This article was originally published on Jul 14, 2022, but was updated on July 16th, 2026.

Reykjavík’s public transportation system offers a quick and inexpensive way to get around town. Since there are no trains or metro systems in Iceland, you only have to figure out how the city buses work. Reykjavík city buses are run by the company Strætó (Straeto) and are easy to spot with their yellow colour. The good news for visitors is that riding them got dramatically simpler in the last couple of years. You no longer need an app, a plastic card, or exact change in your pocket — you can just download an app or tap a contactless bank card to get on. In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about taking the bus in Reykjavík.

The super short guide to Reykjavik public transport

• Tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard as you board. That’s the whole process
• 690 ISK for an adult single, valid 75 minutes including transfers.
• Cash is not accepted on city buses since June 2025.
• Fare capping means you never pay for more than 3 rides a day or 9 a week.
• Children 11 and under ride free.

 

 

Unlimited bus travel in the capital area is included in the Reykjavík City Card

If you’re in Reykjavík and can’t wait to explore this amazing city, the first thing you should do is get yourself a Reykjavík City Card. The Reykjavík City Card offers free entry to some of the best museums and galleries in the city. Additionally, it includes access to Reykjavík’s thermal pools. The Reykjavík City Card also gives you free access to all city buses in Reykjavík. Purchase your Reykjavik City card online and pick it up at the What’s On tourist information office, Laugavegur 5. The card is available for 24, 48, or 72 hours. Make note that you need the physical card on the bus. You buy online, receive a voucher by email, and swap it for the actual card at a pickup point. The voucher itself is not valid on buses.

Bus tickets in Reykjavík

Strætó’s ticketing system is called Klapp, and there are four ways to pay when you board: Contactless payment, the Klappið app, a refillable plastic card or keychain, or a Klapp ten card, in addition to the Reykjavik City Card.

• The Reykjavik City Card includes unlimited city bus travel. It doesn’t make sense if you’re only using it for the bus, but if you plan to visit a museum or a swimming pool, it might be your most economical and simplest option.
• Contactless payment with a credit card. Tap a Visa or Mastercard on the reader as you board. 690 ISK for an adult. Nothing to download, nothing to buy in advance.
• The Klappið app. Buy single tickets or period passes on your phone and scan on board.
• Klapp card or keychain. A refillable smartcard you scan on board. The card itself costs 1,000 ISK and arrives empty — you then top it up through My Pages at klappid.is. Worth knowing before you buy one: that’s 1,000 ISK spent before your first ride. Also note that some travellers have reported not receiving the Klappið verification SMS on non-Icelandic numbers.
• Klapp ten. A disposable paper card with ten tickets, 6,900 ISK for adults. Note that ten adult tickets at 690 ISK each is also 6,900 ISK — Klapp ten is a convenience product, not a discount.

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Tips for going with the bus

• Have your card or phone ready before you board. If you’re using the Klappið app, you need to “activate” your ticket before scanning it, so try to do that before you’re on the bus, instead of keeping the rest of us waiting while you fumble around.
• Be visible and signal the driver when you see the bus coming, so they know they have to stop.
• Food consumption is not allowed on board the bus, but you can bring drinks in closed containers.
• Bikes are permitted on board, as long as there is room on the bus, but not on certain routes or departures, so check before attempting to bike on the bus, and note that baby carriages and wheelchairs have priority over bikes.
• Use the back doors of the bus when leaving.
• Mjódd is the biggest hub connecting city buses and countryside buses. Fjörður, Ásgarður, Hamraborg and Ártún are the other main interchanges.

When do the Reykjavik city buses run?

Buses generally start around 06:30 Monday to Friday, around 07:30 on Saturdays and around 09:30 on Sundays, and finish between 23:30 and 01:00. On public holidays the capital area runs a Sunday schedule. On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve buses run a Saturday schedule until roughly 15:00. There are also five night bus routes running from the city centre out to Reykjavík’s neighbourhoods, Hafnarfjörður and Mosfellsbær. The night bus fare is the same, 690 ISK

Where can I find Reykjavik public bus timetables?

Use the route planner on straeto.is or the Klappið app — both will plan a trip door to door. Timetables are also posted at bus stops and shelters. Google maps will also give you a decent route plan, but in my experience it sometimes misses if buses are delayed.

