Hotel Ranga

The hotel building looks like a log motel in a cow pasture. Most rooms either have views of the parking lot or fiberglass hot tubs. The dining room has views of the other guests in the fiberglass hot tubs. The place is poorly maintained: worn, ripped upholstery on chairs; peeling rusted radiators; dented scratched walls; broken screens on windows; old dirty tub I bathroom. The staff is nice, but directs all issues to owner. Owner describes issues as “details” that “are not important.” Food is fine. Not the worst meal we ever had. But certainly not the best meal we had in Iceland. Other hotels did a better job. We had much nicer rooms and better experiences at Hotel Borg, Hotel Saga, Hotel Buoir, and Hotel Geysir.

Lovely, authentic hotel - great food, clean and comfortable rooms. Lovely additional touches - wine in our room on arrival and they will send a postcard anywhere in the world for you! Nice to be greeted by the hotel owner at dinner. We enjoyed the hot tubs and pool/games room too.

For the price, I would expect a functional shower. When this deficiency was reported to staff there was no apology and nothing was done to fix the problem.

We had dinner here on our 40th wedding anniversary and it was a wonderful way to celebrate. The smoked Arctic Char starter was amazing and the salmon main course was delicious. Excellent and attentive service, lovely views across the river and good sized portions. Highly recommended.

Hotel Ranga is a two-level lodge that offers themed suites and rooms on two levels overlooking a river. We stayed in a master suite, Antarctica, which was a little too modern and white. King bed had split duvet covers, very weird, and the room was hot. Small bath had a sliding shower door which pretty much flooded the bathroom floor after use. There were two balconies with nice views. The restaurant serves a mediocre breakfast buffet with plenty of flies around the food. Short a la carte menu is OK. Coffee is good. The highlight here is dinner although the menu doesn’t change daily. Excellent soup, salads, fresh fish and lamb. However, since you are in the middle of nowhere, dinner and alcoholic beverages should be included in the room charge (increase rate as needed). The bar is well stocked but they charge $20-$30 an ounce for most liquors, not fun. And the wine list is short and expensive. We opted to BYO from a local store and enjoy cocktails and wine on the send floor lounge area. There is no spa or gym. There is a great gym in Hella a few minutes away. Ownership should provide complementary admission and shuttle service. The only extra amenity here are three small outdoor spas. The owner is onsite often and the service is good. He recently expanded the lodge so business is great and it’s advertised as four stars. After staying at Deplar Farms (one of the best lodges in the world), I believe ownership can take some clues from them and easily make this a five-star experience and guests will be happy to pay for it as there is little competition on this side of the island.