Skjaldarvik Guest House

We visited here in July 2022 and had a wonderful stay. Guesthouse was comfortable and provided many amenities, plus it was centrally located on the water and included school buildings a farm with horses! We would stay here again. Below are some details to help future visitors in their trip planning. Room (good stuff): Comfy beds & pillows; clean; lots of counter and storage space; chair and a desk in room; sink in room; large windows opened to orchard; black-out curtains; large room and shared bathrooms; many lights in room including overhead light Breakfast: extensive and extraordinary buffet with many choices and kept well-stocked – see pictures. Dinner: Restaurant on-site offered dinner – limited menu. One night we only wanted a salad and the chef would not accommodate since he ‘would not know how much to charge.' Awareness: Shared bathrooms were plentiful, large and clean – plus stocked with many towels. Upstairs lounge has small bottles of wine and snacks on an honor system which was nice so we could indulge at any time. WiFi was erratic and slow. Halls echo, so we heard louder guests. No TV. Be sure the desk attendant gives you the room you reserved – they had an issue with their system and initially we were given a much smaller room than we reserved and paid for (situation was fixed).

I avoid shared bathroom as much as I can for obvious reasons. However, I was curious why this place had such high reviews. Putting my penchant for private bathrooms aside, I decided to book this place. And I must say, it is one of our favorite places that we have stayed. First, our room was nice and clean. We never had trouble using the bathroom. There are 2 in our wing. But you can go to other wings that have bathrooms too. Why the 5 star? I think their breakfast is pretty good. We came a little too early and missed the breakfast pizza. I was a little bummed that we missed dinner here because the reviews for the food was quite good. There is a small playground on the premise. Is it better than nothing. They have horses on the premise. You can book horseback riding. I found the price to be slightly expensive as it is 11,900 isk but similar trips in Hella was 9,500 isk. However, you get 10% off as guests. Moreover, you can use the hot tub if you book horseback riding. This goes back to my final point of why this is one of our favorite hotels. The hot tub! We used the hot tub with our kid and saw an amazing view of the water and mountains. It was super relaxing and saved me a small fortune because otherwise we would have tried to go to forest lagoon. So if you stay here, you must eat their food and get into the tub. And maybe hang out with the horses.

Very friendly and welcoming staff. We were given a brief tour upon arrival, rather than being directed to our room. The room has everything you need for a short stay and the shared bathroom facilities were sizeable enough for all the guests in the hotel. The hot pot is very nice with a good view over the fjord. The hotel is located within easy driving distance of Akureyri.

We stayed here with a group of 14 students for several nights. Fantastic location directly at the fjord (whales visible from the hot tub), great breakfast and dinner, super friendly and helpful staff (they even kept the restaurant open after hours for us when we were delayed on one of our excursions), and the cutest Icelandic horses on property. We will definitely come back with another group next year!

We did not stay or eat here, so we can't comment on the rest of the property, although it seemed well maintained and all the staff were exceptionally friendly. Horseback riding was amazing! Our two guides were so thoughtful and did an excellent job engaging our group (including two teenagers) in conversation throughout the ride. We had a beautiful day and the views of the fjord and mountains were outstanding. We highly recommend!