Kex ("biscuit") turned an old cookie factory on the waterfront into the hostel other cities copy: salvage-styled interiors (barber chairs, library ladders, mismatched mid-century everything), dorms and simple privates upstairs, and a ground floor that outgrew the category — Sæmundur í Sparifötunum, the house gastropub, pours local taps and plates lamb-and-fish comfort to a crowd that's half guests, half Reykjavik (the sea-facing windows catch Esja across the bay); live sessions and DJ nights run the calendar; and the lobby's social gravity makes solo-traveler friendships a near-mechanical outcome. Rooms run hostel-honest — bunks, shared baths for most, privates for the noise-averse-ish — at the city's friendliest rates for the location (Laugavegur two minutes, the water across the street). The budget pick with the best stories. Booked directly.
The Frón biscuit factory baked on this waterfront block for decades before the 2011 conversion wrote the template for the "design hostel": keep the industrial bones, furnish from salvage with a stylist's eye (the lobby's barber chair, gym-ladder shelving, type-case walls), and run the ground floor as a genuine public venue so the building belongs to the city rather than just its guests. It worked culturally beyond category — international music press "discovered" it, Airwaves festival adopted it, and a decade-plus later Kex remains shorthand for Reykjavik's social center of budget gravity.
Sleeping is cheerfully utilitarian
Dorms from four to sixteen bunks (curtains and lockers in the modern refits; earplugs still a wise packing line given the downstairs calendar), simple privates with shared or en-suite baths for couples and families wanting the scene without the bunkmates, and the shared bathrooms kept to Icelandic standards (which is to say: spotless). The common floors carry the value: the gastropub's all-day service (breakfast buffet through late plates; the happy-hour taps draw the neighborhood), the sea-window lounge aimed at Esja, heated outdoor benches for aurora-adjacent loitering, and the events board — live sessions, DJ nights, pub quizzes — that makes "quiet night in" a decision rather than a default.
Position seals it
Skúlagata's shorefront with the Sun Voyager two minutes east, Laugavegur's core two south, Hlemmur food hall four — the walkable everything at the rate class's floor. Calibration for bookers: it's social by architecture (light sleepers take privates on upper floors or look elsewhere), dorm demand peaks with festivals (Airwaves books it solid months out), and the gastropub's quality means even non-guests should lunch once. For solo travelers, budget couples, and anyone whose trip runs on conversations: the capital's best cheap bed, and arguably its best bar with beds attached.
Why stay here
- ✓Design-salvage interiors
- ✓Sæmundur gastropub & local taps
- ✓Sea-view common room (Esja across the bay)
- ✓Live music & DJ calendar
- ✓Dorms & simple privates
- ✓Breakfast buffet option
- ✓Two minutes to Laugavegur
- ✓The city's social crossroads
Good questions
Is it party-loud?+
Social by design — the gastropub and events calendar run downstairs, so bunks come with atmosphere (and the modern dorms with curtains and lockers). Light sleepers book upper-floor privates or a quieter address and visit for the taps.
Do non-guests really hang out there?+
Constantly — Sæmundur's taps, the sea windows, and the music calendar make it a legitimate city venue. Half the common room on any evening is Reykjavik itself.
What's the private-room situation?+
Simple doubles and family rooms, shared or en-suite baths, at rates well under the hotel floor — the move for couples wanting the scene without the dorm sociology.
