Visitors coming to Akureyri during Christmas and New Year can enjoy the cultural festive celebrations of the holidays along with colourful Christmas lights & decorations. New Year´s Eve is greatly celebrated in Iceland and you can attend an enormous town bonfire and watch a fantastic firework display that lights up the night sky above the town. Every year the atmosphere is amazing. For Event Calender click here.
Hotel Kea and Icelandair Hotel offer accommodation and restaurant service during the holidays and many smaller guesthouses and apartments offer accommodation with self-catering facilities. Note that the hotel restaurants must be pre booked for dinner over Christmas and New Year´s Eve.
Opening hours in other restaurants, shops etc. varies during the holidays, most close around noon on 24December and reopen on the 26 December the same applies to New Year´s Eve. For further details - see the overview for Christmas and New Year.
The largest ski area in Iceland Hlíðarfjall ( www.hlidarfjall.is/en ) is open during most of the winter holidays and most of the tour operators in town offer various tours during the holidays.
For information on available activities and opening hours on general basis during the winter season.
How to get there:
Icelandair (www.icelandair.com) has flights to Keflavik Airport in south Iceland from many European and North American destinations. These flights can easily be combined with a domestic flight from the domestic airport in Reykjavik to Akureyri. The domestic flights take about 45 minutes and are offered several times a day (www.icelandair.com). It is also possible drive between Reykjavík and Akureyri a distance of approx 400 km along the main road no 1. Scheduled busses run daily www.straeto.is and the bus ride takes about 6-7 hours. By private car the drive takes about 5 hrs.
Related to the Christmas also visit The Christmas Cat at Ráðhústorg Square.