Grafarvogur, Reykjavík — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Grafarvogur?

Grafarvogslaug is the district's geothermal swimming pool. Its outdoor and indoor basins sit beside water slides and hot tubs. The Egilshöll complex draws families for ice skating and indoor football, with bowling and a cinema under the same roof.

Spöngin gathers the shops and the library, along with the contemporary Grafarvogskirkja church that Guðmundur Jónsson designed. Marked footpaths trace the bay. They pass tidal flats full of birdlife, and on the northern shore the Gufunes estate keeps an open-air sculpture park with works by Hallsteinn Sigurðsson.

The same shore holds Gufuneskirkjugarður, the largest cemetery in the capital area.

What is the history of Grafarvogur?

Farmland once covered these slopes. Until the late twentieth century the land here belonged to the old Gufunes estate, sitting on the quiet far side of the bay from the growing city. House building arrived late, beginning in the late 1980s and carrying on through the following decade, when low-rise neighbourhoods such as Foldir, Rimar, Hamrar, Borgir and Víkur filled the hillsides.

Several stand within the historic estate boundaries. The area went on to become one of the largest residential districts in the country. Gufunes itself was long an industrial site, and it is being reworked for studios and new housing, with public space woven in.

Where is Grafarvogur?

The district wraps around the Grafarvogur inlet, on the eastern edge of the city. Its neighbourhoods climb low hills. From them the view runs north across Kollafjörður towards the bulk of Mount Esja.

Walking and cycling paths trace the shoreline, linking it southward to the Elliðaárvogur bay and on into the wider Reykjavík trail network.