Central Highlands, Iceland

Highland Base Hotel

Price per night from$564.39

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (ISK72,400.01), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Highland Base Hotel Photos

Style

World’s end enclave

Setting

Rugged mountain high

Explore

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The journey to Iceland’s Highland Base Hotel may be long and winding, but reach its remote locale and you’re rewarded with out-of-this-world landscapes, dreamlike lodgings and ringside seats to the Northern Lights (if you’re lucky). Bundle up for thrilling mountain jaunts — zipping about in a snowmobile and hiking over glaciers — then find a warm welcome back at the strikingly designed base. Not just friendliness, but steaming dips in the on-site hot springs, soul-soothing comfort food, and morning brews in a window nook as you survey the summits.

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Facilities

Photos Highland Base Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

54, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Between 1 October and 14 June, check-out is at noon and check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include a buffet breakfast, one activity a day and access to the hot springs. You’re also welcome to join storytelling and stargazing sessions for free during the winter. There’s a two-night minimum stay between 1 October and 14 June.

Also

Unfortunately, the isolated location of this retreat makes it unsuitable for wheelchair users.

Please note

During the winter (1 October to 14 June), the roads in the Central Highlands close and you won’t be able to reach the hotel without a guide-driven Super Jeep, so be sure to book a night in Reykjavik either side of your journey.

At the hotel

Hot springs, a boutique and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: tea- and coffee-making kit and Blue Lagoon bath products. Suites and lodges also have minibars.

Our favourite rooms

Views stretch across the valley from every room, and each has its own blanket-lined window nook from which to enjoy them. The stay’s already very remote, but if you’re seeking yet more seclusion, book one of the Lodges for their standalone setting and tiered living spaces.

Spa

Highland Base Hotel doesn’t have a traditional spa set-up, but its geothermal hot springs, cold plunge pool and sauna (all connected to rooms through a trail of underground tunnels) are equally restorative, not least for their sweeping valley views and connected bar. The springs are open between 8am and 11pm, but head for a soak once the sun has set and you’ll be greeted by clear night skies, aglow with constellations, and maybe an aurora or two.

Packing tips

Go all-out in full 66°North gear, in moss and lava-rock hues, to echo your Icelandic locale.

Also

Highland Base Hotel is the remote sister stay to the Smith-approved Retreat at Blue Lagoon.

Children

Little Smiths are welcome during the summer season, but between 1 October and 14 June children aged eight and up are welcome.

Sustainability efforts

Highland Base Hotel rests on the protected nature reserve of Kerlingarfjöll, so sustainability is at the heart of the property. Architects carefully designed each part of the hotel using natural, sustainably sourced materials, so it blends in seamlessly with its surroundings. All heat and energy is sourced geothermally, and chefs work closely with farmers and chefs from the Highlands to cut food miles and showcase the region’s produce at the on-site restaurant.

Food and Drink

Photos Highland Base Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Nab a table with striking valley views.

Dress Code

Match the Alpine aesthetic with your finest faux furs and cosiest knits.

Hotel restaurant

You can reach the Highland Base Restaurant through the hotel’s tunnels if you wish. The dining room’s warmed with dark-wood accents, and vaulted ceilings and window walls maximise the view. The hotel's head chef works closely with regional chefs to craft elevated Icelandic fare, cooked with local and organic produce (where possible, given its volcanic state). Buffet breakfasts fuel you up for the day’s adventures, and come with a shot of cod-liver oil for an additional boost. Lunch and dinner menus feature classic comfort food: langoustine soup, goose with blueberries, pan-fried Arctic char and a warming mushroom soup. Then — if you’re staying in the summer season — from 2.30pm each day, raid your second buffet, this time filled with waffles loaded with whipped cream and syrups, and paired with a hot cocoa. There are also grab-and-go options for anyone planning a no-breaks day in the mountains.

Hotel bar

There’s no formal bar, but you'll find a selection of Icelandic liqueurs, craft cocktails and wines at the restaurant and in the lounge.

