Forest Lagoon Iceland: Tickets, Shuttle, Pools And What To Expect In Akureyri

Forest Lagoon opened in 2022 in Vaðlaskógur, the forest on the mountainside of Vaðlaheiði directly across the fjord from Akureyri, and it has quietly become the standard evening stop for travellers finishing a day on the north coast. The setting is the draw: two geothermal pools cut into the hillside among the trees, a cold plunge, a dry Finnish sauna at around 80°C, and a swim-up bar with the lights of Akureyri and Eyjafjörður below. You will meet the venue under two names in the wild, Forest Lagoon in English and Skógarböðin in Icelandic, but they are the same place at the same address in Vaðlaskógur.

One practical point separates it from every other lagoon in this guide set: Forest Lagoon runs its own free shuttle bus, on a published timetable, from Akureyri city centre and from the cruise harbour. No other venue on the North Iceland route does that. Earth Lagoon Mývatn sits beside the ring road and expects you to drive, and GeoSea in Húsavík points you to third-party shuttle operators and the scheduled bus. If you are staying in Akureyri without a car, Forest Lagoon is the one geothermal bath in the north you can reach without arranging anything yourself.

How Much Do Forest Lagoon Tickets Cost?

Forest Lagoon publishes three admission tiers in Icelandic krona: Warm at 7,490 ISK, Calm at 10,150 ISK with a towel and one drink included, and Delight at 11,210 ISK with a towel and two drinks. Youth tickets for ages 6 to 15 cost 3,790 ISK, children aged 5 and under enter free, and towels are not included in the basic tier but can be rented for 1,400 ISK.

The three tiers are deliberately simple. Warm is the bare entry, and note that a towel is not part of it, which catches out travellers used to Blue Lagoon or Sky Lagoon admissions where a towel is bundled in. Calm adds the towel and a single drink, which covers most people. Delight adds a second drink and suits anyone planning to make an evening of it at the bar. The pre-booked ticket sold through the operator's live listing is the Calm-equivalent tier with towel and drink, from $81 for an adult, rated 4.7 across 666 reviews.

Prices move with demand, and the venue recommends booking online in advance. Guests who have not pre-booked do not have guaranteed entry, and the venue states plainly that reservations can only be made online, not by phone. Cancellations are handled as a gift card rather than a cash refund if you cancel more than 24 hours before your visit, which is worth knowing before you lock in a time.

What Does Each Forest Lagoon Admission Include?

Every tier includes access to both geothermal pools, the cold pool and the dry Finnish sauna, plus a locker and the mandatory shower facilities with wash products provided. The differences between tiers are the extras: a towel at Calm and above, drinks at Calm and Delight, and nothing beyond entry at the Warm tier. Swimsuit rental is separate if you need it.

Here is how the three published tiers line up, in the venue's own pricing.

The sauna deserves a mention because it is a proper dry Finnish sauna, held at around 80°C with roughly 20% humidity, not a steam room. The cold pool beside it is published at 11°C on the venue's homepage. Alternating between the two is the local way to use the facility, and the pools are shallow enough, at 125 cm, that non-swimmers are comfortable. Two in-pool swim-up bars sell sodas, alcoholic beverages and smoothies, charged to the wristband you are given at entry.

Payment at the venue itself has a quirk worth flagging before you go. Forest Lagoon states that it only accepts Icelandic currency, and its FAQ confirms it takes cash in ISK and all credit cards except American Express. That is a genuinely useful, verified detail: if you are carrying euros or dollars as your only cash, they will not help you here, and an Amex card will not either. Most visitors never carry cash in Iceland at all, and a Visa or Mastercard works fine, but the exception is real and published.

If you are weighing the basic Warm ticket against the bundled options, the arithmetic is straightforward. Renting a towel separately costs 1,400 ISK, and any drink at the bar is extra on top of that, so the Calm tier usually works out as the sensible choice for a first visit once the towel and the included drink are counted. You can compare ticket prices across Iceland's lagoons before deciding, since the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive admission in the country is wide.

For travellers who only want a short soak and will bring their own towel from the hotel, the Warm tier is perfectly adequate, and nothing about the water or the facilities changes with the price. What you are buying between tiers is convenience at the bar and at the towel rail, not a better pool. That makes the decision easy to defer until you know your own plans for the evening.

How Do You Get To Forest Lagoon From Akureyri?

Forest Lagoon runs a free shuttle bus from Akureyri on a published timetable: in high season it departs the city centre at 17:30 and returns from the lagoon at 21:00, and in low season it departs Centrum Kitchen & Bar at 18:45 with a 22:00 return. On cruise days a harbour shuttle runs hourly from Tangabryggja. Boarding is first-come, first-served, with priority for ticket holders.

