Reykjavík after one soak: a night room from Sundhöllin to Hallgrímskirkja and the Skólavörðustígur slope

The old Sundhöll façade is the recognition cue. This article treats the pool and the church hill above it as one compact evening room rather than two separate attractions.

If you want Reykjavík to stop reading like a postcard strip and start reading like a lived city, take one block inland and do one ordinary local thing first: go to Sundhöllin, then walk up to Hallgrímskirkja while the pool heat is still on you.[1][2][3] The sequence is small, but it changes the city fast. You stop being a tower-ticket visitor and become a body moving through municipal routine, steam, concrete, wet hair, and one short hill.

That is why this works so well as a night room. Sundhöllin is not a decorative add-on to Reykjavík. The municipal page gives it the plain facts of infrastructure: Mon-Fri 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat-Sun 8 a.m.-9 p.m., adult entry 1,430 kr, youth 220 kr, children free, and a facility list that runs from the 25-meter pool to hot tubs, sauna, steam room, cold tub, and private changing room.[1] The building history page adds the deeper civic layer: Sundhöllin opened in 1937, architect Guðjón Samúelsson designed it, and the outdoor extension opened on December 3, 2017.[2] One hill above, Hallgrímskirkja stands on Skólavörðuholt and remains both a church and a cultural landmark, while the church's own history page confirms that Guðjón Samúelsson designed it too.[3][11]

That shared authorship is the place-specific texture that makes this block feel unusually coherent. Reykjavík gave one architect both a pool and a hilltop church.[2][11] One is heated, wet, social, rule-bound, and municipal; the other is vertical, windy, visible from far off, and always slightly ceremonial. Put them in one short evening line and the city starts making architectural sense.

Image context: the cover image shows Sundhöll Reykjavíkur itself, the old 1937 pool building that anchors this route. It is the right image because the article is about entering Reykjavík through a real civic room, not through a skyline summary.[10]

Why this two-anchor block works better than a tower-first visit

The default visitor move around Hallgrímskirkja is to treat the church as a daytime landmark, go up the tower if it is open, then drift back down the rainbow-painted street with nothing changing except the photo roll. The official church page is useful here because it states the current rhythm plainly: Hallgrímskirkja stands on one of the highest points in central Reykjavík, and the site currently lists winter opening hours of 10:00-17:00 every day.[3] That means the classic tower visit is a daylight task with a hard stop.

Sundhöllin flips the block into a stronger evening shape. The pool stays open far later than the tower, and the facility mix gives you a real internal sequence rather than a single scenic moment. The official facility page and the Visit Reykjavík listing together sketch the room precisely: an indoor pool of 25 x 10 meters, depths from 0.9 to 4 meters, water around 28-29°C, two diving boards at 1 meter and 2.75 meters, hot tubs at 39°C, 40°C, and 42°C, plus a cold tub around 10°C.[1][2]

That is enough structure to turn the outing into something local and outcome-changing. Reykjavík Grapevine's Best Pool 2025 round-up and its April 2025 history feature both treat Sundhöllin as a civic institution rather than as a poor substitute for the private lagoons.[6][7] The point is not luxury. The point is that this is where the city still gathers in public heat, under municipal rules, at a price that belongs to ordinary life rather than destination packaging.[1][6]

The actual sequence

On a weekday, the cleanest version starts between 7:15 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. You still have enough time before the 10 p.m. close to use the pool as a room instead of a checkbox, and you emerge into a Reykjavík that has already thinned out of shopping-hour traffic.[1] On weekends the pool closes at 9 p.m., so the margin gets tighter and the whole outing feels more rushed.[1]

Inside, do not treat Sundhöllin as a quick shower-and-go. The official rules are strict in the way Icelandic public pools are strict everywhere: wash thoroughly without a swimsuit before entering the water, keep shoes in lockers, and remember that cameras and phone cameras are forbidden in the changing rooms.[4] Those rules are not side notes. They are the social contract that lets municipal pools keep a public, everyday character without becoming grim.

