Hafnafjordur is often seen as just a suburb of Reykjavik even though it is a town in its own right. The town is built on an old lava field and evidence of this can be seen in the town park, Hellisgerdi where many of the lava formations are seen and thought of as a natural form of 3D art. The town surrounds a fine beach leading to the attractive harbour. There’s an ‘old town’ too with narrow winding streets and quaint wooden houses painted in dozens of different colours.
Keflavik, some thirty miles away is best known as the site of Iceland’s international airport that serves Reykjavik but the town is attractive to tourists too with a busy harbour from where you can take whale watching trips out to sea. Usually for half a day, this is often as much as many stomachs can stand given the choppy nature of the sea. If you’re in the city in August it hosts a Festival of Lights which illuminates the city just as the northern winter whispers its arrival and the nights begin to draw in.