I’ve stayed in a variety of accommodations from Hostels, Airbnb’s to comfortable hotels. The Retreat is on a whole different spectrum. I had never and will probably never again stay in a nicer and more out of budget accommodation than this 5 star hotel.
Location
The Retreat hotel is located directly inside the blue lagoon. There are 2 hotels at the Blue lagoon, Retreat and Silica Hotel. Both hotels are incredible with amazing amenities, service and views!
Arrival
As soon as our car pulled up to the front entrance of the hotel, we were greeted, suitcases were taken from the trunk and valet parked our car. The main entrance is stunning and meticulously well decorated. We were seated and offered a glass of champagne before someone came to describe the amenities at the hotel as well as walk us to our room.
Hotel Room
The room is a modest size with generous portions of the signature Blue Lagoon Shampoo, Conditioner, Shower Gel, Face moisturizer and cleanser!
Inside the room included a bathtub, massive waterfall shower with 5 different functions and lights that dimmed throughout the room, this room was luxury.
Room View
We had selected the room with the blue lagoon view. Although it was just the tail end of the blue lagoon, it was beautiful waking up to see the moss covered lava fields contrasting against the bright blue of the lagoon.
Keep in mind, this portion of the lagoon is extremely cold and I would not recommend dipping your toes in!
Nice touches
- Chocolate from moss restaurant – After our evening at the Retreat Spa, it was nice to return to the room and have chocolates and a hand written note welcoming us to the hotel. The chocolates were made in house at the Moss restaurant and paired perfectly with wine to end the night.
- Straightener – Not many hotels offer a hair straightener. It was a nice gesture as often I forget to bring one!
- Mini fridge – The mini fridge was complimentary and was always full. There was local apple and orange juice, beer, wine, water, coffee, tea and snacks!
- 15% off all Blue Lagoon items – As a resident at the Retreat Spa, you are entitled to 15% off all Blue Lagoon items! This was great as I was able to purchase a couple masks for my family at a discounted rate.
Amenities
- Spa – The Retreat Spa was the most relaxing spa I have been to yet. As soon as you walk in, you are offered flip flops, hair wrap, hair tie if needed and shown around to the multiple saunas, access areas to the private lagoon as well as the public blue lagoon, relax centres and facial spa at the end of the hall. In the spa you will also have unlimited access to the overpriced blue lagoon masks, lotions, scrubs and more! We indulged our skin with constant face, body and foot lotions.
- Facial Spa – the facial spa at the end of the hall is a 45 minute session where they start you off with scrubbing your body with lava salt and your face with mineral salt. After that is rinsed off, you lather your body with the signature silica mud mask. During this time you are offered Icelandic tea (it’s delicious!) and can sit and chat with your partner or friends until the mask is ready to be rinsed off. You will then be directed to the algae mud mask station where you will lather your body and face once again. After you complete the final rinse, the last step to this regime is the body and face oils. We enjoyed this session so much on our first night, we ended up going again in the morning!
- Yoga classes – complimentary yoga classes for those that have the time in the morning for a morning stretch! the yoga room is located on the 2nd floor across from the gym.
- Private Blue Lagoon – All members that stay at the Silica and Retreat hotel have private access to their own blue lagoon as well as the public blue lagoon. Although we enjoyed the public blue lagoon (which is huge!) we also loved the private as there weren’t as many people and we had more of the lagoon to ourselves. As there are no cell phones allowed in the private spa, if you wanted a photo in the lagoon, you would need to ask one of the employees to take it on their phones and then email to you. This is a very common request so don’t hesitate to ask for a photo memorabilia of your time here!
- Complimentary Breakfast – The complimentary breakfast at the Retreat is amazing! The breakfast spread consisted of a huge variety of breads, cheese, yogurts, salmon, juices etc. There was also an al a carte menu that was complimentary and included eggs, sausages, bacon etc. I had THE BEST Eggs Benedict of my life here. If you have the chance to enjoy breakfast at this hotel, do yourself a favour and get the eggs benny!!
Dinning
There are 2 restaurants that you can dine at while staying at the hotel. The Moss restaurant which we were told was fancier and the Lava restaurant which we saw a million and one reviews about. Ultimately we decided to dine at the Lava restaurant due to all the raves about the food here.
There is a tasting menu that offers an appetizer, meal and dessert. We decided to order al a carte instead and got the lobster soup (was highly recommended) and Arctic char as an appetizer. For the mains we order the catch of the day (Ling Fish) and the cod. The lobster soup at Lava was our favourite that we had tried while in Iceland the Cod was so buttery and delicious! The fish are locally sourced from a near by fishing village – Grindavik, so we had to try all the seafood Iceland has to offer! Our friends ordered the lamb and said it was delicious and highly recommended it. If you’re curious on the other soups we tried in Iceland, read about it in my soup post!
For our entire meal (2 appetizers and 2 mains) the cost was roughly ~$110CAD. I would highly recommend trying the food at this restaurant if it is within your budget as we completely enjoyed our meal.
Price
Staying at The Retreat is rather pricey at ~$1700CAD/night. If you’re able to justify splurging I would recommend this or the Silica hotel! Both are great and offer the same amenities. Initially we did not think this stay would be worth the price tag; however, after our visit to the Retreat, we would completely stay here again!
