Reykjavík

Bookstore crawl + whiskey bar

Quiet, bookish, rain-proof. Bobby Fischer's old secondhand shop, then a dram on Laugavegur.

3h$~2,500 ISK per personIndoor friendly
relaxedbookishrainy-day
Adventurous3/10
Creative7/10
Logistics3/10
More about this plan

A Reykjavík date that makes the rain feel like a bonus. Start at Bókin, the cluttered secondhand bookshop on Klapparstígur where Bobby Fischer used to spend his afternoons. Floor-to-ceiling shelves, paperbacks in six languages, the owner's cat. Don't try to organise anything — browse.

Walk up to Mál og Menning on Laugavegur, the big new-release Icelandic bookstore with a café upstairs. Spend twenty minutes on the Icelandic-poetry-in-translation shelf.

End at Dillon Whiskey Bar, a dark wooden room with two hundred bottles and a fireplace. Order two different drams and read each other what you picked up.

The plan, stop by stop

  1. 1

    Bókin secondhand bookshop

    Legendary cluttered used-book shop where Bobby Fischer hung out. Shelves to the ceiling, unpredictable stock, resident cat.

    Klapparstígur 25, 101 Reykjavík45 min
  2. 2

    Mál og Menning

    The main new-release bookstore on Laugavegur. Great translations section, upstairs café for a coffee break.

    Laugavegur 18, 101 Reykjavík45 min
  3. 3

    Drams at Dillon Whiskey Bar

    Wood-panelled whiskey bar with two hundred bottles and a fireplace upstairs. Order two very different pours and compare.

    Laugavegur 30, 101 Reykjavík1h 30m~2,500 ISK