It’s been a long time since someone told me a story.
Highland Base opened in 2023, with its geothermal baths completed the following year, yet it feels as though it has always belonged to this landscape. Set low against the earth in timber structures linked by an underground tunnel, it has been welcomed by a terrain that has watched millennia pass in silence. Here, luxury is measured in the privilege of being held so close to untouched wilderness.
To understand Iceland, you have to stay on the road long enough for it to lose its polish and turn into a rugged trail, one shaped by wind, weather, and the stories of those who travelled before. At the end of one such track, deep in the interior of the Highlands, Highland Base appears like a modern sanctuary at the edge of the world. Its mystique comes from its extraordinary location, and the spirit of adventure that inspired its creation.
The property sits in a rare geography, held between Langjökull and Hofsjökull, Iceland’s second‑ and third‑largest glaciers. Langjökull, the Long Glacier, stretches across the western horizon, a sweep of white visible from the restaurant on clear days. To the east lies Hofsjökull, the Temple Glacier, named for the quiet power it is believed to hold. Beneath its surface rests a volcanic system so potent that a hidden ice chamber discovered in the 1960s forced explorers to retreat and never return.
Highland Base’s origins as a mountaineer’s shelter remain beautifully and deliberately featured in its design. Linen textiles nod to simplicity; weathered wooden beams bring warmth and authenticity. The porthole‑style windows and floor‑to‑ceiling glazing frame the ever‑shifting landscape making the very borders of the property synonymous with the outdoors.
Window‑box seating encourages long pauses and opportunities to take a moment to watch steam rise from the valley and storms sweep across distant peaks. Opportunities such as these are important here, in a place known for the sightings of the Aurora Borealis and where, in the Summer months, the light stretches toward midnight. In every detail, Highland Base honours its mountain spirit.
Technology is present at the Highland Base, but it never leads. There is just one television on the entire property, intentionally placed in a shared space, making it easy to accept the quiet invitation to choose nature instead. Unless you’re holding a camera, screens feel almost unnecessary.
Accessibility is approached with the same thoughtfulness. Three accessible rooms connect to the main lodge through the underground tunnel, complete with lifts, protecting guests from the elements and ensuring that everyone can experience the Highlands comfortably and safely.
The Highlands Base has a winter personality. Once winter sets in, it transforms into something almost mythical. Snow dunes rise around the lodge and supply deliveries become carefully timed rituals. This is when the Highlands reveal their truest character, and when the hotel feels even more intimate.
Storms are observed through the windows with unapologetic force, and the building responds with warmth, firelit storytelling, long dinners, hot drinks, and the kind of unhurried companionship that only remote places can create. Outside, the Highlands roar. Inside, the hotel glows. It is a season that pairs everything back to its essence, fewer people, more silence, and a closeness to nature that cannot be choreographed.
The valley surrounding Highland Base is threaded with trails. Some gentle and meditative, others steep enough to make your lungs spark with life. Paths wind through steam‑filled basins, where the earth bubbles and hisses beneath your feet. You hike past mineral‑tinted rivers and along ridgelines where the world suddenly falls away into a sweep of glacier and sky.
One of the most unforgettable of these paths begins just behind the hotel at the geothermal fields of Kerlingarfjöll. These guided treks are less about distance and more about wonder. The air carries the scent of minerals; the ground radiates warmth through your boots. In some ways, it’s exactly what you expect from the Highlands. In others, it still manages to take your breath away.
For those who crave a more visceral encounter with the Highlands, seasonal adventures offer a different kind of immersion. Suitable for both first‑timers and seasoned riders, the Highland Base’s guided buggy and snowmobiling excursions take you straight into the untamed interior.
A journey toward the vast flank of the Hofsjökull glacier means the terrain shifts constantly. In warmer months, loose gravel, steep climbs, and river crossings lead to cinematic mountain views. In winter, snowmobiles carry you deeper into remote silence, a chance to pause and take in the magnitude of the landscape.
Highland Base offers a range of stays, but two stand out for their design, comfort, and connection to the land. The Highland Base Suites are serene. Perched on the top floor, the Highland Base Suite blends rustic spirit with refined calm. Its private terrace and hot tub overlooking the surrounding peaks is a highlight. Think of an evening relaxing as the steam rises into crisp air as you relax, watching colours shift across the sky. There can not be many better ways to share the end of a day.
The Highland Base Lodge is cinematic. This independent unit, complete with its own entrance and sunken lounge, frames Kerlingarfjöll through deep picture windows that turn the landscape into a living mural. Warm, generous, and deeply relaxing, the Lodge is designed for travellers who want privacy without losing connection to the wild. With space for up to four guests, it is ideal for couples, small families, or friends seeking a high‑end base for exploration.
As you travel through Iceland, you notice the shade of blue that has become so iconic. It appears in glacial ribbons pouring through valleys and in the sweeping views along the coastline of the North Atlantic. For many travellers, a journey to Iceland is not complete without experiencing the Blue Lagoon, and for good reason. Its silica and iron‑rich waters are celebrated not only for their restorative qualities, but for their ability to draw you into an afternoon of deep, luxurious ease.
An experience of the Blue Lagoon deserves to be appreciated with a sense of calm and paired with refinement. Silica Hotel offers this beautiful retreat. Set in the middle of a volcanic plain, the hotel is surrounded by its own private lagoon, a quiet mirror of milky water edged by black lava rock. The landscape feels elemental and the hotel sits within it like a soft‑spoken sanctuary.
The Lava Deluxe King room is the standout stay here. Floor‑to‑ceiling windows frame the raw terrain outside, where ribbons of moss glow electric green against the dark basalt. Inside, the design is warm, and provides a contrast to the stark beauty beyond the glass. Mornings here are slow, and can be spent with the simple pleasure of watching steam drift across the lagoon.
Evenings are best spent at Lava Restaurant, built into the side of an ancient lava cliff and overlooking the very lagoon where the day has been enjoyed drifting into stillness with flotation therapy, and moving between silica and algae treatments at the mask bar. By the time you take your seat, the body is relaxed, and the mind unhurried. The dining room opens onto the lagoon’s soft glow, and the menu leans into Icelandic ingredients with beautifully presented seasonal dishes. It’s a perfect transition from the quiet water immersion to an elegant meal enjoyed on volcanic earth.
What stays with you is the sensation of moving through a country that is vividly present. From the steam‑filled valleys of Kerlingarfjöll to the quiet glow of Silica Hotel’s private lagoon. Iceland reveals itself in ways that are wild, humbling, and because of its ability to make you feel present, always restorative.
Highland Base offers the raw pulse of the interior; the Blue Lagoon offers the soft exhale that follows. This will be an experience that truly feels both expansive and intimate, a reminder that true luxury is presence, the rare privilege of standing in landscapes that ask nothing of you except that you look, breathe, and let them leave their mark.
A Deluxe Double room with mountain views at Highland Base start at £976 (two people sharing, minimum two-night stay required). This includes buffet breakfast and access to Highland Baths. To book, please visit highlandbase.is.
A Moss Deluxe King room overlooking the moss-covered lava fields at Silica Hotel start from £671 per night (two people sharing). This includes breakfast, access to Silica lagoon and a premium ticket to the Blue Lagoon. To book, please visit: bluelagoon.com.
