Originally Posted by
Turanga
Also, I heard the Blue Lagoon is pretty nasty if you look into the water (think thousands of tourists and their body hairs coalescing in water all day...). Many locals suggest visitors to stop by one of the many local thermal pools all around Iceland or a hot spring.
This is an awesome link that lists all the swimming holes in Iceland.
Those thousands of tourists and locals are required to shower and scrub themselves well before they are allowed into the lagoon. The showers are communal (separated for women and men) and you shower naked under the eagle eye of lagoon staff.
Personally I found the water clean and the lagoon divine, felt so good I though my bones had melted.
Some of the thermal bathing holes around the island are really holes, i.e. largish or not so largish holes in the ground with a thermal spring. They can be cramped (and crowded being free) and muddy.