What should I avoid in Reykjavik?

The restaurants with English-only menus between Bankastræti and Vitastígur charge 4,500-6,000 ISK ($37-50) for a lamb soup you can get for roughly 1,800 ISK ($15) at Noodle Station near the east end of Laugavegur. You'll smell the difference before you sit down. The tourist spots reheat from steam tables; the cheaper places cook to order, and the broth arrives thick with root vegetables and pepper. That said, not everything on Laugavegur is overpriced. Messinn on Lækjargata 6b does pan-fried catch of the day for about 3,900 ISK ($32), served in iron skillets still popping with butter. Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur has sold hot dogs from the same spot near Kolaportið since 1937, and a lamb-and-pork pylsur with raw onion, sweet mustard, and remoulade still costs 590 ISK ($5).

Skip the Blue Lagoon unless you've never set foot in a geothermal pool. The Comfort entry reached 8,990 ISK ($74) in 2024, and the Premium tier runs 13,990 ISK ($116). The silica-heavy water feels chalky on your skin, the changing rooms fill up by 11am, and the whole visit lasts about 90 minutes once you subtract the 50-minute bus ride from BSÍ terminal. Vesturbæjarlaug, a neighborhood pool 15 minutes on foot from Hallgrímskirkja, costs 1,100 ISK ($9). The hot pots there reach 42°C, the regulars nod hello, and steam lifts off the surface into cold Atlantic air that smells like wet grass and sulfur. Sky Lagoon in Kópavogur opened in 2021 and runs about 6,490 ISK ($54) with a seven-step ritual that includes a cold plunge and a salt scrub. It sits 7 km south of central Reykjavik.

September temperatures currently sit around 10°C, but the wind chill drops the feel to 7°C. That 3-degree gap will catch you if you packed for the number on your phone's weather app. Wind in Reykjavik is not a breeze. It's a flat, horizontal force that pushes cold rain sideways into your face along Sæbraut. Bring a windproof shell, not a fashion raincoat. Mind you, the real weather danger starts on the roads outside town. Rental agencies at Keflavík sell Super CDW for 3,500-5,000 ISK ($29-41) per day. Take it. Gravel and sand storms strip paint off car panels on Route 1 between Vík and Höfn. The wind-speed warnings on vedur.is are not decorative. A gust over 20 m/s will rock a compact SUV, and several visitors each year have car doors ripped off their hinges by opening into crosswinds at roadside pullouts.

Northern Lights guaranteed is marketing, not a contract. Tours running October through March cost 8,000-12,000 ISK ($66-99), and the guarantee means a free rebooking if you see nothing. You might ride a bus to Þingvellir three nights in a row, standing in near-freezing darkness while cloud cover blocks the sky. Check the Icelandic Met Office aurora forecast at en.vedur.is before committing. Whale watching from Reykjavik's Old Harbour tends to deliver more diesel fumes and grey ocean swells than whale sightings. Húsavík, 460 km north, reports a 95-98% sighting rate for humpbacks. Reykjavik hovers around 70-80%, mostly minke whales surfacing for two seconds. The puffin-themed souvenir shops on Skólavörðustígur sell Chinese-manufactured ceramics and magnets for 2,000-4,000 ISK ($17-33) each. Rammagerðin on the same street carries Icelandic-made woolens and lava ceramics produced on the island.