Go with the flow
After an accidental start, Iceland’s lagoon wonder is a major tourist attraction and now a lucrative business.
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- 3 min read
Framed by a black lava rock wall slick with water, Grimur Saemundsen is discreetly surveying his kingdom. At a nearby table, a young Japanese couple in matching bathrobes and slippers tucks into a sushi lunch. A Scottish mother and daughter sample mineral clay masks at the boutique. Outside, buses unload a polyglot conga line of excited American honeymooners, Northern Lights trekkers and south European day trippers, who stop to gawk at the otherworldly volcanic landscape of the Reykjanes Peninsula, a 50-minute drive from Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. Ancient lichen-covered lava fields crisscrossed by fissures, mud pools, craters, hot springs and, of course, ice extend as far as the eye can see.
Behind low-slung gates is the Blue Lagoon, the geothermal tourist attraction voted one of National Geographic’s 25 Wonders of the World and a magnet for the elite and ordinary alike. Bill Gates reportedly reserved the whole complex for a swim; guests have included the likes of Jay Z and Beyonce.
Last year, it attracted more than two-thirds of the 1.8 million visitors to this tiny country of 330,000.
The man-made lagoon is a surreal sight this late morning in November. It glows an eerily beautiful, highly Instagram-able glacier blue courtesy of the rich natural mix of mineral and salts in the water, silica in particular. Bathers are all but invisible, wreathed in steam and sulphur-ripe clouds that almost mask the weak red winter sun already slipping down into a horizon of white ice just before lunchtime.
My 10-year-old twins are enthralled. Within seconds of diving into the bathwater-warm lagoon, they’re splashing off into the misty distance, returning minutes later looking like a pair of miniature White Walkers from Game of Thrones. They’ve found the floating silica mask bar and had a free facial (as you do).
We bob along in the warm water dodging the selfie-taking lot with comical white and green clay-smeared faces. It’s equal parts bizarre and magical.
The Blue Lagoon happened by accident, says chief executive and founder Saemundsen, a fit, lean, 60-something medical doctor by training turned businessman.
He tells me that back in the 1980s, locals noticed that the milky blue waters of a pond formed from the run-off from the local geothermal power plant in the lava field beside the Svartsengi Resource Park seemed to help skin ailments such as psoriasis.
It piqued Saemundsen’s interest and he became involved, overseeing the 1992 launch of Blue Lagoon Limited, a research and development company focused on the health benefits of the lagoon’s primary elements (silica, algae and minerals), a skincare line in 1995, and then the opening of the spa facility in 1999 followed by a small hotel named Silica.
These murky blue waters have become a lucrative business, with the Blue Lagoon now one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, with more than 97 per cent of visitors from overseas; this year, more than 1.3 million are expected.
The noise of hammers and drills echoes through the foyer. Next month, he’ll oversee the biggest change in its history with the opening of The Retreat at the Blue Lagoon, a sprawling complex built into an 800-year-old lava flow on the southwest side of Blue Lagoon, and tapping into the same volcanic aquifer of geothermal seawater as the main lagoon.
Billed as Iceland’s first five-star hotel and spa resort, it will feature the Retreat Spa, a subterranean luxury space carved deep into the lava providing beauty treatments based around the lagoon’s minerals and salts; a lava-rock-heated steam room; a fire pit and a sauna; the Retreat Lagoon, a new geothermal lake; the Moss Restaurant, featuring seasonal local produce alongside a seven-course tasting menu; and the Retreat Hotel of 62 suites, some with direct private access to the lagoon, original Icelandic art, and bespoke lava stone furniture and fittings.
As chairman of the Icelandic Travel Industry Association, Saemundsen is well aware of the challenges triggered by growth. He says the island’s phenomenal tourism surge was sparked, curiously, by the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. He dubs it “a blessing in disguise” as it put Iceland permanently on the map “as being unique and exotic”. But the boom has also been fuelled by the global interest in wellness, sustainability and eco-tourism. While this has generated huge economic benefits for the country, there have been pitfalls, with growing concerns over the lack of adequate infrastructure and the impact on the environment.
With the Retreat development, Saemundsen hopes to entrench a new luxury eco-tourism model in Iceland based on the sensitive use of resources, combined with a more private, upscale experience. He cites the Blue Lagoon’s architect Sigridur Sigmarsdottir’s careful integration of the site’s natural lava forms into the design. He looks around the bustling hub.
“This is a very creative company. I describe it as a 25-year-old start up,” he says. “I no longer practise [medicine] because it was obvious to me I would not be giving the medical profession much respect if I thought I could build up a company and practise medicine at the same time.
“So I decided to follow my heart and put myself into this very interesting and exciting opportunity. It is a great passion, certainly. It has completely consumed me.”
So will Beyonce and Bill be among guests at the inaugural season in April? He grins but his face gives away nothing.
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The blue lagoon is as good as the pictures show. Iceland is just a spectacular country, Scotland on steroids.
It's funny in a way that the waste heat from a stinking great power station creates the countries biggest tourist retreat and faux green at that .
@Sleepy Lizard its a geothermal power station, Geo from Greek meaning earth, and thermal meaning heat conductivity
theres no waste heat... the heat isn't a byproduct of spent coal or gas its literally from the earth, like the core, you dont get much greener then that in terms of power generation
This is the kind of thing that I would not normally read as this sort of Resort would only be for for stuck up rich people.
However, I did find the article interesting . Iceland a Country of 330,000 people has a lot going for it.
and they made the World Cup - pretty good.
and their are 2 Icelandic Ladies that play on the USLPGA Tour. I thought Iceland was to bloody cold for Golf Courses, but apparently they have half a dozen courses that are among the best in the World.
Deplorable #1