the best thing Iceland does, versus ten times that for a lagoon. Heated, outdoors, in every town, and the hot tub is where the country talks. The pools our editors picked.
4. Get the Orkan card
12 kr off every litre at most Orkan stations, free, in your Wallet in a minute. Today's prices by chain are on our fuel page, so you'll know where it pays.
5. Take the Flybus, not a taxi
3,999 kr to the BSÍ terminal versus about 22,000 in a taxi. In town, walk; the city bus is 690 kr a ride. Outside town, split a rental with the people you came with.
6. Data, not roaming
Roaming from outside the EU/EEA costs a fortune. The Síminn eSIM in the app is 3,000 kr for 10 GB over 30 days, or unlimited in Iceland for 14 days, on the widest network in the country.
7. The free stuff is the good stuff
The tap water is among the cleanest in the world; never buy a bottle. The northern lights are free (tonight's odds). So are the waterfalls, the black beaches, the walk around the pond, and watching the weather change four times before lunch.
8. Book tours through the app
Same price as the operator, no marketplace mark-up, secure checkout through TourDesk, and the weather-cancellation refund is the operator's. If the weather cancels, you get your money back.
Free, and worth the trip
The parking machine may want a few hundred krónur. Nothing else does.
Harpa
The concert hall on the harbour. Walk in, ride the escalators, stand inside the glass honeycomb at sunset. Free, and better than most paid views.
Hallgrímskirkja and the Sun Voyager
The church is free to enter (the tower is not, and the view from the steps is most of it). The steel ship on the shore is a ten-minute walk away, on the way to Harpa.
Grótta lighthouse
The end of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula: seabirds, a foot-warming pool by the beach, the best northern-lights spot inside the city, and a wind that will renegotiate your hairstyle.
Reykjadalur hot river
An hour's hike from Hveragerði, 45 minutes from Reykjavík, to a river you sit in. Free, apart from the parking. Bring a towel and a sense of humour about the changing situation.
Þingvellir, Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss, Reynisfjara
The big South Coast stops are all free to visit; you pay to park, not to look. At Reynisfjara, stay well back from the water. Sneaker waves are not a metaphor.
Kolaportið flea market
Weekends by the old harbour. Free to enter, full of wool, vinyl and fermented shark you can smell from the door. The lopapeysa here costs less than in the shops.
Nauthólsvík geothermal beach
A warm lagoon on a real beach. Free in summer; a small fee for the hot tub and changing rooms in winter, when the locals go for the cold dip and the bragging rights.
The pond, the valley, the hill
Tjörnin downtown (the ducks are locals too), Elliðaárdalur valley with its salmon river and waterfall inside the city, Öskjuhlíð forest under Perlan. All free, all a bus ride or a walk from the centre.
The sky
Northern lights from September to April, midnight sun from May to July, and weather that changes four times before lunch. Tonight's odds are here.
How expensive is stuff?
The price cards from the app, cheapest first. Rough 2026 prices in Reykjavík; the app converts them to your currency.
Fuel per liter
230–270 kr
Bottle of water (gas station)
400–600 kr
(just drink tap water!)
City bus single ride
690 kr
Coffee (flat white / latte)
700–950 kr
Hot dog
880 kr
Beer (happy hour)
900–1.200 kr
Beer (bar, full price)
1.500–2.000 kr
Wine (restaurant glass)
1.500–2.500 kr
City pool entry
1.500 kr
Cocktail
2.500–3.500 kr
Lamb soup
2.500–3.500 kr
Pizza (whole pie, downtown)
3.000–4.500 kr
Restaurant meal
3.500–7.000 kr
Airport shuttle (Flybus)
3.999 kr
Fine dining tasting menu
15.000–25.000 kr
(Real) Icelandic wool sweater (lopapeysa)
18.000–45.000 kr
Airport taxi to city
22.000–23.000 kr
(take the Flybus!)