Over the years, I’ve gotten a handful of questions about our trip to Iceland and wanted to write a blog about our experience and the planning process. One of my favorite things to do in my free time is plan our vacation trips. Initially when we were deciding where we wanted to go for our honeymoon, we had it narrowed down to Hawaii or Iceland – which are surprisingly pretty similar in scenery. Iceland was always one of those destinations that I’ve dreamt about for years but never thought would be a reality. If you’ve done any research about Iceland, you’ll come to find out it’s pretty expensive. However, in the early stages of planning, we came across this website – nordicvisitor.com – and we were sold. More on that later.
Timing
Alex and I got married on September 16, 2017 but decided to hold off on our trip until the end of May 2018. We knew we would be too exhausted after the wedding to take advantage of all the exploring Iceland has to offer. Plus, it allowed us to save up our vacation days. The end of May ended up being the perfect time to visit Iceland. The days were getting longer, the weather was starting to get warmer, and it was just before their peak season. That’s right, the sun didn’t set until after 11:00pm when we were there. If watching the Northern Lights is high on your bucket list, you’ll need to book your trip during the September-March months.
Flights
We flew with Wow air because of how cheap the flights were and the fact that they flew directly to Iceland from Cincinnati, which is fairly close to where we live. Unfortunately Wow air stopped running as of March 2019. I think between the two of us, we spent $1,300 round trip on flights. We even upgraded our seats in hopes of getting some more leg room for sleeping. Turns out, a budget airline is still a budget airline so the seats were pretty uncomfortable for a 6 hour over-night flight.
Planning
As I mentioned above, we came across this site – nordicvisitor.com – and immediately felt at ease. Nordic Visitor is a specialist travel agency that caters to Northern Europe travelers. The website is incredibly easy to use and you can essentially plan and customize the entire trip yourself. Sometimes I’ll humor myself and plan a future tour just for the fun of it. Once you select a tour, you’ll find the tour highlights and attractions, a sample day-by-day itinerary with affiliate links for more information, and a list of what’s included and what’s not included. We opted for the 10 day/9 night Iceland Full Circle self-drive tour, which takes you around the perimeter of the island called the “Ring Road”. We liked the idea of moving at our own pace and hitting up the places that peaked our interest. From there, you’ll select your preferred accommodation type and your rental car. The website also allows you to customize your trip by adding or subtracting days from the tour and providing a list of optional add-on activities such as entrance to the Blue Lagoon and whale watching. Your travel agent will take care of the rest!
Language
While Icelandic is the official language of Iceland, we didn’t have any trouble communicating with the locals. Everyone we talked to spoke English which was a huge relief because Alex tried to learn Icelandic and it was VERY difficult. For instance, Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúrslyklakippuhringurinn is an actual word. Look it up ;)
Cost
Iceland is expensive. While breakfast was included in our accommodation, be prepared to dish out $60 on a casual lunch of pizza and burgers. Luckily, it’s not common and Iceland doesn’t expect gratuity as the workers are paid a livable wage. Since we rented a car, I believe we only had to fill up our gas tank 3 times but it cost about $80-120 each time.
Food
Speaking of food, that was the only thing I was truly worried about. Alex and I aren’t super adventurous when it comes to food but to our surprise, we had no issues finding something on the menu. In fact, most of our diet consisted of pizza, burgers, and Skyr (Icelandic yogurt).
Okay. Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into our actual trip!
Day 1 – Reykjavík
Our flight landed around 11:00am and our driver took us to our hotel in Reykjavík (Iceland’s capital and largest city) which was about 45 minutes away from the airport. Our stay was at the Alda Hotel which is located on Reykjavik‘s main strip of trendy restaurants, cafes and shops. It was a cold, rainy and windy day – like, so windy that Alex had to hold me upright to take a picture of the Hallgrímskirkja church – but I was determined to go out and explore. The first thing we noticed was that the streets are lined with colorful and artistic buildings. After grabbing dinner at Meze and picking up a wool sweater, we were pretty exhausted and decided to call it a night. We knew we would be back in the city at the end of our trip so it was okay that we didn’t hit up all the places on our first day.
