Torfhús Retreat

Wonderful hotel with great service and terrific food in a gorgeous location. It looks like a postcard! We stayed in the 2 bedroom houses, which was great for us as a couple as it gave us a bit more room. It had a private hot tub, which was great. The staff was wonderful, the food in the dining room is superb - varied and inventive menu. The cabin was perfect and had lots of amenities. The setting is spectactular. Beautiful views of the mountains. They provide a northern lights wakeup call, so you know if there are northern lights and you don't have to watch for them yourself. It is a great place to see the northern lights because it is so open.

This place is straight up magical. We stayed for two nights in late June with a family of 4 and were mesmerized. We didn't check in until close to 10pm but Leo did an incredible job making us feel welcome, bringing us some wine and even some incredible french fries for our kids. We spent both late evenings in the hot tub which was a great experience given the Icelandic weather where one second it is sunny and the next raining and windy. The dinner, while expensive, was a great experience and they kept the wine flowing as part of the pairing. The room that dinner is served in is very special with incredible views of the property and viking-like styling. The breakfast buffet was also delicious and had enough items to keep everyone in the family happy. While you likely won't need to eat lunch on property, be aware that they don't serve it so you will have to go off-property in case you are just hanging around for the day and not off seeing sites. The overall setting is beautiful with fields and horses in view. Each house is far enough away from the next to feel relatively private. The concierges that I emailed while planning our trip were super helpful in coordinating a private SuperJeep tour which we took for the day into the Þjórsárdalur Valley and all the way to Landmannalaugar in the Highlands. I highly recommend this day trip as it is somewhat off the beaten path and we experienced some landscapes that were totally different than what we saw throughout the South Coast and Golden Circle. If you do this trip, make sure to coordinate for bagged lunches at least 24 hours in advance as we did not and had to stop at a local 7-eleven style market to grab lunch items. If I were to come to Iceland again, I would make this my home base and do excursions from here rather than splitting my time with a few nights in Reykjavik. It is that beautiful and unique of an experience. Thanks Torfhus for such a fantastic family experience!

My partner and I were left utterly disappointed with our stay at the Torfhaus (Torf-House) Retreat. First, the rooms were quite lackluster considering the exorbitant prices we paid - lack of shampoo, conditioner and other normal amenities, close-quarters living in the TorfBaer (twin-bed setup), and no access to light snacks and beverages pre/post meal. Speaking of food, while the quality of the food is outstanding, the optionality was non-existent. While I think it’s lovely that they are promoting Icelandic food, it is also important to cater to your audience and add some optionality. If you are going to charge a fixed 100 euros for dinner, I should be able to somewhat pick what I’m eating. All in all, I would not recommend Torfhaus to future guests in Iceland. Do better.

Let me preface this review by saying that my wife and I travel a lot, and have stayed in a range of hotels from high-end to not so high end. If you want a ‘retreat’ to get away from it all then this is the place for you. It’s (reasonably) isolated, quiet and calming. There’s none of the buzz and noise of the bigger hotels. And the staff are welcoming, pleasant and helpful. However, I have two less than positive comments. The first is that we would have expected robes, slippers and toiletries. The rooms are small and minimal, reflecting the ecological ethos of the hotel, but since they are also high cost, greater attention to in-room guest comfort would be reasonable. The second is the restaurant. I’m happy with the idea of the chef not deciding what to cook until they know what’s available on the day. What I’m very unhappy with is not being told the menu when sitting down to dinner. Among other things, it can make wine choices challenging. As much as we tried, waiting staff would not tell us what we were about to eat. Apart pushing guests into opting for the wine pairing, it smacks of arrogance on the part of the chef and hotel management (‘we know best and the customer doesn’t). Having said that the wine pairing (and sommelier) was good even if it makes the meal more expensive. Needless to say, we opted out of dinner for our remaining two nights and ate at local restaurants, which were good. It’s a shame that this hotel, which was billed as the potential highlight of our Icelandic road trip, turned out not to be the case.

My husband and I had the best couple of days at this beautiful retreat! The bedroom and bathroom were perfect and a particular mention to Doddi for his amazing service! Also, to the chef the food was outstanding. We ate at the restaurant both nights and it was exceptional we absolutely loved it all. We had the wine pairing both nights and it was really excellent! Thank you all for a wonderful stay in a beautiful and special place. PS We said yes to the wake up call and saw the Northern lights ...fabulous experience!

The warmth and hospitality here was excellent. We were impressed at the skill of the kitchen as well as the wine pairings and knowledge of the sommelier. The rooms have everything you need, and nothing more. The hot tubs were sublime. Our only suggestion would be to replace the false candles with real candles in the dining room and lounge. Other than that, this spot was beyond charming.

Not only was this place everything we expected, but we both had come down with a good old Icelandic cold. We were totally miserable for 3 day. The staff went above and beyond to help us through it. They even catered a 3 course chefs special directly to our cottage, offered to bring lemon slices and ginger to ease our sore throats. The word “no” never crossed their lips. Still was true service!! We can’t thank you enough.

We spent three happy nights in a 2-Bed-Rooms-Hus at the Torfhus. The house offered two lovely bedrooms (not much storage place), a bathroom with shower (again not much storage place) and a well equipped kitchen…and a stunning private hot pot between basalt stones. The design is as beautiful as shown on the website and we highly enjoyed a rainy day inside reading on the couch. The unexpected highlight of our stay were the three dinners we had at the Torfhus restaurant (not open to public): the chef and the sommelier are true connaisseurs - the food was just excellent and the pairing wines were wonderful! We‘d return there solely for that culinary experience - which was served by a highly dedicated and enthusiastic service team. Thank you so much to everyone! The retreat is close to Gulfoss waterfall and the Geysir Strokkur (about 20 minutes drive) and about 15 minutes from the next supermarket (Fludir) and 15 minutes from Geysir Hestar, a horses farm that offers lovely riding tours.

This is my first review on Trip Advisor. Be careful of Torhus's "Standard Rate" non-refundable deposit! Here's why I say that...Torfhus looks amazing, but I will never visit. I booked one of their cute houses for two nights in June of this year under "Standard Rate". The other option was a "Non-Refundable Rate". Three days later, we unfortunately cancelled our entire trip to Iceland due to family issues. Six of the seven hotels cancelled our stay with no problems. Torfhus would not. The "Standard Rate" actually contains a 20% non-refundable deposit. It was my fault that I did not read the cancellation policy, so that is on me. Three days after booking a hotel five months ahead, we lost $800. I suggested splitting it or thought returning it when it was re-booked would be fair, but Torfhus would not agree. Again, it was my fault that I did not know I would lose 20% immediately booking on the Standard Rate, but I was very surprised Torfhus would not work with us given we had to cancel our entire trip for family issues. If you understand the terms, it does look lovely.