We went to Iceland for 20 days! It’s our first trip outside the US since the pandemic and it felt great to be traveling again. We rented a 4 wheel drive car (got the recommended gravel, sand and ash insurance) and did the ring road, driving clockwise, and stayed in a mix of hotels, guesthouses, and airbnbs.
Iceland is such a beautiful country, with all their dramatic basalt seascapes, copious waterfalls, geothermal active areas, glaciers and iceberg lagoons. I was really surprised that their national parks are free other than paying the 750ISK parking fee at each lot. However, unlike the US national parks, Iceland’s doesn’t have tons of exhibits, educational films or park rangers for consultation. Most of these sites have just one placard and that’s about it. The only spot with a legit visitor center was Skaftafell national park where we found brochures and maps, exhibits, a short film, and WC’s. I value the educational exhibits at the US national parks to give visitors an even better appreciation of what you end up hiking over to view, so I hope that as more and more tourists come to Iceland, they will build more exhibits at each attraction. They do have a Perlan exhibit in Reykjavik where you can pay 4690ISK and it’s equivalent to the US national park visitors centers where you read about all of Icelands natural wonders from volcanoes, to glaciers to northern lights and geothermal hotspots. It was pretty cool, as they had a lot of interactive exhibits including a man made ice cave and a planetarium for northern lights. And the architecture for the roof top domed cafeteria was amazing.
Day 1: Our first day we landed in Reykjavik at 6AM, and got our rental car and headed over to the Blue Lagoon, then Costco and Bonus supermarket before checking into our hotel in downtown Reykjavik. Here’s our loot from shopping.
Two different types of Icelandic smoked salmon: rope hung and smoked, and dill smoked. We got both and had them on top of a salad, and later on toasted buttered bread for breakfast and both were delicious.
The dried fish jerky was not all that great. It was actually not as fishy tasting as the Japanese dried cuttlefish or smoked tako, but it was really hard and airy at the same time, if that makes any sense. The locals said to spread some butter on each piece, and we did that, but it was still not my favorite. We ate it though cuz it was $20 a bag for the fish jerky!
The Top row: cheeze crunchers (so good and addictive! like Cheetos, but not bright orange, and a bit saltier), fish jerky, chocolate covered toffee (they are a bit too hard for my teeth). Bottom row: corn puffs coated in chocolate (Not too sweet and goes down easily. I could easily eat the whole bag if I’m not careful! Will pick up extras for omiyage.), and licorice coated in chocolate (the licorice taste is very mild, in case you are not a fan of licorice. I at first didn’t like it, but after a while it kinda grew on me. I’ll probably get a bunch of these to take back as omiyage. Icelanders love their candy, and every supermarket has a whole row dedicated to just candy, half of which are licorice candies…)
THIS candy is really good! It has a wafer candy in the middle, then it’s coated with Rice Krispies, then enrobed in chocolate. Definitely getting some of these to bring back home!
So here’s a Google translate fail. The bag of chips on the left translated to “acorn chips”. Curious, so we got it to try. Well, turns out it’s bacon flavored chips, and each chip even looks like bacon. They are not bad, but not what we expected. And in hindsight, the word “beikon” even looks like the word bacon. Duh!
Additional licorice candy we picked up but haven’t tried yet, so can’t tell you if it’s good or not. I got some bags of the pristur one which is chocolate licorice because each was individually wrapped. I figured that for those bags, I could bring to my hiking group or NSC friends to share in a more “sanitary” manner. Heh, heh. Am I too neurotic?
Skyr is an Icelandic yogurt that has gotten really popular in the US, but I swear, the ones in Iceland seem to taste a lot better! Much creamier and smoother and similar in consistency to Greek yogurt. We had the tiramisu and chocolate ones for dessert and the fruity ones for breakfast.
Kleinur is an Icelandic donut, and you can buy them in bakeries or in supermarkets. Not too sweet, and similar in greasiness and taste to an andagi (Okinawan donut), but less dense. I would say the density is in between an American fluffy donut and an old fashioned donut and way less sweet.
They taste ok out of the bag, but to get your calorie’s worth, put them in the toaster oven or air fryer for a few minutes, then blot off some of the grease while still hot. Cool for a minute or two and enjoy! It’s so much better with a bit of crisp on the outside. Add a dollop of jam for extra decadence!