The shuttle is the venue's own service, not a partner, and it is the only one of its kind among Iceland's lagoons. The full published timetable is below.

The venue publishes the journey time from the harbour as under ten minutes, and children under 6 must travel in a car seat, which Forest Lagoon provides for ages 1 to 5. On busy cruise days it adds departures on demand, up to three per hour. The official shuttle page carries the current schedule, and it is worth a glance before you plan an evening around it.

Driving yourself is easy too. The lagoon is in Vaðlaskógur on the Vaðlaheiði side of the fjord, a short hop from central Akureyri, and the venue publishes that its two cruise terminals sit 4.2 km and 4.5 km away. There are EV charging stations on site, usable through the ISORKA app. For context on how unusual the own-shuttle arrangement is, here is the transport picture across the roster.

What Are The Opening Hours, Pool Sizes And Temperatures?

Forest Lagoon is open daily until midnight, with last reservations at 22:30 and all guests asked to leave the baths at 23:30, though the venue publishes two different opening times, 9am and 10am, on its own pages. The pools sit at roughly 37-41°C depending on which page you read, the cold pool at 11-12°C, and the venue recommends staying no longer than two hours.

The honest answer on hours and pool data is that the venue contradicts itself, and this guide will not pretend otherwise. The site navigation says the lagoon is open every day from 9am to midnight, while the footer on the same pages says 10am to midnight with guests out of the water by 23:30. The homepage describes two pools of 530 m² and 330 m², both at 37°C, while the FAQ describes an 830 m² geothermal pool at 37-39°C plus a warmer pool at 39-41°C and a cold pool around 12°C. Treat the ranges as the truth and check the live listing for the day you go.

None of this ambiguity changes much in practice. Whatever the exact configuration, you get a large warm pool, a hotter pool, a cold plunge and the sauna, and the water comes from the geothermal field under Vaðlaheiði. The two-hour recommendation is the venue's own, published in its FAQ, and it is a sensible ceiling for a first visit: the pools are for soaking, not swimming, at 125 cm deep.

What Are The Rules On Children, Showers And Swimwear?

Children are welcome until 20:00, under-16s need a guardian, no children under 12 are allowed after 20:00, and after 22:00 anyone under 18 must be with a parent, stepparent, grandparent or spouse. Showering naked with soap before entering is mandatory, swimwear is compulsory in the pools, and underwear or ordinary clothing is not accepted as swimwear.

The shower rule is not a house quirk, it is Icelandic law. Regulation 814/2010 on health practices at swimming and bathing facilities requires guests to wash without swimwear before entering the pool, and bathing facilities must provide mild liquid soap and display the instruction. Forest Lagoon states it plainly: guests must wash their bodies without swimwear before entering the lagoon. If the communal shower arrangement gives you pause, read the site's guide to hot spring rules and etiquette in Iceland, because every lagoon in the country applies the same standard.

On swimwear, the venue is specific: swimsuits, bikinis, swim trunks and shorts are fine, but underwear, pants and sweaters are not. The age rules are stricter than at many venues, and they effectively split the day: families with young children should aim for an afternoon or early-evening slot, while the post-22:00 atmosphere is adult. The last entry for children is 18:30, in line with the youth ticket rules. More of these guides are collected on Lagoons in Iceland.

Photography is worth a word, since the view down the fjord tempts everyone. Phones are fine around the pools, but the changing rooms are off-limits for photos, in line with standard practice across Icelandic bathing venues. A companion piece on whether the showers are private at Iceland's lagoons covers the same privacy question at the big Reykjanes venues, where the answer is more nuanced.

How Does Forest Lagoon Compare With Earth Lagoon Mývatn?

Forest Lagoon is the Akureyri evening soak, from $81 with a towel and drink, rated 4.7 across 666 reviews; Earth Lagoon Mývatn is the ring-road stop at Lake Mývatn, from $64, rated 4.5 across 2,225 reviews. Forest Lagoon wins on setting and the free shuttle; Earth Lagoon wins on price, scale and the new steam cave and lagoon bar opened in July 2026.

The two serve different itineraries more than different tastes. If your route runs Akureyri to Mývatn, you can honestly do both: Earth Lagoon sits right beside Road 1, about an hour from Akureyri by the venue's own published driving estimate, so it fits a Goðafoss-and-Mývatn day, while Forest Lagoon fits the evening you return. Earth Lagoon reopened on 27 July 2026 after a full rebuild, with three admission tiers, roughly a third more capacity than before, a new steam cave and a lagoon bar, so anything you read about the old Mývatn Nature Baths is out of date. The venue's water comes from the Bjarnaflag borehole at around 130°C, cooled to a bathing temperature of 36-40°C.

