Summer is a wonderful time of year in Iceland. The days blend into one another as the sun never sets, the flowers are in bloom and the city is buzzing. If you take a walk down Laugarvegur, the main shopping street in the middle of the day, something will strike you. There’s not an Icelander in sight. The city is plush with tourists, each replete with their own brightly-coloured rain mac, laminated city map and, occasionally, hiking poles. In the city centre.

For the discerning tourist, we have produced a guide to fitting in Iceland, i.e. not sticking out like a sore thumb. We also hope that by blending in, you will get to see a real city experience in Reykjavík, as the Icelanders do, rather than the glossed-over tourist version. Carry on reading after the break to find out how you go about this.

Dress like an Icelander. This is probably the easiest way to blend in. You won’t see an Icelander walking down the main street in a bright blue North Face mountain jacket. Remember you’re in the city! You’ll often see Icelanders of all ages donning a lopapeysa, a traditional woolen jumper. They never go out of style here, and you’ll see even the trendiest people wearing them at the height of summer (it doesn’t usually get above 20°C, although there have been heat waves in the past few years). Lopapeysur can be expensive to buy new, but there are plenty of second-hand shops downtown where you can pick one up for a steal. If wool isn’t your thing, wear a fashionable hoody or a trendy jacket. And whatever you do, ditch those hiking boots. Converse shoes or something comfortable are fine for walking around Reykjavík. Bring your camera, but don’t walk along with it strapped around your neck.

Leave the map at home. Reykjavík is a delightfully compact city. You can ramble around the city centre in a day, and find everything you need within a 1 mile radius. The street names will be confusing if you don’t speak Icelandic, but I’ve found one of the best ways to explore the city is to discover places by accident. You can use the main roads of Lækjargata and Laugarvegur as your main axes, and work from there. There are plenty of trendy cafés, clothes and record shops on Laugarvegur and its side streets, and it’s fun to just explore them yourself. You can use the ominous Hallgrímskirkja church as a navigational beacon; you can see it from almost any point in the city, so if you get lost you can walk towards the church and find your way back to the main streets from there. There are a few maps in the city centre which you can refer to if you want to find somewhere specific, but walking along the street with a map in front of you is a sure sign that you’re a tourist.

Learn enough Icelandic to get by. Well to anyone that’s travelled to a country where a foreign language is spoken, this will be obvious. Learning basic phrases will go along way. It is unfortunate, but from my own experience in Reykjavík, certain stores can treat Icelanders and “foreigners” in very different ways. If you learn the basics, such as takk for “thank you” and góðan dag for “hello”, you may well avoid the evil look which sometimes befalls foreigners shopping in Reykjavík. In a shop you will typically be asked fleira? “anything else?” and poka? “do you want a bag?”, minimal phrases but fairly easy to understand. You can reply with já “yes” or nei “no”. If you want to go further than just the basics, you can use the free Icelandic Online course provided by the University of Iceland. It will give you just about everything you need for a rudimentary conversation and quite a lot beyond, and provides audio files so you can practise speaking and listening. Well worth a look.

Go to the swimming pools. Icelanders love to swim. Fact. Reykjavík has dozens of swimming pools, all of which are geothermally heated and all at least one heitur pottur (outdoor hot tub). Most pools will have a number of these hot tubs at different temperatures. They are a great place to meet Icelanders, as there is no problem with talking to a complete stranger whilst in the hot pot. They tend to be busiest in the early evening when Icelanders finish work or school, so pop down to the pool then if you want to meet the locals. If you plan on going often, you can by a sundkort “swimming card” from the counter which provides you with ten swims at most of the city’s pools. You will need to shower naked before you go in, but this is standard here and you shouldn’t have any concerns about it. The pools are very clean and contain little chlorine, you can test this by opening your eyes underwater. A great place to soak your muscles and absorb some of the local culture.

Climb Esja. When you get to Reykjavík, you will notice to the northeast of the city a beautiful mountain range. One of these peaks is known as Esja, and it’s about 900m high. It’s a fun mountain to climb and you don’t have to travel far to do it, it’s two bus rides from the city centre (about 45mins–1 hour if you time it right). Reykjavíkers can often be seen jogging or running up the mountain, and it is said that some Icelanders jog up and down Esja a few times a day just for exercise. Whilst we’ll never know if that’s really true, Esja is a fairly easy climb and there is a path most of the way up. Once you get to the top, you’ll be treated with a beautiful view over the valley below with the city in the distance. It really is breathtaking. You shouldn’t hesitate to drink from the streams either, as you get out of breath. The water is pure and clean, ice cold and tastes great.

Sample the local food. This is a big one. Many Icelanders will try and persuade you to eat svið or hákarl, the latter being putrified shark and the former being a boiled sheep’s head, complete with brains and eyeballs. Whilst svið is reportedly very tasty (haven’t dared to try it myself), there are other local foods which really are a delight. It goes without saying that you should try the skyr, a dairy product in between yoghurt and soft cheese. It’s low in fat and comes in myriad flavours, and I always take plenty home. You’ll never be an Icelander unless you eat skyr.

The lamb is excellent in Iceland, and you will find it served at many restaurants. Hangikjöt, a kind of smoked lamb served in slices, is also worth a try. You’ll find some restaurants serving reindeer, and it is undeniably fantastic. Of course, the real pièce-de-résistance in Icelandic cuisine is the fish. Fresh þorskur “cod”, ýsa “haddock”, rauðspretta “plaice”, lax “salmon” and humar “lobster” are all available in and around Iceland, and any one of these fishes you have will be freshly caught. According to a friend, the mussels are also amazing. While it won’t be to everyone’s liking, whale is also available in some restaurants.

In addition to excellent meat and dairy products, Iceland also has some great baked goods. A traditional Icelandic doughnut, or kleinur, goes down particularly well with a hot chocolate or coffee and is available in many places (don’t by the packet ones from the supermarket, they’re stale and tasteless). You’ll also find skonsur “scones” in many places, and you have to go down to Kaffi Mokka and try their waffles. To die for.

Do as the Icelanders do. The pace of life in Iceland is quite slow for a Northern European country. Icelanders spend a lot of time relaxing in the hot pot, or practising their hobby. It is not unusual to see painters and artists at work in the cafés downtown, which gives the city a real bohemian feel. Take some time to relax with a coffee, and you can stay up-to-date with all the events and goings-on in town by reading the Reykjavík Grapevine, a local English-language paper. Icelanders also tend to be quite reserved, and will keep themselves to themselves (except in the hot pot). Avoid sticking out by not talking loudly and generally seeming overexcited (especially when you meet an Icelander for the first time). Icelanders will not appreciate someone jumping on them screaming “oh my God you’re Icelandic, let me talk to you!”.

Party. Despite the generally slow lifestyle, younger Icelanders love to party. If you want to party like an Icelander, don’t go out until midnight and don’t expect to be home until at least 7am. The bars are touristy until later in the day, so if you go out at 9pm you’ll not find many Icelanders out on the tiles. It is the done thing to drink at someone’s house first, so go to the hot pot, befriend an Icelander and party with them for a genuine experience! Admittedly, Laugarvegur is an ugly site at 3am, but for those party animals it doesn’t make a difference. You’ll see mostly Icelanders out and about at this time of night, although it’s not really a good way to meet the locals. Again, back into the hot pot you go.

We hope you found this guide useful, and please feel free to add your own experiences or correct ours in the comments. Remember not to take it too seriously, this is just some advice based on one man’s experience. And if you should be so lucky to visit Iceland sometime in the future, have a fantastic time!

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