Our visit to Iceland was a brief one-day stopover because IcelandAir lets you do that between North America and Europe. Iceland is definitely on our future list for an entire vacation. In the end, we had some flight issues that cut down our visit here so we really never left the immediate vicinity of the airport which is the Reykjanesbaer municipality.

We spent the night though, had a lovely meal and then took a bus to the Blue Lagoon for most of the rest of the day. It's not far at all from the airport so this is highly recommended if you have a long layover even. There are buses directly to and from the airport. The terrain meanwhile is the sort of otherworldly volcanic scenery you expect from Iceland.

The lagoon itself is a naturally occurring hot spring located in the lava fields of the southern peninsula of Iceland. The water has a very high mineral content (if you have thick hair, you'll probably be able to sculpt it after swimming here) and a distinctive cloudy blue color. Whether you arrive by bus or by car you'll drive past outer portions of the lagoon and walk past some of it on the way in from the parking area.

There is a hotel here directly on the lagoon, at least 2 restaurants, a complete spa, changing facilities and showers and of course a gift shop. It's important to reserve an entry time in advance, also important to reserve the more formal restaurant if you want to eat there. We ate at the snack bar which was good enough for our day trip. The locker rooms are relatively nice and there are plenty of showers for before and after the lagoon.

Along with the already hot water, which seems to get quite a bit hotter if you move further away from the buildings... there are also a couple of saunas. We were here in July and it was not particularly warm outside. From the lagoon itself you also have access to a swim up drink bar and there are some mud bath type treatments as well. We probably spent close to 2 hours in the lagoon before we went back inside to change, shower and eat.