The Redline

We test out the interlocking sleeping boxes in Iceland’s famously expensive capital and then eat some food and drink some coffee in the surrounding streets.

Words and images: Peter Anderson

Reykjavik is expensive. Really expensive. I spent weeks trawling around the various sites looking for a decent night’s accommodation in Reykjavik. You have to put a lot of things together when you’re there on the cheap. There’s a bargain to be had a bus ride or cab ride away from town but that bus ride or cab ride might be – and I am not joking – €27.

Local buses are cheaper, but you get my meaning. If there’s more than one of you, double the bus fare. And so on. A taxi from the city to the airport, Keflavik, is around $A300. It’s expensive. So I had to balance my costs because I had given myself a very small limit to work with.

And so I kept coming back to CityHub. I was travelling on my own (I went a day early to write this) so I didn’t have to worry about anyone’s preferences but my own. I had no plan of what I was going to do in Reykjavik aside from exploring by walking, seeing the midnight sunset and drinking decent coffee.

CityHub is a small chain of what I guess you could describe as capsule hotels. They can be found as of July 2025 in Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Copenhagen and shouldn’t be confused with CityBox.

Disclaimer:

I travelled to Reykjavik with Ford Australia for an event related to the Ford Ranger PHEV. Ford covered my air travel and one night’s accommodation the night before event and the night after at other hotels as well as meals from the evening of 12 June 2025 to the morning of 14 June 2025.

Everything mentioned in this review was paid for by me and none of the places I reviewed had any idea I might be reviewing them. I stayed at Cityhub from 11-12 June 2025.

Check-in and payment

It’s very straightforward. Before you arrive you can download the Cityhub app and punch in your booking. That comes up as a QR code and when you arrive you can scan in, select a wristband and activate it. The wristband is connected to your payment card and I found that a bit annoying – you can buy stuff in the lobby bar/cafe area and the vending machine with your wristband but I use a different card for daily expenses so I thought that was a bit limiting.

The wrist band idea was great, though, and it gets you into your room, the bathrooms and the hotel itself if the host isn’t at their station near the door. The host was very friendly and helpful.

The tablet check-in is very slick and offers you all of the available rooms and you can choose which one you’d like. Quite by chance I chose 4.09 on the fourth floor, on the opposite side of the floor from the lift and bathrooms. The Hubs take up the centre of the floor plan while the Movie Hubs are along the internal walls – they seem to book out first.

I booked directly with Cityhub and paid €131 for one night, flexible with 24-hour cancellation. It was among the cheapest in Reykjavik and I thought it was solid value. Rooms in August were priced significantly higher, with one night in a Twin Hub (same layout, just two mattresses and separate bedding) for ISK39,960 which is wild.

The Room

There are two types of room or “Hub” but the place is dominated by these one-up/one-down capsule-ish rooms. To be fair, it’s under-selling them as capsules because they’re way bigger than that. When you open the inward-swinging door using your wristband, you see right in front of you a small desk, a high shelf and a coat hanger rack that snakes around and features two kimonos.

The other rooms, known as Movie Hubs, are selectable during the booking process and cost around ISK2000 more per night (~A$25/€14/US$16) or more depending on the time of year. They’re a more traditional room but still very small. Both room types are about having enough room to shut the door and get into bed.

The desk has two towels, two hand towels and a magazine. As you can (just) see I could store my bags under the desk. The weird blue-green lighting is configurable via the app and an in-room panel, with plenty of mood lighting options. The window to the side of the bed overlooks the corridor and has a set of shutters so you can block out the light.

The bed has fresh linen and the quilt/duvet/whatever you call it in your area is bundled up ready for use. By the side of the bed are a couple of USB-C chargers which is very handy and there are more points at the desk. The temperature is centrally operated, but given most hotels with temperature controls seem close to useless, that’s probably not a big deal.

The bed is really comfortable and queen sized, so there’s plenty of room for two. Taller folks could conceivably hang off the end, but there’s enough space to sit upright on the bed and there’s even a phone holder on the wall for shots of you on or in the bed.

There wasn’t much noise room-to-room but cretins all over the hotel let their doors slam which was easily the worst thing about Cityhub.

The Facilities

For what I expected to be quite a bare-bones kind of place, the Cityhub was a pleasant surprise. The bar/cafe/workspace that faces out on to the street is very comfortable and what you can’t see in the photo is another row of tables along the back wall and some self-serve coffee/hot chocolate and vending machines. It’s open all the time as well, so jet-lagged me made a phone call home from there at 3am so as not to bother anyone on my floor.

In the more civilised hours it was quite busy and hummed a bit as people came and went. It’s extremely handy to have this space as there’s not really enough space for much in the rooms themselves.

Bathrooms are split in to male and female, so I can only tell you about the male bathrooms. The entrance to the showers has the three basins, a urinal, a hairdryer and some soap we well as three individual mirrors. Very clean, too.

The bathrooms are shared but were absolutely spotless. The photo doesn’t quite show how short on overall space the shower is, but it’s enough and has quite nice shampoo in it, four hooks to hang towels and clothes and little shelf for your own stuff.

There’s a larger accessible bathroom but I’m not 100 percent convinced it’s as accessible some might hope. There are assistance handles on the toilet but none in the shower and entry into the shower looks a little awkward. Again, super-clean and well maintained.

