Snack Hacking: Reykjavík

While it’s true that Iceland’s prices can give your wallet the same chill as that of the country’s glaciers, the budget traveller need not be afraid of Reykjavík. Here’s a typical day in which I made the most of my krona while in Iceland.

Breakfast

Upon arriving in Reykjavík, I went to a local grocery store and bought cups of Skyr, a thick Icelandic yogurt/cheese product, for about $1.50 USD each. Skyr comes in all sorts of flavors, from pear to passion fruit, and it’s packed full of protein. For convenient caffeine, I always travel with Trader Joe’s instant coffee packets with cream and sugar. These cost $2.50 for a pack of ten at a Manhattan Trader Joe’s, getting me out the door for about $1.75.

Lunch

The Sea Baron is a casual restaurant on Reykjavík’s harbor, a nautical hole in the wall where the only choices are fish kebabs (choose-your-own from the refrigerated case) and their signature lobster soup. I grabbed a spot on the uneven picnic tables and ordered the soup, which for $9 features meaty chunks of lobster in a steaming coconut curry broth and a sizable loaf of bread on the side. Extra bonus: a carafe of free coffee by the door made for a toasty takeoff for the rest of my afternoon.

Happy Hour

After a day of delving into Viking history at Reykjavík’s excellent museums, I had a hankering for a beer from one of Iceland’s rapidly developing microbreweries. Booze in Iceland is notoriously out-of-control pricey, so I downloaded Appy Hour, a helpful app that locates happy hours in the city. The app led me to Kaldi Bar, where for just $5 I enjoyed an amber ale in a cozy atmosphere. That’s a good price in New York and an absolute steal in Reykjavík.

 

Dinner

One of my favorite places in Reykjavík is Cafe Loki, a friendly place to try out Icelandic food. I ordered an open-faced sandwich of local smoked trout and cottage cheese on a thick slice of hearty, homemade rye bread for $11, and followed it up with a decadent rúgbrauðsís, or rye bread ice cream (trust me on this one) for $6.

Total for the day: $32.75 USD including booze and dessert