Ask away

刀䔀䜀一䘀䄀吀一䄀퀀唀刀 唀刀䈀䄀一 伀唀吀䔀刀圀䔀䄀刀

Secret Siglo

Larissa Kyzer explores one of North Iceland’s destinations less travelled.

TEXT: Larissa Kyzer PHOTOS: Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson (this spread) and Larissa Kyzer

“People don’t end up here accidentally.” Or so I’m told upon my arrival in Siglufjordur, the northernmost village on the Trollaskagi peninsula in North Iceland. On this beautiful morning in early March, there’s not a cloud in sight, and I’m gazing across a glittering fjord at a mountain that looks like it was dipped in powdered sugar, as sunlight skips back and forth across the water and alights upon multicoloured houses perched like Easter eggs behind me. On such an absurdly gorgeous day, it’s difficult to imagine why this place isn’t constantly overrun by visitors. And yet, having just made the journey myself, I get it. Siglufjordur – or Siglo, in the local and more easily pronounceable parlance – is barely an hour’s drive away from Akureyri, the region’s largest town, but getting there is something you have to really commit to. There’s no way of entering the town by car without driving through one or more tunnels – two of which are single, one-way lanes – that have been blasted out from the mountainside. And so Siglo remains off the beaten path for most travellers. Which is a shame, because this historic fishing village turned local hot spot is definitely worth a detour.

The locals’ getaway

If you’ve heard of Siglufjordur before now, there’s a good chance you remember it as the snowbound setting for Trapped (Ofaerd), the Icelandic crime drama that took audiences by storm last year. Happily, suspicious deaths are confined to fiction here, and not only on TV: local boy Ragnar Jonasson’s award-winning Dark Iceland crime novels are also all set in and around the village. But checking into the elegant Siglo Hotel – with its harbour-side hot tub, inventive cocktail list, and well-dressed