After that, use the room in a deliberate order. Start with the older indoor basin to get acclimated, then move out into the extension rather than staying buried in the original hall.[1][2] The extension matters because it is what made Sundhöllin a fuller evening room after 2017: the outdoor pool, the hot tubs, the cold tub, and the common steam and sauna facilities turned the place from a historic indoor swimming hall into a layered public bath complex.[2][5]

Then leave while still warm and go uphill only once. The hill is short. Hallgrímskirkja is close enough that the transition does not reset your body back to ordinary street temperature immediately, which is exactly why the route lands. You are not commuting to a second attraction. You are carrying one room into another: geothermal civic heat into windy church forecourt, then church forecourt into the long slope of Skólavörðustígur.

8 local moves that change the result

Choose a weekday evening by default. The municipal schedule gives you the larger working window: 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. on weekdays against 8 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends.[1]
Pool first, church second. Hallgrímskirkja's current posted hours make it a daytime interior and tower stop, but the exterior hill works beautifully after that window has closed.[3]
Treat the shower rule as the opening move, not an awkward formality. Reykjavík's own pool rules say to wash thoroughly without swimwear before entering the water.[4]
Keep shoes in lockers and move cleanly through the wet-to-dry sequence. That sounds trivial until you see how quickly locals correct it when visitors miss the rule.[4][9]
If you packed badly, recover on site instead of abandoning the plan. Official prices list towel rental at 860 kr, swimwear rental at 1,270 kr, and a combined swim+towel+swimwear offer at 2,700 kr.[1]
Use the outdoor extension on purpose. The 1937 history is important, but the 2017 addition is what makes the outing feel complete at night.[2][5]
Skip the tower on this run unless you are arriving much earlier. The church's current posted 10:00-17:00 winter schedule belongs to a different shape of visit.[3]
Walk downhill through Skólavörðustígur as a cooldown, not as a retail errand. The point is to let the heated pool room fade gradually into the open city, with the church still behind you as a fixed vertical cue.[3][8]

Non-local trapline: 4 mistakes and the better alternative

Mistake 1: treating a municipal pool like a mini spa with optional etiquette

That reading breaks the room immediately. Reykjavík's own rules require the full pre-swim wash without swimwear, clean swimwear, and shoes stored away.[4]

Better alternative: enter as though you are borrowing a local institution for one evening, because that is exactly what you are doing.

Mistake 2: doing Hallgrímskirkja first because it looks more obviously "touristy"

That produces a flatter outing and leaves Sundhöllin feeling like an afterthought.

Better alternative: let the pool give you temperature, pace, and mood first, then take the church hill as your short external second act.[1][3]

Mistake 3: arriving too late on a weekend and compressing the whole run

With the pool closing at 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, you can rush yourself into a thirty-minute dip and a damp exit.[1]

Better alternative: keep this as a weekday pattern whenever possible, or start meaningfully earlier on weekends.

Mistake 4: assuming Icelandic pool rules are soft suggestions for foreigners

Recent community discussion shows the opposite. Visitors repeatedly get warned about the naked shower rule, and locals still enforce the shoe and cleanliness norms in ordinary municipal pools.[8][9]

Better alternative: follow the room the way the room is meant to be used, and the experience gets easier almost immediately.

Spend, timing, and one navigation cue

Best window: weekday 7:15-8:00 p.m. entry for a full pool session before the 10 p.m. close, then a short uphill exit into the church block.[1]
Expected spend: 1,430 kr adult entry; 860 kr towel rental; 1,270 kr swimwear rental; 2,700 kr if you need the bundled fallback.[1]
Queue / reservation reality: no booking logic is needed here. This is a municipal pool, not a destination lagoon.[1][6]
What to use: one indoor pool, one outdoor pool, hot tubs at 39°C / 40°C / 42°C, one cold tub near 10°C, plus steam and sauna.[2]
Navigation cue: leave Sundhöllin on Barónsstígur with the Hallgrímskirkja tower fixed ahead, crest the church forecourt once, then walk Skólavörðustígur back down while your body is still carrying the pool.

Reykjavík has many prettier first impressions than this one. Few are more useful. One municipal pool, one church hill, one downhill street: that is enough to move the city from spectacle into habit.

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