After a nap, we did a bit of site seeing walking along the harbor to see the outdoor stainless-steel Sun Voyager sculpture shaped like a Viking boat pointing northwest in the direction of the setting sun in the summer, and the honeycomb jewel-like sparkling Harpa Concert Hall (Reykjaviks newest landmark built between 2008-2011) and picked up some hot dogs (pylsur) at the hot dog stand (Baejarins beztu pylsur made famous by Bill Clinton in 2004. Apparently, this hot dog stand offered him a free hot dog when he came to Iceland for UNICEF, and and he ate it, and suddenly the hot dog stand became so famous, there are now long lines.) The hot dogs come with fried onions, regular diced onions, mustard and roumalade. The tables outside the stand even have little wooden racks for you to put down your hot dogs! I really liked the uniqueness of the fried onions contrasted with the bite of the raw onions, and thought the dogs would have been even more perfect with a squirt of ketchup. I do LOVE ketchup on almost anything though…
Day 7: We stayed at Myvatn at the Dimmuborgir Guesthouse, which had a beautiful view of the lake and the pseudocraters from our room windows, which were spectacular. On Day 7, we drove out to Detifoss (largest waterfall in Europe) and the nearby Selfoss, and then came back to do additional Myvatn activities in the afternoon: Grjotagja Caves (thermal cave that was a film site for Game of Thrones), hiking around the pseudocraters, hiking up Hverfjall crater and Krafla shower.
Day 13: We were checking road.is last night and since 6AM this morning, and the roads were still closed all the way until 12:30PM. The workers at Hali said that there were lots of accidents up north east where it was both windy and snowing because they didn’t close the roads soon enough. Anyways, the wind conditions down south looked ok, so we checked out and started to drive to Vik. On the way, we stopped off at Fjadrarglijur (Feather Canyon) which was made famous by a Justin Bieber music video, Gigjagja (cool cave, but was closed because someone set up a wedding reception there inside the cave!), and Reynisfjara (basalt column black sand beach).
Day 14: After we checked out in the morning, we noticed some Icelandic horses right in the property, so we stopped by to pet them. They were so friendly, but also looked a bit sleepy, so we didn’t bother them too much. Today, we plan to visit The Loftsalaheiler cave, Dyrholey lookout and lighthouse, Solheimajokull glacier, Skogafoss and Seljalandfoss.
Geysir area. The Geysir name means “gusher” and is what all the world’s geysers take their name from. Geysir is no longer erupting, but you can see Strokkur nearby erupting. It goes off every 5 minutes or so, but with it being a cloudy day, whit against white doesn’t photograph too well…so I can’t show you the full glory of this geyser. Parking is free, and there’s free WCs inside the gift shops. Tour buses and crowds galore here, so make your pit stop quick, and move on…we ended up hiking up top for an aerial view of the area since we were here. Much less crowded up at top.
Day 16: We were still in Selfoss for the night, and we were going to do Thingvir today, but it’s pouring buckets, so we decided instead to visit the Hellisheidi Power Plant exhibit, then do the thermal baths at Fontana, and then eat at the new Selfoss marketplace and call it a day. But first thing first—coffee and pastries at the bakery around the block!
Day 17: After checking out of our Selfoss Airbnb, we drove to Thingvir. It was so crowded there with at least 8 or 9 tour buses already there. We got there around 10AM and took one of the last parking spots in P1. When we came back, cars were hovering waiting for people to leave. Crazy! We spent maybe around 2 hours here and then had lunch and drove into Reykjavik to check into our Airbnb for the remainder of our time in Iceland. We had enough time in the afternoon to do a city walk in Reykjavik, have dinner, and then retired to our Airbnb to do 3 loads of laundry! Yes, we had lots of dirty clothes, and were lucky to find an Airbnb in the heart of the city center with both a washer and dryer in the condo, plus free parking in a garage.
Day 18: Flea Market shopping was a total bust today. The market was packed with lots of stalls, but to me, many were junk and second hand garage sale items but with a full price sticker. Candy shopping was a win today, though. We went to the Kronan and Bonus markets near the harbor and found a bunch of our favorite candies that we tried at the beginning of the trip, and then Some extras to load up for omiyage.
Day 19: Hummmm we are running out of things to do in Reykjavik. We walked around town so many times already looking for souvenir pins and Christmas ornaments that look cool. So today we decided to go to the Perlan museum. This turned out to exceed our expectations! The museum was super informative of all the geological wonders of Iceland that I was missing my entire trip, and even has a man made ice cave that wasn’t jam packed with people like the real ice caves we were at in East Iceland. To top it off we enjoyed some drinks and snacks at the glass domed roof top cafe with superb views.
