All About the Mysterious Krafla Shower in Northern Iceland

Iceland is full of amazing natural beauty and vast landscapes, but it’s also home to one of the oddest roadside attractions I’ve seen: A perpetual shower running 24/7, in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t have an official name as far as I know, but I’ve mostly seen it referred to as the “Krafla Shower” due to its proximity to the nearby Krafla power plant. So we’ll go with that and refer to it as the Krafla Shower. I’ll give you everything you need to know about visiting the endless Krafla shower and how to find it.

Where is the Krafla Shower?

The endless shower is located in northern Iceland, not to far from Myvatn, a popular area for tourists traveling the ring road. The shower is located off the ring road, on a road leading directly to the Krafla power plant, and eventually leads to the Viti Crater.

If you are visiting the nearby Myvatn Geothermal Area, the shower is only an 8-minute drive away, so why not check it out? And then continue up the road to see the crater.

Why visit the Krafla Shower?

The real question is, why not? I love oddball attractions, so I had the Krafla Shower marked on my map for several years before I visited Iceland. The thing is, you don’t just have to stand there and look at it; you could actually use this shower if you wanted. The water is fed by a spring and geothermally heated so it’s a nice & hot shower if you need to rinse off.

Related: Traveling to Iceland? Need help planning? I got you, fam! Here are all my Iceland posts!

History of the Krafla Shower

There’s not a whole lot of information about this strange roadside oddity. It’s a shower in a less-traveled area of northern Iceland, near Myvatn and was most likely started as an art installation sometime in the late-00s or early 2010’s.

At one point in time, there was a toilet and a sink here, so if you really needed to do your business, you could go right then and there, with no cover whatsoever! However, the toilet was gone when we were there, and only the endless shower remains.

To this day, no one has fessed up to creating this endless outdoor shower in Iceland, so its origins remain a mystery.

Visiting the Krafla Shower

The perpetual shower is right off the road – you can’t miss it. There is a large open patch of dirt where the shower has been place, and the parking area is huge. This area is a little off-the-beaten-path but when we were here (July), we were not the only people here. So if you really want to bare all here, you might have an audience!

No one was actually using the shower – everyone, including myself, just wanted photos

I just rinsed my hands off in the shower – I wasn’t about to strip down and actually take a shower here. I had to test it out though, and the water was definitely warm but not scalding, so it would be a comfortable shower. It was a bit windy during our visit here, so (as you can see in the photos) the water was blowing off to the side.

What else to see near the Krafla Shower?

As mentioned above, you can continue down the road and visit the Viti Crater. On the way, you’ll drive past the Krafla power plant, which is kind of cool – you’ll pass under this ‘tunnel’ of pipes.

Also nearby is Myvatn, a popular stopping point for anyone traveling the Ring Road, as there are a few tourist attractions here, including the Myvatn geothermal area, Myvatn Baths, the Game of Thrones Cave and more.

Lodging Near the Krafla Shower

We stayed at the Sel Hotel (read my review here), which is located in the Myvatn area. We stayed for one night and then it was off to Seydisfjordur, where we stayed at the Vid Lonid Guesthouse.

Have you ever visited this endless shower in Iceland? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!