The Sky Lagoon 7-Step Ritual, Explained

What Is the Skjol Ritual?

Sky Lagoon's seven-stage bathing sequence, included with every admission, running from the lagoon through cold, heat, scrub and steam and back to the lagoon.

Skjól means shelter in Icelandic, and the ritual takes its name and its structure from the Nordic tradition of alternating hot and cold rather than from any spa invention. The full sequence and the current passes are set out by Sky Lagoon itself.

It takes 45 minutes to an hour done properly, and it is not optional in the sense that it is what you paid for. You can skip stages, and most people who do end up wishing they had not.

The Seven Steps in Order

The sequence is fixed, and the order is the point.

1. The Lagoon

Start in the main lagoon at 38 to 40°C, an oceanfront pool on the Kársnes peninsula with a 70 metre infinity edge facing west across Faxaflói bay.

Give it 15 to 20 minutes before moving on. The purpose of this stage is to get properly warm, which makes the next one bearable.

2. The Cold Plunge

A pool held at 5 to 8°C, and the stage people talk about afterwards.

Go in to the shoulders and stay for 10 to 30 seconds rather than trying to prove something. The effect on circulation comes from the contrast rather than the duration.

Breathe out slowly rather than gasping. The gasp is involuntary and controlling it is most of the technique.

3. The Sauna

Dry heat at 80 to 90°C, in a room with a floor-to-ceiling window looking out over the North Atlantic.

Five to ten minutes is enough for most people. This is the stage where the ocean view does the work rather than the heat.

Sit lower down if it feels too hot. Sauna temperature varies considerably between the top and bottom benches.

The sauna window faces the North Atlantic, which is the reason nobody leaves it early.

4. The Cold Mist

A short walk through cold fog, which sounds gimmicky and works well.

Thirty seconds is plenty. It cools you enough to stop the sauna heat lingering, without the shock of the plunge.

5. The Sky Body Scrub

Sky Lagoon's own salt and oil scrub, applied by hand to your own skin.

Take your time and cover everything, since the next stage is what makes it work. Two or three minutes.

6. The Steam Room

Humid heat that opens the pores and drives the scrub in.

Five to ten minutes, and it is the most relaxing stage of the seven for most people.

Visibility is close to nothing, which some people find restful and others find claustrophobic.

7. The Shower

Rinse the scrub off thoroughly before returning to the water.

This is not optional in etiquette terms. The lagoon is shared and the scrub does not belong in it.

Then go back into the lagoon and stay as long as you like. The final soak with cleaned, warm skin is the payoff the whole sequence was building to.

Why the Order Matters

Three reasons the sequence is not arbitrary.

Heat before cold. Going into a 5°C plunge before you are properly warm is unpleasant rather than invigorating.

Scrub between heat stages. Warm skin takes the scrub better, and the steam afterwards does the work that a shower alone would not.

Lagoon at both ends. Starting and finishing in the same water is what makes the middle five stages feel like a single experience rather than a circuit of facilities.

You can repeat stages. Nothing stops you doing the plunge twice or going back to the sauna, and plenty of people do.

How Long It Takes

Between 45 minutes and an hour for the ritual itself.

Add 20 to 30 minutes for changing at each end, and another 30 to 60 minutes for the final lagoon soak if you want a proper one.

Two to two and a half hours on site is the realistic total, which is worth knowing if you are fitting it around a flight or a cruise call.

The ritual has no time limit and no queue system beyond the natural flow of people, so it stretches if the place is busy.

Our page on Sky Lagoon covers admission and what else is included.

The scrub goes on between the sauna and the steam room, which is what makes it work.

Tips for Getting the Most From It

Six things that improve the hour.

Go slowly. The most common mistake is treating the ritual as a checklist and finishing it in twenty minutes.

Hydrate. Water is available and the alternating heat and cold dehydrates more than a straight soak does.

Tie long hair up. The lagoon is seawater rather than silica-heavy, so it is gentler than the Blue Lagoon, and our guide to protecting your hair still applies.

Take off silver jewellery, which tarnishes in geothermal water.

Do the plunge properly. Half-hearted cold exposure gives you the discomfort without the effect.

Leave your phone in the locker. The ritual rooms are not places for photographs and the steam ruins the attempt anyway.

When to Go

Timing changes the experience more than the season does.

Early morning and late evening are the quietest, and the ritual is far better without a queue at the scrub station.

Sunset is the standout in spring and autumn, when the infinity edge faces directly into it.

Winter evenings are dark enough that aurora is possible from the water on a clear night, though the Icelandic Met Office forecast is the thing to check rather than hope.

Midday and mid-afternoon are the busiest, particularly on days when cruise ships are in port.

Sky Lagoon is 20 minutes from central Reykjavík and about the same from the Skarfabakki cruise terminal, which is why it fills at predictable hours.

Solar activity is in the strong part of the eleven-year cycle, and NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center tracks Solar Cycle 25, whose predicted maximum was a smoothed sunspot number of 115 in July 2025.

Is the Ritual Worth Doing?

Yes, and it is the main reason to choose Sky Lagoon over the alternatives.

The Blue Lagoon has better-known water and no equivalent sequence. Our comparison of Sky Lagoon and the Blue Lagoon sets out the trade.

Flúðir and Laugarvatn are simpler and cheaper still, with no ritual at all, and both sit on the Golden Circle rather than near the capital.

That location difference matters as much as the facilities, since it decides what else your day can hold. Our page on the Secret Lagoon covers the Flúðir option.

What Skjól gives you is structure. An hour with seven stages and a fixed order occupies the mind in a way that sitting in warm water for the same hour does not.

If you dislike being told what to do on holiday, skip it and use the lagoon. The admission is the same either way.

Fit It Around a Day Out

Sky Lagoon sits 20 minutes from central Reykjavík, which makes it the one lagoon that pairs comfortably with a full day of sightseeing rather than replacing it. Our Golden Circle and Sky Lagoon combined day covers Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss and includes lagoon admission with the ritual across about ten hours. Tell us your dates and we will confirm the timings.