Best Glacier View Stays in Hellissandur
Glacier view stays in Hellissandur sit on Route 574, where the Snæfellsnes coast road bends around the western tip of the peninsula about 205 km by road from Reykjavík Domestic Airport. Snæfellsjökull rises to 1,446 metres south of the village, so the ice cap fills the skyline from the lava field on any clear day. Two properties here are built around that sightline: a two bedroom holiday home with a garden and a barbecue, and a ground floor apartment whose terrace faces both sea and mountain. Both sit within a few minutes of the Snæfellsjökull National Park boundary. Neither has a restaurant, which matters after dark.
Glacier view · Hellissandur in numbers
Stays in Hellissandur
Seaside Retreat, Glacier View stands in the village itself on Skólabraut, a short walk from the Route 574 junction and 205 km from Reykjavík Domestic Airport. The holiday home has two bedrooms, a living room and a private entrance, which suits a pair of couples or a family that wants doors between the sleeping spaces. A fully equipped kitchenette, a washing machine and a tumble dryer cover the practical side of a multi night stop on the peninsula. Outside there is a garden, a barbecue and sea views, plus free private parking on site. Nothing about it is grand, and that is the point after a long driving day.
The Bookstore Family Apartment sits on the ground floor on Snæfellsás with a terrace and patio facing both sea and mountain, which is the rarer of the two orientations in Hellissandur. It has one bedroom, a living room and family rooms, plus a buffet breakfast with local specialities, fresh pastries, pancakes, cheese and juice. That breakfast is worth noting, because between October and April very little else in the village serves food before the park road warms up. Couples rate the location 9.4 for a two person trip. Bicycle parking, free parking and express check in round it out.
Snæfellsjökull itself is reached from Route 574 west of the village, past Saxhóll crater and the turning for Djúpalónssandur, and the summit is a guided trip rather than a drive. What both Hellissandur properties give is the long view rather than the climb: the ice cap sits south across open lava, unobstructed by ridgelines. On clear nights between September and April the same open ground carries aurora, because the village throws almost no light north of the main street. Cloud cover on the peninsula changes fast, so two nights beat one for anyone who actually wants the view.
Hellissandur is a working village first and a viewpoint second. Fishing boats run out of Rif harbour two kilometres east, the 412 metre radio mast marks the settlement from halfway across the peninsula, and painted murals cover gable walls that would otherwise be bare concrete. Ingjaldshóll church stands on the rise above the houses with the full glacier panorama behind it. Evenings are quiet by default: no nightlife, very little street lighting, and a lava field that goes black the moment the sun drops.