For the third hotel stay of ourIceland to The Residence via Cambodia trip, we spent one night at The Retreat Hotel at Blue Lagoon, a 60-key property at Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon.
Continue reading: Review: The Retreat Hotel At Blue Lagoon, Iceland (Shockingly Stellar!)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I still remember you saying you were looking and feeling like a prune after being in the lagoon all day! Hah!
The Retreat "Lagoon" is beautiful for sure but it looks even more fake and artificial than the original Blue Lagoon. It's a man made pool carved in the rock surrounding the hotel. Google Maps satellite images gives you a good idea about what it really is. I am curious about one thing, the pool surrounding the hotel rooms is not heated? Is it forbidden to jump inside it or just not advised? The lack of a fence makes it look like you could jump inside everytime you want
I'm glad you had such a good experience- you seem to have truly enjoyed it.
Question about the room - as you note, calling it a junior suite might be a stretch. How big are the normal rooms?
And something I noticed - is there a separation between the room and the bathroom? It looks like the tub is kind of in the main room... and you mentioned there was a "sliding door" to the toilet "for privacy". Is the bathroom really just kind of exposed to the room? I really HATE that in hotels if that's the case.
There was a whole WSJ article recently about how hotels are cutting corners on bathrooms - sliding doors that dont offer full privacy, open bathrooms, etc. I expect that at cheap hotels but not some place like this at this price point, if that's indeed the case.
Any thoughts? I think you should do a piece on hotel room bathrooms. Something I've noticed and hated.
Overall really enjoying your trip reviews on this epic trip. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for this terrific review. I'm curious, did you see the "lava cove" (or whatever it's called) - the private area within the spa?
You note that you can't use the facilities before check-in, but I've definitely had clients enjoy lunch prior to check in, and you can also reserve the "lava cove" or just make a spa reservation, and I've seen them give a discounted price, noting it's pre-check in.
Personally for me, this was the best part of my Icelandic trip. I stayed at the Lagoon Suite and it was heavenly. They will actually come to your lagoon and give you a floating massage. You can also request all the scrubs and rubs to be brought to the suite. No need to go out in public if you prefer your treatment in private. The water you see surrounding the hotel is not heated so probably not a good idea to jump in unless you are looking for a cold dip. The Moss restaurant is just ok. Let’s just say food at Dill restaurant is def better. All in all, highly rec this resort and worth the hype.
@ pstm91 -- Thanks! I wasn't even aware of the lava cove, not that we would've needed it, but that's interesting. Regarding spa treatments before check-in, it's funny, we called the day before to ask about that, and they told us firmly that it would only be possible after the check-in time, since that's when access to the spa would be granted.
So I'm not sure if that policy has just been updated, or if it's a case of "your mileage may vary."
@ Jason -- Thank you! The junior suites are the smallest rooms here, so what you see is an entry level room in terms of size (though the view was upgraded).
When it comes to the bathroom, the sink area and bathtub don't have privacy, while there are doors to the shower and to the toilet. I totally agree with you, it's not my preferred level of privacy for those kinds of setups. Appreciate the idea for a post about hotel bathrooms, let me see what I can come up with! 🙂
@ Mark -- Correct, the water around the rooms isn't heated, so it probably wouldn't be advisable to jump in there. 🙂
Ben: Do you know if children are allowed into The Retreat? Or if a minimum age is the policy?
@ weekendsurfer -- Sorry, I should have mentioned that! The minimum age is 12 years old for the spa.
Here's a great contrast study with the EDITION. At this hotel, the service is top notch. So clearly Icelanders can provide good service. Corporate just chooses to encourage them not to at EDITION.
In August of 2021 we spent two nights at the Silica, a less expensive but fine hotel that's an easy two-minute walk from the Blue Lagoon.
An observation about check in: Our United 757 from ORD landed at KEF about 7AM. We got to the Silica an hour or so later and had to wait several hours before our room was ready. We ate breakfast and "relaxed" in the lobby's comfortable chairs. After getting over jet lag, we spent eight nights at the Borg in downtown Reykjavik. Our return flight left KEF at 10:30AM and the lobby was packed with incoming guests when we went to the airport. Be ready for this if your flight arrives early in the morning.
Safia Nygard did a review of the Retreat. I actually find her reviews to be pretty in depth, honest, but not being overly serious about anything. I like her reviews because they are long and show pretty much everything so you can kind of see for yourself and not just rely on her opinion.
Nothing says luxury like plopping a parking lot, restaurant and hotels on top of a former power plant wastewater runoff pool. No, it didn't form naturally.
Ben, it's rare that I'm enticed to visit a hotel by one review alone, but you've accomplished that. Great report and pictures!
My husband and I stayed here as our last stop in Iceland before our flight back to NY, and it exceeded our expectations in every way, especially considering that this is part of a giant, man-made tourist attraction. As Ben noted, the spa is truly astounding. We spent almost our entire stay in and out of the lagoon, applying muds and scrubs, and hopping in and out of the thermal spaces. We were there in the summer, and also found the lagoon almost completely deserted, with only a handful of other guests visible in the water the entire time we were there. (Also, the shower in our suite was hands down the most incredible shower I've ever experienced, with a volume of water that was almost incomprehensible)
My only downside to the stay was that there seemed to be a higher proportion of insta influencers at the hotel than expected... a lot of people in the spa/lagoon seemed flummoxed that phones were banned, and were just there for the night to get content.
“Unfortunately even though this is an ultra-luxury property, it doesn’t participate in any programs like Virtuoso, etc., so there’s no way to get extra perks, sadly.”
I would revise this to read, “Fortunately, because this is an ultra-luxury property, it doesn’t participate in any programs like Virtuoso, etc., so there’s no way to get extra perks without paying the asking rate, thankfully.”
I’m getting annoyed with Mr Apple’s predictive text, inserting ‘your’ when I typed in ‘you’ is bleeding off!
The hotel seems nice enough bu I have only visited the public lagoon. I have visited hot springs in over 50 countries and I was really looking forward to the blue lagoon. I found it to be quite disgusting and I would personally never visit again. They give you a free facial mask and everyone then rinses off directly in the lagoon water. The water itself is warm but not particularly hot. The setting is beautiful but from a hot spring perspective it is a complete bust.