Are you looking to visit Seljavallalaug pool in Iceland? You may have seen photos of Seljavallalaug pool around Instagram or the web, as it is a swimming pool hidden away in the mountains of south Iceland. Seljavallalaug swimming pool is one of the sites on the south coast that many people miss when rushing to visit popular sites such as Skogafoss Waterfall. Make sure to bring your own towel [add one to your Iceland packing list!] and maybe even a pair of flip-flops for changing.
While Seljavallalaug hot spring may look magical, it isn’t without its problems and we want you to know what you are getting into upfront so you can make the choice to go or skip it in lieu of doing something else on your Iceland itinerary.
If you are driving in Iceland, you are going to want to make this one of your stops around the Ring Road! But before you do, we want you to know the truth about this beautiful yet dirty pool ruined by tourists!
5 Things To Know Before Visiting Seljavallalaug Pool In Iceland
Seljavallalaug Pool Is The Oldest Swimming Pool In Iceland
Seljavallalaug swimming pool is the oldest pool in Iceland [despite what some people say, it is NOT the secret lagoon!]. Seljavallalaug pool was built in 1923 by a local man and the purpose was to teach the Icelandic people how to swim! Now, Icelanders must know how to swim before they can graduate school [how cool is that?] but back in the 1920’s this wasn’t a law and Seljavallalaug swimming pool was born!
It was created at the foot of a mountain in south Iceland and is fed naturally by hot water [as are most pools in Iceland!] When you visit Seljavallalaug pool, it is like stepping back in time and you can just imagine people in the 1920’s learning to swim tucked among the mountains!
The Hike To Seljavallalaug Pool Takes About 20 Minutes Each Way
In order to reach Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool, you have to take a short but easy hike. Once you park your car at the Seljavallalaug parking lot, gather your things and prepare for a hike into the mountains. When we visited Seljavallalaug Pool, there were tons of other visitors there too so the walk was easy to follow, even though it is unmarked. The distance is around 2 miles round trip 1.8K each way, and takes around 20 minutes each way, depending on how fast you are. The hike to Seljavallalaug Pool is flat the whole time, but it goes along a very rocky river bed so you have to walk slower so as not to twist your ankle.
If there aren’t a lot of people hiking to Seljavallalaug pool when you visit, don’t worry! Simply park your car in the parking lot and follow the dry river bed/valley back into the mountains, opposite the road from where you came. You will hop over a river or two and then you will have arrived! Don’t get discouraged as you won’t see Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool until you are at the very end of the walk. Once you hop over the little river, you will know that you are close! Either way, the hike is very easy and the views are very pretty along the way!
The Seljavallalaug Changing Rooms Are Absolutely Disgusting
Before we visited Seljavallalaug Pool, we had seen nothing but pretty photos and fun things. That is NOT the case. After you hike for 20 minutes you are going to have to change. Even if you wore your swimsuit under your clothing, you are going to have to take your clothes off and put it somewhere. The changing rooms at Seljavallalaug Pool are absolutely disgusting like you have never seen before. There are piles of old rotting wet clothing that people left behind. Piles of garbage. Mud caked on every possible piece of the floor. It is impossible to find a dry and safe spot to even put your clothes. The place is in shambles and is just terrible. The changing facility is also co-ed with no rhyme of reason so you will be getting naked next to the opposite sex unless you shut the door and hope no one opens it.
Why is the Seljavallalaug changing room an atrocious mess? Because of TOURISTS plain and simple. Tourists have ruined the oldest swimming pool in Iceland for local Icelanders by being dirty and gross. The changing rooms are now only cleaned once per year and it shows. Back before the tourism boom, local people would come together to maintain the place Seljavallalaug pool but now that doesn’t happen anymore and really, what is the point when tourists will go destroy their hard work. This is a damn shame and makes us very angry.
If you visit Seljavallalaug Pool during your time in Iceland, do NOT leave any trash or junk lying around. If a piece of clothing gets wet and you are say, camping, and you have nowhere to dry it, take it anyway and throw it away in a waste bin, don’t leave it to rot in a heap with other items of wet clothing. Take your trash and leave no trace when you visit Seljavallalaug. Go in being prepared that the changing facilities are in worse shape than you could imagine and leave by making them better than when you arrived. Have some respect for Iceland and the local people who used to swim here.
