Tourism to Iceland may be increasingly popular, with visitors drawn by the land of ice and fire’s extreme landscapes and warm hospitality, and aided by booming connectivity. But for travel stakeholders in lava-plagued Grindavik, is the country’s volcanic volatility more of a liability than an asset?
Grindavik sits accessibly just 50 km away from Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, and 24 km from Keflavík International Airport. However, it is also just minutes from the volcanic fissures of the Sundhnuksgígar crater row in the Reykjanes Peninsula. After lying dormant for 783 years, the system erupted there in December 2023, threatening local infrastructure, closing roads, and causing the majority of the town’s 3,800 inhabitants to evacuate multiple times.
@northskyvisions A little sky tour of Grindavík 🌋🇮🇸 #grindavík #iceland #droneview #ghosttown #sologirl ♬ levitation – Aaron Hibell & Felsmann + Tiley
Many of those residents have sold their homes to the government and fled for good, as have numbers of tourists, meaning that making a living out of any business, but especially tourism, is a challenge that even the tough and pragmatic Icelanders are finding hard.
Vignir Kristinsson, a woodworker in his sixties with a gift shop in the town, has repeatedly told reporters about the impact of the eruptions and lava flows on his economic activity, which he questions how to pursue “when people are told they should not come,” Kristinsson said, reported by The Independent. “How is that possible?”
He now lives in Hafnarfjordur, 42 km away, and returns when permitted to open up shop, like local baker Sigurður Enoksson, owner of the three-decade-strong Herastubbur Bakari, who travels in 47 km from Kopavogur to open for three mornings a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) and has had to make 10 staff redundant.
At the time of writing, the nearby Blue Lagoon spa remains open for bookings, according to its website, though it did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its future. Other hotels and guesthouses are also still going. According to Google and Expedia reviews, some visitors only focus on the spa, neglecting the rest of the area that certain reports say increasingly feels like a ghost town.
“Abandoned town yet beautiful,” one review from July 2025 reads, adding: “CONs: Located in an abandoned town due to an active volcano. Town smells like lava, which is tolerable though. Becomes really quiet and lonesome at night, which could appear scary and eerie to tourists.”
It must be noted that the majority of comments praise both the location and the friendliness of locals who have remained, but some complain about a lack of staff and say the place feels “unsafe” and “desolate.”
Still others, instead of immersing themselves in thermal waters, prefer to fly photo drones over the lava beds – a metaphor for keeping a safe distance that could represent a death sentence for Grindavik.
