Spend The Night At This Inn Turned Boutique Hotel In Iceland

At Iceland’s ION Luxury Adventure Hotel, located near the Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and less than an hour from Reykjavik, you can enjoy extraordinary views over ancient mountain ranges and lava fields from a stylish interior.

The hotel is also close to the popular Golden Circle route where you can experience a taste of many of the natural phenomena to be found in Iceland, including waterfalls, geysers and volcanoes. In the winter, the hotel is a great spot from which to catch a view of the Northern Lights.

The hotel is quite a sight, the way its structure, built into the natural surroundings, juts out from a mountain’s base, which is actually a long-dormant volcano. It looks like something that could definitely be the location for a movie, and it wouldn’t be the first time Iceland was, in fact, the setting for a Bond film (see Die Another Day at Jokulsarlon). The setting inside is fitting for the extraordinary landscape to be seen from the windows. The aesthetic is Scandinavian-minimalism at its best with exposed concrete walls and contemporary furniture choices with wooden accents, fur throws, mellow hanging lamps and a natural, muted colour palette that is more stark and impressive as far as design, but less cosy as far as hygge is concerned.

Downstairs from the restaurant and bar, aptly named the Northern Lights, is the Lava Spa, also aptly named. Here, even more extraordinary views are offered of the surrounding landscape of lava fields and the subtle light effect that can only be found in Iceland. Just outside the spa, guests can find sanctuary from the chilly wind in a shallow, geothermically heated pool. Inside the spa is a sauna surrounded by glass where you can look out onto the landscape from there as well. The landscape never leaves your vision at this hotel as it becomes part of the interior as much as the exterior beyond the walls. At the spa, guests can have treatments such as thermal blanket wraps made of local herbs, or a massage.

At the Silfra Restaurant, you can find the best of modern Nordic cuisine featuring fish and lamb prepared with simple, local ingredients such as celeriac ragout and Brussels sprouts, keeping to the minimal nature of the hotel. If you want the best of Nordic design in an outstanding setting that includes local cuisine, a hot pool and a chance to see the Aurora, then this is your place.

landscape with balloons floating in the air

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