Reykjavík Maritime Museum — Attraction in Reykjavik

For a country whose history, economy and society has been largely underpinned by its relationship with the sea, it’s natural that there should be a museum dedicated to its maritime culture.

The Reykjavik Maritime Museum offers a fully rounded review of how Icelanders harvested the sea from one age to the next, with dozens of photographs, artefacts, fishing equipment and machinery carefully displayed alongside gigantic AV screens attempting to portray the awesome scale of the sea and thoughtfully reminding us of the awfulness of the task.

Amongst these are chastening displays of the human cost involved, a litany of disasters at sea illustrated by the images and names of those lost in the grim task of feeding a nation.

The museum offers a two tier ticket - for a little extra, it’s possible to have a 50 minute tour of the recently decommissioning coastguard vessel, the Óðinn.

This offers a fantastic opportunity to recall how Icelanders were able to withstand significant external pressures to protect their main natural resource over a series of “Cod Wars” from the 1950’s into the 1970’s.

As a combination, these two installations are excellent and would definitely reward a couple of hours...

We spent a good bit of time at the Reykjavík Maritime Museum as we thought it was very well put-together with some very interesting exhibits. In some places, the museum curators cleverly incorporated Icelandic sense of humour too which was really appreciated. Overall, the Reykjavík Maritime Museum succeeds at being educational while still enjoyable.

Admittedly, it looks like parts of the museum seem dated compared to other sections but that didn’t bother us much since the more modernised areas made up for it. For instance, there were areas that were in-line with what modern museums should be like in terms of embracing technology to educate made up for it (specifically, the interactive “recipe ideas” section).

There are small lockers to store your personal belongings and a gift shop with a decent selection of souvenirs for sale.

Our visit to Reykjavík Maritime Museum was an enjoyable one and I would personally recommend a visit if...

Best museum in Iceland!

I really loved the range of content here - history, science, culture, business, politics there was something for everyone. The interactive games were interesting and we could have played them for an hour alone. Plus the signage on all the exhibits was very cool, learning all about the pros and cons of different fishing methods and how fishing and the ocean in general have shaped Iceland.

Only downside: the Coast Guard vessel is currently closed for dock repairs (Aug 2022) and it was very hard to get back to the bus terminal from here, our taxi took forever to arrive and walking in the rain wasn't really an option.

You could do this in an hour but if you have two, you can afford to watch more of the videos and testimonials from Icelanders about their experience...