Blue Lagoon in Iceland-worth the money and stop?
 

Our family of four are meeting in Iceland for 10 days at the end of June for a family vacation. We are renting a car and are planning on self driving the west coast of Iceland-Reykjavik,Circle tour,Westman Islands, Vik,etc.
We want to hit the geological spots in those areas but are trying to figure out if scheduling a stop at the Blue Lagoon is really worth it? The price of 40KR a person combined with it being the big tourist attraction stop for all of the tour buses is making me rethink a stop.
Thoughts from those who have gone? Thanks-

Blue Lagoon is good, but for a more authentic stop, go to the Lake Myvatn Nature Baths... same concept, but much smaller... on top of a little mountain overlooking the lake and a volcanic crater.

The night we went, it was a full moon... snowing... and just us and a few locals. It was great.

I shouldn't respond as our hiking guide told us not to go. Major tourist trap. So we went to a pool in town.

and while Blue Lagoon is 40 EURO (not KR), Myvatn is 3500KR (22eu).

OK-if you had 9 1/2 10 days and are planning on a definite two nights on the Westman Islands,where else would you go? I originally had planned on doing the entire island but it seems totally like too much driving for our time there.
astein12-where did you stay at Lake Myvatn?

I would do something like this probably..lots of places online t check out.

http://eldhestar.is

I would love a home exchange in Iceland sometime. Always passing through on Icelandair but never stopping. You can stop over in Iceland without an extra charge, but I always do these long trips and am glad to come home when they are over. When you have been away for 2 months or so, you always pine for your own bed at the end.

We stayed at the Cowshed and would recommend it. Nice cafe, great breakfasts and clean simple (but good sized) rooms.

https://www.vogafjos.net/en/page/accomodations

We did the full loop in 2 weeks (didn't get to the Westman Islands) and I'd think that would be the minimum you'd want to take. Given that you'd have a week, I'd consider a flight to Akureyri and then drive counterclockwise back to Reykjavik (going the Golden Circle as you get back towards the capitol).

There is some great stuff in the south/east (tons of waterfalls, great parks like Skaftafell), so you could choose to that half as well (and then fly back).

Distances aren't huge, but there's a ton to see and lots of stops to get out and hike so don't try to rush it.

In response to your original question I wouldn´t bother with the Blue Lagoon. The pool at Myvatn is just as good, you could go even cheaper and just do one of the many local pools at a cost of 500 ISK (about $3).

As well as the Westman Islands I would consider the Snæfellsness peninsula in the West of Iceland. You could easily spend 3 days checking out the sites there..

http://www.west.is/Home/VisitSnaefellsnes/

AS someone else has said the alternative is to head East from the Westman Islands and check out Skaftafell. Lake Myvatn and the surrounding area is also stunning, but as you are in the Westmans for two days I´m not sure how pratical it is to visit the North without flying, which is expensive..

I went to the Blue Lagoon at the end of a wonderful trip to Iceland in 2010. So what is 40 Euros in the total picture of a lifetime, not much!! I highly doubt its a experience that you are going to look back in 20 years and say "why did I do that" I would think you would be more apt to say "why DIDN'T I do that." When it comes to travel and talking about places you might not ever get back to again, I think the odds say you will regret more things that you didn't do, than the things you did do.

I agree with DARK_MAGIC. I have heard about the Blue Lagoon so much that, were I stopping in Iceland, I would definitely do it and the general tour. I always ask myself, "When am I going to get a chance to do that again?"

I decided to do a an add on stay of 2 nights in Mariehamn in the Aaland Islands instead. I will be finishing up my trip in Stockholm and the islands are roughly halfway between Sweden and Finland in the Baltic (speak a dialect of Swedish but belong to Finland) at the end of my home exchange in Stockholm instead. I didn't want to do an extra stop in Iceland because, after a 9 week trip, I'll be glad to get home at that point.

You can follow the trip on my blog:

http://altecockertravels.weebly.com/

If you move all the way over to the right and click on "more" you will find the blogs for this year's trip. The trip includes Poland-Belarus-Turkey and Stockholm. Except for Belarus everything is a home exchange. Poland (Krakow & Warsaw) are finished. I move on to Brest in Belarus by bus today.

I am already planning next year's trip! Maybe next year I will do an Iceland stopover on the way home! I fly Icelandair a lot to get back and forth to Europe as it is often the best financial deal if you are going to one of the airports they serve. If I need to change airlines, sometimes Icelandair works too. The change in Reykjavik is just so easy. You do not, however, earn air miles unless you belong to their specific program. I never joined because it would take years to get anything and is not worth it unless you fly back and forth more frequently than once a year (and sometimes only one way).

We are back from Iceland and loved it! We spent three days in Reykjavik,3 days down in Vik and three days in the Westman Islands and 1 night outside of the airport.
We ended up going to the Blue Lagoon and are glad that we went despite the rain,sleet and cold weather. (The weather was so bad that day that many flights were cancelled including my kids' flight back to the UK.)
We chose the cheapest entry at 40 Euros and brought our own towels from the hotel as they wanted another 8 Euros for the hotel.There are many packages that include everything from getting a robe/slippers to a private lounge and a meal.
The lagoon was smaller than I thought but we enjoyed it. We were there for over 3 hours and saw many tour bus folks come and go within that period. The lagoon is shallow and very calming.
I would definitely recommend a stop even though we enjoyed several other geothermal pools along the way on our trip which were more for the local folks and alot less expensive!

Delta flies from JFK to Reykjavik from June through early September every year too!