The price gap is real but small in the context of an Iceland trip. Earth Lagoon's Essential tier starts at 7,900 ISK with dynamic pricing that moves with the time of day and attendance, and the pre-booked ticket on the live listing is from $64. Forest Lagoon's bundled ticket is from $81. For the full picture of the rebuilt venue, see the site's guide to Earth Lagoon Mývatn, formerly the Nature Baths.

Both venues share the same bathing culture, so the practical rules you learn at one apply at the other, from the naked shower to the locker wristband. The difference is rhythm: Earth Lagoon is a daytime stop on a driving day, while Forest Lagoon is where the day ends. Travellers with only one evening in the north should pick whichever one sits closest to where they are sleeping.

Forest Lagoon Or GeoSea On The North Coast?

GeoSea in Húsavík is the other northern contender, from $60 and rated 4.7 across 812 reviews, with hot seawater at 38-39°C set beside the Húsavík lighthouse. Choose GeoSea if whale watching in Húsavík is already on your plan; choose Forest Lagoon if you are based in Akureyri, because Húsavík is under an hour's drive from Mývatn but a longer haul from Akureyri.

The water is the real difference. Forest Lagoon is freshwater geothermal in a forest; GeoSea is hot seawater from drillholes at Húsavíkurhöfði, discovered when engineers went looking for district heating and found water too mineral-rich to heat houses. GeoSea's pools flow continuously over their edges into the sea, which the venue says keeps the water within health-regulation limits without cleaning agents. The setting is open and coastal rather than wooded and enclosed, and the changing rooms accommodate up to 160 guests at a time.

GeoSea's admission is 7,490 ISK for adults, with towels rented separately, so the all-in cost lands close to Forest Lagoon's Calm tier once you add the towel. The venue does not run its own transport; it names Fjallasýn, Travel North and the scheduled Strætó buses as the options. The full comparison lives in the site's guide to GeoSea sea baths in Húsavík.

Whichever you choose, book the slot rather than turning up on spec. GeoSea and Forest Lagoon both sit on the itineraries of every north-coast traveller in summer, and the evening slots at both fill first. A pre-booked ticket also settles the towel question in advance, which is the detail most likely to catch out anyone hopping between venues with different inclusion policies.

Does Forest Lagoon Have The Best Swim-Up Bar In Iceland?

Forest Lagoon has two in-pool swim-up bars selling sodas, alcoholic drinks and smoothies, which puts it in a small club: Earth Lagoon Mývatn opened a new lagoon bar in its 2026 rebuild, Hvammsvík has a swim-up bar in its 38-39°C lounge pool, and Blue Lagoon runs its famous in-water bar. Sky Lagoon's bars sit outside the water.

The bar matters more than it sounds for the evening experience, because the wristband you receive at entry doubles as your payment method and locker key, so you never leave the water to order. At Forest Lagoon the larger pool holds the bars, which means the warmest social space and the view happen in the same place. If the in-water bar is a priority for your trip, the site's rundown of Iceland's lagoon swim-up bars compares them all.

One rule to remember with the drinks: Forest Lagoon's age policy applies to the bars as much as the pools, and wristband charging means the tab is settled when you leave. The venue accepts Icelandic krona in cash and all credit cards except American Express, so plan the payment side accordingly.

Is Forest Lagoon Worth The Stop On A North Iceland Trip?

For most travellers based in or passing through Akureyri, yes: the setting in the forest above the fjord is genuinely distinctive, the free shuttle removes the transport question, and the 4.7 rating across 666 reviews reflects a venue that delivers what it promises. The trade-offs are the higher base price than the other northern lagoons and towel-free entry at the cheapest tier.

The honest framing is this: Forest Lagoon is not the cheapest soak in the north, and it is not the largest. What it offers is intimacy and convenience, a two-pool bathhouse in the trees, a ten-minute free ride from town, and an evening view that the bigger venues cannot copy. Travellers who want scale and a full spa circuit should look at the rebuilt Earth Lagoon Mývatn instead, and those who want seawater and a whale-watching town should head to GeoSea. Anyone curious how the capital-area heavyweights compare on price and inclusions can start with the site's guide to Sky Lagoon tickets and packages or the wider look at lagoons near Reykjavík.

Timing is the last decision. The lagoon is open until midnight year-round, and in winter the darkness over Eyjafjörður makes the late slots atmospheric, though no venue can promise an aurora display and the official line from Business Iceland is that sightings carry no guarantees. The Icelandic Met Office publishes an aurora forecast with cloud cover and a six-day outlook, which is the right tool for judging a late-evening soak. Whenever you go, book the slot ahead: unbooked guests are not guaranteed entry, and the shuttle's priority boarding goes to ticket holders.

Common Questions About Forest Lagoon Iceland