Day 20: Last minute shopping and Costco gas! Wow, Costco gas was only 294ISK per liter compared to every other gas station we went to in Iceland where the gas was 325ISK per liter. That’s still $9 per gallon, but hey, we were paying $10 per gallon on the whole trip, so the Costco gas made me happy. Too bad there’s only one Costco in Iceland… Well that’s our entire Iceland trip, in waaaay to much detail, I’m sure…
After dinner, we went back to our hotel room, but monitored the northern lights sightings from our phone. There’s an App that we had downloaded before our trip that sends you a notification when northern lights are spotted. (Hello Aurora). At around 9:30PM, the App started going off and so we bundled up and walked to the harbor a few blocks from our hotel, and were rewarded with the below sightings. They were magically dancing around, and it was mesmerizing. This was our first night in Iceland and we felt so lucky!
Northern lights along Reykjavik harbor with moon in the background
Northern lights with the Sun Voyager sculpture in the background
Northern lights along the harbor
Day 2: The next morning, we walked over to Baud and Co, the famous bakery with graffiti all over the front, to pick up pastries for breakfast. You can even take your goodies and enjoy them at the nearby Hallgrimskirkja church, Reykjavik’s most recognizable icon. The church has a basalt column motif with a statue of Leif Erickson outside.
Braud & Co
Danish
Rhubarb croissant
With our tummies full, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Harunfossar (Lava waterfalls, and an easy walk from the parking lot.) and the nearby Barnafoss, and then hiked up Grabok Crater before heading to the Grundarfjordur to checkin to our lodging.
Hraunfossar: This is relatively new lava, which is more porous, and so water sink into the lava fields, and that’s why you see rivulets of ground water pouring out from the many lava cracks into the stream, appearing as many continuous mini waterfalls instead of one big one.
Stair-master work out to get up here!
Grabok crater: Gray Pants crater, formed from an eruption 3,200 years ago, is accessible through a path and 320 steps staircase. At the top are fantastic views of the surrounding area and inside the crater. It was super windy though…
After checking in, even though our room had a view of the Kirkjufell—the mountain, we headed to Kirkjufellfoss for a view of this “most photographed” mountain made even more famous by Game of Thrones. This mountain is looks like a church steeple, and hence named “Church Mountain” aka Kirkjufell. Parking is now 700ISK ($5), which were not mentioned in any of the guidebooks, but this is where you can get the iconic photo of Kirkjufell with the waterfall in the foreground, but the pictures were not great at sunset because the mountains are all in shadow. (We woke up before sunrise the next day for the below shots. I thought we were the only “crazies”, but nope, there were a line of photographers staking out their spots to take sunrise photos of Kirkjufell too!)
Sunrise picture of Kirkjufellfoss with Kirkjufell
Day 3: Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
Svodufoss with Snaefellsjokull glacier in the background. It’s an easy short 10 min walk to the falls from the parking lot. They are putting in a steel raised walking path to the falls, which was only partially done, but you can still hike right up to the waterfall. Just walk around the construction. We also hiked up Saxholl crater, but it was raining and windy so we didn’t stay up there for long.
Djupalonssandur beach (black sand beach with cool lava formations and four “lifting stones” to test your strength). It’s about a 15 min walk from the parking lot down to the beach, and then hike along the water you’ll see some tide pools, but we couldn’t find any sea life in them, not even sea anemones or barnacles…
Malorrif lighthouse, national park visitors center with a small exhibit and free WC’s (it’s starting to become important to note where all the free WC’s are now a days….), and a hike to see these Londranger rock formations— twin volcanic pinnacles
At the lighthouse hike towards the londranger rock formations, there was this “do it yourself” zip line. Reminds me of the T-bars at the ski resorts… Basically you walk this seat uphill to a platform, sit on the round circle, and zip down. Weeeeeeee!
Arnastapi, a small community that was once a trading post, has some breathtaking basalt formations along the coast and we spent some time walking along the paths to explore this area. This is also where there’s a stone sculpture of a half giant, half man that you see on many Iceland instagrams, as well as the the narrow arch. For brave souls, climb up top the narrow arch for a photo op!
Day 4: We checked out of the old post office guesthouse and did the long drive to Akureyi, stopping off at Hvitserkur (otherwise known as the Troll of the Northwest) first.
There’s a long dirt road filled with potholes to get to the parking lot, followed by a steep hike down to see Hvitserkur, an animal like rock formation that is often photographed because it looks like a troll. I’m not sure it was worth the hour drive off the ring road for this…I guess if you went during low tide, you could actually walk out to the formation, and that might be worth the drive.
I was surprised at how crowded this area was despite us being here in mid September which is considered “shoulder season”
Day 5: On day 5, were were staying at an Airbnb in downtown Akeyuri. We had plans to just relax, take a break from all the driving, and walk around downtown and the botanical gardens, but rain was forecasted the next few days, and Day 5 would be the only sunny day. So we made the decision to drive 1.5 hrs to do the activities we had planned for the next day when we were in Myvatn. We accomplished a lot this day, since the weather was so nice. It was a “no jackets needed” day! We did Godafoss, Myvatn pools, Namafjall Geothermal area, Krafla viti crater, Dimmuborgir lava formations and Skutustadir pseudocraters and then drove back to Akureyri.