There is an ironing corner and iron outside the bathrooms. And on the third floor there’s an outdoor hot tub and a sort of hangout area. You can tell I’m hip with the way the modern kids talk.

If you don’t have your own flip flops, there’s a vending machine offering those and other things on the ground floor. You’re not far from a few 24-hour shops a block up the hill on Laugavegur, so if you’re in dire need of supplies, you’ll be fine.

You can take the stairs or the lift to each floor and the lift is big enough for four or five people. The only view you’ll get is from the windows at the back of the building (which also overlook the hot tub) and the front of the building overlooking the street.

On the ground floor are lockers which are free to use and accessible with your wristband. They’re all the same size and as you can see from the photo will take a pretty decent sized bag and easily fit my cabin bag and cabin-compliant backpack. There’s even a handy step ladder for the higher lockers. You can leave your stuff in here after checkout and there didn’t seem to be any hard time limits and certainly no extra charge. These are also useful if you’ve too much luggage for your Hub.

Location

Cityhub Reykjavik is found at Hverfisgata 46, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland. This is one of the main streets of Reykjavik with plenty of food and retail and just a few moments walk from the notorious Skólavörðustígur Rainbow Street and the incredible Hallgrimskirkja cathedral. I say Rainbow Street is notorious because it is lined with shops selling absolute tat. The photo above was taken at 4am which explains the lack of hordes of tourists.

Reykjavik is very walkable and there is plenty to see without spending a cent. Street art appears on walls of houses and public buildings, there are little streets and nooks and crannies, a spectacular grave yard and a sculpture garden, all of which I took in on my early morning stroll.

There is plenty to do that you can pay for and a Reykjavik Card will help control your costs. Remember too that during the summer Reykjavik is regularly swamped with cruise ships. On the final day I had there, three large ships berthed in the harbour and there were a lot of people around. On my “free” day there I heard people being incredibly rude to staff in cafes and shops and will definitely try your patience.

Food and drink

Reykjavik Roasters: Kárastígur 1, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland (two other locations)

Close to Cityhub is Reykjavik Roasters, easily the best coffee I had in Reykjavik. There are three locations, but I only mad it to this one, housed in a building dating back to 1929. It’s very cosy inside, with a few tables and one big communal table. In my two visits I made new friends on both occasions, so the Icelandic friendliness must rub off on people. Hello Gunther, if you’re reading this.

Except that mad person who asked if she could get cheap coffee at “a gas station” who I would have fired into the sun but the person in charge on the day politely talked her down. Interestingly the price difference between good coffee and crap coffee is negligible. I went to one other place where the coffee was pretty poor and it was only ISK20 cheaper than Reykjavik Roasters. Two sips and I returned to the latter. No, I won’t name the bad place, they could just have been having a bad day.

I had breakfast and coffee at Reykjavik Roasters and while it wasn’t cheap – nowhere is in Reykjavik – it was excellent and the coffee was also brilliant (both the latte and Kalita pourover I had were beautifully made, the latter from a guest roaster). Breakfast and two coffees was ISK2800 (~A$35/€20/US$23) which isn’t bad by Nordic standards.

It’s a great place to sit and while away an hour or two planning your day as they’re open reasonably early and stay open for most of the day.

Kemuri: Hverfisgata 82, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland

Kemuri serves vegetarian or vegan options although I think the latter is mostly to do with whether the dumplings came with butter. They’re famous for Polish-style pierogi dumplings and won the Reykjavik Grapevine’s Best Vegan Meal award.

I had some dumplings and a flavoured mineral water at Kemuri which was a sobering ISK4390 (~A$55/€31/US$36). There’s also soup and on the day I was there, it was borscht. I was sorely tempted.

The food was spectacular and the person behind the counter, Gringo (I think), was brilliant, doing me a special so I try could a wider-than-usual variety of the dumplings. One of my choices was out of stock and he was most apologetic.

I didn’t say I was a journalist or intending to review, he was just really nice and very patient with me as I managed to get myself a bit confused in my tired state.

There are a couple of tables or you can sit in the window like I did. The day was sunny and it was a nice place to sit. In addition to the dumplings and soup, you can enjoy some cakes and sweets as well in the sunshine. Some cool art on the wall, a bit of neon lighting and a relaxed vibe made it a really nice place to hang out. Great taste in music, too.

Brauð & Co (many locations in Reykjavik and Copenhagen)

A very good cinnamon roll at Brauð & Co was ISK890 (~$A11/€6.50/US$7.30) which is, again, reasonable when compared to nearby countries that don’t have to import everything. They bake all day every day and will also sell you a pretty decent filter coffee.

The website says they don’t use any preservatives or other nasties and only organic flour is used. Icelandic butter and sea salt reinforce the idea that this is not a bakery that bakes any old thing.

Don’t be a jerk and buy your baked goods at Brauð & Co and then take them into Reykjavik Roasters like so many idiots I saw doing. Just rude.

Reykjavik

Getting to Reykjavik is pretty easy – Icelandair connects the country with many European and North American cities. A variety of full and low-cost airlines fly in from all over Europe, Canada and the US and also from places such as Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Reykjavik’s international airport is Keflavik, about 50km out of town. The best way in to Reykjavik is a choice of two buses. One takes you to and from the bus station, the other does the rounds of the hotels. They cost around €27 per person.

A taxi to or from the airport is a startling €180.

You can buy a public transport day ticket in Reykjavik but you may not need it. The city is very compact and easily walkable.