Hestheimar (Hella)

Light Pollution

Low light pollution — excellent dark-sky location

Getting There

A · Drive-up — park and you are there

Safety

Guesthouse with eight cottages on the plains northwest of Hella, with open views to Hekla and Eyjafjallajökull and two hot tubs on site. Flat farmland with very little shelter, so it catches the wind.

Parking

Free parking on site. Signed off Route 1 onto Route 281, then the Hestheimar farm road — about 2 km in all.

Nearby Viewing Spots

Guided Northern Lights Tours near Hestheimar (Hella)

Hestheimar (Hella) is about 74 km from Reykjavík, well inside the range guided tours work. No operator sells a tour to a named spot — the guide picks the destination on the night from the cloud forecast, which is most of what you are paying for — but on a night when the sky here is the clear one, this is the kind of ground they head for.

All 28 northern lights tours from Reykjavík — compared on group size, hotel pickup and what happens if the aurora does not show.

Small-group tours — A minibus can re-route to a break in the cloud that a full-size coach cannot reach — the difference that matters most on a marginal night.

Stay at Hestheimar

Hestheimar (Hella) is somewhere you can book a room, not just somewhere to park. Staying here means you are already outside when the sky opens, with no drive either side of it.

See the stay →

Plan Your Visit

Check current conditions on our Tonight page before heading out. Cloud cover and geomagnetic activity can change rapidly — the app updates scores every 5 minutes so you always have the latest data.

Learn more about the best time to see the northern lights and how to read aurora forecasts.