Lego-like homes, crusty sailors and the freshest air in the world

Word to the wise: Throw away the maps and walk around Old Town on your own with nothing to guide you but the sights and sounds of Reykjavik.

Old Town makes for the perfect walking tour. Compressed into the tiny 101 postal code, the centre of this neighbourhood is the Old Harbour where visitors can watch hardy Icelanders dressed in overalls working the port to wrestle the ocean’s bounty from the stubborn sea. While the majority of boat traffic now operates east at Sundahöfn port, the Old Harbour is not a museum, continuing to maintain its lively, rustic history.

After observing the weathered harbour men, tour the cobbled sidewalks past brightly coloured houses protected from the subarctic elements by corrugated metal sidings, and pass the bakeries and Icelandic woollen shops. Just when your imagination takes you back to a forgotten time before mobile phones and computers you’re brought back to modernism by spotting an Icelandic blonde waltzing past in skinny jeans, moving to the tracks pulsating through her i-Pod.