Your Guide will meet up with you at Ingólfur Square in the center of Reykjavik by the two stone pillars (They are over 3 meters high). The square on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/wmKoKvB8YZfC3p8C7 Our expert local guides usually wear a light blue jacket with Your Friend in Reykjavik on the back. The Square is in front of Center Hotels Plaza, Aðalstræti 6. The Square is at the beginning of Austurstræti (Austurstræti 1).
The oldest house in Reykjavik is a living testament to the city's rich history. Nestled among the modern structures, this charming building exudes a unique character that whispers tales of bygone eras. With its timeworn facade and traditional architecture, it stands as a silent witness to the evolution of Reykjavik. Stepping inside, you're transported to a different time, where the walls seem to echo with the stories of those who once called it home. It's not just a structure; it's a piece of living history that invites you to connect with Reykjavik's past in a truly authentic way.
We take a peek at The Settlement Exhibition in Reykjavik. Nestled beneath the city streets, this museum unveils the remnants of a Viking longhouse, meticulously preserved and displayed. Our expert Guide will share stories about Iceland´s history as we stroll past this antique site.
Austurvöllur in Reykjavik is a charming urban haven, where locals and visitors alike gather to savor the delightful rhythm of the city. This welcoming square, surrounded by cafes and historic buildings, is a perfect spot to enjoy a leisurely afternoon. Whether you're relaxing on a bench, sipping coffee at a sidewalk café, or simply taking in the lively atmosphere, Austurvöllur invites you to be a part of Reykjavik's warm and vibrant community. It's a place where the heartbeat of the city harmonizes with the laughter of friends and the gentle hum of urban life. Come, linger, and let the warmth of Austurvöllur become a cherished memory of your Reykjavik experience.
A visit to the Reykjavik City Council House offers a glimpse into the heart of the city's governance and history. This iconic building, situated in the heart of downtown Reykjavik, stands as a symbol of civic leadership and democracy. As you step inside, the elegant architecture and historical significance greet you, reflecting Iceland's commitment to democratic principles. Explore the halls adorned with artwork, attend council sessions (if available), and discover the chambers where crucial decisions shaping the city's future are made. Whether admiring the architecture or gaining insights into local governance, a visit to the City Council House provides a deeper appreciation for Reykjavik's civic heritage and its continuous commitment to progress.
A brief visit to Lake Tjörnin in Reykjavik is like a tranquil pause in the heart of the city. This charming urban lake, surrounded by picturesque landscapes and dotted with waterfowl, provides a peaceful escape from the urban bustle. Stroll along the scenic pathways, enjoy the reflections of city buildings mirrored on the water, and feel the soothing ambiance that defines this urban oasis. Seagulls and ducks create a lively atmosphere, adding to the charm of the lake. The quaint bridges and vibrant flora around the shore enhance the overall beauty of Tjörnin. Take a moment to sit on a bench, absorb the serenity, and perhaps share some breadcrumbs with the friendly ducks. Whether it's a quick break during a city exploration or a leisurely stop to connect with nature, a short visit to Lake Tjörnin encapsulates the essence of Reykjavik's harmonious blend of urban life and natural beauty.
A visit to Alþingi, Iceland's Parliament in Reykjavik, unfolds like a journey into the heart of the country's democracy and historical significance. The building, standing with dignified grace, represents the oldest parliamentary institution in the world, tracing its roots back to the Viking Age in 930 AD. As you approach Alþingi, the architectural grandeur commands attention, symbolizing Iceland's commitment to democratic principles. Stepping inside, you sense the weight of history within the walls that have witnessed centuries of debates, decisions, and the forging of a nation. Wander through the chambers where laws are debated and enacted, immersing yourself in the democratic spirit that defines Iceland's governance. The rich symbolism, combined with the modern functionality of the Parliament building, creates an atmosphere where the past and present seamlessly coexist.
Explore Iceland's history at its oldest graveyard, a serene and storied site. Each weathered headstone holds tales of the past, revealing a haunting beauty amidst tranquil surroundings. Walking through this sacred ground offers a poignant glimpse into the country's heritage and the lives that shaped its narrative, inviting reflection and reverence.
The Old Reykjavik Harbour is a picturesque maritime haven steeped in history and charm. With its cobbled streets, colorful buildings, and a backdrop of bobbing boats, it's a captivating blend of tradition and modernity. Stroll along the waterfront, where the salty breeze mingles with the tales of seafaring adventures. This quaint harbor is not just a scenic spot; it's a lively hub featuring waterfront eateries, charming shops, and a vibrant atmosphere that captures the essence of Iceland's maritime spirit. Whether you're watching the sunset over the ocean or savoring fresh seafood, the Old Reykjavik Harbour invites you to immerse yourself in the maritime magic of Iceland.
