Hofsós swimming pool on Skagafjörður

The Hofsós pool is the municipal swimming pool in the small village of Hofsós on the east shore of Skagafjörður; the municipality's own page singles out the view from it. Entry is 1,400 ISK for an adult on the municipality's price list, read 1 November 2026. It suits a driver on the Akureyri–Borgarnes stretch who wants a swim and a fjord view in place of another hour on Route 1, and a family with under-sevens, who swim free. It does not suit a tight day: Hofsós is a 40-minute drive north of the Ring Road each way.

The figures, read today on skagafjordur.is: adult 1,400 ISK; a ten-swim card 8,750 ISK; children aged 7–18 who live outside Skagafjörður 425 ISK; children 0–6 free; seniors and disabled 425 ISK; swimsuit hire 850 ISK and towel hire 850 ISK. Children from outside the municipality start paying on 1 June of the year they turn six. The pool is at Suðurbraut, 565 Hofsós, telephone 455 6070. What the page did not carry today is the opening hours: no timetable for Hofsós, summer or winter, was published on the municipality's pools page, and the pool's Facebook page could not be read. Third-party listings give two different weekly schedules, so neither is repeated here. That is why this page is marked for checking.

#The arithmetic

Day 6 of the seven-day Ring Road and day 7 of the ten-day Ring Road run from Akureyri to Borgarnes through Varmahlíð. From Varmahlíð to Hofsós is 49 km and 40 minutes each way by OSRM on OpenStreetMap. With 75 minutes at the pool and 15 to change, the detour costs about 170 minutes on that day. As a separate outing from an Akureyri bed, the pool is 134 km and 115 minutes each way by OSRM; with the same 90 minutes and a 30-minute buffer, about 350 minutes, the better part of a short winter day.

#What goes wrong

Hours: the main risk is arriving at a closed pool, since no timetable was published today; phone first. Winter roads: safetravel.is points drivers to umferdin.is for road conditions and vedur.is for the forecast, and advises waiting somewhere safe when weather turns rather than driving on. Daylight: in November and December the view the pool is known for may be in the dark by mid-afternoon.

#Alternatives on the same road

The Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður is further north on the same Tröllaskagi coast. Back in Akureyri, Lystigarðurinn is the free hour in town, and Forest Lagoon the paid warm-water one.