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Soak in the Blue Lagoon's milky blue water

The steam hits you before the smell does, sulphur and wet rock, and then you're in it: water the colour of a Berocca tablet dissolving, made milky by silica that the volcanic run-off carries up from below. It comes from Svartsengi, the power plant next door near Grindavík, which uses the heat and dumps the leftover water into this old lava field. You wade out holding your drink above your head. Your hair goes stiff with mineral if you don't slick on the conditioner they give you at the counter. Outside the fence, February snow is grey and ordinary. In here it's 38°C and you stop noticing the cold on your ears.

Practical

Cost
$70–120
Best time
Year-round; winter adds snow and steam contrast, sometimes northern lights
Difficulty
Easy
Time it takes
2–3 hours for a typical visit
What people get wrong
People turn up without booking and get turned away or pay far more for a last-minute slot; they also skip the pre-shower conditioner and end up with silica-stiffened hair for days.
With
One other person

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