Hótel Vellir — Hotel in Hafnarfjordur

We were relying on the breakfast as every review read mentioned some cereals, ham, cheese, boiled eggs, and waffles. The waffles are what we were looking for as I have kids and we’re not ones to eat ham and cheese for breakfast. I was told because of the renovations going on that waffles weren’t an option so the breakfast was very limited for my family. A very nice lady working the breakfast one morning brought out a delicious chocolate cake for my kids and I. My eldest loved it. So other than the minor snafu with the breakfast, everything was comfortable. Beds and pillows are soft. Blankets are twin size but warm. Every person working the reception was pleasant and helpful. You have access to the gym, sauna and jacuzzi next door. We used the jacuzzi many times and met some locals in the process and they were lovely. My oldest son appreciated having a gym to keep up on his workout routine.

One morning I was walking by the morning crew cleaning the rooms and they were definitely doing a thorough job. Mopping, wiping down, it told me it was clean here.

The hotel is convenient to the airport and the attractions we visited. You many not get a “view” in every room of the mountains for example, but usually if your coming to explore and need a good place to sleep, this is a great option. There are a few choices close by for food, a grocery store, close to Reykavik. We also visited a local hot pool literally minutes away. I will say that the gps seems to greatly overestimate the time it takes to get to places, sometimes by half in my experience. I may have sped a little here and there, but there’s just not the same traffic as in the US. If it told us an hour we got there in 35 minutes. If it said 25 minutes, we got there in 15. So the hotel is closer to attractions than it may seem.

We may try another hotel for a different experience if we come here again, but this hotel was great for both comfort and fantastic customer service. My family and I...

Great hotel for the price in Iceland. The room and hotel were modern, clean, comfortable and quite large for Europe. The bathroom was also bright and clean, with a good hot shower (and water that does not smell like sulfur, like I encountered many other places in Iceland). Very easy to access right off a main road, but surprisingly quiet even though our room faced that highway. Plenty of free parking, and not a far drive to Reykjavik or to get onto highway 1. There is a sports bar with food in the hotel (open til 9) but it's also only a couple kilometers to the main town center with multiple restaurants open til 9 or 10, and it's walkable via sidewalk if you want a few drinks. Breakfast is good, although not American. You won't find eggs and Sausages and pancakes, but lots of breads and cold cuts and cheese and yogurt. FYI- a few sites mention a hot tub on site, but the hot tub is in the attached gym. If you want to use it, check the hours and make sure to book a room that includes gym access (some don't on the big hotel websites).||Only two real downsides for us. First, this hotel is attached to a gym and next to an MMA studio, and people FLY through the parking lot without looking for walkers. (The outside looks odd being attached to a gym, but once you're inside you wouldn't notice.) Second, we arrived an hour before check-in and learned that even though the room was ready, we had to pay to check in early. I understand paying to have the room cleaned early, but it felt like nickel and diming since it was already ready. We napped in the car in the parking lot instead, but felt...

Honestly I’d say there are only two things that let this place down, location and ice, now let me explain. ||The location is rather remote relatively quiet (considering it’s a 20 minute drive to Reykjavík) with a beautiful view of mountains on one side. But unfortunately because of this, nearly none of the tours/excursion companies drop you off or pick you up, at this hotel. The hotels website lists the few companies that do, but from experience these companies tours were a lot more expensive and the one company that did do a cheaper tour cancelled (due to a us being the only people that booked the tour). |So getting back from tours/excursions was sometimes quite frustrating as we’d have to use the city bus (number 1) to get to BSÍ in central Reykjavik for 8 in order to get picked up for tours/excursions. But this is also where we’d have to get dropped off to get the city bus back. The city bus was around the equivalent of £6.00 for two of us which was quite cheap really. A taxi to do the same journey was the equivalent of £60. |There was a bus stop right behind the hotel which is handy. |Which leads me on to my next point.||The beautifully fresh fallen snow soon turns to slippery ice that isn’t gritted or maintained, so the only path to that bus stop soon became an ice rink. So I just suggest you go careful. ||But other than that perfect really, most of the staff were really friendly and helpful. The included breakfast wasn’t the best thing on the planet, but it is the job. The rooms the comfortable with a soft bed, radiator, tv and neat...