Best Luxury Hotels in Iceland
Three properties shaped entirely by geology: a geothermal-lagoon retreat, a turf-house-inspired Golden Circle hideaway, and a remote adventure lodge on the Troll Peninsula. Chosen against the same four criteria throughout, not ranked by price.
Iceland’s hotel geography follows its geology rather than its road network, and this small collection spans three genuinely different registers: a geothermal spa retreat, a countryside hideaway, and a remote adventure lodge.
For geothermal wellness
The Retreat at Blue Lagoon, built into the same volcanic lava field as the Blue Lagoon spa near Grindavik, offers private lagoon access exclusive to hotel guests, close enough to Keflavik for a short first or last night.
For the Golden Circle
Torfhus Retreat, its architecture inspired by traditional Icelandic turf houses reimagined in contemporary minimalist form, sits within the Golden Circle’s broader Bláskógabyggð area, a reasonable base for exploring Thingvellir and Geysir.
For genuine remoteness
Deplar Farm, on a former sheep farm on the Troll Peninsula in North Iceland, is this collection’s clearest adventure-lodge choice: an all-inclusive format built around heli-skiing, ski touring, fishing, and horseback riding, reached by domestic flight to Akureyri.
The list
3 hotels in this collection
Grindavik, Iceland
The Retreat at Blue Lagoon
A 60-suite hotel built into an 800-year-old lava flow, with a private geothermal lagoon and Iceland's only Michelin-starred hotel restaurant.
From $1,844 per night
Near Thingvellir National Park, Iceland
Torfhus Retreat
A hamlet of grass-roofed suites on the Golden Circle, built on the memory of a Viking longhouse buried by a volcano nine centuries ago.
From $750 per night
Fljot Valley, North Iceland, Iceland
Deplar Farm
A turf-roofed sheep farm on Iceland's remote Troll Peninsula, rebuilt into a 13-room adventure lodge where heli-skiing, fly fishing and a geothermal pool run on the same all-inclusive rhythm.
From $2,775 per night, all-inclusive