Fly Me to the Blue Lagoon

We arrived in Keflavík later than originally planned (it was the inaugural flight of our route from Newark to Keflavík on Iceland Express, so we were delayed 2 hours) which messed up the Flybus ticket I purchased to go to the Blue Lagoon. I had no problem moving my ticket back thanks to the super sweet Flybus cashier in the airport terminal. After a relaxing hour of killing time and sipping on a Kaffi Amerikano, we were off to the Bláa lónið!

Ahhhh yes, the famed Blue Lagoon. A popular tourist destination 13 km from the airport and well worth the visit for we foreigners who do not have milky, geothermal spas nearby (all 400,000 of us each year). I honestly think my best decision was visiting the Blue Lagoon immediately after an international flight. It unwinds you and is an incredible first experience in Iceland (gets you pumped for everything else to come on your visit!). For those of you coming from the airport, there is a storage shed near the entrance where you can place your belongings, which we did.

The entrance was lined with tall lava formations that continued around the main building and formed the landscape of the pool of water as well as the surrounding area. The water was a blueish white color and very thick, as you couldn't see the bottom of the pool. Inside the building was a gift shop, a row of neatly lined tables by the cafe, and the main desk. It was there that we received blue bracelets with microchips that would gain our admittance, open lockers as well as purchase food from the cafe by the pool.

There were communal showers and everyone was required to bathe completely before entering (a bit different than the American norm- learn to get comfortable with your body haha). We entered the lagoon from inside and pushed open a door that lead us to a cave thing which was ocupado so the roomie and I waded out into the main part of the pool. Eventually we made our way to one of three strategically placed boxes of silica mud, rubbed it on our skin, sat out for 5- 10 min to dry and rinsed off in the warm waters. My skin felt amazing and soft immediately afterward.

The warm waters are attributed to the geothermal power plant, Svartsengi, and are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur. The hot water is vented from a nearby lava flow and is used to run turbines that generate electricity for a municipal hot water heating system. This water is then fed into the Blue Lagoon to maintain its geothermal temperatures.


A part of the pool next to the saunas was dedicated to massages. They laid people on a floating mat and wrapped them in blankets as they got the star treatment. My roomie (pictured here) bought one and said it felt "heavenly." I explored the rest of the lagoon during her half hour of luxury. Toward the back end of the pool was a mini geyser-type thing that emitted steam. Slip streams of water near there grew very hot which surprisingly felt refreshing as the wind whipped steam and cool air on my floating body :)

We spent 4 hours at the Blue Lagoon- anything longer than that almost seemed like overkill. It was the perfect amount of time to do everything from laying out, going in the sauna, getting a massage, applying silica mud multiple times, having lunch at the cafe, getting cleaned up, and visiting the gift shop with time to kill before the Flybus came to take us to our hotel. It was the perfect first impression of a random and unique country!

[Live web cam of the Blue Lagoon]

Advice from me: Be careful walking in the pool! Parts have a smooth bottom, and elsewhere it is varying volcanic rock. Also, since you can't see the floor, you can't tell when you're about to swim into a rock. I emerged victorious from the Blue Lagoon (after slipping and bumping into rocks) with a bruised thigh, a hurt right foot, and a scraped arm. But I was in ICELAND, so I didn't care too much :)

Advice passed on from seasoned Icelandic travelers we met at our gate in Newark: CONDITION, CONDITION, CONDITION your hair while at the Blue Lagoon (the water does quite a number on it)! Even with a couple of visits to the locker room showers to rinse and condition, I wasn't able to fully run a brush through my hair for the first day of my trip!