Hotel Holt, Reykjavik

Hotel Holt, Reykjavik A historic 4-star hotel in the heart of Reykjavik Iceland - where the Art has its home.

Hotel Holt is a 42 room, 4 star hotel in a quiet but central residential street in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. We believe the hotel you choose for your trip to Iceland should be part of your experience and not just a place to sleep. Our staff make sure you get the most out of your visit with their expert advise.

Jóhannes S. Kjarval is the most represented artist in the Hotel Holt collection. Þorvaldur Guðmundsson began visiting hi...
29/05/2026

Jóhannes S. Kjarval is the most represented artist in the Hotel Holt collection. Þorvaldur Guðmundsson began visiting his studio on Austurstræti long before he was in a position to collect anything. He went because he wanted to be near the work. Most of the drawings have no titles. Kjarval saw no need for them. They stand on their own, nameless, and have been doing so in these corridors and rooms since 1965. Swipe through a few of them here. See which one holds your attention.

The Hotel Holt collection holds over 460 works spanning the breadth of 20th-century Icelandic art. Kjarval remains at its heart. The collection is accessible to all guests throughout the hotel.

The city is getting ready. The Reykjavík Arts Festival opens on Friday, and for the next two weeks Reykjavík becomes som...
27/05/2026

The city is getting ready. The Reykjavík Arts Festival opens on Friday, and for the next two weeks Reykjavík becomes something a little more than itself. Björk's exhibition opens at the National Gallery. Hildur Guðnadóttir is in residence. Mahler's Eighth Symphony will be performed in Iceland for the first time. We are a short walk from all of it.

Before Þorvaldur Guðmundsson was a collector, he was a young sales clerk on Laugavegur. On his lunch breaks, he would wa...
20/05/2026

Before Þorvaldur Guðmundsson was a collector, he was a young sales clerk on Laugavegur. On his lunch breaks, he would walk over to Kjarval's studio on Austurstræti. Not to buy anything. Just to be near the work, and near the man who made it. That habit stayed with him for the rest of his life. The boutique hotel he built in 1965 on Bergstaðastræti became, among other things, the permanent record of it. Today the Hotel Holt collection holds more works by Kjarval than by any other artist.
If you have stayed with us, which work stayed with you?

Hotel Holt houses Iceland's largest private art collection, assembled by Þorvaldur Guðmundsson and his wife Ingibjörg over a lifetime. Kjarval is the most represented artist in the collection.

The bar has been here since the 70s. It has not tried to become something else. The walls are covered in drawings by Kja...
23/04/2026

The bar has been here since the 70s. It has not tried to become something else. The walls are covered in drawings by Kjarval - sketches and studies he made across a long life. He described this kind of work as a mirror of the soul. They are not framed like museum pieces. They are simply here, as they have always been. On jazz nights the room fills slowly. There is no reservation needed. Come when you are ready.

Jazz nights at Hotel Holt Bar are ongoing. No reservation needed. The bar is open to hotel guests and to anyone in Reykjavík who finds their way here.

Ásgrímur Jónsson is considered the first Icelandic painter to dedicate his professional life entirely to art. He spent y...
20/04/2026

Ásgrímur Jónsson is considered the first Icelandic painter to dedicate his professional life entirely to art. He spent years travelling Iceland, painting what he found. This is Hvítárvatn and Langjökull, painted in 1921. It has been in the dining hall since Hotel Holt opened. He was, for a short time, Kjarval's mentor. Ásgrímur Jónsson studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen before returning to Iceland to paint its landscapes. This work from 1921 is part of the collection of 460 pieces housed at Hotel Holt - one of the largest private art collections in Iceland.

The northern lights do not end on a fixed date. The nights simply get shorter, the sky gets lighter, and one evening you...
16/04/2026

The northern lights do not end on a fixed date. The nights simply get shorter, the sky gets lighter, and one evening you notice the darkness is no longer deep enough. That evening is coming.

The northern lights season runs roughly September through April. If autumn in Iceland is on your list, the window opens again from September. Hotel Holt has been welcoming guests through every season since 1965.

15/04/2026

Something a little different is coming to Hotel Holt this 💗
Book yourself a nap under an eiderdown duvet from Erindrekar in one of our suites - a truly Icelandic moment of rest and design. 🤍
Registration opens April 20.

The summer flights have not started yet. The city is still calm and the light is doing something particular right now. L...
10/04/2026

The summer flights have not started yet. The city is still calm and the light is doing something particular right now. Long and horizontal, arriving from a low angle, turning ordinary surfaces into something worth looking at. The cafes are full of locals. This is the city we have been part of since 1965. We think April is one of the best times to see it.

In 1962, Þorvaldur Guðmundsson commissioned a painting for the wall of the hotel he was about to open. He asked Jón Engi...
08/04/2026

In 1962, Þorvaldur Guðmundsson commissioned a painting for the wall of the hotel he was about to open. He asked Jón Engilberts to paint Iceland itself.
What Engilberts made was not a landscape. It was a force. Wind, snow, fire, ice and sea, with the shape of Iceland barely visible beneath it all.

Hotel Holt houses 460 works from Iceland's largest private art collection. This is one of the first things guests see when they arrive.

Sixty years of good company over Easter weekends.This one is no different.
31/03/2026

Sixty years of good company over Easter weekends.
This one is no different.

Some hotels are built around a location. Hotel Holt was built around a belief, that a hotel should feel like a home fill...
18/03/2026

Some hotels are built around a location. Hotel Holt was built around a belief, that a hotel should feel like a home filled with things worth loving.
Sixty years later, Iceland's largest private art collection still hangs on these walls. Not as decoration. As the reason we exist. Which of these five would you most want to discover?

Address

Bergstaðastræti 37
Reykjavík
101

Telephone

+3545525700

Website

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