South Central Guesthouse

Traveling alone or in a group of twenty?

The Guesthouse is nothing short of being magical, or at least we think so.  The story behind the Guesthouse is intertwined with your hoast’s family history in a special way. Back in the 80′ a farmer’s widow named Ingibjörg Jóhannsdóttir was tired of the farm life and decided to do something very different. So Ingibjörg sold her farm but kept some of the surrounding lands for her self. Ingibjörg then decided to start her own privately run retirement home, for the folks that had grown up and spent their life farming the lands around here. People thought she was crazy, and perhaps she was a bit – but in the best of ways. Because in her late sixties Ingibjörg built the retirement home and ran it by herself for many years. Ingibjörg received praise, admiration, and thanks for her work. Everybody from the occupants, people in the surrounding towns to the president of Iceland took notice of Ingibjörg’s contributions to the society. She even received Order of the Falcon from the president, the highest praise an Icelandic person can get. 

Ingibjörg’s daughter gradually took over the home when the Ingibjörg herself got too old to run it her self. Her daughter (Hildur) ran the home for many years even after the old woman passed away. The home continued to get praise from everybody who came there because even though it was an institution it always felt just like home.

In 2016 the retirement home closed down, too many government regulation changes had made it so that to keep running it as a retirement home, meant that it would almost have to be re-built and turned in to a hospital and neither Ingibjörg nor her daughter felt like this house should ever be anything but temporary home to those who need it.

In 2017 the old lady’s grandson took over the property and decided to turn it into a home once again, but this time for travelers.  And that is just what you will get when you stay with us in the Guesthouse – a feeling of an Icelandic country home.