Last orders

Breakfast is between 7am and 10am; lunch is noon to 3pm, and dinner is 6pm to 8.30pm. Waffles are served in the summer between 2.30pm and 4.30pm.

Location

Photos Highland Base Hotel location
Address
Highland Base Hotel
F347 Kerlingafjöll
Selfoss
801
Iceland

The Ásgarður Valley is all geothermal spectacles and sparkling glaciers. Its here you’ll find Highland Base Hotel, amid the Central Highlands’ rugged Kerlingarfjöll mountain range.

Planes

Keflavik is the closest international airport, which is between three to six hours away from the hotel by car. Once you’ve landed, take a 45-minute taxi into Reykjavik; your next move will be determined by the season. If you’re visiting between 1 July and 30 September, you can either take the hotel’s daily shuttle service direct (which leaves from Reykjavik’s central Skógarhlíð bus terminal) or rent a car and make the drive yourself — just be sure it’s an F-road certified four-wheel drive. For stays between 1 October and 14 June, the only way to reach the hotel is in one of the hotel’s guide-driven Super Jeeps, which leave from Skógarhlíð at 9am on Thursdays and Fridays. The cars leave the hotel and head back to Skógarhlíð on Saturdays and Sundays at 1pm, so be sure your flights work with these departure times (it's recommended you book a night in Reykjavik to be safe). Our Smith24 Travel Team is on hand if you need any help booking. Winter transfers are ISK14,900 a person, each way.

Automobiles

If you’re staying during the winter season, you won’t be allowed to drive on the Central Highlands roads. For summer stays, you’re welcome to bring a set of wheels as long as it’s a four-wheel drive that’s certified for Iceland’s mountainous F roads.

Worth getting out of bed for

The Kerlingarfjöll mountains are your playground at Highland Base Hotel, and — much like the setting — activities change with the seasons. The eight-month winter period (October to June) could either be all hot chocolates and fireside snuggles (there’s plenty of those to be had); or you could snowmobile up Fannborg and weave between the sprawling Hofsjökull glaciers. If you want to ski down Fannborg Mountain or across the backcountry, all the gear you’ll need is available to rent in Reykjavik, so be sure to stock up before you arrive, and pre-booked guides are on hand to show you the slopes. Back at base, stargazing and storytelling are hosted every evening from October to April, and the hotel’s natural hot springs are open for a soak year-round. 

As the snow begins to melt, swap your skis for wheels and pick up one of the electric bikes for a private mountain tour. A network of all-ability hiking trails wrap around the mountains for avid walkers too — the route up to Hveradalir, which passes geothermal hot springs, mountains spewing plumes of steam and bubbling mud pools, is particularly rewarding.

Reviews

Photos Highland Base Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this otherworldly hotel in Iceland and unpacked their salopettes and Moon Boots, a full account of their adventurous break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Highland Base Hotel in the Central Highlands…

Etched into the slopes of Iceland’s 10,000-year-old Kerlingarfjöll mountains is Highland Base Hotel — an otherworldly escape with enough comforts to warm even the coldest of days. Its very remote Central Highlands setting requires a bit of effort to reach (especially in winter); but bashing over plains of unspoilt snow, glaciers and lava fields in the hotel’s Super Jeep (your choice of chariot for a charge) is all part of the adventure. And the thrill isn’t set to stop after you arrive, either.

More than 70 peaks coat this volcanic region, and the hotel has a team of deft activity hosts and guides on hand to show you whatever you want to see, however you want to see it. Winter days tend to be spent on the slopes, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling across empty expanses. After the ice melts, and the valley’s ashy hues emerge, it’s time to don hiking boots or hop on a mountain bike. When you’re done adventuring, Scandi-style interiors and blanketed window seats make rooms feel like a cosy welcome home, and as night falls there’s a network of hot springs for starlit soaks — we told you the journey would be worth it...

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Price per night from $564.39