Is it a cold rainy miserable day in Reykjavik during your visit? Need a break from blustering artic winds? Well first, don’t fret – the weather can change in just an hour (or as Icelanders say, wait 15 minutes). I definitely found this to be true – it could be raining sideways or overcast and foggy or snowing, and an hour drive later between the airport or Reykjavik, or towards the Golden Circle, or the waterfalls in South Iceland, and it was clear and then the sun even came out! But let’s say you want something to do in Reykjavik while you wait out the weather. Here are some rainy day Reykjavik recommendations of things to do indoors.
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Perlan Wonders of Iceland
It’s hard to miss the sight of Perlan, with it’s illuminated glass dome atop six water tanks (five of the water tanks are still in use) sitting on Öskjuhlíð hill. Perlan is a nature museum and also includes a restaurant and a 360° observation deck, though you can also walk around the restaurant and see views from the inside. The observation deck has its own entry cost, but if you purchase admission to the museum then the observation deck is included. So if it’s a clear nice day, you may want to visit Perlan just to check out the view even without enjoying the museum. From the Perlan Observation floor, you will have views over the black and white slopes of volcanic rock and ice of Mount Esja overlooking the waters of Faxaflói Bay, and the colorful rooftops of Reykjavík punctuated by the steeple tower of Hallgrímskirkja, the highest point of Reykjavik. Here’s a sampler of what you might see from the observation deck and the restaurant.
That said, spending 2 hours at Perlan also can be pretty fun. They have some well designed interactive exhibits that can help provide more color to what you may see in real life when you visit the locations in Iceland. For instance, you maybe will visit some black sand beaches and spot many sea birds flying or nesting on the cliffs and sea stacks. You can get a closeup of what may be happening with these bird friends (puffins and more) with Perlan’s version of Látrabjarg Cliff without the drive to Iceland’s Westfjords and you won’t even need binoculars.
Perlan’s version recreates the Látrabjarg cliff but without pesky wind and rain or hike to get closer. You can go up to interactive viewfinders and move them around to different points and get a little clip of what is happening, varying from the nest inside with a chick or the prowling of an artic fox or other natural interactions.
If you or you have people in your party who are unlikely to take part in a real ice cave visit, Perlan has a manmade ice cave to give you a taste of the colors. The cave is a 100 meter ice tunnel that uses 350 tons of genuine Icelandic mountain snow from Bláfjöll, and is kept at -15 ° C (5 ° F). The ice cave has glacier mice (Jöklamýs), moulins, a crystal cave section, and a piece sadly of Okjökull Glacier (nicknamed Ok glacier), Iceland’s first glacier that lost its status and was declared dead – a harbinger of what is to come for the rest of Iceland’s glacier in the next 200 years. 
The experience of going through the ice cave is complemented by interactive exhibitions afterwards that provide more information about glaciers, varying from how they are formed, the story of flora and fauna or people or geology in connection with them, and more. One part of the exhibit is interactive where at different themed stops, you can point to navigate to learn more about a subject. I thought this gave us a lot of appreciation for when we did go out on our glacier hike and ice cave tour later during our trip.
There are other great exhibits as well- some on geothermal energy and volcanic nature of Iceland, on the ocean and underwater life, about Iceland’s fresh water and it’s importance to life varying from weather to microorganisms to landscape the ecosystem guided by the exhibit mascot water tiger, a show in the planetarium called Áróra takes you on a journey about the stories and space views and information about the northern lights. Many exhibits use technology to be interactive with touch screens. There’s also an ice cream shop inside!
Overall, including stopping for a coffee and snack portion in the restaurant, we spent about 2 hours here. The museum has free parking and usually a shuttle bus though it was not running during our visit. At 4490ISK for adults this is a more expensive museum (about $35 per person), though it does include the observation deck view. I will note we heard the observation deck views are better then the Hallgrimskirkja church tower view which costs 1000ISK, and so we didn’t do the elevator.
Aurora Reykjavik: The Northern Lights Center
Whether you are visiting during Northern Lights hunting season (generally September – March) or during the time of the summer and their midnight sun, you might want to learn about the phenomenon known as the aurora borealis since Iceland is one of the locations in the world that they often appear. A visit to the Aurora Reykjavik Northern Lights Center is short but very educational and well done.
The illustrated signs here are well designed and super informative in laying out the foundation to understanding the northern lights from a science perspective. The signs are diverse in educational context, varying from what causes the northern lights, to what is happening when they appear to make them look as they do to you, as well as a practical perspective. One section provides guidance on what to set camera settings in order to capture the northern lights, and has a practice area – or you can talk to the staff to get more assistance or even rent cameras. There’s also a northern lights photo booth.
