Selardalslaug Thermal Bath

Selardalslaug is the pool the Vopnafjordur district uses, and it reads that way. One heated pool for swimming, and one hot tub next to it, kept hotter for people who want to sit rather than swim. Changing rooms and showers are on site. Tourists are thin on the ground here, and most of the people in the water live nearby. The valley is open on every side, and the hills stay in view while you swim. A hot spring rises in the same valley, which is the reason a full swimming pool stands this far from any town.

• Payment: cards are accepted, including contactless.
• Before you swim: Icelandic pool rules apply — shower without a swimsuit before getting in.
• Weekends close earlier: the pool shuts sooner on Saturday and Sunday than on weekdays, so a late weekend swim does not work.
• Outdoors: the pool is open to the sky, and the changing room is the only shelter from wind and rain.

You drive here. The pool stands on its own in the Selardalur valley, in the Vopnafjordur district, and the last stretch of road in is rough enough to give a two-wheel-drive car a hard time. Once you arrive there is nothing left to walk: the car park is at the building.

Better: a weekday, when the pool stays open later than at the weekend.

Avoid: treating this as a spa stop — there is a pool and a hot tub, and that is the whole of it.

The water is geothermally heated, so cold weather matters less than it looks. Wind and rain cost you only the walk between the changing room and the water. In winter the road decides the trip, not the forecast at the pool, so check conditions before setting off.