Efstidalur II

Guests eat dinner beside a window that looks straight into the cow stable. That is the plain fact of Efstidalur II, a farm hotel on land the same family has worked since 1750, now in its seventh generation. Rooms are rustic rather than styled: superior rooms come with a private bathroom and an optional balcony, double and triple rooms suit couples or small groups, and a family room sleeps up to seven with views of three snow-capped volcanoes. Cottages on the farm sleep up to six and add a kitchen, a smart TV, and a private hot tub. A shared hot tub is open to all hotel guests. The restaurant serves beef and dairy raised and grown on site, including grass cut from the farm's own fields, and the coffeehouse sells homemade ice cream made in the on-site dairy kitchen. Horse tours run in summer only, on Icelandic horses bred for the terrain, with routes reaching the waterfall Brúarfoss nearby. Geysir, Gullfoss, and Þingvellir sit within a short drive. There is no public transport to the property, so a car is needed. It is a working farm first, a hotel second — and the two have shared the same address for more than two centuries.