Blue Lagoon Travel Guide

The Blue Lagoon sits on black lava fields near Grindavík on the Reykjanes peninsula, roughly 50 km and 50 minutes from Reykjavík and about 20 km from Keflavík airport. It is not a natural hot spring but the runoff of the Svartsengi geothermal power plant: silica in the water seals the lava instead of soaking back into the ground, so the water pools and takes on its milky blue tint. Bathing began in the 1980s, facilities opened in 1987, and a 2021 expansion produced today's 10,000 sq m site with water at 37–40°C year-round. On offer are a silica mask bar, sauna, steam room and steam cave, a colder plunge lagoon, a massage waterfall and an in-water bar, set among post-1980 lava and white steel pavilions. It opens year-round but entry is strictly timed, and peak slots often sell out weeks ahead.

Fagradalsfjall sits in the middle of the Reykjanes peninsula, east of Grindavík, with its highest peak Langhóll at 385 m and about 40 km from Reykjavík. It is a tuya — a name meaning "beautiful valley" — and the most easily approachable active volcano on the North Atlantic rift. After roughly 815 years of quiescence a fissure opened in Geldingadalir on 19 March 2021 and lava flowed until 18 September; a second eruption ran from 3 August 2022 to 21 August, and a third on the north flank near Litli-Hrútur from 10 July 2023 to 5 August. All three were effusive — no explosive activity, just lava spreading slowly along the valleys into fields several metres thick, with spatter cones built up around each vent. In September 2022 the Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes split Fagradalsfjall off from the neighbouring Krýsuvík system as a volcano in its own right. All three eruptions are now over: what remains is cooled black lava, stacked spatter cones and steam from the fissures, and the volcano is currently dormant. The nearby Sundhnúkur eruption site remains closed to the public.