Harpa Concert Hall stands as Reykjavik's architectural gem, boasting a mesmerizing facade resembling crystalline structures. Inside, its innovative design hosts diverse events. The pièce de résistance is the ever-changing display—illuminations morph into various effects, captivating audiences with vibrant colors and intricate patterns, creating an immersive experience that harmonizes art, technology, and architectural brilliance.
Laugavegur, Reykjavik's bustling main street, is like the city's lively heartbeat. Stroll along this vibrant avenue, lined with charming shops, cozy cafes, and a friendly atmosphere that captures the essence of Icelandic urban life. Whether you're exploring the unique boutiques, sipping on a cup of coffee at a local café, or simply soaking in the lively energy, Laugavegur warmly welcomes you to experience the heart and soul of Reykjavik's city life. It's not just a street; it's a delightful journey through the beating pulse of this charming Icelandic capital.
Arnahöll in Reykjavik is your panoramic perch for soaking in the city's vibe and beauty. This friendly hill, overlooking downtown Reykjavik, is like a welcoming host inviting you to bask in the views of colorful rooftops, the majestic Hallgrímskirkja, and the distant mountains. Whether you're catching a sunset or enjoying a cozy moment, Arnahöll is the perfect spot to feel the heartbeat of Reykjavik in a warm and friendly embrace. Come, take a seat, and let this scenic treasure become a memorable part of your Reykjavik adventure.
Welcome to Hallgrimmskirkja, Reykjavik's architectural giant that screams "I'm the tallest kid on the block!" Our guides from Your Friend in Reykjavik know all the juicy, fun tales about this iconic landmark. We'll make sure your visit isn't just about ogling at the grandeur; we'll throw in some quirky stories to keep you entertained. Get ready to laugh, learn, and maybe even strike a pose like a Viking conqueror at the top! Who said sightseeing can't be a barrel of laughs?
This was an absolutely excellent tour that combined such a wide range of stories and items to see including an elf stone and President‘s house and everything you can imagine in between. our guide was a local and had a wonderful insight into country’s history and context that inspired me to go out to follow the leads she provided. Wonderful day.
My wife, adult daughter and I booked this tour with “Your Friend in Reykjavik” through Viator during the afternoon we arrived in Iceland. Our tour guide, Cristin, was excellent. She met the group at the designated meeting location ahead of schedule. She was very friendly and informative about everything Reykjavik. Iceland is a fascinating place with so much history, and she did a great job of bringing it to life. We would definitely recommend this tour and guide to anyone new to the city.
We try to do walking tours in every new place we visit & thus far they have not disappointed. Our Reykjavik tour with Arni was no exception with his extensive knowledge of and enthusiasm for his country. Learned about Icelandic history and culture (he can trace his lineage back to his 28th grandfather if I remember correctly), Icelandic govt and a lot about Reykjavik such as where to get the best cinnamon rolls ever (no exaggeration, we went twice), excellent local seafood restaurant, and extensive info on Reykjavik. We are not ones for tourist tat but thanks to Arni, we found really lovely gifts made in Iceland for our loved ones at home that they were thrilled to receive. Very much appreciated Arni's knowledge, enthusiasm and genuine personality.
Palli had great stories and taught us so much! We really enjoyed our time on the tour. Highly recommend.
Kristin was very knowledgeable of the area and told us a lot of interesting facts along the way. She was courteous enough to keep us in the sun when possible for added warmth on a cold yet beautiful day. I am so glad we chose to participate in this tour as soon as we arrived in town so that we feel more confident in knowing our way around. Highly recommend this tour!!
What a fun tour! We got a little glimpse of old Reykjavik and enjoyed our time with our guide.
Sveinbjorn was a brilliant walking tour guide. He’s very knowledgeable, respectful, and made walking through Downtown Reykjavík a wonderful experience! Being able to explain the life of a building I would have otherwise looked over is amazing! He answered our questions along the way and took us to see Ofelia, the most beautiful Persian cat. After the two hour walking tour, you feel more connected to the city and Sveinbjorn is the one to thank for it.
This tour is a great way to start your Iceland adventure. The itinerary not only provides a robust accounting of the fascinating history--it also provides an introduction to the area and yields a valuable referential perspective. Our tour guide, Arni, was as authentic and illuminating as the Aurora Borealis itself. His linneage, begat from the real forefathers of Iceland ~ and even Viking explorer- Leif Erikson...only enhanced the experience through his vivid and revealing stores of Icelandic history.--PC
Einar, our guide was excellent. It was a very informative tour.
Einar was a gracious host who quickly made all of us strangers feel welcome and in good hands. Einar’s natural humour and excellent knowledge connected the group and myself with the beauty, history and culture of Iceland. That his mother was a famous composer only served to heighten this exceptional experience. I can’t say enough how pleased I was to take this journey into the amazing country of Iceland.
