Perlan Museum

Perlan Museum, located atop Öskjuhlíð hill in Reykjavík, offers an engaging exploration of Iceland’s unique landscapes and natural phenomena. Visitors can experience a 100-meter-long ice cave, an 8K planetarium show on the Northern Lights, and interactive exhibits on glaciers, volcanoes, and ocean life. The museum also features a 360° observation deck providing panoramic views of Reykjavík and its surroundings. Additional amenities include a restaurant, café, gift shop, ice cream parlour, and bar, making it a comprehensive destination for learning and leisure.

Planning your visit

Perlan is built on top of Reykjavík's hot water tanks — six enormous cylinders on Öskjuhlíð hill storing the city's geothermal supply, capped with a glass dome. The reuse is characteristically Icelandic, and the 360-degree observation deck around the dome gives the best panorama of the city, the bay and, on clear days, the Snæfellsjökull glacier across the water.

Inside, the museum covers Icelandic nature: glaciers, volcanoes, geothermal energy, earthquakes, ocean life and the bird cliffs. Two things stand out. The ice cave is a 100-metre tunnel built inside real snow at sub-zero temperature, showing how glaciers form and what their internal structure looks like — the only such installation anywhere. And the 8K planetarium show on the northern lights explains the physics and provides a reliable version for visitors whose actual aurora hunting was defeated by cloud, which is common.

The building holds a restaurant, café and bar, and it is open late.

Bookable options include skip-the-line private tours, and combination formats pairing Perlan with a Golden Circle day tour — Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss — which uses the museum to explain the geology seen during the day. Current availability is shown below.