February 25, 2025.

On an Iceland Ring Road trip, where you sleep can shape the whole next day. Winter daylight is short, the driving distances are long, and fitting in more stops means choosing overnight locations with the route in mind rather than simply stopping wherever the day ends.

For this trip, I tried to place each stay between the last stop of one day and the first stop of the next. When possible, I also liked the idea of staying somewhere dark and open enough to keep an eye on the sky.

That is how we ended up at Kvíhólmi Premium Apartments.

Is there really a place to stay out here?

The farther we left Route 1 behind and followed the navigation inward, the quieter the surroundings became.

At first I genuinely wondered whether there could be accommodation out here. When the building finally came into view, my next thought was almost the same: “This is the apartment?”

From outside, it looked more like a white farmhouse sitting alone beside a broad field than a polished hotel.

The white exterior and red roof of Kvíhólmi Premium Apartments beside an open field
From outside, I was still wondering whether this was really our accommodation. Personal photo · 2025-02-25

Opening the door changed the impression completely.

The apartment was warm and comfortable, with wooden floors, a white timber ceiling, and soft lighting. After a cold day outside, the contrast made it feel even cozier.

A warm Kvíhólmi apartment bedroom with wooden floors, white bedding, and several beds
The interior was much warmer and cozier than the first impression outside. Personal photo · 2025-02-25

After spending the day around winter waterfalls, drying everything came first. We turned up the radiator, hung our damp socks and clothes, and put a portable shoe dryer we had brought from Korea into our wet shoes.

That small piece of gear turned out to be one of the best things we had packed for winter Iceland.

The apartment also had its own kitchen and dining table, which made it easy to settle in without going back out for every meal.

The kitchenette and dining table inside Kvíhólmi Premium Apartments
A practical kitchen and dining space for a road-trip overnight stop. Personal photo · 2025-02-26

We drove for an hour to find it, then saw it back at the apartment

The reason this stay stayed with me had little to do with the room itself.

At around 3 a.m., an aurora forecast looked promising, so we got back in the car. We drove for roughly an hour on dark roads with hail coming down, stopping and checking the sky, but saw nothing.

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By the time we gave up, the disappointment was stronger than the tiredness.

Then we returned to Kvíhólmi, stepped out of the car, and looked up.

There it was.

The aurora we could not find on the road had appeared right outside our accommodation.

Our first bright green aurora stretching across the sky near Kvíhólmi Premium Apartments
Our first aurora, finally visible after we had already given up the hunt. Personal photo · 2025-02-26

Any sense of fatigue disappeared.

Green light kept shifting over the open field and mountains around the apartment. It was the first aurora I had ever seen, so I kept taking photos, unsure how long it would last.

Green aurora spreading above the snowy field around Kvíhólmi
The green glow widened over the snow-covered field. Personal photo · 2025-02-26
Strong green aurora ribbons moving above a dark snowy landscape near Kvíhólmi
The aurora kept changing shape, fading and brightening again. Personal photo · 2025-02-26

It remained clearly visible right beside the building.

Green aurora filling the night sky above the edge of the Kvíhólmi apartment roof
We did not need to drive anywhere else; the sky was active right beside the apartment. Personal photo · 2025-02-26

We stayed outside until the green light finally began to fade.

After the green night faded

A few hours later, I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed.

The view outside had completely changed. Blue early-morning light revealed the open fields and snowy mountains that had been hidden in the dark.

Snowy fields and mountains outside Kvíhólmi Premium Apartments in blue early-morning light
Blue morning light after the aurora disappeared. Personal photo · 2025-02-26

When I sat down for breakfast, the landscape outside the window looked even wider. The remoteness that had seemed strange on arrival now felt like one of the best parts of the stay.

A wide snowy field and low mountains seen through the apartment window at Kvíhólmi
By morning, the wide South Iceland landscape outside the window was fully visible. Personal photo · 2025-02-26

When we first arrived, I had wondered whether there could really be accommodation this far in.

By the time we left, we had dried our winter gear in a warm room, watched our first aurora outside, and eaten breakfast looking over a broad snowy landscape.

I booked Kvíhólmi mainly to balance the Ring Road driving route, but it became one of the nights I remember most clearly from Iceland.

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PRACTICAL INFO

  • Stay: 2025-02-25 to 2025-02-26 / 1 night
  • Property: Kvíhólmi Premium Apartments
  • Address: Syðri-Kvíhólmi, 861 Hvolsvöllur, Iceland
  • Region: South Coast
  • Location: The current Ferdalag listing places the apartments about 2.1 km from Route 1.
  • Apartments: Current information lists private entrances and apartment sizes of roughly 30–50 m².
  • Kitchen: Current listings include a kitchenette, dining area, refrigerator, stovetop, microwave/oven, dishwasher, coffee machine, and kettle.
  • Parking & Wi-Fi: Free parking and free Wi-Fi are currently listed.
  • Views: Current property information highlights mountain views toward Eyjafjallajökull and the Westman Islands.
  • Season: Ferdalag currently lists the property as open year-round.
  • Aurora: We personally saw the Northern Lights outside the property in the early hours of 2025-02-26. Visibility always depends on the conditions at the time.
  • Information checked: 2026-10-05