Hotel Ranga

Hotel Rangá is a wonderful base for exploring South Iceland, and our stay was excellent in almost every way. The location is superb, and the rooms are clean, comfortable, and well-appointed. Breakfast impresses with a generous selection, including a hot cooked option to set you up for a day of adventure. Dinner is a real highlight — the lamb and salmon were both outstanding, showcasing the very best of Icelandic produce. The hot tub is an excellent idea and I loved it. We were even treated to a brief but magical glimpse of the Northern Lights. The one small note is that the front desk staff could be a touch warmer - a minor thing, but worth mentioning. That aside, Hotel Rangá delivers an exceptional Icelandic experience and we would highly recommend it.

Cozy little place to see the Northern Lights . Restaurant is ok , they need more options. Room is small and comfortable, bed uncomfortable . Nice enough staff , I don’t consider it luxury . Very expensive ! Never saw an astronomer or the observatory.

Beautiful spot to stay on the Golden Circle. It's pretty famous, and a few big American reality TV shows have filmed there, including the Kardashians. Great staff, and good breakfast in their restaurant. The rooms are simple, and expensive, but the area is beautiful. We had a room in the back overlooking a small, winding river, and if you're from the US it felt very much like you're in Wyoming. The best part is the Northern Lights. Because it was cloudy during most of our four days, as it usually is in Iceland, we only saw the lights on the first night, and it wasn't spectacular. To be honest I saw it better in Pennsylvania in the US a year earlier, and we never get to see it there. But the experience was still fun. Around 10 PM on our first night, our phone rang for our alert and we quickly ran down the long hallway to the front parking lot. And you could hear the phones ringing all the way down the hall, and people were coming out of their doors in their coats. Half the people in the hotel were standing in the dark in the parking lot, and the hotel made great hot chocolate and put a big vat of it in the lobby. But, at least at the time, the alert system was spotty, and we continually wonder if it failed to work the second day because we didn't get an alert. They promote having an astronomer on site, but in our four days he was never there.

This place is amazing. Kind of doesn't look like much, but set back off a (kind of) main road through Iceland. It's a long, almost lodge-style hotel on a great property backing up to a river and with plenty of space. For a family of four, we needed two rooms and they gave us rooms right across the hall from each other. (Both rooms had two twin beds, which were very comfortable.) The decor is local and fun and the staff were all really pleasant and easy to talk with. We landed on Friday, did some sightseeing and settled in for a soak in one of the tubs upon arrival with a glass of the complimentary wine. Dinner at the hotel restaurant was delicious (not cheap, so be prepared), convenient and worth it, and our kids enjoyed trying the reindeer - which was unbelievably tender and tasty. Highly recommend. Friday evening the cloudy skies cleared. At 9:30pm local time, our phones rang with the aurora alert and we got all bundled up (they have outer layers available in the lobby for added warmth) and we watched for 2 hours as the skies danced green and red. Incredible. We got really lucky, but the stay overall was worth it regardless. Saturday we used it as a base camp to explore Vik and some of the surrounding areas - not a bad 1 hour drive over that direction, and take advantage of the ice cave tours! Was one of the highlights of an incredible trip. We'll definitely be back to Ranga, was a great stay.

We stayed for 5 nights so to be sure to see the northern lights, which we did on the 3rd and 5th nights. (There's a Aurora Borealis notification telephone call!) The restaurant serves 5-star cuisine, the hotel staff are friendly, welcoming and helpful. We had the privilege of meeting the owner who has carefully created this retreat in southern Iceland. Staying here was very peaceful and restful, great to disconnect from the outside world.