Soaking in hot water while you wait for the Northern Lights: This Iceland hotel keeps the glacier right outside your window

Hótel Jökulsárlón – Glacier Lagoon Hotel in southeastern Iceland has made this kind of view part of everyday life during a stay. Near the famous Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, with no city high-rises blocking the surroundings, the hotel uses expansive floor-to-ceiling windows to bring the Vatnajökull glacier, mountains, and North Atlantic into its rooms, restaurant, and public spaces.

The rooms don’t try to steal the spotlight, because the real view is always outside the window.

images from/Hótel Jökulsárlón

Designed by Batteríið Architects, the hotel has 124 guest rooms. The interiors use clean Nordic lines, natural wood, and subdued colors, so abundant decoration doesn’t distract you in the room and your gaze naturally falls on the view outside.

The building also makes extensive use of CLT, or cross-laminated timber, and sustainable construction methods, with the aim of minimizing its presence amid the glaciers, mountains, and coastline. The exterior wood will even gradually weather to a silvery gray in Iceland’s climate, drawing closer to the colors of the surrounding rocks and glaciers.

Room types range from Double Standard and Triple Room to Family Suite and Suite. What remains consistent is the idea of keeping nature in view, so a night’s stay isn’t only about being close to the glacier lagoon; from morning to night, you’re still immersed in Iceland’s scenery.

Glacier views by day, soak in an outdoor hot pool at night

images from/Hótel Jökulsárlón

One of the hotel’s most appealing areas is its outdoor hot pool and sauna, open exclusively to overnight guests. Both are open daily from 07:00 to 22:00, and soaking in hot water surrounded by cold temperatures, snowy scenery, or mountain views already feels like a natural Icelandic spa experience.

On a clear night with low light pollution and sufficient aurora activity, this outdoor space naturally becomes a place to wait for the Northern Lights. Of course, the aurora can never be guaranteed, yet being able to look up at the sky right where you’re staying, rather than leaving the hotel to chase the lights, adds another layer of anticipation to a winter trip to Iceland.

The hotel even lists Northern Lights, glacier hiking, ice caves, and glacier lagoon activities among its travel experiences. The point of staying here isn’t to keep yourself indoors, but to make the hotel a place to rest between exploring the natural landscapes of Iceland’s south coast.

Even dinner is eaten in front of the glacier

images from/Hótel Jökulsárlón

Hótel Jökulsárlón’s restaurant is on the second floor and seats around 180 guests. Its large floor-to-ceiling windows also face the glacier and surrounding mountains, so from breakfast through dinner, the view outside remains part of the entire stay.

The menu is based on Icelandic and Nordic cuisine with international flavors mixed in, bringing local seafood, lamb, and Icelandic rye bread to the table. Rather than being deliberately elaborate, it feels more like local ingredients and the landscape outside are placed in the same frame.

That’s what makes Hótel Jökulsárlón so appealing: not a single hot pool or beautiful window, but the fact that from waking up and eating to soaking in hot water at night, you never truly leave Iceland’s scenery.

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