Landbrotalaug Hot Spring

The pool everyone comes for is a natural tub sunk into the grass, with a gravel bottom and hot water entering at one end. It sits at about 40 °C. Other pools lie beside it, each at its own temperature, so you can move between them until one suits. The water is shallow and the edges are muddy, and getting in is genuinely awkward. Overflow leaves the tub as a thin stream through the grass. Nothing here is built up: bathing is free, there is no ticket and there are no toilets.

• No toilets. There is no toilet, no drinking water and no information board at the spring.
• The water can run too hot. The pool nearest the inflow is the hottest; test with a hand and move to a cooler one.
• Muddy entry. The tub is shallow, the bottom is gravel and the edges are soft mud. Getting in and out is slippery.
• Rough track. The last stretch off the ring road is dirt, about 1.5 km of rough surface.
• No public transport. Nothing serves the spring; a car is the only way in.

No bus goes anywhere near Landbrotalaug, so this is a drive. The turn-off is only a couple of minutes from the ring road, and from there it is about 1.5 km of dirt track with a rough surface. Park on the gravel at the end. The spring is straight back from the car park, on foot and on the flat.

Better: early morning or late evening in summer.

Avoid: counting on having the pool to yourself.

The place can be empty at 8.30 pm and have three more cars beside it by nine. In summer the sun barely sets, so five or six in the morning works as well as the evening, and it is fully light.