We had so much fun on this walk. I think our guide was Valur and he was a great source of information along with anecdotal information that had us laughing and completely engaged in the experience. I would highly recommend working this into your itinerary to get the lay of the land.
The guide was both knowledgeable, friendly and hilarious. His stories were both informative and entertaining and Palli was very personable.
Worth the time and money. Great opportunity to see many parts of Reykjavik!
This was a great introduction to Reykjavík by Einar, pointing out various highlights of the city and interesting points of history!
Paali (Paul) was wonderful. So full of fun Iceland facts and took us thru some amazing experiences during this 2 hour walk thru town. Thank you Paul for being full of amazing historical knowledge and the laughs! Would highly recommend!
Thank you, Bo! Wonderful experience and a great introduction into the city.
Thought our tour guide Bjorki did a fantastic job. Have been amazed at how small and new Iceland is. Was fascinating to see the seat of government for the country and the city of Reykjavík. Really enjoyed the many stories and getting to see so much in just two hours. Highly recommend for history fans and those interested in learning how Iceland came to be.
We booked this last minute, like an hour before the tour and struck gold. Not only was it tour guide local but the tour was very small. We walked through the town and felt that we were getting the inside story. Kristen was fantastic! Highly recommend
We were staying in Reykjavik already for a few days, but found it a bit underwhelming, until we did the walking tour. Our guide Hrafn changed our perspective completely! He showed us some very nice parts of the city and told gave us some very interesting insights and funny anecdotes. We totally recommend taking the tour.
We booked this midday tour the day we arrived to help us stay awake, get oriented to Reykjavik, and to learn some Icelandic history. It delivered on all three!! We appreciated having a guide who cared about his country and enjoyed telling us both facts and stories — with an occasional joke. Doing this tour on day one gave us a great foundation for our week in Iceland.
A great way to see the city! The guide was friendly and shared lots of interesting information.
Stefan was fantastic, knowledgeable, and funny.
I have been through much of Europe and South America. Always went with a private guide and most all have been very good. But our guide in Iceland , Olyfur Sveinsonn (we called him Oli), was at a whole different level. He was extremely pleasant, his English was perfect, and he was an encyclopedia of information. We could have listened to him all day and he gave us a great sense of what life in Iceland is really like. If there was a 6th star in the review, I would give it to him. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Hubby booked tour so we could get the layout of the city. Great meeting place in the centre square. Our guide was Paul. This man was absolutely fabulous!! Funny, informative and great to chat with. Lots of neat information about buildings , tourist scams and people. He gave us some great info about how to travel to the Snaffellsnes peninsula via a scenic route; it was bang on! A great tour to take to get to know the city.
Arni was a great guide,( and his little adorable sidekick son was sooo cute -and very well behaved)! He covered a great amount of Icelandic history in an engaging way and we got to see a fair amount of areas.
Bjorn was a great guide. He was very informative and had some great stories. It was a most enjoyable time.
Great way to learn about the history of Iceland and Reykjavík and see the highlights of Reykjavík with a great guide.
Very nice and fun walk. We loved it. Stefan -our guide- was great!
Arni was knowledgeable and engaging. Time went by very fast. It was a pleasure spending our afternoon learning about his beautiful city. We would definitely recommend.
With only one day in Reykjavik, it was well spent with Arni, our guide. He gave us a good summary of Iceland’s founding and the key historical influences that lend into the making of modern Reykjavik. Beautiful architecture surrounds this city and Arni, brought it to live with his story telling. Elves and all..Highly recommended.
This was a great way to land in Reykjavik! I got off the plane and made it to the meeting spot just in time, and it was helpful in orienting myself to the city, and learning about places I would want to go back and visit longer during my stay. Our guide Stephan was funny, entertaining, helpful, and kind. The walk through the city was pretty easy - a couple of slight inclines, but still easy to navigate. As a solo female traveler, I felt safe throughout the tour.
Lovely 2-hour private walking tour with guide Kristen!! The city is beautiful and we enjoyed learning more about it from Kristen. I'm a huge fan of public art and appreciated how Kristen highlighted those aspects of the tour for me. One of my favorite moments of the tour (and our time in Reykjavik, generally) was when we walked past a super fun mural of a cat in an astronaut suit on the side of a building. Kristen took a photo of my husband and I in front of the mural and she told us the mural was of "Baktus" who is basically a local celebrity cat!! Not even 30 seconds later, the real-life Baktus walked right past us, as though on cue! It was hilarious!! (I now follow Baktus on Instagram! LOL!!!) Thank you Kristen for a truly delightful 2 hours in Reykjavik!
Great introduction to the city and expertly led by Kristin. She picked out really nice spots for us to see and imparted a lot of her knowledge about the city's history. A thoroughly enjoyable time.
