"My husband and I spent 4 nights here while visiting Reykjavik, and chose this location because of its relative proximity to downtown and plenty of free parking for our rental car. Most of the downtown hotels don't have parking or they charge per day. The Hotel Reykjavik Grand hosts conferences and touring groups. We saw people with luggage gathered in the lobby daily, either going or coming with tour organizers and buses pulling up.
The lobby is spacious, and the front desk is well staffed to handle the crowds. Checkin was easy and we were assigned an average sized "double" room on the 10th floor with huge windows and a panoramic view that included the harbor where we could see cruise ships docked.
The room had basic amenities including a small fridge, safe, desk, coffee maker, easy chair, hanging space, drawers and black out curtains. The free wifi worked well. The small bathroom had some counter space, and the very unique shower had a curved glass swinging enclosure that could be moved out of the way when not in use.
The beds (we had 2 twins) were typically European with duvets and 2 pillows each. Overall they were comfortable, although as Westerners, we're not used to the absence of sheets and the duvets tend to slip off during the night. Housekeeping must be requested as it is not automatic.
Despite the hotel sitting next to a major highway, the room was relatively quiet. Perhaps being up so high helped. One of the evenings was quite windy and we could hear the gusts. There's an apartment highrise being constructed next door, but work shut down on weekends and early in the evening.
We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant, ordering fish and chips. Food and plates are served attractively on wooden boards. The fried fish was too greasy for our taste, but the fries were good. We also added daily breakast buffet to our reservation, and enjoyed the wide variety of offerings, cold and hot, with cereals, sweets, fruit, eggs, bacon, oatmeal, smoked salmon, waffles, cheeses, crackers, etc. In the lobby there is a concession area with refrigerated snacks, beverages and sandwiches to purchase. Although we didn't partake, the hotel's lounge had a daily "happy hour".
If ever in Reykfavik again, we would stay at the Hotel Grand, particularly if we had a rental car. If we didn't need parking, however, we'd probably stay closer to downtown so we could walk to restaurants and shopping."
