Accommodation

Country Hotel Anna - Hotel rooms:
Seven double / twin en-suite rooms, all with TVs. Each room has its own special furniture and its own unique style, with an emphasis on high-quality furnishings and an ambience that is reminiscent of the first decades of the 20th century. Wheelchair access. Guests have access to a hot tub and sauna. Breakfast is included.

Country Hotel Anna Apartments:
Next to the hotel are 9 apartments: Five standard one bedroom apartments, each accommodates up to 2 guests. All apartments have a kitchenette, a bedroom with twin or queen size bed, TV, internet. Four deluxe apartment with a bedroom with twin or king size bed and a living room with a sleeping sofa. Kitchenette, TV and internet. Can accommodate up to 4 guests. Access to a hot-tub. Breakfast is not included but available for all guests at the hotel. Breakfast is included.

Board

At Hotel Anna or "Önnuhús" (‘Anna’s house’) is a charming restaurant in an old, renovated dairy that sits 45 people. There is an emphasis on fresh local produce and dishes based on traditional Icelandic recipes. Delicous continental style breakfast and during the day, light meals, cakes, coffee and other beverages are available, while dinner for hotel guests and walk-ins is served from 18:30 – 21. Special group menu. Licensed.  

Service and recreation

Good facilities for parties and meetings, including, among other things, a special dining room that sits 70 people. Hiking trails in the vicinity of the hotel and in the region beyond. Horse riding tours from the nearest farm, Skálakot (800 m / 2,624 ft.). Snowmobile tours on Sólheimajökull glacier. Pedal boat tours around Dyrhólaey. Interesting museums in Skógar and Þorvaldseyri. The nearest town is Hvolsvöllur (33 km / 21 mi) where there is a swimming pool, various tourism service businesses, shops, a liquor store and the Saga Centre (Sögusetrið, devoted to the beloved Njál’s Saga). Travelling along route no 1 (the ‘Ring Road’), 7 km / 4.5 mi west of the Hvolsvöllur village, is the 18-hole Strandarvöllur golf course. There is a horse-breeding farm at Moldnúpur.

 
‘A Dairymaid Travels the World’

Hotel Anna bears the name of Sigríður Anna Jónsdóttir, who moved to Moldnúpur with her parents in the year 1901 when she was a few months old. She grew up there and called herself ‘Anna of Moldnúpur’. She was a self-educated commoner, workwoman, dairymaid and weaver who, at the age of nearly 51, went travelling solo around several countries in western Europe and finally to the United States in her sixties. She wrote, among others things, five self-published books about her travels. One of these, A Dairymaid Travels the World, was translated into English. The hotel has an exhibition about the life and writings of Sigríður Anna, who passed away in 1979.

 
Eyjafjallajökull, Skógafoss and district museum in Skógar

Eyjafjallasveit and the glacier that towers over it made international news in 2010, when Eyjafjallajökull erupted. Traces of this natural disaster are now gone, and visitors are welcomed by an enchantingly beautiful landscape, dramatic yet homey at the same time. Next to Skógar (16 km / 10 mi) is Skógafoss, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Iceland. It is possible to walk up the hillside by the waterfall, ideal for taking a short stroll into the plateau above the falls, where you can enjoy the view and tranquillity of nature. At Skógar there is also a good district museum, which everyone, adults and children alike, will enjoy.

 
Glacier tours, Dyrhólaey, Seljalandsfoss and Vestmannaeyjar

At Sólheimajökull (25 km / 16 mi) you can go on snowmobile or jeep tours up on the glacier. Other well-known places to the east are Dyrhólaey promontory (41 km / 25 mi) and Reynisfjara beach (52 km / 32 mi). At Þorvaldseyri (8 km / 5 mi) is the Eyjafjallajökull Visitor Centre, which displays photographs of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption and traces the history of eruptions in South Iceland. It is 14 km / 9 mi to Seljalandsfoss waterfall and 43 km / 27 mi to Þórsmörk, the natural wonder north of the glacier. From Landeyjahöfn (27 km / 17 mi) it is possible to take a 35-minute ferry journey over to Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands). On a day trip to the islands you can, amongst other things, visit the highly emotive museum about the 1973 eruption and its aftermath.

Host:  Einar