The Water Is Filled With Alge And The Temperature Is Warm At Best
Many people mistakenly call Seljavallalaug Pool a hot springs. Heck, we even included it on our list of best hot springs in Iceland! Seljavallalaug is indeed fed naturally by geothermal hot water, BUT the pool is in no way what one would consider HOT. The temperature of Seljavallalaug is between 20° to 30°C or 68 to 86°F. Think of Seljavallalaug as a heated swimming pool more than a hot tub. This may sound obvious to an Icelander reading this, but we had only ever seen Seljavallalaug called a hot spring so we assumed the water would be hot. We went on a rainy day and were freezing the entire time in the pool. We want you to go in prepared so you know what you are getting into!
As mentioned above, Seljavallalaug Pool is only cleaned once a year and it shows by the quality of the water. The entire bottom of the pool is coated in a 1-2cm thick layer of algae and the water is black with floating clumps of algae. Again, this is NOT Iceland’s fault and we don’t blame the country or locals in any way for not keeping up something that tourists so willingly destroy. We are just reporting the facts plain and simple so you can choose to swim or simply photograph from the outside. The chunks of floating algae got stuck in our swimsuit, bodies, and hair. We made the mistake of putting our heads under water and we do not recommend doing this as there are surely tons of bacteria growing in the water.
There Is No Charge To Swim At Seljavallalaug Pool
It is free to swim at Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool, so you can leave your cash in the car. That being said, maybe if there was a fee people would be more willing to keep the place in better shape. Since there is no cost to swim at Seljavallalaug Pool, we highly recommend bringing a plastic bag for all of your waste especially if you are going to be eating snacks and maybe picking up some trash from others on your way out. Together, we can help make this free hidden gem tucked away in Iceland’s mountains better than when we arrived and help fix it back up for locals to enjoy once again.
Seljavallalaug Pool Map: How To Get To Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool
Seljavallalaug Pool is located on Iceland’s south coast, relatively near Skogafoss Waterfall. It is easy to find if you simply put “Seljavallalaug Parking Lot” in your GPS Google Maps. We have provided you with two maps below as well as a Google Maps link to the exact location coordinates to help you more easily find Seljavallalaug Pool during your trip to Iceland.
When driving along the Ring Road, you will turn onto Road 242 which is marked Raufarfell. The road is right near Þorvaldseyri [Iceland Erupts museum] so make sure to keep an eye out as you may have gone too far/not far enough depending on your direction. Continue driving until you see a sign for Seljavellir. There is a parking lot there but you can also drive a few hundred feet further to another, slightly closer parking lot.
Here are the exact coordinates if you prefer for your GPS: 63.5655° N, 19.6079° W
See Google Maps For Seljavallaug Pool And Parking Lot
We want to present you with honest and straightforward information about what to expect when visiting Seljavallalaug Pool in Iceland so you know what you are getting into. Based on our experience, we would not return to swim as the water is too cold for us Floridians especially when it is so cold out and the place was not kept well.
If you still want to see Seljavallalaug Pool, we recommend taking the hike as it is beautiful and exploring the area and simply taking photos of the oldest pool in Iceland from outside of the water. If you do swim, make sure to leave no trace and take everything you brought when you leave!
Make sure to check out our itineraries for 3 days in Iceland, 4 days in Iceland, and 5 days in Iceland as well as our suggestions on Where To Stay In Iceland!
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Adam Weicht
This is absolutely true article! I was expecting a lot from Seljavallalaug but it didn’t come. I hate the negative reviews of the tourists saying it is waste of time to go there. Absolutely not! It is worthy to go there to see the beautiful pool with amazing nature in the background and it’s also worthy to thing about why is the pool so dirty. It is just because of us. Because of dismissive people. We could already pay huge entrance fee and have beautiful clean overcrowded pool. But it is for free and we didn’t appreciate that so now we have to serve our rights…
Hal
It is beacause of blogs like these with general directions and advertising small communal areas and pools that they get ruined. Thank you for bringing more instagrammers to this delicate local pool.
Brianna
The hike to Seljavallalaug was honestly one of my favorite hikes I did in Iceland. I opted not to go in the water, as there were a good number of people already in it, and I don’t like the slimy feel of algae.
I think the issues with the changing rooms are just a combination of bad tourists, like you mentioned, and just rustic Icelandic facilities. I visited another hot spring site and there weren’t changing rooms at all. Icelanders don’t have the same issues with nudity and changing as some others do.
I think because it’s only 20 minutes hike in, it’s an easy and picturesque spot to visit, even if you don’t swim. I ended up sitting along the river for about 20 minutes, just enjoying the area!
Sven
Bathing in Seljavallalaug is not recommend due to high amount of Bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
There are quite a lot of people that piss or even poop into the water or close by.
There are no showers and toilets.
Timothey
Thank you for this. It’s an excellent heads up as this is on our Summer list – we missed it last time.
