Iceland

Things To Do:

  • Walk down Laugayegur: the trendy shopping street in downtown Reykjavik
  • Check out Hallgrimskirkja (the famous church). We didn’t go inside but it’s cool to see from the outside
  • Blue Lagoon:
    • The drive is about 45 minutes from Reykjavik
    • Book WAY ahead of time so you can get the time you want. You can stay in the lagoon as long as you want, so I would get a time where you have daylight to take good pictures and then when it’s dark so you can watch the stars from the lagoon
    • I paid for the “Comfort ticket” – I thought it was nice to have the algae mask and a free drink. The Airbnb I stayed in had bath robes which I would really recommending having at the lagoon.
  • South Coast:
    • Skogafoss & Seljalandsfoss: two really pretty waterfalls along the southern coast – as you’re diving you can see them from the road so it’s easy to find them!
    • Look for Icelandic Ponies along the drive. We stopped at a random farm we passed and pet them
    • Black Sand Beach
    • Vik: check out this cute small town – also one of the best places to see the Northern Lights, so try to plan to watch them here!
  • “Blue Ice” Excursion (with Arctic Adventures):
    • Exploring Solheimajokull glacier – SO COOL. You can you walk all over the glacier and they teach you how to ice climb.
    • We got really lucky because an ice cave happened to open up a few days before we went, but there are ice cave tours and if you can do one of those, I think that would be incredible. Going in the ice cave was one of my favorite parts of this excursion.
    • Note: they also went to see the two waterfalls we saw when we drove the south coast, so that was a repeat
  • Thingyellir National Park:
    • Snorkeling in the silfra fissure (also through arctic adventures) – snorkeling between two continents in glacial water. VERY COOL. VERY COLD. It was pretty expensive, but I would do it again. I really enjoyed it.
    • Golden Circle – DON’T PAY FOR A TOUR!!! The tours are a rip off because you can drive the golden circle and see everything yourself. Check out:
      • Geyser
      • Gulfoss Waterfall (better than the 2 waterfalls on the southern coast)
    • Ion Adventure Hotel:
      • http://ionadventure.ioniceland.is/
      • This hotel is AMAZING. It was VERY expensive, but I splurged for one night and stayed here. The food is great and it’s just a very unique experience. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere, and is known for great views of the northern lights. They have people at duty at night to watch for the lights and then wake up all the guests if they come out. I had a great time staying here. I don’t think I would say more than one night just because it’s in the middle of no where, but one night was very relaxing.
    • Western Cape:
      • 3 hours from Reykjavik
      • Kirkjufell (Church Mountain)
      • Ararnstapi – check out the cliffs
      • This day was full of driving all over Iceland. It was a very random day of exploring, but really fun. If you have a day to spare do this, but I would do Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle and the glacier stuff first.

Overall Recommendations / Tips / Advice:

  • RENT A CAR!! This is a must. Reykjavik has a bus system, but it takes a very long time. I found driving around Iceland to be really fun and it was nice to be able to stop and see things you wanted to.
  • Iceland is VERY expensive. I wouldn’t plan on getting any meal under $15. I got buttered noodles and it cost $18. For breakfast, I usually just had a bagel, for lunch we went to the grocery store and made sandwiches and then we ate dinner out.
  • Bring warm clothes. I was there in January and it wasn’t really cold, but it’s so windy that you need a windbreaker, gloves and a hat.
  • I stayed at an AirBnb (the cheapest option) and I thought that was perfect. If you’re going to do an Airbnb, make sure you have a car.
    • This is where I stayed: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15844395
      • It was a great location and the host was SO nice. It was very small and the bathroom was separate, but I hardly spent any time at there.
    • Having a GoPro in Iceland is awesome. I would definitely recommending bringing one.
    • Get some wool socks – I love mine

Background picture was taken at Kirkjufell.