Buses that go out of town

Strætó used to have buses outside the capital city area, but the countryside bus network was rebuilt on 1 January 2026. It’s also worth understanding who runs what: Vegagerðin (the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration) owns and operates the provincial buses, while Strætó provides passenger information and related services. Long-distance buses from Reykjavík generally depart from Mjódd. Here are some major routes for example, but be sure to check for up-to-date information before planning any specific trip:

Route	Where it goes	Frequency
55	Keflavík Airport ↔ capital area	Five daily trips to and from BSÍ on weekdays; at other times to and from Fjörður in Hafnarfjörður
51	Selfoss ↔ Reykjavík	Increased weekday frequency. No longer continues along the south coast.
52	Reykjavík ↔ Höfn í Hornafirði, via Selfoss, Hvolsvöllur, Vík, Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Skaftafell and Jökulsárlón	Four trips a week only — Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays
53	Selfoss ↔ Hvolsvöllur ↔ Landeyjahöfn	Connects with the Herjólfur ferry on two trips
57	Reykjavík ↔ Akureyri	One trip per day, every day
50	Reykjavík ↔ Akranes ↔ Borgarnes	Increased frequency between Akranes and Borgarnes

A reality check on Route 52 and Jökulsárlón. People often ask whether you can bus to the glacier lagoon. Technically yes — but the bus leaves Mjódd at 14:21 and doesn’t reach Jökulsárlón until 20:25, four days a week. The return service passes Jökulsárlón at 14:10 heading west. That’s an overnight stay minimum, in the dark, in a place with little accommodation. It is a genuine transport link for people who live along the south coast; it is not an optimal way to see the lagoon. If you want the south coast in a day, that’s what a South Coast tour. Paying on countryside buses is different. On countryside trips you can pay with debit or credit card when you board, and cash is still accepted, as are countryside bus cards. Note that the single fare itself cannot be bought in the Klappið app — check prices in the route planner by entering your start point and destination. Note: Some trips need to be booked in advance. Strætó runs a pre-order service for these; check the route planner before you rely on a rural bus turning up.

A short history of Strætó

Nobody in Iceland says “Strætó bs.” They say strætó — a clipped nickname for strætisvagn, which translates literally as “street carriage.” If you want to sound like you’ve been here a while, that’s the word.

Reykjavík’s first bus services began in 1931, under a company called Strætisvagnar Reykjavíkur (SVR). For most of the twentieth century the capital region was split in two: SVR ran the north, and a separate company, Almenningsvagnar (AV), ran the south. They merged on 1 July 2001 to create Strætó in its current form. The “bs.” in the official name stands for byggðasamlag — a municipal cooperative — because Strætó isn’t a private operator. It’s collectively owned by the six municipalities it serves: Reykjavík, Kópavogur, Hafnarfjörður, Garðabær, Mosfellsbær and Seltjarnarnes. The buses belong to the towns.

The route network went essentially untouched for decades until 23 July 2005, when Strætó introduced the “trunk route” system still recognisable today. It did not go down well. The overhaul caused considerable controversy and confusion — particularly among senior citizens, who made up a large share of riders and had spent a lifetime learning the old routes.

Hlemmur: pack horses, punks, and pizza

The best story in Icelandic public transport is a building. Hlemmur, at the eastern end of Laugavegur, means “pot lid” — the name comes from a small trapdoor built over the Rauðará creek. Long before buses, this was where travellers on horseback stopped to water their animals on the way along Laugavegur to the washing pools in Laugardalur. Sigurjón Ólafsson’s sculpture Klyfjahestur (“Pack Horse”) has watched over the square since 2005, commemorating exactly that.

In the early 1970s the architect Gunnar Hansson designed a distinctive high-tech-style building for the site, and it opened in 1978 as a bustling market of stalls and shops, alongside its role as the city’s main bus terminal. The shops drifted away. By the 1980s Hlemmur had become the unofficial headquarters of Reykjavík’s punk scene, and through the 1990s a shelter for the city’s outcasts and rough sleepers — earning it a reputation the city spent decades trying to shake. Filmmaker Ólafur Sveinsson documented that world in his 2002 documentary Hlemmur.

Then, in 2017, the old terminal was reborn as Hlemmur Mathöll — Reykjavík’s first food hall, and still one of its best. Same building, same name, Neapolitan pizza where the timetables used to be.

The final chapter came in 2024, when the Hlemmur bus terminal officially closed for the Borgarlína works. All routes were diverted away from the square, with new temporary end stops at Skúlagata, the University of Iceland and Grandi. And here’s the part that surprises people: when the first phase of Borgarlína is finished, four routes will pass through Hlemmur, but none will terminate there. Reykjavík’s bus system is being rebuilt without a central terminus at all.

The green experiments

For a city of its size, Reykjavík has been an unusually aggressive testbed for alternative bus fuels. Three hydrogen fuel-cell buses ran here from October 2003 until 2008, part of the EU-part-funded ECTOS project with Icelandic New Energy — a genuinely early date for hydrogen transit anywhere. In 2006, the first two CNG buses entered service running on methane biogas captured from local waste; Reykjavík was, briefly, moving people on its own rubbish. Battery-electric buses arrived in 2018. Strætó aims to run a zero-emissions fleet by 2030.

What’s next

Planning and consultation for Borgarlína, a bus rapid transit system for the capital region, began in 2021, and it’s the reason for the roadworks you’ll see around Hlemmur. It will be the largest change to how Reykjavík moves since 1931 — and, still, not a train. (If you’re wondering why not, we wrote about why there are no trains in Iceland.)