You’ll find Sand Hotel resting snugly off the main drag, just behind the family-run Sandholt Bakery – one of Reykjavik’s oldest and most cherished institutions. Since 1920, four generations of artisan bakers have produced an enticing range of artisan breads, exquisite pastries and show-stopping cakes from this ever-popular downtown store. The bakers at Sandholt combine traditional skills with innovative creativity, and fill the air with the delicious and enticing aroma of freshly baked goods.

Sand Hotel also shares its premises with another noted and historic neighbour: Guðsteinn Eyjólfsson’s Gentlemans’ Store. Having studied dressmaking in Copenhagen, Guðsteinn built an elegant tailoring workshop and store here in 1929, its architecture influenced by the Jugendstil decorative arts movement. For almost a century, this legendary institution has maintained its role in styling the discerning Icelandic gentleman.

A stone slab by the Sand Hotel commemorates the site’s most illustrious historical connection. For it was in a small house here, in 1902, that the acclaimed author and Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness was brought into the world. From this humble beginning, Laxness went on to achieve global fame as the producer of around 70 novels and countless other literary achievements. Without doubt, your stay at Sand Hotel connects you to Iceland’s greatest literary hero.