Reykjavik City HI Hostel

Guests at the Reykjavik City Hostel are drawn by its affordable price and clean, contemporary rooms. School groups, sports teams, families, and lone backpackers are among the international strangers who share living accommodations in a gray steel building whose interior resembles a college dormitory. Guests swap travel stories in the hostel's common room or share leftovers in the kitchen. This is not a place for those who crave solitude. Its design elements, pendant lights, banquette seating, and bright pillows and chairs are inexpensive and fun. In the breakfast room, colorful plastic chairs and tables face a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking a grassy terrace with tables. On one wall is a big photo of the singer Bjork. In front of another window is a cluster of tailored gray sofas and a big, pull-down screen where the hostel shows movies. The kitchen has open shelves, tables, and a wall of windows to the leafy grounds. Activities on hand include table tennis and a climbing wall, as well as a games rooms with toys for children. Throughout, the hostel has a clean, Scandinavian feel with colorful, utilitarian pieces.

The Reykjavik City Hostel is in a largely residential neighborhood and is surrounded by apartment buildings, family homes, and a few business offices. There are very few grocery shops or restaurants. The hostel is a two-minute walk from Laugardalur, one of the largest parks in Reykjavik. It's a 30-minute walk or 10-minute bike ride to the city center. It takes three minutes on foot to reach the park's campgrounds, which are open from May to September. A big public thermal pool in the park is a four-minute walk away. The Fru Lauga Farmer's Market is a five-minute walk. Laugardalsvollur National Stadium is seven minutes on foot. The Reykjavik Zoo and Family Park is a five-minute drive or 12-minute walk. Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik's famed geo-thermal waters, is a five-minute drive or eight-minute bike ride. Reykjavik International Airport is a 50-minute drive. 

Most of the rooms at the Reykjavik City Hostel face the street or parking lot and about a quarter of them face the park. Picture windows in each room provide good natural light and some wooded views. Floors have neutral tile, while tailored beige black-out drapes are the only adornment on the walls. There are also simple wooden desks with colorful plastic chairs in the private rooms. Each bed has its own electrical outlet and reading light as well. The rooms are adequate in size and range from private two- and four-person rooms with private bathrooms to gender-specific or mixed-gender rooms with shared, corridor bathrooms, for as many as six people. The private rooms have gray felted-wood beds with headboards, reading lamps, and leather end tables. Bed linens are included. The shared rooms have wooden- or metal-frame bunk beds with sconce reading lights and in-bed storage boxes. Bigger luggage can be stored in lockers in another room, but guests must bring or buy a lock. In the shared rooms, guests can bring their own or rent linens, including duvets, from the hostel. The bathrooms are college-dorm basic: white-walls with lighted mirrors and traditional porcelain fixtures. The stall showers -- there are no tubs -- have no pans, merely plastic curtains on curved rods and floor drains. Soap dispensers are provided. On the wall are cubbies and hooks for storing clothes and other items. Rooms feel quite stripped down but clean and bright. The hostel will provide free cribs and extra beds for children, who stay free if they are age three or younger.

There are several snazzy features at the otherwise basic Reykjavik City Hostel. With its cappuccino machine, fair-trade beans, blackboard menu, and banquette seating, the hostel's coffee shop is similar to pricier urban options. There's a climbing wall for those not tired enough from riding the rental bikes and playing table tennis. The hostel shows movies on a pull-down movie screen with attractive seating on tailored gray tweed sofas. Its breakfast room has a tile floor, a wall of windows to the grassy terrace with outdoor seating, and colorful tables and chairs. Breakfast, free for children 13 and younger, includes cereals, organic yogurt and porridge, fruit, and fair-trade coffee and tea. For a fee, the hostel will provide a boxed lunch. The hostel makes a concerted effort toward families and children: age three and under stay free and age four to 12 stay at a discount. There's a games room with toys and supervised children's activities. The kitchen is convivial with communal tables, open shelves with bins for dry goods, a big refrigerator, stove, and microwave, and a coffeepot and tea kettle. Reinforcing its environmentally sensitive policy, the hostel keeps almost a dozen recycling bins under the counter. Before checking out, guests are encouraged to share, not throw away, their leftovers. In that same shared-economy ethos, the hostel has a book exchange. Parking and Wi-Fi are free as is luggage storage during your stay using your own padlock. Longer-term luggage storage is available for a fee. The front desk is staffed 24-hours and can arrange airport transfers, for a fee, and book tours at no cost. There are a coin-operated washer and dryer in the basement.