The Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Bakery offers visitors the fun of seeing how bread is baked in the ground every day. The rye is delicious!
After an arduous but thrilling trek on the Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuhals trails, Iceland's weather had convinced us that we needed to find some slightly easier activities for the remainder of our trip.
So we started researching options — specifically, ones that would give us access to the best of the local food and drink!
Laugarvatn Fontana is a hot spring spa along Iceland’s Golden Circle route. We stopped for a tour of their Geothermal Bakery to see how they bake bread in the hot ground. It was so much fun! Here's what you can expect.
Getting to Laugarvatn Fontana
Laugarvatn is a little over an hour from Reykjavik by car.
The Golden Circle is about 190 miles in total, and this spa is located on the northern part of the loop, between Thingvellir National Park and Gulfoss Falls.
If you're going to do the Golden Circle, we highly recommend making a long day of it and planning several stops.
Before you get to Laugarvatn on this route, you'll pass several other features of interest, including the Kerið Crater. (Nearby, Minniborgir Restaurant is a nice place to stop for lunch!)
How Far Ahead Should I Book This Tour?
The tours do sell out, so if you know your dates, book early, especially if you’re visiting in summer (peak season).
That said, we booked just a few days ahead, but availability was limited. There are two mid-day time slots year-round, with a third one added for the summer. I was thrilled that we got in!
What Is the Cost?
As of 2024, the cost is 3190 ISK, which works out to a little less than $25 per person USD.
The ticket includes a tour that's between 30 and 40 minutes long and a bread tasting, along with smoked trout.
The Geothermal Bakery Tour at Laugarvatn Fontana
When we arrived we entered the spa, checked in for the tour, and had a coffee in the cafeteria while we waited.
When the tour began, our guide asked for a volunteer to carry today’s bread dough to the geothermal site. I eagerly volunteered!
We walked to the nearby lake shore and saw the geothermal pool area. Our guide warned us not to stick our fingers into the boiling water seeping into the sand. (Seems obvious, but apparently it had to be said.)
Though you may not be able to tell in the photo below, the water was indeed boiling and bubbling away.
Interestingly, the lake water is not boiling and is safe to touch. It was quite pleasantly warm!
The bakery shares access to the hot sand with others in the area. They use two rocks to mark the sand piles baking their bread. (The pile with the flags was from another someone attempting to bake bread in the ground.)
Our guide then began to dig up bread from yesterday, warning us that it was possible the bread wouldn’t be perfect, since the ground is not as reliable a heat source as an oven.
Next, she cooled off the hot bread pot in the warm lake.
After unwrapping the bread pot, we were all thrilled to see that the bread was indeed picture perfect.
Before heading back inside, she buried today’s bread in the ground to let it bake for about 24 hours.
Next came the really thrilling part — tasting the bread! We went back inside the spa to the tasting table area, where I was excited to spot some smoked trout.
Our guide sliced the bread, and we each got three slices of rye: one to try plain, one to taste with butter, and one to try with butter and smoked trout.
The bread was phenomenal! It’s fairly sweet for a rye bread, and the long slow bake caramelizes the sugar, creating a molasses-like flavor.
One last treat from the tour was a recipe card for, you guessed it, hot-spring-baked rye bread! Although most bakery visitors won't be able to go home and find the requisite boiling sand, our guide said that some people have emailed later to say that it was somewhat successful in a slow cooker. (We haven't tried it yet!)
Sadly, the bread can't be shipped abroad, and they don't have large quantities to sell on site, so this is a savor-the-moment kind of experience.
Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Pools
The spa also has a hot springs lagoon with multiple temperature pools, a steam room, a sauna, and access to the geothermally heated lake.
When we visited in 2024, the hot springs access was 5490 ISK per person (about $40 USD), making this a more affordable option compared to Reykjavik area spas like the Blue Lagoon.
We didn’t make time for the pools the day we visited. (They did look a little crowded; I’d probably aim to visit them in the morning or in off-peak season.)
If you’re planning to visit Iceland, the Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Bakery is an amazing stop! It can be a stand-alone trip or done as part of a Golden Circle self-driving tour day.
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