Guesthouse Galtafell — Hotel in Reykjavik

I've been to Iceland many times over the last ten or so years but how I wished I had discovered Galtafell before - so much better than any city hotel , and I've stayed in quite a few! Galtafell is a real home from home. I rented an apartment for myself and my eleven year old granddaughter for four days. It was absolutely the best place for us with great facilities, kitchen and sepatate bedrooms. We were welcomed by JellyBelly the cat before we'd even rung the doorbell and we were greeted further by a lovely dog in the main house. Thorey is a very good host. She took note of some extra requirements I'd asked about in advance and also put us in touch with a very very reliable taxi service which we used a lot. The beds are very comfy and the house and street are very quiet. There's a lovely seven minute walk by the Lake down to one of the main town bus stops and another couple of minutes takes you right into the centre. Galtafell is in an older. part of the city full of beautiful old buildings and is , itself, quite a historic house. I'll be recommending Galtafell to anyone I know going to Iceland and I truly DO wishI'd discovered this...

The Good -| The location is in a restored old house in residential neighborhood within| 1/2 mile of restaurants, stores, museums, the famous| Hallgrímskirkja Church, and a pretty park with lots of waterfowl. We| booked a 1 bedroom apartment which met all our needs. The one thing| that was missing was a refrigerator. Comfortable bed in separate room.|The Bad -| Check in was a bit confusing since we didn't know where to go. I ended| up calling the caretaker and he came out to help us.|The Ugly -| The website says there's free parking on the street in front of the house.| Unfortunately, finding a spot is not easy and you can end up 1-2| blocks away. Frequently, the only openings on the street did not | look like official parking spots. The caretaker told us to park in these| anyway which we did several times. I breathed a sigh of relief when we| didn't find tickets on our windshield each morning. It was not unusual to| have to circle around numerous times before finding anything. Wish we | had known that the parking would be so...

Very nice and clean room. Contactless check-in went well and was easy. Comfortable bed and bathroom. The floor in the bathroom was heated and there was a heated towel rack, which was nice. The room was small with very little space beside the bed. There was a radiator next to the bed. I turned it off in the middle of the night as it was getting too hot. In the morning the room was like a sauna, it was so hot. I guess it was coming from the heated bathroom floor? We had to open the window and door to get some fresh air. The shower is nice, but it sprays water everywhere on the floor and toilet, as the tiny wall between the shower and toilet is not sufficient. The tub is quite big to step into. It would’ve been nice to have a handrail, as I was afraid to slip and fall in the slippery tub. WiFi was extremely fast (150+ mbps) and downtown is just a short walk away. Parking was a bit difficult. We had to circle the block a couple of times and ended up parking on the street behind. All and all we loved our stay and highly recommend this place to stay on your visit...