I love luxury. And I love adventure. And I wanted to see the Northern Lights. So the Ion Hotel seemed like the perfect choice. That was until our rental car was stopped dead in almost 3 feet of snow on the road to the hotel.
The hotel will provide transport from the airport, but we were already staying in Reykjavik so we were told to rent a car. We plugged the location in our GPS and found ourselves in the middle of a snow bank. Driving back to the closest petrol station we were relieved to find an "Arctic Adventure" driver to ask directions. "You're trying to get to the Ion Hotel?", he said. "Well, that's a challenge." Great. When the Arctic Adventure guy thinks you're in for a challenge, what's a city girl to do?
We called the hotel for directions, they seemed "surprised" that the road was closed and gave us an alternate road.
Look, it's a beautiful location, although not necessarily the best to view the Northern Lights (you can see them right outside of Reykjavik). But it's not luxury and it's not adventure.
Their adventure is nothing you can't get from city center (in fact many tours leave from the city so you're just going back there anyway). Scheduling anything seemed hit or miss. Some folks seemed to have managed to book some trips but nothing was going to happen once you were there. Including the spa. There is one therapist so unless you were lucky enough to get someone to answer a pre-arrival email it was all booked.
It's not worth the drive, it's not the best location for Northern Lights and while the food is good, it's terribly expensive (even by Icelandic standards). Stay in Reykjavik and do day trips.
