The Perlan is about a thirty-minute leisurely walk from the church at the top of the main road in Reykjavik. It is also on the hop-on bus route and many tours. It is an interactive museum, cafe and restaurant that will interest all ages with an amazing 8k (ultra-high quality) planetarium-style Northern Lights show that lasts about 30 minutes.
ICE CAVE & GLACIERS
The ice cave is one hundred meters long, with a chair to sit in and other carvings. With over 350 tonnes of ice, it is cold inside. See Jean in the cave, which you can enter after the introductory film. You walk out into an educational interactive glacier exhibition. This is a great way to show a child or someone who could not otherwise go out to a glacier, an ice cave.
ÁRÓRA – NORTHERN LIGHTS SHOW
Seeing the Northern Lights for real is an experience that no flat television can reproduce. However, the 360-degree 8K projection in one of the world’s most sophisticated planetariums may be hard to beat by any real-life sighting. It is also not affected by cloud cover and there should be no cause for disappointment. It is also a beautiful story explaining where this phenomenon that dances all around you comes from. If it were not for the Perlan, the only time to experience the result of solar explosions in Iceland would be between late August and April.
LAVA SHOW
Get an insight into the Geldingadalir volcanic eruption. The first volcanic eruption in over 800 years in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula area started on March 19, 2021. Experience the Geldingadalir eruption in a powerful volcano show vastly different to the one in the model at Hamburg’s Wunderland. The show explains how scientists collected samples of the lava and gases produced by the eruption, which will be used to learn more about geological processes.
FORCE OF NATURE
This is the first exhibition you will experience upon entering. It explains geothermal energy, volcanoes and earthquakes. How these huge effects cause cracks in the earth and how water vanishes down them.
ANIMALS and NATURE
Throughout Perlan there are models and films that explain a journey of life from underwater to in the skies. They have a massive realistic model of the largest seabird cliff in Europe and films you watch in telescope-like viewfinders. It is a wonderful museum of natural history.
CAFE, RESTAURANT and GIFT SHOP
It has a cafe upstairs, and the nicest-smelling gift shop I have ever been in. On the roof, there is a 360-degree walkway with map/picture descriptions of what you are looking at, like the rooftop walk and descriptions we found in Ephesus.
ENDS
