One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to mix with the locals and get a taste of their way of life. The best way to do this is usually away from the hustle and bustle of tourist attractions and city centers. In Reykjavik, Iceland you can mix with the locals and enjoy a delicious Icelandic ice cream as well, at the neighborhood ice-cream parlor Isbudin Vesturbae.

This famous Reykjavik ice cream shop is in one of the western neighborhoods, it will take about 20 minutes to walk there from Reykjavik city center or a few minutes taxi ride. The Icelandic ice cream shop is in a line of three other small stores with nothing distinguishing about them from the outside except perhaps for the constant coming and going of customers in this very small ice cream store. It really appears to be plain and even a little grubby, with drab grey and pink décor, but once inside you will feel that you have stepped back in time to when ice cream parlors were the meeting point for teenagers.

Families, couples, and plenty of young Reykjavik locals crowd into this small ice cream store every day from around noon till 23:00. One of Iceland's best bands, Benny Crespo's Gang, also love this place and even the free Reykjavik bike tour makes a stop here for tourists to taste the best Icelandic ice cream.

The famous Reykjavik ice cream parlor is run by a motherly looking lady and several Icelandic beauties who help serve up the ice cream. I recommend that you stand around and watch what the locals order before you make your choice as the variety is mind boggling. I counted 3 syrups, over 30 toppings and 4 kinds of ice cream. Among the toppings are huge pieces of licorice, small pieces of various well known snack bars, smarties, fruits, all kinds of chocolate, jelly beans and various creams. At first I couldn't even recognize what the locals were eating as some had cups of what looked like hot syrup with ice cream floating in the middle, others were drinking milk shake and some had so many toppings on their portion that I couldn't even see the ice cream

The first question the Icelandic ice cream lady will ask you (she speaks English) is which ice cream you would like, the old or the new! The new ice cream was explained to me as being regular ice cream and the old ice cream is frozen milk. Both varieties of Icelandic ice cream come in strawberry and plain vanilla flavors and are extracted from a machine like American soft serve ice cream. Then the ice cream is either topped with any or all of the syrups and toppings. An alternative and my recommendation is that you try Bragðarefur.

Bragðarefur is a blend of Icelandic ice cream and several toppings of candy, fruit, nuts, spices, cookies, chocolate and or syrups. The Icelandic ice cream and toppings are blended together in a similar way to frozen yogurt. Then of course if you want to you can add even more toppings and syrup on top of your blended ice cream. On a below zero winter night I tried the "old" white vanilla ice cream blended with pieces of Bounty Bar, Sneakers Bar, roasted pecan nuts and dark chocolate. It was delicious and not as sweet as regular ice cream.

The Reykjavik ice cream parlor serves huge portions at reasonable prices in cones, cups and take-away containers. You can find Reykjavik's best ice cream at 67 Hagamel Street. Go for an ice cream and some local Reykjavik flavor, in any weather, even on a freezing winter night the place is packed and you'll be in ice cream heaven! 

You can read here about more unusual Icelandic foods. Here are some tips for travel in Reykjavik - where to eat, sleep and tour, also you may enjoy touring Iceland on horseback for an hour or a few days.