Center Hotels Arnarhvoll sits right on Reykjavík's Old Harbour, close enough to Harpa Concert Hall that you can walk it in five minutes, and it does one thing most city hotels do not bother with: on request, staff will call your room if the northern lights come out. That is a genuine, useful amenity. It is also the full extent of what this hotel offers for aurora viewing. Reykjavík's street lighting and building glow sit between your window and the sky, and this is not a dark-sky property. If seeing the aurora is the entire reason for your trip, a remote lodge like Hotel Rangá or Hotel Húsafell will show you more, more often. If you want a Reykjavík base with restaurants, museums, and a wake-up call in case the sky cooperates, this is a sound pick — see Iceland's northern lights for how a city base fits into a wider aurora trip. From this same harbour, the Reykjavík Northern Lights Boat Tour departs a five-minute walk from the front door.
The northern lights wake-up call: what it actually is
The service works exactly as it sounds. Guests who want it ask at the front desk, and staff keep an eye on conditions overnight, phoning the room if auroras appear. It is a manual, staff-run system, not an app or automated alert tied to a forecasting service, so its reliability depends on which employee is on shift and how closely they are watching the sky that particular night.
Treat it as a safety net, not a guarantee. The wake-up call tells you something is happening; it does not put you under a clear view of it. From most rooms, city glow means you will see a washed-out glow at best unless the display is strong. The better move, if the call comes, is to head straight to the SKÝ Bar terrace on the 8th floor or walk the five minutes to the harbor's edge, where the sightline north over Faxaflói Bay is more open than from behind a window.
Reykjavík's light pollution, and why this is not a dark-sky pick
Be clear-eyed about what a city-centre hotel can and cannot deliver. Reykjavík has real light pollution from street lighting, harbor infrastructure, and downtown buildings, and no amount of clever positioning removes that. The hotel's harbor-edge location helps a little: it sits at the edge of downtown rather than buried in it, and the open water to the north cuts some of the immediate glare compared with a hotel three streets back from the shore. That is a marginal advantage, not a dark-sky one.
Guests chasing a strong, unmistakable aurora display should look outside the city. Hotel Rangá, roughly 90 minutes east, runs its own observation domes under genuinely dark countryside skies. Hotel Húsafell, in the western highlands, has similarly little competing light and a wide, open horizon. Both routinely show auroras that a Reykjavík hotel simply will not, on the same night, with the same aurora activity.
What Arnarhvoll is good for is everything else around an aurora trip: a comfortable base for the days you spend in the city, a starting point for a guided tour that will drive you out to darker skies, and a wake-up call for the nights you happen to get lucky without leaving downtown.
Rooms, the SKÝ Bar, and what's within walking distance
The hotel has 104 rooms finished in modern Scandi style: pale wood, clean lines, flat-screen TVs, individual climate control. Nothing ostentatious, but comfortable and consistently kept up, which shows in the hotel's 8.6/10 cleanliness and comfort scores on Booking.com. A wellness centre with a sauna and hot tub is a genuine asset after a long day outdoors in Icelandic weather, and yoga mats are available for guests who want to stretch out before an early tour pickup.
The building's best feature for aurora-watching is the SKÝ Bar on the 8th floor, with both indoor and outdoor seating and views over Faxaflói Bay. Happy hour runs 4–6 PM and again 8–11 PM, so it doubles as a place to wait out the evening before a possible aurora alert.
Location is the hotel's real strength. From the front door:
- Harpa Concert Hall is 300 m away
- Laugavegur, Reykjavík's main shopping and dining street, is an 8-minute walk
- The Aurora Reykjavík Northern Lights Science Museum is about 15 minutes on foot
- The Old Harbour's restaurants and walking paths are 400 m away
Booking.com guests rate the location 9.5/10, among the highest scores in the city, and it is easy to see why: almost everything worth doing in central Reykjavík is within 15 minutes on foot.
Getting there, and why it works as a tour base
Keflavík International Airport is 51 km away, about a 44-minute drive by rental car, shuttle, or one of the airport coach services that run to central Reykjavík. There is no dedicated hotel shuttle, so budget the transfer cost separately when comparing this against countryside lodges that often include one.
Where Arnarhvoll earns its keep is as a pickup point. Most guided northern lights tours depart from Reykjavík, and a hotel with a 9.5/10 location score, a 24-hour front desk, and a concierge desk is a genuinely easier meeting point than a countryside base an hour outside the city. If your plan is city days and tour-operator nights, rather than self-driving to a rural lodge, this location removes a layer of logistics.
The hotel also holds Green Key certification, the international eco-label for hospitality, which matters if that factors into where you choose to spend your nights.
Who this hotel is right for
This is the right call if you are a first-time visitor who wants Reykjavík's museums, restaurants, and nightlife alongside a shot at the aurora, rather than making the aurora the entire trip. It also suits business travelers extending a work trip into aurora season, and anyone booking guided tours who wants a central, no-fuss pickup point.
It is the wrong call if:
- Seeing a strong aurora display is your main goal and you are not planning at least one night outside the city
- You want to do serious aurora photography, which needs a dark horizon this hotel cannot offer
- You are choosing between this and a rural lodge purely on stargazing merit; the countryside wins that comparison every time
The smartest way to use this hotel is as a hybrid base: stay here for the city days, then add one or two nights at a countryside property, or book a guided tour that drives well outside Reykjavík's light dome, for the nights aurora viewing actually matters.
