Spilavin at Hotel Hvolsvöllur

For the last three years we have gone to Hvolsvöllur, Iceland and played board games for whole weekend in the winter. And now we're doing it for the fourth time! A little later in the year, it's going to be "spring" (yeah, Icelandic spring. Wait for it ...) The retreat will run from April 4th through 6th.

Spilavin (Icelandic translation of Board Game Retreat) is an event where participants meet to play board games over a whole weekend (or part of it). We encourage you to bring your own games but we also have quite an exstensive collection where you can play from.

The event is quite casual with one change from previous years. The hotel is going to offer us a buffet style lunch and dinner on top of a-la-carté menu. You can choose to have an all-inclusive stay or pay for the buffet seperatley.

You can stay for one or two nights or just come and play and drive home in the evening, whatever suits you. Accomodation options are below.

The ticket price is 10.000ISK (approx €66 or $69), whether you stay at the hotel or not. Included are soft drinks, snacks and candy during the day. You are not allowed to bring your own alcohol into the common areas but the hotel offers 20% discount at the bar!

The signup sheet is here: https://bit.ly/spilavin2025

To pay, please deposit into 2200-15-035564, kennitala 050173-4379. Please put your name in the explaination box. 

If you don't have access to Icelandic bank, please contact hilmar@umadgera.is and we will sort it out.

Hi everyone, I’m Mark from Not Bored Gaming, a UK based channel focused on Solo board gaming. But wait!! I also play with other people because board gaming is for all player counts! My channel has been around since 2019 and caters for the solo gamers among us. So, even though I’m a solo gamer, when you see me around - invite me for a game, I promise I won’t bite. Really looking forward to seeing you all.

Camilla received her BS in Special Education from the University of Tennessee with a focus of ASL Educational Interpreting. Prior to joining the Dice Tower, she worked as an ASL Interpreter, Disability Representative, and most recently Competitive Swimming Coach. She is an outdoor enthusiast and who loves the mountains and any water sports.

Camilla played her first modern board game in 2010, but didn't delve into hobby gaming until 2017. Her favorite games are those that provide difficult and tense decision making or thematic experiences. She lives in Homestead, Florida.

Zee Garcia has a Bachelor’s Degree from Florida International University in Fine Arts/Theatre. He has directed over a dozen plays and has been involved with several South Florida and New York theaters and theatrical companies, including Murder Mystery, Inc. and The Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

He enjoys teaching at a high school level and did so for several years, focusing on theatrical performance and stagecraft.

When it comes to board games, his favorites tend to be those that can be easily taught and enjoyed by a varied group of participants. Cooperative games, for example, tend to be some of his highlights.

For The Dice Tower, he shoots and edits reviews, Top Ten lists, participates in/produces Board Game Blender, as well as a myriad other tasks. And yes, he loves it.

• Single occupancy: 15.900kr
• Double occupancy: 17.900kr
• Triple occupancy:  21.900kr

10% discount if you stay for two nights!

Attention: Your accommodation is paid directly to the hotel, at arrival

Room and Board (priced per individual, per night)

• One night: 13.900kr
• Two nights: 26.400kr

Extra fee, 6.000ISK pr. night if you require a single occupancy room.

Included is breakfast, light lunch and buffet-style dinner.

Attention: Your accommodation and board is paid directly to the hotel, at arrival

Breakfast buffet is included with your stay, wether you choose room and board or only room.

If you choose full board it will include light lunch buffet with soup, home made bread and sandwitches. If you choose to pay for the lunch buffet seperatley, the price is 1.900ISK

For appetiser: Soup of the day and home made bread

Main courses include meetballs, chicken stew, pork gullash, chicken legs, chicken curry or chicken breast. Served with potatoes, rice, vegetables or pasta.

For desert: Crème Brûlée, Caramel Panna Cotta or cake.

You can choose between appertiser and main course or main course and desert. Price for buffet if you did not include it in your room is 3.900ISK.

Even though participants bring their own games to the retreat we also bring in an evergrowing board collection for you to enjoy free of charge. The plan is to bring 250 games at least! As you can see on the picture we have quite a selection of "Big Box" versions and often have our games upgraded components.

And we have quite few playmats too ;-)

This year we're going to offer a special shelf, seperated from the board game collection, where you can bring your own games to sell. You just bring your game, put a sticker on it with price and contact info and leave it on the shelve. Then people can browse through it throughout the retreat.

We've done this quite unformally over the years and there is always quite the flow of buying and selling. 

Since 1984, Hotel Hvolsvöllur has offered friendly and welcoming accommodation for all travelers. The Hotel is located centrally in the town of Hvolsvöllur in Rangarthing Eystra municipality. Since the hotel's opening in 1984, it has been expanded twice, first in 1998, and in 2007.

With the expansion of the hotel in 2007, 26 rooms were added, and today the hotel has a total of 66 rooms. There are 22 triple, 32 double and 8 single rooms. There are also 3 quadruple family rooms, which also function as junior suites.