They have one viewing room that is almost a little too comfortable that includes rugs on the floor and chairs among “trees” to watch a show of various appearances of northern lights captured scenic locations from all over Iceland. It is incredibly relaxing to just watch the continuously running 25 minute HD show as a Plan B in case you are not fortunate enough to see it with your own eyes. I bought the DVD to watch at home myself, as well as a book that has versions of the informative signs making up the museum.
At the end of the small museum, besides the gift shop that includes a lot of local Icelandic artists not generic made in China trinkets, there are VR headsets, free coffee and hot chocolate. If you’d like you can talk to them to book northern lights tours where the tour companies do the driving to the best locations they know. Some of the tours have admission to this museum included for free as part of their package – check the museum website to see which ones those are.
Overall I think we spent about an hour here in the small but well done little museum created by northern lights enthusiasts. The museum has free parking and is located in the Grandi harbour district. The museum cost is 2000ISK or about $15.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
For another small museum that is truly unique, there is the The Icelandic Phallological Museum. The Icelandic Phallological Museum houses the world’s largest display of penises and penile parts – I think I saw it was ~282 specimens from 93 different species of animals, ranging from the largest to the smallest that needs as magnifying glass. The collection includes some from homo sapiens as well as from “folklore”. It’s a mixture of science and entertainment.
The unusual collection all started when in 1974, when Icelandic secondary school headmaster named Sigurður Hjartarson was given a dried bull’s penis at a holiday part as a joke gift. Then other teachers starting bringing him gifts, and some of them worked in nearby whaling stations so began the expansion to whale penises (probably contributing to what is now the museum’s collection of 56 penises from 17 different types of whales including a 5 foot whale penis). Then it expanded into mammalian species. And now look what’s happened… The museum has now moved towards the Harbor District area and is currently run by the founder’s son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson. 
The museum is small, but don’t miss out on the fact that there is also a café where you can order beverages (note if it could use a straw or is a hot drink with foam, expect something phallic to accessorize it), and sweet or savory penis waffles. You can enjoy the café even without museum admission and see some of what are penis-related objects or “phallobilia” outside the museum turnstile. You can get a lot of details that helps provide a feel of the mix of nature and humor in the collection from the Wikipedia article on the museum.
Overall we spent a little over an hour here including enjoying drinks and waffles. The museum is in easy walking distance from Harpa or Laugavegur or the Grandi harbour district. The cost of museum admission is 2500ISK per person, or about $20.
Whales of Iceland
The Whales of Iceland is sometimes included or discounted as part of some whale watching tours, or could be a good Plan B if you are visiting when it is not whale watching season. It’s also a good way to learn about whales before a whale watching trip too. The exhibit here is the world’s largest whale exhibition and includes 23 life-size models of whales, so even if you spot them in the water, it’s a different experience being able to come right up to them here in the museum.
Usually I’ve seen whales hoisted pretty high up towards the ceiling in exhibits, or they tend to be whale bones, so I was interested to see them closer. Here they are suspended relatively low to the ground so you can compare yourself to them and see details of them at the 1:1 scale and careful design by marine biologists to be represented in a realistic way. In fact each whale is modeled after an actual whale and includes personal markings and characteristics. The only exception to scale is the blue whale – which was made smaller by 5 meters to fit inside. Tablets on stands accompany each model that provide information and also inform the scale compared to a person. A headset with audio tour is included as part of admission as well as free tea and coffee.
Throughout the museum you can hear the echoing calls of whales, and the colors of the lighting makes you feel like you are underwater with the whales. Overall we spent about an hour here that included watching the conservation film in one of the rooms – the content may go over the heads of kids but there are whale cushions they can lie on to watch. Usually the museum offers a VR experience or guided tours but that was not available because of COVID-19. The museum offers free parking and is in the Grandi harbour district. The cost of museum admission is 2900ISK per person, or about $22. 
Hopefully these rainy day Reykjavik recommendations give you some ideas for your trip. There are other recommendations we did not try ourselves – we heard several locals suggest Flyover Iceland which is a ride combined with screens to “fly” you through different environments in Iceland for 4990ISK (about $39) per person. We also heard good things about the Saga Museum which covers Iceland’s viking history and includes recreations using wax figures for 2500ISK ($20). 
This is the second of a series of travel posts about our week long trip to Iceland in October 2021 – stay tuned for more information next week on what we saw on the famous Golden Circle.
Other Iceland Posts
- Early Morning Things To Dofor when you arrive early in the morning or are jet-lagged and up early
- Rainy Day Reykjavik Recommendations for when you want indoor options for things to do
- Golden Circle Highlights, including one stop that may not be quite as famous but is well worth it
- South Iceland Highlights Part 1: Waterfalls and Black Sand Beach
- South Iceland Highlights Part 2: Glaciers and Diamond Beach
- South Iceland Highlights Part 3: Glacier Hike and Ice Cave
- Reykjavik Vibes
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