Reykjavik in 6 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Six days builds on the 4-day plan with a genuine rest day in Laugardalur and a free Viðey Island ferry, all inside the city. No Golden Circle, no Blue Lagoon, no South Coast; those live in the Reykjavik, Iceland guide for a trip that uses Reykjavik as a base. Shorter stay? See the 3-day or 4-day plans. One more day? The 7-day version adds a flex day before departure.
| Day | Focus | Rough spend (1 person, excl. lodging) |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Arrival, free harbour and downtown walk, hot dog dinner | ISK 3,000-5,000 (~$25-40) |
| Day 2 | Hallgrímskirkja, Harpa, evening geothermal pool | ISK 4,000-7,000 (~$32-56) |
| Day 3 | Whale watching, Grandi neighborhood, bar scene | ISK 12,000-20,000 (~$95-160) |
| Day 4 | City Card museum, Vesturbær pool | ISK 6,000-11,000 (~$48-88) plus the City Card |
| Day 5 | Laugardalur park, rest day, coffee-and-bar crawl | ISK 3,000-6,000 (~$25-48) |
| Day 6 | Viðey Island ferry, Perlan or last shopping, departure | ISK 0-6,000 (~$0-48) |
Book these before you go:
- A whale-watching trip : summer sailings sell out on clear-sky days first.
- Harpa’s guided tour : limited English-guided slots into the Eldborg hall.
- Your room : six nights inside the 101 postcode, booked well ahead of peak summer.
- Folding in the Blue Lagoon on either end of the trip? It needs booking 3-4 weeks out ; it’s a Reykjanes Peninsula stop, not part of this city plan.
Where to stay for 6 nights
Six nights makes the 101 postcode’s premium easy to justify: it’s the only base from which Day 5’s rest day and Day 6’s ferry both stay a short walk or bus ride away, instead of a taxi.
Day 1: land, walk the free sights, eat a hot dog
Check in, then walk the Old Harbour, free, home to former fishing warehouses now full of cafes and every whale-watching departure. The Sun Voyager (Sólfar) sculpture sits along the adjacent shoreline path. Walk Laugavegur back toward downtown, then eat at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur: ISK 880 solo or ISK 1,330 as a combo with a drink.
Day 2: Hallgrímskirkja, Harpa, and a pool instead of a spa
The Hallgrímskirkja nave is free; the ISK 1,500 tower is walk-up only, so weigh the view against the queue, since it can’t be pre-booked. Walk Skólavörðustígur down to Harpa, whose glass lobby costs nothing to see; add the guided tour for the Eldborg hall itself. In the evening, Laugardalslaug runs ISK 1,430 for an adult , a fraction of the Blue Lagoon’s ISK 11,990.
Day 3: whale watching and the Grandi neighborhood
Morning boats from the Old Harbour run roughly 3 to 3.5 hours into Faxaflói Bay for minke whales and white-beaked dolphins; book ahead, since clear-sky days fill first. Spend the afternoon in Grandi, home to the Omnom chocolate factory and the Marshall House galleries. In the evening, Kaffibarinn’s happy hour runs daily from 15:00, draft beer from ISK 1,050.
Day 4: a City Card museum day and the Vesturbær pool
Pick one museum the Reykjavik City Card covers, then use the card’s included Strætó rides to get there and back. In the afternoon, cross to Vesturbær for Vesturbæjarlaug, a smaller, more local pool than Laugardalslaug and worth the trip for a quieter version of the same ritual.
Day 5: Laugardalur park and an actual rest day
Spend the morning in Laugardalur, the park and botanical-garden district east of downtown; both cost nothing to walk, and the small family zoo is a cheap add-on if traveling with kids. Use the afternoon to actually rest, do laundry, or catch up on souvenir shopping instead of scheduling another paid attraction. In the evening, lean into Reykjavik’s bar-and-coffee scene: the same cafes that pour espresso by day turn into bars after dark, and Icelandic craft beer and mixology have gotten genuinely good in recent years, worth treating as its own activity rather than a backdrop.
Day 6: Viðey Island and departure
The Viðey Island ferry is free once you’ve bought a Reykjavik City Card for its museums and pools anyway; it runs daily in summer from Skarfabakki or Ægisgarður, weekends only in winter, out to Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower and a network of walking paths. Back in the city, spend the afternoon at Perlan’s observation deck, roughly ISK 5,990 booked online versus more at the door, or skip it for one last pass down Laugavegur before your Flybus to Keflavík.
Is 6 days too long to stay only in the city?
Not if a genuine rest day and Viðey Island are on the list; both fill real time without repeating an earlier day’s sights. It starts to feel long only if there’s no interest in a slower pace, in which case the extra two days are better spent on the Reykjavik-as-a-base itineraries covering the Golden Circle or the South Coast instead.
What’s the cheapest day on this itinerary?
Day 5, by a wide margin: Laugardalur park and the botanical garden cost nothing, and the only real spend is whatever’s ordered at a cafe or bar that evening. Day 6 comes close if the Viðey ferry and City Card museums are already paid for and Perlan gets skipped in favor of a last free walk down Laugavegur.
Six days is enough to notice the difference between doing Reykjavik and doing it at Icelandic prices. Laugardalur, Viðey Island and two geothermal pools cost less combined than a single Blue Lagoon entry, and they’re closer to how the city actually lives.