Our guide was very knowledgeable about Reykjavik history. He showed us places to get local goods. He was easy to understand. The group photo at the end was a nice touch.
I wish we had done this tour first, as our guide gave us some great insight on Reykjavik and Iceland, her history, as well as where to go for food, shopping and places to go. The last stop was a store called Taste of Iceland, and we were able to sample jams, jellies, hot sauces and chocolate! Palli was very knowledgeable, funny and he made the walking tour very interesting. I highly recommend him.
I have rather mixed feelings about this. Our guide was interesting and knowledgeable… when we could hear him! His voice projects, but he did a lot of the talking facing away from the tour group, in which case only a few people very close to him could hear well. When we pointed this out it would improve for a while, but then the old habits would return, and we’d miss things. This is 2026. Even in 2012 when I visited Rome, a walking tour handed out headsets so everyone could hear the guide. Our Friends in Reykjavik could invest in this technology, but in the absence of headsets, be sure every guide stops and faces the group, rather than trying to walk (forward) and talk simultaneously.
I have rather mixed feelings about this. Our guide was interesting and knowledgeable… when we could hear him! His voice projects, but he did a lot of the talking facing away from the tour group, in which case only a few people very close to him could hear well. When we pointed this out it would improve for a while, but then the old habits would return, and we’d miss things. This is 2026. Even in 2012 when I visited Rome, a walking tour handed out headsets so everyone could hear the guide. Our Friends in Reykjavik could invest in this technology, but in the absence of headsets, be sure every guide stops and faces the group, rather than trying to walk (forward) and talk simultaneously.
Fun & interesting tour of Reykjavik with a real Viking descendant! Not the usual tourist trap places, but a nice overview of the history and folklore. Stefan was an excellent tour guide!
We had a lovely walking tour with Arni, who was a delight! He was engaging, witty and shared very interesting info -- highly recommended!
guide knew a lot but he often faced away from group and we couldn't hear him. he looked at diorama rather than the group. he HAS SERN THE DIORAMA AND DOESN'T NEED TO LOOK AT IT!!!!! he often walked and talked with 2 or 3 people and ignored rest of group. we left tour early because we were disgusted about not being able to hear. he never asked if anyone had questions
It was an excellent walking tour and our guide Palli was very informative and entertaining! Thank you!!
We were late arriving at the tour and messaged the organiser in advance to let them know. Response was very slow. We asked for the route so that we could find the guide but was told this was not available. Asked for phone number for guide but, again, told we could not contact them directly. At no point were we told that the guide was holding up the tour for us so, when we did eventually find the group (by luck), we were unaware that he had done so and that the tour was running behind (it HAD eventually started without us) However, this was not the only reason that they tour did not cover as much of the promised route as indicated on the booking page: unfortunately one of the tour members - American - dominated the questions, asking for information pertinent to her own visit and interests and the guide allowed this to happen despite her queries pertaining to things well beyond the subject matter of the tour. He needed to be firmer and move things on. In addition, the guide spoke at length about his own experiences and likes, such that we came away knowing more about him personally than about the city. Adding personal information is great and adds to visitor experience but should be done in addition to, not at the expense of, what the tour was supposed to include.
Georg was very knowledgeable and high energy. He had many good stories to share. Meeting point was easy to find. Our only problem was we had just arrived and were exhausted so we ran out of energy toward the end
There were just nine of us on the walking tour, which made it both leisurely and enjoyable. Our guide Francesco (“Frank”) was very knowledgeable and informative. We enjoyed the sights and insights from our wonderful morning. However, Frank was NOT attired as a “Viking” :-( (But we would still HIGHLY recommend this tour!)
Logistics were easy and we appreciated the proactive communication leading up to the tour. Palli was an entertaining and informative guide, and his commentary really brought the Viking history to life. This was the first activity we did in Reykjavik and it was a great orientation tour.
Pleasant and highly informative walking tour with a very knowledgeable local. The small group size made for a cozy and relaxed experience. Stefan was my tour guide and he was excellent. Would recommend.
A lovely walk through the city center. We enjoyed the interesting stories about the history, people, and culture. Also tips on dining and shopping. Our guide was enthusiastic in telling her own love story of Iceland and offered great suggestions for souvenirs unique to Iceland.
Excellent tour despite the rain! Our guide Paulli was very knowledgable, funny and happy to answer questions from the group. He has lots of stories from his life and childhood that really help to create a picture of what living in Iceland is actually like. A great morning out and a good way to orientate yourself when arriving in Reykjavik .
Very intersting and nice walk. Our guide was very knowledgable about the area. Thank you so much!!! We enjoyed this walk very much!!!!
Our guide was awesome. Talk as all get out and fun to listen to.
Monday through Friday 9 am to 7 pm EST
Reach us by phone
Reach us by email