After a day of intense sightseeing and driving on the Diamond Circle, which is actually Route 1 in the north of Iceland, we arrive at our hotel for the night, a guesthouse near Skagafjordur, a port in the north of the island.
As a reminder, here is the itinerary followed in Iceland:
Booking
I booked this property about three months before we arrived in Iceland, doing a fast search on TripAdvisor and taking the best properties around the town of Skagafjordur. I found this hotel bookable on Booking.com and will make the reservation there.
The property doesn’t come cheap, at just over €200 a night, for what is, all in all, pretty basic accommodation. It’s true that the cost of living is high in Iceland, but at this price, you can expect top-quality services.
The photos on the Booking website don’t do the hotel any favors, but nevertheless, given the good reviews, I proceed with the booking.
A credit card is obviously required, which I would provide at the time of booking. But in the end, the card won’t be charged until we arrive.
Arrival
On our way to the property, I inform the hotel of our rather late arrival at around 8pm.
The property gets back to me promptly and tells me there’s no problem. On the way, we’d decided to do some shopping for dinner in our room, since we’d dined out most of the days before this one.
Nevertheless, on arrival at the hotel reception, we noticed that the restaurant was extremely nice, and decided to dine there anyway.
Arrival formalities are very fast, even if the owner has a bit of trouble with computers, but his daughter has just helped him so that we can check in.
Our room key is handed over quickly, and payment is made immediately. Discussions with the friendly hotel owner followed, but the formalities were very straightforward and we were able to reach our room quickly by car, as it’s just a few hundred metres from reception.
Room
Our room was room 12, at the far end of the reception building. Contrary to the photos on the website, the decor is quite good quality, simple but modern, and above all, the view is simply exceptional.
As soon as you enter, on the left, you’ll find the bathroom, rather spartan, but well-equipped with toilet, accessible shower and washbasin. Toiletries are provided, but we’ll be using the shower gel we bought a few days before. A hairdryer is also available.
The room itself is equipped with a double bed, classic Scandinavian bedding i.e. two separate comforters, a few armchairs by the bay window offering a magnificent view of the fjord, and a small desk.
Finally, here’s a video tour:
Hotel facilities
The hotel has no special facilities or spa, of course, as it is a farm. But the overall facilities, especially the sight of animals around, make the hotel very friendly.
In particular, a horse will be very close to our room, and we can even pet him as he spends some time grazing on the grass around our terrace.
Food options
The food is typical of what you’d expect from a guest house in France, for example, i.e. made with farm produce, locally sourced products and even products made on site.
Dinner service
The dinner service offers an interesting and appetizing menu, which immediately made our mouths water as we entered the property.
The prices, on the other hand, are not cheap at all: I think it isone of the most expensive menus of our stay, not really justified since everything is made locally, but you obviously have to pay for the isolation of the area, which means that sourcing certain products is inevitably more complicated.
I’ll choose horsemeat because I love it, and my wife will choose cod. The dishes were very good, very “natural” with an excellent sauce, but clearly the emphasis was not on creation but rather on the taste of the products, and we were obviously not disappointed.
Since we had nibbled in the afternoon, we’ll be fine with a simple dish.
Breakfast service
As for breakfast, we’ll have it at 8 a.m., but you’ll need to give your time slot to reception to try not to overload the room, which isn’t very big after all.
The buffet on offer is very interesting, with almost exclusively farm products or products made on the premises, for example marinated Char Arctic, slices of horsemeat and slices of mutton.
The Icelandic cheese is excellent, and I’ve had it several times, and the bread is made on the premises.
Even the potatoes are picked on site.
Departure
Check-out formalities are straightforward: all you need to do is leave your key at the reception, as everything is prepaid.
Bottom line
In conclusion, an excellent surprise, the hotel really needs to review its marketing by changing the photos on Booking.com as they really don’t do justice to the reality, which is much better, and so I advise you to go there. It’s obviously a bit expensive, but that’s the way it is everywhere in Iceland.