Dave
FYI – we visited the pool a couple of days ago, not to swim but just to see the location. The structure of the pool now appears to be badly cracked, and the majority of the water has leaked away, leaving a rather unsightly amount of slime/algae exposed in the ‘shallow’ end, and presumably the deep end wasn’t particularly deep. We didn’t check the temperature as there were a few locals in there, and to be honest we felt like we were invading their privacy. My daughter had a quick look in the changing rooms and they were as they are described in the article.
Such a shame, and terrible if this has been caused by tourists, but that’s what happens I guess when secret places become not-so-secret. I wouldn’t recommend this as a place for tourists to visit any more.
Follow Me Away
Yes! It is def tourists! But still sad! That is annoying to hear it is still like that 🙁
Mads
Had a lovely swim In Seljavallalaug this july, and everything was perfect: Surely, there was a lot of algae, so nobody put their heads under water, but the pool was brimfull of 30°C+ well tempered water, and the men’s locker room was free from garbage, albeit dirty. When we arrived, we were the only ones around, but when we left less than an our later, around ten people was swimming.
J
I had exactly the same experience last week. And it hurts to read that others went there after you and saw the changing rooms clean because, well, they are not anymore, which means people are just super messy and disrespectful. I saw a lot of disrespectful behaviours not only here but all over Iceland (e.g., tourists breaking ice at the diamond beach, crossing the limits of paths in all waterfalls, stepping on the moss … all for the sake of a photo). Iceland is an amazing place on Earth. Its Nature is just out of this world! And it hurts to see people not caring at all. I am sad just thinking how Iceland may be in 5, 10, 20 years if things continue like this… The combination of bad tourists and global warming will destroy it.
Basma Kanawati
Hi,
Would you recommend going even after your experience?
I am going next week and still think it would be very nice to see in person!
many thanks
Basma
B
Does any one knows how deep is?
I would like to go and admire the place with my own eyes, not only in pictures, probably I won´t swim at the pool, I´m just courious.
Follow Me Away
It is waist deep in the shallow end and over your head in the deep end. Possibly 7-8 feet in the deep end and then 3-4 feet at the most shallow!
Thorsteinn Kolbeinsson
Hey!
An Icelander here with some input. I think this pool is one of the coolest places in Iceland by far. One side of the pool is the mountain itself, the location of it is gorgeous and so is the short hike towards it.
Been to this pool probably approx 6-8 times in my life (I live in Reykjavik so it’s not in my immediate neighborhood) and only taken a dip 3 times or so. Back in 2010 after the big eruption in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano the pool completely filled up with ash from the volcano. This is the eruption that halted air traffic throughout Europe for several weeks, wrecking corresponding havoc, haha. At this time, the pool was emptied and lots of people showed up for a community effort to get the pool up and running again. Two excavators were brought in to dig the pool out again and lots of volunteers from both the local area as well as Reykjavik. Among them were a couple of older guys that actually learned how to swim in this pool as kids.
Here’s a video from this, in Icelandic though, but you can see what it looked like here:
https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2011/05/14/mokudu_osku_ur_seljavallalaug/
Some pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/Breytum-Seljavallalaug-%C3%BAr-sandkassa-%C3%AD-sundlaug-141657515904873/photos/a.148796948524263/148796981857593
I visited the pool in the summer of 2011 and took a dip for the first time as the water was pretty fresh and the pool free from the vegetation that normally inhabits it. It was pure bliss. AND, it was before the big tourist boom that started shortly after this.
Oh and BTW, this pool was indeed built in 1923, but the Secret Lagoon, which of course is a newish name for the pool, was actually built in 1891 and I don’t know why you say that it isn’t the oldest pool in Iceland, because that is the common knowledge here. Back in 2014, probably as a response to Iceland getting more tourists coming, the local landowner, a family that has lived there for ages, decided to renovate this old pool, build dressing rooms and fix up the old pool. He gave it the name Secret Lagoon to market it for the tourists, but for Icelanders it was just known as “Gamla laugin” or “The Old Pool”. They started teaching swimming in the pool back in 1909 but stopped in 1947 when a more modern pool was built elsewhere in the town of Flúðir and the swimming lessons were moved to it. From that time and until 2014, I’ve only heard of local people using it for themselves but I lack better knowledge of it.
Þorsteinn
Follow Me Away
Thank you for sharing!!
Chelsea Vaughan
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. The information you included is exactly what I needed to make an informed decision.
Follow Me Away
Of course! It is still a pretty place to visit but swimming? Not so much! Maybe without too much traffic for a whole year, it is better, but the water will still be chilly