Today starts my influx of Iceland posts and I have to tell you, I'm not sorry at all. Plus I think we could all use a little bit of traveling vicariously while we're cooped up in our homes, although I personally am dreaming of warmer places!
I started off my trip on March 8th, taking an 8-hour overnight bus trip to NYC, on which I slept off and on for maybe a total of 2 hours, then spent around 7 hours trudging around the city carrying my heavy luggage while I explored. Surely that meant I would sleep well on the plane right? Nope! The lady next to me decided to read for most of the 5 hour overnight flight with the overhead light on and then had the audacity to complain about how tired she was when we were about to land. Gee lady, me too. I think I managed to at least get an hour or so of sleep though, off-and-on. Thankfully the excitement had set in when we stepped out of the airport and saw the beautiful morning sky awaiting us, all my sleep deprivation went away. We loaded onto the Fly bus and had an hour drive to our hotel, but I was awake and ready to explore!
We arrived at Hotel Cabin, checked in with the terse receptionist, and dropped our bags off since it was too early to go up to the room yet. Because we booked a tour, they took care of accommodations for us and we didn't know what to expect. The location of this hotel is marvelous as soon as you walk out the doors you have a view of this mountain and the sea, granted it has a highway and some buildings in the way, but as our first taste of Iceland, it was great. We could take a very short walk across the road and we had an unobstructed view of nature with a bustling city behind us. After galavanting around Reykjavik for a bit, exploring the city with the Hop on Hop off bus and stopping at some cafes, we were ready to lie down and sleep, or at least shower before dinner. As we're walking down the hallway to our rooms, we had two separate rooms with two people in each, I noticed that the doors for the rooms were ridiculously close to each other and I started to dread the space behind them.
Sure enough, the room was the size of a walk-in closet. The two twin beds were pushed together to make one bed and there was little room to move around or put our things. It was okay though because we're literally just spending a few hours in here to sleep, but when I put my tired head on that horrible excuse for a pillow I was just so sad. It was so thin. Lara compared it to getting a bag of potato chips that's only half full, it looks promising until you realize there's not much there! As a pillow lover I was cranky about it (I'm sure the lack of sleep didn't help) but Lara seemed unfazed. The beds were surprisingly comfortable though and the space was well designed for what it was. That shower the first night was awful too, once we figured out how to use it. It felt a bit like a coffin when I could actually get the doors closed, hardly any room to move around. It made me glad I decided to shave before coming to Iceland- I did not want to enter the Blue Lagoon the next day with hairy legs!
I have to say that we came back to this hotel for our last night of the tour, since we were back in Reykjavik (we stayed at Arhus in Hella the two nights in between our Hotel Cabin stays and will be featured in next week's Sunday Suites), and it was a much better visit. This time I knew what to expect instead of being surprised while tired and sore, the shower in this room worked a heck of a lot better, and this time we had a view of that mountain from our room! Last time we were facing a bus washing station, which was not nearly as pretty! For reference, I didn't take any photos in the hotel for some reason, but we had the standard twin room. The receptionist on duty was also ridiculously friendly and happy both that night and the one the next morning, she even opened the gift shop for me even though they weren't open on Saturdays! Which was so sweet and very appreciated. While many of the gift shops we visited all over Iceland carried many of the same products, there was a lack of drinking glasses, which my mom collects, but an abundance of mugs and shot glasses. Also, while there was a ton of different options for patches at every store we ventured into, only this gift shop had this one design that I really wanted. This shop had both, but I hadn't wanted to buy them the first night because you never know what you're going to find out and about and I didn't want the glass to break while shuffling from hotel to hotel. I had no idea they'd be closed on a Saturday! So thank you to the receptionist in Hotel Cabin that went above and beyond for me, my mom loved the glass, and that patch is proudly displayed in the growing collection on my backpack!
If you are more of a comfort traveler who enjoys spacious and/or luxurious places to stay while on the road, I would not recommend Hotel Cabin for that style of travel. However, if you basically just need a room to set up camp in and will only be there to sleep...and you don't mind being very close to the person you're traveling with, I can say that you will enjoy this hotel. The location to shops, restaurants, the hop on hop off bus (which is handy for sightseeing), a nice little scenic place to sit on a bench and enjoy nature, the best hot dog I've ever had (its in the gas station across the street, weird right?), is fantastic and the Flybus comes right to the hotel for airport transfer which is a bonus. Hotel Cabin also has free wi-fi and a tasty buffet breakfast which came included in our stay, and looks like you have the choice to opt in or out of breakfast when you make the reservation (this of course effects the price). There are, of course, other room options as well that offer more space and amenities, which might be better for a longer stay, but those options were not included in the price of our tour.
Had I looked into the hotel before arriving, I don't think I would have been as negative in the beginning. Now knowing that it is a budget hotel and that it has the amenities that it does for the price that it costs, I feel I was a little too hard on the place when I first arrived. And its weird, I always, always look into stuff like this before I go anywhere and this time I didn't feel the need to. But I think I also didn't anticipate just how tired I would be when we were finally able to get into the room. With that being said, if you're not a person who likes surprises, look up information ahead of time as much as possible!!
If this sounds like a hotel you'd be interested in staying in for your visit to Reykjavik, visit their website for more information and to make a booking!!
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