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.

Morning at Holt.Breakfast is laid out slowly in the gallery, under the paintings, the way it has been for years. Warm ci...
07/07/2026

Morning at Holt.

Breakfast is laid out slowly in the gallery, under the paintings, the way it has been for years. Warm cinnamon buns, skyr, Icelandic cheeses, and coffee that arrives without you asking twice.

It is an unhurried start to a Reykjavík day. Take a window seat, admire the art and stay a little longer than you meant to.

Served every morning at Hotel Holt, a boutique art hotel in the heart of Reykjavík.

The man who started it all.Hotel Holt opened in 1965, but the story really begins with its founders, Þorvaldur Guðmundss...
01/07/2026

The man who started it all.

Hotel Holt opened in 1965, but the story really begins with its founders, Þorvaldur Guðmundsson and Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir, and their love of Icelandic art. Over decades they assembled one of the most significant private art collections in the country, hanging it not in a vault but on the walls of a working hotel, where guests could live alongside it.

Around 460 of those works still hang throughout Holt today, now in the permanent keeping of the National Gallery of Iceland. You can have breakfast beneath a Kjarval. You can read in a corner next to a Scheving. The art was never meant to be kept behind glass.

Sixty years on, that is still what makes Holt feel like nowhere else in Reykjavík.

When a solo traveller from across the world walks into Hotel Holt and the first thing they write about is the paintings ...
22/06/2026

When a solo traveller from across the world walks into Hotel Holt and the first thing they write about is the paintings and sculptures, we feel Þorvaldur got it right.
The art here was never meant to impress. It was meant to be lived with. Sixty years later, guests are still noticing the difference.
Thank you for this.

At eleven in the evening in June, the sky is still pale gold. The hotel is quiet at that hour - the corridors, the art o...
08/06/2026

At eleven in the evening in June, the sky is still pale gold. The hotel is quiet at that hour - the corridors, the art on the walls, the low hum of the city outside. This is what people mean when they talk about Icelandic summer.


Hotel Holt sits between Tjörnin and Hallgrímskirkja, close to the Parliament, the National Gallery, and the harbour. In ...
01/06/2026

Hotel Holt sits between Tjörnin and Hallgrímskirkja, close to the Parliament, the National Gallery, and the harbour. In June, the Reykjavík Arts Festival fills the city with music and visual art, and Björk's exhibition at the National Gallery runs through September. It is a good moment to be in Reykjavík. And a good place to stay while you are here.

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.

Address

Bergstaðastræti 37
Reykjavík
101

Telephone

+3545525700

Website

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