July is Iceland's busiest month, with 17.3% of 2025's tourist nights, and December the quietest, with 3.9%. July and August together carried 33.1% of the year, making Iceland the tenth most seasonal of 35 European countries we measured. September was quieter than June, at 11.0% against 11.7%.
Iceland, month by month
- Two busiest months
- Other months
When is Iceland busiest, and when is it quietest?
July was the busiest month in 2025, with 17.3% of the year's tourist nights. December was the quietest, with 3.9%. That makes July 4.4 times as busy as December.1
Eight months each carried less than an average month's share of 8.3%: January, February, March, April, May, October, November and December.
Who stays in Iceland: residents or guests from abroad?
In 2025, guests living abroad spent 87.1% of Iceland's tourist nights. Residents of Iceland spent the rest.1
- Highest share from abroad
- Other months
The share from abroad was highest in September, at 93.2% of that month's nights, and lowest in July, at 78.0%.1
Guests from abroad spent more than half of the nights in every month of the year.
Eurostat counts guests by the country they live in, not by nationality.2
How seasonal is Iceland compared with the rest of Europe?
July and August together carried 33.1% of Iceland's nights. Ranked by that share, Iceland is the tenth most seasonal of the 35 European countries we measured, where 1 is the country most concentrated into its two busiest months.1
For comparison, the most seasonal country on this measure was Croatia at 54.5%, and the least seasonal was Malta at 21.8%. See all 35 countries ranked.
How full are Iceland's hotels each month?
Hotel rooms were fullest in July, when 87.0% were in use, and emptiest in December, at 43.1%.3
- Fullest month
- Other months
This is Eurostat's net occupancy rate of bedrooms: bedrooms in use divided by bedrooms available. It covers hotels and similar places only, not campsites or holiday lets, so it can peak in a different month from the nights figures above.2
How long do guests stay in Iceland?
Guests stayed an average of 1.5 nights each time they checked in at tourist accommodation in Iceland in 2025: 10,160,396 nights across 6,777,887 arrivals.4 Across the 33 countries on this site with complete figures, the average ran from 1.5 nights in Iceland to 4.7 in Cyprus.4
This is our division of Eurostat's two counts. Eurostat counts an arrival each time a guest checks in at a place to stay, so a traveller who moves between places is counted more than once, and a whole trip is longer than the figure suggests.2
Did accommodation in Iceland get more expensive in 2025?
On Eurostat's harmonised index of consumer prices, prices of accommodation services in Iceland were 3.9% higher on average in 2025 than in 2024. Across the EU the rise was 4.1%.5
This measures how prices changed, not what a stay costs, so check the current price when you book. Accommodation services cover hotels, motels and inns; holiday centres, campsites and youth hostels; and other places to stay.
What is the weather like in Reykjavik each month?
Averaged over 1991–2020, the Reykjavik weather station, which we use for Reykjavik, is warmest in July, with an average high of 14.9 °C, and coldest in February, with an average low of −1.9 °C. Its wettest month is December (95 mm of rain on average) and its driest June (43 mm).6
In December, Iceland's quietest month, the station's average high is 3.3 °C and its average low −1.6 °C, with 95 mm of rain. In July, the busiest, the average high is 14.9 °C.6
In December the station averages 14.6 days with at least 1 mm of rain and 13 hours of sunshine.6 On 15 December the sun is up for about 4 h 15 min there, against 19 h 45 min on 15 July.7
| Month | Average high | Average low | Rain | Rainy days | Sunshine | Daylight on the 15th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.2 °C | −1.7 °C | 87 mm | 15.3 days | 23 h | 5 h 25 min |
| February | 3.3 °C | −1.9 °C | 91 mm | 15.0 days | 62 h | 8 h 40 min |
| March | 4.2 °C | −1.3 °C | 81 mm | 14.2 days | 110 h | 11 h 40 min |
| April | 6.9 °C | 1.0 °C | 59 mm | 12.0 days | 165 h | 15 h 5 min |
| May | 10.1 °C | 4.0 °C | 53 mm | 10.8 days | 209 h | 18 h 25 min |
| June | 13.0 °C | 7.2 °C | 43 mm | 9.3 days | 190 h | 21 h |
| July | 14.9 °C | 9.1 °C | 50 mm | 10.3 days | 183 h | 19 h 45 min |
| August | 14.1 °C | 8.6 °C | 64 mm | 11.6 days | 165 h | 16 h 25 min |
| September | 11.4 °C | 6.2 °C | 87 mm | 15.0 days | 118 h | 13 h 5 min |
| October | 7.6 °C | 2.7 °C | 80 mm | 13.1 days | 92 h | 9 h 50 min |
| November | 4.7 °C | −0.1 °C | 86 mm | 13.7 days | 40 h | 6 h 30 min |
| December | 3.3 °C | −1.6 °C | 95 mm | 14.6 days | 13 h | 4 h 15 min |
Thirty-year averages from one weather station, Reykjavik, which we use for Reykjavik. They describe a typical year at that station, not a forecast, and weather varies across Iceland. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain. Daylight is not measured: it is our calculation of the time from sunrise to sunset.
