Hot Spring & Pool Etiquette in Iceland

The one rule that surprises everyone

Iceland runs on geothermal water, and bathing is a national habit — a swimming pool in almost every town, a handful of famous geothermal lagoons, and hundreds of natural hot springs scattered across the country. What trips up almost every first-time visitor is the same thing: at any public pool or lagoon, you are expected to shower naked, without a swimsuit, before you get in.

It is not a suggestion and it is not prudishness in reverse — it is hygiene. Icelandic pools use very little chlorine compared with pools elsewhere, so the shared water stays clean only because everyone rinses thoroughly first. The rule is posted on the changing-room walls, usually with a helpful diagram of the bits to scrub, and an attendant may remind you. Once you have done it once, it stops feeling like a big deal. The rest of this guide is the full etiquette, sorted by the kind of place you are actually going.

The swimming-pool ritual, step by step

A public pool (a sundlaug) is the most common bathe and the one with the firmest etiquette. Here is the exact sequence, so nothing catches you out at the door.

Wild springs play by looser rules — and more responsibility

A natural hot spring is the opposite of a pool: no reception, no attendant, usually no shower, and often no toilet. The naked-shower rule simply cannot apply — there is nowhere to do it. In its place comes a different, unwritten code, and because nobody is enforcing it, it matters more. Wild bathing stays good only if every visitor treads lightly.

Change discreetly in the changing hut if there is one, or behind your car if there is not. Swimwear is the norm at wild springs, since there are no single-sex changing rooms to be naked in — so bring your suit on under your clothes. If there is a tap, rinse off sunscreen and creams before you get in; if there is not, that is all the more reason to keep lotions out of the water in the first place. And take every scrap of rubbish back out with you — there are no bins.

The two flagship free soaks show the range. Reykjadalur is a warm river above Hveragerði, reached on a roughly 45-minute uphill walk from the car park, with basic changing shelters at the bathing stretch. Landmannalaugar is the classic Highlands soak, free but sitting at the end of summer-only F-roads that legally need a 4WD. Our free hot springs guide has the full list, and the Reykjadalur hike guide covers that walk in detail.

The lagoons: the booked, comfortable version

The commercial geothermal lagoons — Blue Lagoon, Sky Lagoon, Mývatn Nature Baths and the rest — are the polished middle ground: spa-grade changing rooms, showers, towel and robe hire, a café and a bar in the water. The naked-shower rule still applies, but you can usually do it in a private cubicle if the communal shower is not your thing.

The one thing to plan for is booking. The popular lagoons run on timed entry and sell out in summer, so reserve a slot before you build your day around one. Public town pools are the opposite — no booking, just turn up and pay — which makes them the cheaper, more local soak if a lagoon is full or out of budget.

A last practical note: you need a car to reach almost all of these. Town pools aside, the lagoons and every wild spring sit outside Reykjavík, and the best free soaks are down gravel tracks or Highlands F-roads. A rental car — with a 4WD for the interior — is what turns a list of springs into a trip.