Day 2 – The Golden Circle
After a good night’s sleep, we picked up our rental car and started our journey along the famous Golden Circle route in southwest Iceland. Our first stop was at Þingvellir National Park which gave us our first taste (literally) of the many waterfalls we were about to encounter. In Iceland, it’s safe to drink the water from most lakes, rivers and streams. It’s the purest water I’ve ever tasted, and chilled to perfection.
Our next stop wasn’t on our official itinerary. I guess you could call it a hidden gem because it was quite the hike to get us there. Brúarfoss is known for being “Iceland’s Bluest Waterfall” and boy it did not disappoint. From the parking lot, it took us about an hour hike to get to Brúarfoss. The trails were narrow and super muddy but the views were worth it. I’ve never seen water that clear and blue before.
We continued our journey to the Geysir hot spring area with boiling mud pits and the highly active Strokkur geyser which erupts every 10-15 minutes. For lunch, we grabbed some pizzas at the café across the street and then we were off to the beautiful two-tiered Gullfoss waterfall, or ‘Golden Waterfall’.
Finally, we completed the Golden Circle with a visit to the Kerið volcanic crater. I wish we were able to spend more time here and walk around the perimeter of the crater but we made dinner reservations at our hotel, Grímsborgir. This place was stunning and the staff were so nice. They actually upgraded our suite which was a lovely surprise.
Day 3 – Waterfalls & Volcanic Beaches
Day 3 was probably my most anticipated day because of all the waterfalls we’d see. And yes, I bought a yellow raincoat specifically for this occasion.
Our first stop was the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which has a walking path behind the cascade. Right next to Seljalandsfoss, there’s a lesser-known or ‘secret’ waterfall called Gljúfrabúi that’s hidden inside a gorge. Next, we stopped at the Skógafoss waterfall which was simply breathtaking. You can essentially walk right up to it, and I can’t even explain how overwhelming it felt to be so close to such a powerful thing in nature. If you’re looking to get your steps in, you can make the trek up 527 steps to the top of the hill, so you can view Skógafoss from above.
Continuing along the coast, we stopped in the charming little village of Vík and spent some time on the black sand beach where we saw the unique rock formations of Dyrhólaey and Reynisdrangar.
On your way to Vík, you can choose to stop at the Sólheimasandur Plane Wreck. It’s a famous site in Iceland where a US Navy airplane was forced to crash land on Sólheimasandur beach in 1973. The crew all survived the impact, but the plane was abandoned and what’s left of it still lies there after nearly 5 decades. The only reason we didn’t stop was due to time. After the release of Justin Bieber’s ‘I’ll Show You’ music video, locals were forced to ban vehicle access on the beach that would’ve taken you to the site because it became so widely popular among tourists. Now, you have to walk 2.5 miles to get to the wreckage site and we just didn’t have time or energy to do that.
It was about an hour to our stay for the night, Hotel Klauster, so we grabbed some dinner (pizza & burgers) at Halldórskaffi and went on our way.
Another thing we didn’t get to see was the beautiful Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon – which I also partly blame Justin Bieber for. During the time that we were there, the trails were wet and muddy, making the canyon more vulnerable from the constant foot traffic. The site was closed for recovery but I think they ended opening back up on June 1 so we just barely missed our chance. Next time!
Day 4 – Glaciers & Icebergs
After a busy few days, we were able to catch up on some zzz’s. We only had two sites on our itinerary ahead of us this day and it was nice to take it easy. First, we drove to Skaftafell, part of Vatnajökull National Park. On the way there, we passed miles and miles of covered lava fields. We picked a short hike to see the Svartifoss waterfall which featured dark basalt columns, similar to what we saw in Vík. It was quite noticeably warmer than we were used to, and we ended up stripping off our heavier layers.
The warm weather pretty much ended when we headed further east to the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. Here, huge chunks of ice regularly fall off the glacier and make their way to the shore, giving you what’s known as Diamond Beach.
