AKUREYRI IN FACTS & FIGURES

With a population of 20.000, Akureyri is the largest town in North Iceland and the thirdlargest urban area in Iceland after Reykjavík and Keflavík.

Many of the older houses in town have a quilted exterior, unlike the corrugated iron ubiquitous elsewhere in Iceland. The houses are tiled with pre-pressed iron plates imported from America in the 1930s.

In 1863, more than fifty years before Icelandic women won the right to vote, a woman in Akureyri voted in the municipal elections. Her vote was accepted because of a loophole created by a translating error in the original Danish law.

The town’s Botanical Garden contains almost every plant that grows in Iceland and several species from other countries like Greenland.

Akureyri sits at the head of the longest fjord in Iceland: Eyjafjörður.

Akureyri was home to Matthías Jochumsson, the poet who wrote the lyrics to Iceland’s National Anthem.

In Akureyri, stopping at a red light is much more pleasant than elsewhere; the red lights are heart-shaped! Stopping for a selfie in the middle of traffic is dangerous, but you’ll find a heart-shaped red light by the cultural centre, Hof!

Since Akureyri is so far north, it’s a prime spot to experience the midnight sun. Around the summer solstice, the sun doesn’t set at all.

Akureyri is only about 90km south of the Arctic Circle