June or September? May or October?
September was quieter than June, at 11.0% against 11.7%.
May was quieter than October, at 6.6% against 7.8%.
These compare months at similar distances from the summer peak. For typical weather in Reykjavik, see the weather section.
What these figures cannot tell you
These figures are good at one thing: showing when a country's registered tourist accommodation fills up. Four things they cannot do.
They miss some small places. The counts cover hotels, holiday and short-stay accommodation and campsites, but countries may exclude establishments with fewer than ten bed places, so small guesthouses can be missing.2
Nights are not queues. A national monthly total cannot see how busy one old town, beach or museum is on a given day.
Tourist nights say nothing about weather or prices. The weather section uses 30-year averages from one station, not a forecast. The price section shows how accommodation prices changed, not what a stay costs.
They are one year. These are 2025 figures. Patterns shift from year to year, and Eurostat revises its data as countries update their returns.
The full year
| Month | Share of year | Nights | From abroad |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.9% | 400,852 | 82.0% |
| February | 5.3% | 542,948 | 90.4% |
| March | 6.2% | 630,485 | 89.3% |
| April | 5.4% | 547,754 | 88.7% |
| May | 6.6% | 669,757 | 88.7% |
| June | 11.7% | 1,192,272 | 87.0% |
| July (one of the two busiest months) | 17.3% | 1,755,009 | 78.0% |
| August (one of the two busiest months) | 15.8% | 1,606,124 | 88.2% |
| September | 11.0% | 1,121,378 | 93.2% |
| October | 7.8% | 793,340 | 91.1% |
| November | 4.9% | 501,811 | 87.4% |
| December | 3.9% | 398,666 | 89.9% |
Total for 2025: 10,160,396 nights, 87.1% of them by guests living abroad. The two busiest months are marked. "From abroad" is the share of that month's nights spent by guests living outside Iceland.
Key takeaways
- December was Iceland's quietest month in 2025, with 3.9% of the year's tourist nights.
- July and August were the busiest, carrying 33.1% of the year between them.
- Iceland ranks 10 of 35 European countries for seasonal concentration, where 1 is the most concentrated.
- Guests living abroad spent 87.1% of Iceland's 2025 tourist nights; residents spent the rest.
- Hotel rooms were fullest in July (87.0% in use) and emptiest in December (43.1%).
- September was quieter than June, at 11.0% against 11.7%.
- What we would skip: assuming every shoulder month is equally quiet. In Iceland, June carried 11.7% of the year's nights against September's 11.0%.
Sources
The tourism and hotel figures on this page come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, which receives them from each country's national statistical authority. The weather averages come from the World Meteorological Organization's 1991–2020 climate normals, published by the US National Centers for Environmental Information. We downloaded the data directly and calculated the shares, rankings and comparisons ourselves. See how we research.
- Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
- Eurostat, Tourist accommodation reference metadata, on collection by national authorities under Regulation (EU) 692/2011, the definition of a night spent, country of residence, and the ten-bed-place threshold. Read it. Checked 17 September 2026.
- Source: Eurostat, Net occupancy rate of bed-places and bedrooms in hotels and similar accommodation – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_MNOR, accessed 22 September 2026. Extract: bedrooms, percentage, January–December 2025.
- Source: Eurostat, Arrivals at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_ARM, with the nights data (tour_occ_nim), accessed 25 September 2026. Extract: number of arrivals and nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests, January–December 2025. Average stay is our calculation: nights divided by arrivals.
- Source: Eurostat, HICP – annual data (average index and rate of change), doi:10.2908/PRC_HICP_AIND, accessed 22 September 2026. Extract: accommodation services (COICOP CP112), annual average rate of change, 2025.
- Weather: WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), station Reykjavik (station ID 00004030), mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of days with at least 1 mm of precipitation, and total hours of sunshine, normals computed from at least 24 years. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.25921/800j-vn07. Accessed 22 September 2026. Released by NOAA under CC0.
- Daylight: our calculation of the time from sunrise to sunset on the 15th of each month of 2026 at the weather station's location, by the method of the NOAA Solar Calculator (NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, “Solar Calculation Details”, based on Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, allowing 0.833° for refraction and the size of the sun). Read it. Checked 22 September 2026. NOAA notes that calculated times can differ from what is observed.
Modified data. The monthly shares, residence shares, rankings and comparisons are our own calculations from Eurostat's counts. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so they may not add exactly. Eurostat bears no responsibility for these calculations or for how the figures are presented here. Rainfall is rounded to the nearest millimetre; temperatures are shown as published.