Before checking in at Fosshótel Vatnajökull, we stopped at a Pizzeria in a nearby village (Hofn) that had one of the best milkshakes I’ve ever had.
Day 5 – Fjords & Fishing Villages
We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us on this day. Somehow along the way we made a wrong turn that took us off the main Ring Road and we ended up driving through some pretty heavy fog on unpaved roads. Beautiful landscapes but 3/10 would not recommend, especially in bad weather. When we got back on the main road, we stopped in Egilsstaðir for lunch. We didn’t necessarily have a plan but we stumbled upon what looked like a 50’s style American diner, complete with Big Boy and Betty Boop memorabilia. To this day, Alex claims the Skálinn Diner has the best burgers he’s ever had.
Just outside of our final destination, we were struck by an intense sulfuric smell. Námaskarð is home to many geothermal mud pools and hot springs. The place was fascinating – like walking on Mars. It still amazes me how vastly the landscapes are in different parts of Iceland. I have a pretty sensitive nose and couldn’t stay long but it’s definitely worth the experience. Our last stop was the massive crater of Hverfell. The steep hike up to the rim was worth it for the views.
After a long day of driving, we ended the day at Mývatn Nature Baths – our first add-on activity. It’s similar to the Blue Lagoon but much less crowded and had a bit of sulfuric smell. A couple things you should know before visiting the Blue Lagoon and at the Mývatn Nature Baths:
Showering without a swimsuit in the open locker room is required before bathing. It’s weird at first, but you get over it pretty quickly when you realize nobody cares.
Avoid getting your hair wet. The water won’t destroy your hair but it’ll definitely feel dry.
The temperature in these is between 97 to 104° Fahrenheit, and humidity is near 100%, so be sure to be well hydrated before going in. I learned the hard way (see Day 10).
Finally, we checked in at Hótel Laxá, where we would actually be spending two nights. This is where I captured a pretty incredible sunset at 11:52pm.
Day 6 – Lunar Landscapes of Lake Mývatn
Today we embarked to Húsavík for our second add-on activity – whale watching! We were given overalls to keep warm and dry. Aside from seeing a few whales, dolphins and puffins, our tour guide was really nice and knowledgeable. At the end we were offered cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate!
After exploring Húsavík a bit more, we actually back-tracked on our route to get to Jökulsárgljúfur National Park where we did some hiking. From there, we thought that we could drive just 30 minutes south to get to Dettifoss – the most powerful waterfall in Europe – but either the road was closed due to road conditions or we hit a dead end. We had to circle all the way around and come up from the north, adding about 2-1/2 hours of drive time. It was worth it though. This waterfall was massively powerful. Fun fact, the opening scene of Prometheus was filmed here.
Day 7 – Explore North Iceland
On our way to Akureyri, we stopped to visit Goðafoss, or ‘The Waterfall of the Gods’. Akureyri is Iceland's second-largest city, after Reykjavik of course. We didn’t spend a ton of time in Akureyri but we did stop at a Christmas Garden (Jólagarðurinn) that’s open all year round. We actually spent a couple hours here because the place was packed full of Christmas trinkets, many handcrafted by locals. Funny story, I was on the hunt for an ornament that I could bring back with me as a gift for my brother. Still not having a strong grasp on Icelandic currency, I mistakingly read the price tag as $5 instead of $50 and didn’t realize it until I had already purchased it. Whoops.
Okay get ready for a slew of hotel photos. Our stay at the Sigló Hótel was by far my favorite in all of Iceland. The hotel itself was beautifully decorated, with views of the mountains and surrounding marina. For dinner and dessert, I would definitely check out Hannes Boy (the yellow house) and Kaffi Rauðka (the red house), two of Siglo Hotel´s local restaurants.
Day 8 – Journey to Snæfellsnes Peninsula
Another long day of driving, which just happened to be on my birthday. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my birthday than being in Iceland, but the hubs made it ultra special by surprising me with a donut from Sauðárkróksbakarí.
