Perlan Parking

About Perlan Parking

Perlan Parking is the car park beside Perlan, the glass-domed museum and viewpoint on top of Öskjuhlíð hill in Reykjavík. Perlan offers free parking right outside the building, so a visit avoids the paid parking zones in the city centre.

Perlan itself is built on top of the hot-water storage tanks that supply Reykjavík. Inside are the Wonders of Iceland exhibitions, including a man-made ice cave and displays on glaciers, volcanoes and geothermal activity, plus a planetarium show about the northern lights. A ring-shaped observation deck around the dome gives a 360-degree view over the city, Faxaflói bay, Esja and, on clear days, Snæfellsjökull. Access to the deck is included with all exhibition tickets and cannot be bought separately.

The car park also works as a starting point for the paths through the Öskjuhlíð woods, which lead down to Nauthólsvík geothermal beach and the Fossvogur coastal path. On dark, clear winter nights the hill is a popular spot in the city for looking for the northern lights, as it is higher and darker than the streets below.

The exhibitions are open from 9:00 to 21:00, the café from 10:00 to 18:00, the restaurant from 11:30 to 18:00 and the bar and ice cream parlour until 21:00; hours can change on public holidays. Without a car, city buses 13 and 18 stop closest to Perlan, a taxi from the centre takes about 5 minutes, and walking up from downtown takes around 30 minutes.