Kópasker Camping Ground

About Kópasker Camping Ground

Kópasker Camping Ground is the municipal campsite of Kópasker, a small village on the eastern shore of Öxarfjörður in Northeast Iceland, run by the municipality of Norðurþing. It lies at Austurtröð 4 by the entrance to the village, about 559 km from Reykjavík by road, and suits travellers taking the coastal route around the Melrakkaslétta peninsula rather than the inland Ring Road.

The site is small and simple. A service house has a toilet, a shower and two sinks, and outside there is electricity, a charcoal barbecue, picnic tables and a line for drying clothes. The pitches are sheltered from the wind on every side except the south. Open fires are not allowed. The campsite appears on the Camping Card network, but prices are not published online, so check current rates with Norðurþing before arriving.

The season is short: the campsite is open from 1 June to 1 September. The village has a shop, a wine store, a pharmacy, a health centre and a car mechanic, as well as a 9-hole golf course and a playground, and there is a local museum just outside Kópasker. Several walking paths start near the campsite and are shown on a map on site, and seals and plenty of birdlife can often be seen along the shore.

Kópasker works well as a base for the northeast corner of Iceland. Ásbyrgi, the horseshoe-shaped canyon in the northern part of Vatnajökull National Park, is roughly half an hour's drive to the southwest, and Dettifoss is within reach via Route 862. Heading north and east, the coast road crosses Melrakkaslétta towards Raufarhöfn and its Arctic Henge stone monument, passing some of the quietest and most northerly coastline on the Icelandic mainland.