Hvammsvík hot springs from Reykjavík
No scheduled bus goes to Hvammsvík. Here is what the private transfers cost, why admission is never included, and whether it beats Sky Lagoon.
The short version
- There is no shared bus to Hvammsvík. You drive yourself, or you book a private car priced per vehicle.
- Cheapest private return we sell is €120 for a six-seat van with about two hours at the springs.
- Admission to the springs is never included in a transfer. Book it separately, before you travel.
- It is 45 minutes from Reykjavík along Hvalfjörður. Sky Lagoon is 15 minutes away and open later.
Hvammsvík is a set of eight geothermal pools on the shore of Hvalfjörður, about 45 minutes north of Reykjavík. The lowest pools sit at the tideline, so what you are sitting in changes with the sea. It is the quietest of the lagoons near the city and the only one where the view is a working fjord rather than a lava field or a skyline.
The catch is getting there. No scheduled bus runs to Hvammsvík. Every option we sell is a private vehicle, priced per car, and none of them include the entry ticket.
The transfers, cheapest first
Ride Iceland’s private geothermal escape is from €120 for a Mercedes V-Class holding up to six, five hours door to door with about two hours at the springs, and pickups every half hour from 09:00 to 18:00. That is the whole vehicle, not a seat, and it is well under what the rest of the market charges for the same drive. If it suits your timing, take it.
After that the prices step up sharply. Pickmeup’s private transfer to Hvammsvík is from €506 per vehicle, three hours, in a small car for three or a large one for seven. Your Transfer’s return with two hours’ waiting is from €547. VAREN’s round trip with a three-hour visit is from €663 and sets a minimum age of 12.
What you are paying for in the dearer ones is a driver who waits on site rather than coming back for you, and a fixed return time you control. Whether that is worth €400 over the Ride Iceland van is a question only your group can answer.
Admission is separate, always
Read the titles carefully — one of them says “entrance fee not included” out loud, and the rest mean it. The transfer is transport only. Book your entry with Hvammsvík directly, for a time that matches the car, and do it before you fly. The pools have a capacity and busy summer afternoons sell out. Turning up in a €506 car to a full car park is a bad afternoon.
The two odd ones
Reykjavík Jet Skis run a private jet ski tour to Hvammsvík from €651, two hours, riding up the coast into Hvalfjörður and arriving at the springs by water. Minimum age 12, and the season runs May to mid-September — the calendar closes at the end of this month and reopens in spring. It is a lot of money for a transfer and a fair price for a jet ski morning that happens to end in hot water.
Otto the Viking’s Golden Circle and Hvammsvík day is from €1,295 for the vehicle, ten hours, which folds the springs onto the end of the classic loop. For four or more people that is defensible. For two it is not, and the pools deserve better than being the fourth stop of a long day.
Or drive it
Route 1 out of the city, then road 47 along the south side of Hvalfjörður. Forty-five minutes, no mountain roads, no tunnel needed, and the last stretch is one of the prettier drives near Reykjavík. If you already have a hire car, the transfer question does not arise. If you do not, a day’s hire is usually less than €506.
The honest exception is winter. The fjord road is exposed, and it ices before Route 1 does. If it is dark and blowing and nobody in the group wants to drive it, that is exactly what the private car is for.
Hvammsvík or Sky Lagoon?
Sky Lagoon is fifteen minutes from downtown, open late, and has one long infinity edge facing the sea. Hvammsvík is an hour of logistics away and gives you eight pools of different temperatures, room to move, and nobody’s shoulder against yours.
If you have one lagoon evening in Reykjavík, take Sky Lagoon. If you have a slow day with a car and want somewhere that does not feel processed, take Hvammsvík. Our lagoon comparison covers the other three.
Our honest take
Drive if you can. If you cannot, book 1281015 at €120 and spend the saving on lunch. Book the entry ticket yourself the same day you book the car, and put an hour of slack between the two.
Skip it entirely on a three-day Reykjavík trip. It is a fourth or fifth day pleasure, for the visit where you have already done the Golden Circle and want an afternoon that asks nothing of you.
