National Museum of Iceland — Attraction in Reykjavik

The National Museum of Iceland is an exhibition divided into several periods with a large number of exhibits, presentation boards, models and an audiobook in several languages.

For the price of 2,500 Icelandic crowns, we get full access to both floors where the tour takes place. We receive the password to the local Wi-Fi, enter the website by copying the QR code and enjoy full access to the materials prepared by the museum in the following languages: Polish, English, Chinese, German, French, Danish, Spanish, Swedish, Italian. I recommend taking headphones with you, but they are not necessary. There is one more option to choose from - English for children. I haven't listened to it, but I'm guessing there are special materials for younger visitors. I saw interactive rooms, coloring books, crosswords and places for children, so the museum is suitable for the whole family- children included.

The history of the island is presented from the time of the first settlers to modern times. Due to its geographical location, it is not as rich in wars as the rest of Europe, so we can focus on aspects such as geology, faith, trade, social structures or the history of the Icelandic flag. There are over 100 different showcases with props, so there is really a lot to be interested in! The audiobook is prepared for about 2.5 hours. Let's add time to look for suitable positions, a few boards that were not included in the radio play - only in written form, a visit to the souvenir shop and we can safely count on a 3-4 hour visit to this place.

If you had a day with bad weather and spoiled your holiday plans, this is the place you...

There's a ton of great material here, both artifacts and information about them, stretching from the earliest human activity on Iceland to a quick survey of modern times. Unfortunately, it's all contained in a roughly chronological jumble of exhibits that require tacking back and forth across each floor, with little to connect point A to point B. There's no narrative of the history, or clear view (especially when we get to the second floor and post-Reformation Iceland) of what the story of the Icelandic people really means, how it is connected, what the through-lines are.

The result is a lot of data, but little information. Questions of Church and State come up, then vanish, then come up again, then vanish again, with no sense of why or how or what it means to Iceland today. Control from Norway, then Denmark, shows up here and there, and then there's an independence movement, and then Iceland is just kind of independent and has a new flag, but for someone who isn't actually Icelandic, it feels like half the story is missing, with the last 80-odd years turned into a collection of artifacts dug out of people's garages with very little context.

In short, if the permanent exhibit is about "Making a Nation," I really don't understand what Iceland is as a nation today, or why, than I did when I started.

It's a worthwhile place to visit, but it could be much,...

This and Perlan are in my opinion the two best museums in Iceland.

Pro The exhibits are cool, lots of artifacts & facts. The entrance starts off from the earliest times (~800s AD) to the modern times as you go upstairs. The design of the museum itself is like a work of art. For example, there's lights on the floor in the outline of a Viking ship to give you an idea of it's actual size. You can see Scandinavian architecture & interior design influence on the actual museum itself which is pretty cool. There's free lockers downstairs to store your stuff. Clean restrooms. There's a decent cafe there. Free entrance with the city pass

Con For some artifacts, there's no numbers next to it, so you sometimes have to guess what it is based on description panel on the side. There's usually ~5-6 different items in each case, so it can sometimes be difficult to tell. A few of the lights on the artifacts are broken.

Tips Budget for 2 hours for the exhibit For some of the exhibits, you have to pull out a drawer to see the artifact. This was a pretty cool way to save space, but you might miss it if you weren't paying attention. For some of the exhibits, there's a button you have to press to...