"Gorgeous art-deco rooms, friendly and accommodating staff and centrally located.
The beds were comfortable. We got king sized beds, and unlike many of the of the places we stayed in Iceland, the mattress was a single continuous piece--not two mattresses shoved together. And they provided an empty mini-fridge to stow your own drinks or food.
Both me and my cousin's room had balconies that overlooked the square below. I don't think that's the case for every room though--we got standard room rooms, but with king sized beds. I'm not sure if it was luck, if they only come in king sized rooms, or both. Either way, it was very cool.
Oh, and wifi was free and didn't require that you go through a portal and create an account, as many hotels do.
Some things you should know:
- The hotel offers no parking, even at an extra fee. You'll have to find parking elsewhere, but the front desk will be happy to advise you on the best places nearby to suit your needs (plus explain the confusing parking laws/types in Reykjavik). We ended up parking in a garage a few blocks away, though we were able to load/unload in on the street next to the front door.
- There are no shower doors. This is extremely common in Iceland for some reason, so I wouldn't make it a factor in choosing where to stay. But it does make for wet and slippery floors.
- There is no door between the toilet and the rest of the bathroom, which could be awkward for people sharing a room, unless you're comfortable with that sort of thing.
- The bathroom has no ventilation, built in fan, or even a window you can open. They do provide a basic desktop fan (round, oscillating), but there was no surface in the bathroom to put it on. I put it on a chair pointed at the bathroom.
- My cousin's room had a slanted ceiling right next to the bed. It looked really cool, but he kept bumping his head on it. That was not the case in my room though--his was a corner room. So it might be rare.
- It is the most confusing and annoying area I've ever driven in in Reykjavik. My car GPS kept telling me to turn the wrong way down one-way streets, and several of the more accessable and straight, normal streets were blocked off for construction--though, I admit, those issues may be temporary. Even so, the streets in the immediate area were confusing, one-way, or cramped/crowded. So if you made a mistake, you usually couldn't easily make a u-turn (illegal in Iceland unless otherwise specified), or twisty so you couldn't predict where you might end up. Usually you would have to go quite a long way to loop around to get back to the hotel. This was the last hotel I stayed in after a month driving all over Iceland (not just the ring road), and I've driven in Reykjavik in particular (even central/crowded areas) several times. So when I say this area is confusing and annoying to drive in, it's not a matter of an American unfamiliar driving in Iceland.
Some things they could do better:
- The closet, nightstands, and bathroom vanity had no drawers or shelves, and in the case of the bathroom, no medicine cabinet. The surface of the vanity itself (at least in my room) was also very small. This made it extremely awkward to access with my toiletries. I basically had to lay out my toiletry bag on the toilet and get things out one or two at a time.
- Another thing that is common in Iceland--insufficient bath mats. They did provide a single towel-style bath mat, but it was needed to sop up the water spilled from the shower with no doors. This left me with wet feet, and I was constantly in fear of slipping on the tile and (if memory serves,) hardwood floors. I suppose I could have called to request another one, but I didn't think of it at the time.
- No easy access to convenient night stand outlets, let alone convenient built in USB plugs to charge your devices. (Though there was one free outlet at the bottom of the wall behind the night stand, so it could have been worse.) Same thing in the bathroom. There was a single outlet, which I used for the fan. I had to plug in the hair dryer and dry my hair in the bedroom.
- If you want an American style breakfast with bacon and eggs, you'll likely be disappointed. I've encountered this in most hotels in Iceland--they just don't seem to get that concept, though some hotels do better than others. I didn't have any myself, but my cousin said the scrambled eggs looked weird or suspect and I don't think they offered bacon or hash browns. He ended up having something like juice and cereal.
- The blankets/comforters were two separate twin sized pieces. This is yet another thing common in Iceland, and some people like it. Even so, I found them too small, and I'm short. It was just big enough to cover my body, but if it got moved even in the slightest while sleeping, I got woken up with cold feet.
Even with all of those caveats, the Borg is a wonderful luxury/splurge hotel. I've stayed there multiple times, so clearly I love it."
