Sand Hotel is located in a cozy spot next to the beloved family-owned Sandholt Bakery. The bakery is famous for its artisan bread, delectable pastries, and stunning cakes, all baked by four generations of skilled artisans. The bakers at Sandholt merge traditional techniques with innovative ideas, filling the atmosphere with the delightful scent of their freshly made goodies.

Sand Hotel also shares its premises with another noted and historic neighbour: Guðsteinn Eyjólfsson’s Gentlemans’ Store. Having studied dressmaking in Copenhagen, Guðsteinn built an elegant tailoring workshop and store here in 1929, its architecture influenced by the Jugendstil decorative arts movement. For almost a century, this legendary institution has maintained its role in styling the discerning Icelandic gentleman.

A stone slab by the Sand Hotel commemorates the site’s most illustrious historical connection. For it was in a small house here, in 1902, that the acclaimed author and Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness was brought into the world. From this humble beginning, Laxness went on to achieve global fame as the producer of around 70 novels and countless other literary achievements.