We enjoyed the majority of site-seeing from our car. As we made our way west to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, we stopped along the way to watch the Icelandic horses. The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse developed in Iceland. In fact, there are laws that prohibited any importation of other horse breeds into the country.
While we were driving, we started passing miles of large stone cairns that were pretty evenly spaced out. I quickly Googled what it meant and these old stone cairns acted as landmarks for viking settlers on their expeditions.
Our final stop was in Stykkishólmur where we checked into Hótel Egilsen. It’s a charming, family run boutique hotel that operates much like an intimate bed & breakfast.
Day 9 – Snæfellsnes National Park
We made our way towards Snæfellsjökull National Park when we drove past the most photographed mountain in Iceland, Kirkjufell (Church Mountain).
When we made it to Snæfellsjökull National Park, we explored the various unique rock formations emerging from the ocean villages of Hellnar and Arnarstapi. The beaches were scattered with scraps of rusted wreckage from a British fishing trawler in 1948. It’s worth noting here that whenever you’re on the beaches in Iceland, it’s critical that you keep a safe distance from the shoreline due to rogue waves and strong undercurrents. While my husband didn’t suffer any major casualties, he did get pretty soaked and I caught the whole thing on video. Our last stop was visiting the tiny black church called Búðakirkja.
Finally, we closed the loop of our journey around Iceland and returned to Reykjavik through the Hvalfjörður Tunnel, a 3.5 mile-long road tunnel. I couldn’t believe we made it all the way around Iceland in 9 days. We dropped off our rental car and a shuttle van took us to the Alda Hotel, where we would be spending the remainder of our trip.
The weather was delightful this time around so we did a bit of exploring in Reykjavík. For dinner, we splurged a little at Rossopomodoro. We clearly weren’t sick of eating Italian.
Day 10 – Geothermal Indulgence
To end our perfect trip around Iceland, we were in desperate need of relaxation. Our entire day was reserved for The Blue Lagoon – our third and final add-on activity. Our voucher included a trip to and from the lagoon by shuttle bus, a towel, a silica mud mask, and a drink of our choice from the in-water bar. Upon entering, you’ll be handed a bracelet that will link to your credit card that you can purchase additional drinks at the bar with. Just like the Mývatn Nature Baths, showering is required before entering the lagoon, but this facility had private showers which was nice.
I’m sure you’ve seen pictures but the milky-blue water of The Blue Lagoon is simply gorgeous. The white silica mud gently exfoliates the skin, and has revitalizing properties provided by the blue-green algae.
We spent several hours at The Blue Lagoon and actually got a little sun burned! It wasn’t until later that night that I felt the effects of dehydration. I ended up getting pretty sick and let’s just say, I’ll never be able to eat Domino’s pizza again.
Day 11 – Departure from Iceland
It’s our last day in Iceland and I was still coming off feeling sick from the night before. Check out at our hotel was at 11:00am and the car ride to the airport wasn’t until 5:30pm so we had a bunch of time to kill.
For breakfast we stopped at Brauð & Co and Reykjavik Roasters for pastries and coffee. We then walked 30 minutes to the Omnom Chocolate Factory where we thought we could get a tour, but it might have been one of their off-days. Nevertheless, we bought plenty of chocolate and started to head back into the city when we came across The Whales of Iceland Exhibition. The exhibition consists of 23 life size models of the various whale species found in Icelandic waters throughout its natural history. We learned a lot about whales and were able to kill a couple of hours. Other things we saw were the Sun Voyage sculpture, The Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, and the Hallgrímskirkja Church where you can pay a small fee to ride the elevator to the top and get a 360° view of the city. Before heading back to the hotel where our driver would pick us up, we stopped at Geysir to get ourselves a wool blanket as a souvenir.
At 5:30, our driver picked us up and that was it! We claimed our VAT refunds at the airport, checked our bags and we departed by 9:00pm.
If you made it this far, you’re a champ. And you should probably book your next trip to Iceland when all this Covid stuff is over. In the meantime, feel free to download our personal 11-day itinerary and start planning! If you have any questions, drop a comment below or send me a private message.