Area guide · when it blows
It is the wind, not the rain, that decides the day here. What is still worth doing when the forecast is grim, all within half an hour of the farm, and when to stay put.
This is one of the windiest corners of Iceland in autumn and winter, and the rain here arrives sideways. Rain on its own is not a reason to change plans. The waterfalls are bigger, the beaches are emptier, and you are inside a car between stops anyway.
Wind is different. Check vedur.is for the wind speed and the colour of the warning, and road.is for the roads, before you drive anywhere. A yellow warning means hold your car door with both hands and skip the Skógafoss stairs. Orange or red means the day is at the farm, and we would say so before you asked.
Ten kilometres east at Skógar, Skógasafn is three museums on one site: a folk museum with the old fishing boat and the everyday things of the last two centuries, a technical museum of cars, radios and the machines that connected this coast to the rest of the country, and an open-air museum of turf houses, a church and a schoolhouse. Allow two hours and bring a hood for the turf houses.
Thirty kilometres west in Hvolsvöllur, the Lava Centre is an interactive exhibition about the volcanoes you are sleeping under, with a film about the eruptions and a viewing platform facing the mountains. Good for children, and the ideal answer to what happened here in 2010.
Seljavallalaug, the old pool four kilometres east, works on a wet day because you are getting wet anyway. The walk in is twenty minutes and the water is lukewarm, so pick a day with rain and little wind rather than the other way round.
The hot tub at the farm is the other answer. Rain on your head and hot water to your neck is a combination worth the trip on its own, and it is a few steps from your door.
Heimamenn, six kilometres east, does coffee in the morning and a cheap lunch. Gamla Fjósið is two kilometres away and Hotel Anna three, both with a proper kitchen. The lobby at the farm, where the garage doors used to be, is warm and has a long table.
If the road is closed or the warning is red, stay. The apartments have thick concrete walls, and the wind sounds far more dramatic from inside than it is. There is always something on the stove at the house.
Questions people ask
Yes, this is the wet side of the island, and it can rain for a day or two at a time. It also clears quickly, and rain without wind changes very little about what you can do.
Yes, and they are better for it. Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss both grow with rain. Skip the walk behind Seljalandsfoss if it is icy and skip the Skógafoss staircase in strong wind.
Not in an orange or red warning. Gusts here can push a car across the road and tear a door off its hinges. Check road.is and safetravel.is, and if in doubt ask us, we drive these roads every day.
Skógasafn, the Lava Centre, a long lunch, the hot tub, and the lobby with its long table. Most guests find one bad day is enough time for all of it.
The Garage is a converted 1940s garage on a working farm under Eyjafjallajökull, board-formed concrete inside and a hot tub outside. Bad weather sounds better from here.