Hamar Guesthouse — Hotel in Vestmannaeyjabær

I will start with the positives: The "Museum" in the dining area is every bit as interesting and in many ways more informative than the official volcano museum. The location is excellent - walking distance to almost everything - and the neighborhood is friendly. However, we were definitely underwhelmed by our breakfast experience! We booked this hotel in part because it promised breakfast included. On our first morning there we went down at the appointed time only to be told that since only two rooms were occupied the night before, instead of providing breakfast they were sending us to a local bakery. Had we been told about that the previous evening, it might have been a charming opportunity to explore a local spot. But as it was, I had a broken foot and had not dressed for a walk downtown. I had to go back upstairs with my broken foot, change clothes and shoes, and then find the bakery. A hard thing to do when we hadn't even had coffee yet! ||All we had been given was a little note saying we could have breakfast at the bakery. But it was very confusing as to how that worked and there were no clear instructions. We placed our order only to be asked to pay an exorbitant sum. It turns out that we couldn't order whatever we wanted - we could only order one each from some small sandwiches (not the big sandwiches!), one pastry (but only CERTAIN pastries - and not the ones we wanted), and EITHER coffee or orange juice - not both. It was SO frustrating. Normally at hotels with breakfast included you can have both coffee and orange juice, and SOME kind of protein, like yogurt or eggs. Not here - if you couldn't eat gluten, or couldn't eat lots of carbohydrates, you were out of luck (and the sandwiches with eggs were NOT ALLOWED!). The bakery did at least let us get refills on our coffee. ||I would have MUCH preferred it if the hotel had just given us a boxed breakfast, with yogurt, pastry, juice and coffee, and called it a day. Or if they had just given us a voucher for a certain amount of money so we could order what we wanted. To send us out into the cold unexpectedly because it was too much trouble to make breakfast for "only" two rooms, and then not let us order what was suitable for us was kind of insulting. ||The next day apparently their occupancy requirements were such that we were allowed to have breakfast at the property. It still was not a great breakfast, but at least we were able to get some protein to start our day. ||So I would not stay here again. And if you do, I recommend you ask ahead of time whether there really will be breakfast. The other couple who had been sent to the bakery almost missed their ferry because they had planned their morning to grab a quick breakfast downstairs and then go to the ferry. They ended up just paying for their whole breakfast themselves because they were tired of trying to figure out the rules and didn't want to literally...

Deception by omission. This place is 3 stories, so be prepared to carry your luggage up & down as there is no elevator. The website doesn't tell you that. Upon arrival, the keys were laid out on the counter with a bell. There is a coin-operated payphone by the desk also. I use cards & didn't have any krona, the phone was useless. I guess the bell was to get a person. You could ring till the cows came home & no one would respond. After dragging our luggage to the 3rd floor, we found 1 towel in the bathroom. Not one per person, just 1 towel. Each bed also had only 1 pillow. We connected to wifi, but I guess the router wasn't working. I went downstairs again to find someone. After searching hi & low I found a guy who 'kind of works for them'. He called the owners, got authorization to give us 2 towels & relayed the concerns about internet access. They must have remotely reset the router. I turned the TV on, finding it was frozen. The date on BBC was 6 days prior to our arrival. I sent a message to the owner's, the next morning, it was still frozen. 3 stars my butt. Don't waste your money. Stay at Stracta in Hella - a true 3-star hotel and take the ferry...

The Guesthouse is located central in the city. Its just 5 min by car to the fairy, and the post office is like 50 m across the street, parking is no problem, there are places in front of the house and you can also park in the street infront of the house. There was noone at the reception when we arrived, but we found the key together with some info on the counter and could have called the staff if needed. The rooms are tidy and have a comfortable size (the biggest room that we had on our iceland tour so far!). There is TV and free wifi, enough towels and comfy beds. Breakfast was included for us and we found a rich variety of things, including meat, cheese, jam, bread and so on. The freshly made pancakes were superb! In the breakfast room is coffee and tea always available (and sometimes some spare pancakes from the breakfast ;)) l, als well as books. You can find a plan of the island with some restaurant recommendations on the counter in the entrance area. We enjoyed our stay very much....