Torfhus Retreat

Let me preface this review by saying that my wife and I travel a lot, and have stayed in a range of hotels from high-end to not so high end. If you want a ‘retreat’ to get away from it all then this is the place for you. It’s (reasonably) isolated, quiet and calming. There’s none of the buzz and noise of the bigger hotels. And the staff are welcoming, pleasant and helpful. However, I have two less than positive comments. The first is that we would have expected robes, slippers and toiletries. The rooms are small and minimal, reflecting the ecological ethos of the hotel, but since they are also high cost, greater attention to in-room guest comfort would be reasonable. The second is the restaurant. I’m happy with the idea of the chef not deciding what to cook until they know what’s available on the day. What I’m very unhappy with is not being told the menu when sitting down to dinner. Among other things, it can make wine choices challenging. As much as we tried, waiting staff would not tell us what we were about to eat. Apart pushing guests into opting for the wine pairing, it smacks of arrogance on the part of the chef and hotel management (‘we know best and the customer doesn’t). Having said that the wine pairing (and sommelier) was good even if it makes the meal more expensive. Needless to say, we opted out of dinner for our remaining two nights and ate at local restaurants, which were good. It’s a shame that this hotel, which was billed as the potential highlight of our Icelandic road trip, turned out not to be the case.

My husband and I had the best couple of days at this beautiful retreat! The bedroom and bathroom were perfect and a particular mention to Doddi for his amazing service! Also, to the chef the food was outstanding. We ate at the restaurant both nights and it was exceptional we absolutely loved it all. We had the wine pairing both nights and it was really excellent! Thank you all for a wonderful stay in a beautiful and special place. PS We said yes to the wake up call and saw the Northern lights ...fabulous experience!

Not only was this place everything we expected, but we both had come down with a good old Icelandic cold. We were totally miserable for 3 day. The staff went above and beyond to help us through it. They even catered a 3 course chefs special directly to our cottage, offered to bring lemon slices and ginger to ease our sore throats. The word “no” never crossed their lips. Still was true service!! We can’t thank you enough.

The warmth and hospitality here was excellent. We were impressed at the skill of the kitchen as well as the wine pairings and knowledge of the sommelier. The rooms have everything you need, and nothing more. The hot tubs were sublime. Our only suggestion would be to replace the false candles with real candles in the dining room and lounge. Other than that, this spot was beyond charming.

We spent three happy nights in a 2-Bed-Rooms-Hus at the Torfhus. The house offered two lovely bedrooms (not much storage place), a bathroom with shower (again not much storage place) and a well equipped kitchen…and a stunning private hot pot between basalt stones. The design is as beautiful as shown on the website and we highly enjoyed a rainy day inside reading on the couch. The unexpected highlight of our stay were the three dinners we had at the Torfhus restaurant (not open to public): the chef and the sommelier are true connaisseurs - the food was just excellent and the pairing wines were wonderful! We‘d return there solely for that culinary experience - which was served by a highly dedicated and enthusiastic service team. Thank you so much to everyone! The retreat is close to Gulfoss waterfall and the Geysir Strokkur (about 20 minutes drive) and about 15 minutes from the next supermarket (Fludir) and 15 minutes from Geysir Hestar, a horses farm that offers lovely riding tours.

This is my first review on Trip Advisor. Be careful of Torhus's "Standard Rate" non-refundable deposit! Here's why I say that...Torfhus looks amazing, but I will never visit. I booked one of their cute houses for two nights in June of this year under "Standard Rate". The other option was a "Non-Refundable Rate". Three days later, we unfortunately cancelled our entire trip to Iceland due to family issues. Six of the seven hotels cancelled our stay with no problems. Torfhus would not. The "Standard Rate" actually contains a 20% non-refundable deposit. It was my fault that I did not read the cancellation policy, so that is on me. Three days after booking a hotel five months ahead, we lost $800. I suggested splitting it or thought returning it when it was re-booked would be fair, but Torfhus would not agree. Again, it was my fault that I did not know I would lose 20% immediately booking on the Standard Rate, but I was very surprised Torfhus would not work with us given we had to cancel our entire trip for family issues. If you understand the terms, it does look lovely.

The rooms are comfortable. The outdoor hot tub was convenient to the room and beautifully done. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We had dinner at Torfus the two nights we were there. The food and service were outstanding. Some of the best cuisine we have had anywhere. It is very conveniently located in the Golden Circle. We'd highly recommend a stay at Torfus when you are visiting Iceland.

What an incredible place. Our cottage was warm, with two bedrooms, a fantastic shower-room, living kitchen lounge and the most amazing geothermal tub from which to witness the night skies. Transport is provided to take you to the club house where the chef prepares exquisite local fresh food that both my wife, teenage kids and I enjoyed immensely. All washed down with paired wines and spirits. If you’re lucky you’ll see the northern lights as well. The retreat could not be more accommodating and attentive. Situated 90 minutes from Reykjavík and v close to the Golden Circle sights meant that we got to experience the strokkur geyser on our own. Totally blown away by the friendliness of the locals and the sheer beauty of the harsh landscape in the winter. Just go, you won’t regret it❤️

I’ll start by saying it is a beautiful property and the first place we saw Northern Lights, so it is very special in those ways. Unfortunately our experience was lackluster other than that. We travel quite a bit to luxury 5-star, $1000+/night resorts so we are comfortable with that price point, but expect a certain level of amenities and service that we didn’t find here. Everything just felt a bit chaotic and subpar. Here are a few examples: Two people had to consult with each other on how to let us in the front gate and check us in, which lacked polish from the start. Regardless of the cost of the hotel, my confidence is low when your confidence is low. I think we were arrived early (although I’m not sure because not one communication stated check in time), but we were overly communicative that we may be arriving at 1pm due to weather but we were happy to wait in a lounge if needed. We were pleasantly surprised with 1pm access to our room, but the whole entry was as if they were confused by our presence. Furthermore, rather standard items were missing from the rooms like hair conditioner, body lotion and bath slippers. We decided to spend 48 hours on property to relax and enjoy the scenery, especially in the highly promoted hot tubs, after finding ourselves with two open days when The Retreat Hotel at Blue Lagoon cancelled our reservation due to the volcano. Considering the sun is only up for 4 hours per day this time of year, our timeframe to enjoy the outdoors was limited. We went to our hot tub around 12:15pm on our only full day there and it was cold. Long story short, we called multiple times for it to be heated and were told “30 minutes” every time for over two hours. Since this was how we planned on enjoying the sunny hours of our day, to spend half of it waiting around and feeling like a nuisance calling to ask for it to be functioning was frustrating. Maybe the most disappointing part though was the dining. It’s a 3-course meal that no one explained to us, but through TripAdvisor we had learned was prix fixe and about $100 per person plus the cost of wine. It’s bizarre that no one at the hotel explains that, but we were researched enough that we declined dinner the first night because we have very specific dietary restrictions and we thought it only fair to give them 24 hours to accommodate them. Attached is a photo of the communication. After being assured there were no issues, we sat down to dinner to be told we’d both be having fish and venison (if you see the photos attached, you’ll see that was almost comical). When I kindly referenced our requests, the waitress got very defensive and started arguing that: 1) they don’t serve chicken; 2) we didn’t give them enough notice; 3) they can’t get beef in that area, etc. Finally they served my husband fried chicken gyoza as an entree (although one wonders where the chicken came from since they don’t serve chicken?). It was fine, but our dinner bill for 3 courses with wine was $500 US