The Retreat at Blue Lagoon

A hotel built into an 800-year-old lava field, deliberately positioned to give paying guests a private version of Iceland's most photographed attraction. Opened in April 2018 as an adults-only extension of the public Blue Lagoon next door, the 62-suite property sits low against the rock, with steam drifting across the walkways and the interiors built from dark stone, wood and lava-based terrazzo. Suites come in three configurations — Lava, Moss and Lagoon View — and the higher tiers include private lagoons, saunas or steam rooms built into the room itself.

The spa is carved roughly three metres into the volcanic rock and opens onto a residents-only lagoon separate from the public pools. Its signature Blue Lagoon Ritual moves guests through a sequence of interconnected chambers, applying a salt scrub, then silica, then an algae layer, each drawn from the geothermal seawater itself; an in-water massage on a floating mattress is also part of the standard spa menu. Moss, the hotel's flagship restaurant, earned a MICHELIN star in 2023 for cooking built entirely around Icelandic ingredients, while the more casual Spa Restaurant lets guests eat in their robes.

The property sits on the Reykjanes Peninsula, an area of recent volcanic activity; the hotel maintains earth embankments and evacuation procedures as a matter of course, and this has not affected guest access or operations.