We were so lucky to be able to see this pretty horseshoe waterfall, Godafoss (falls of the Gods), when there was a rainbow. Godafoss is only 40 feet high, but very broad (100 yards). We parked on the west side because a guidebook said that had the best views, but when we used the pedestrian bridge to cross over to the east side, we thought the views there were better than those from the west. Plus from the east side, you can actually hike down to the water fall, which we did. The picture above is from the east side. Both sides have platforms for viewing, and there’s a placard describing how this waterfall got it name.
Namafjall geothermal area with colorful sulfur landscape
Namafjall geothermal area with fuming cinder cones
Namafjall geothermal area with bubbling mud pots. I loved the whole area and it reminded me of Lassen national park in California which is a smaller version of Yellowstone National park. You do have to pay 700ISK to park here, and there’s no WC’s.
Viti crater was a nice deep blue that formed during eruptions in the 1720’s. We walked up and around the crater and got a spot that reflected the clouds. Parking is free, but also no WCs here.
We were super lucky to see the Dimmuborgir lava formations (literally means Dark Castles) with fall colors. The pictures don’t do the area any justice, as the fall colors against the black rocks were much more dramatic in person. (We heard that fall colors don’t last long in Iceland due to the high winds.) There are many hikes to choose from here, and even a little cave where it’s decked out with little chairs covered in sheep skin and other decorations to resemble the dwellings of the 3 Yule Lads that live here. The rock formations here exceeded my expectations, and so I really enjoyed hiking around here.
Day 6: We walked around downtown Akeyuri which had cute shops, and a bunch of trolls for photo Ops, as well as various gigantic frames with the Iceland flags or “I love Akeyuri” signs to take instagram pictures of. We saw lots of masked folks, and then spotted a Princess cruise ship docked at the harbor, so we quickly walked back to our Airbnb, checked out, briefly visited the Akeyuri botanical gardens, …and then for the highlight of the day, we drove to Santa’s Workshop. I had read about this spot in Atlas Obscura, and was intrigued to visit. I love this kind of stuff! Ha ha…
The village was so adorable! The gingerbread house has licorice for candy decorations instead of gum drops like in the states. Remember, Icelanders love their licorice! It’s even detailed down to Santa’s boots at the door, his clothes are hanging to dry, and the elves have their own little houses. Just too stinkin CUTE! And then the tower in the back houses the world’s largest advent calendar. Definitely worth the little detour before heading to Myvatn for the evening.
Detifoss (340 feet wide by 150 feet tall) was definitely massive and it was really hard to capture via pictures the power of the falls as it rumbles down into the canyon. From the parking lot (free WCs here), you walk about a mile to two view points. The lower view point gets you close to the spray from the falls, but there wasn’t much wind this day, so we didn’t get wet. On the way back to the parking lot, follow the trail signs to see the nearby Selfoss. It’s just a small diversion and worth the hike.
Hverfjall crater (just a 25 min climb uphill to see this huge tephra volcano— volcano formed of ash and debris). I’m proud of myself for climbing up this thing without having to stop partway! Hee Hee
Pseudocraters with plenty of sheep and gnats and flies (Myvatn is know for their swarms of midges and flies. We had to wear a mosquito net to keep these buggers out of our faces.) Pseudocraters are rare and found in very few places in the world. They are formed when hot lava flows over wet marshlands/swamps/lakes and the steam eruptions underneath the lava flow forms these pseudocraters—looks like a crater, but isn’t as we later learned at the Perlan.
I had to show you this Krafla shower…it’s a warm water shower out in the middle of nowhere…we did see two guys with swim trunks taking a shower there, but it must have been cold trying to dry off in the wind.
Day 8: We checked out of our place at Myvatn and drove to Studlagil Canyon, a canyon that wasn’t discovered until a nearby dam was constructed, causing the water to recede and reveal this hidden basalt column canyon. You can park at 2 spots. One parking lot that is easy to get to has WCs (230ISK) and a stairway that overlooks the canyon, but the views are not as nice. The other parking lot requires 4 wheel drive going over a pothole mine field road, and then about a mile hike to get to the canyons. You can scramble down for even closer views.
Studlagil Canyon from the platform. As you can see, the basalt columns are in shadow and barely visible in the canyon.
Studlagil Canyon from the other parking lot, plus a 1 mile hike in. There’s even a section that you can walk out to that puts you in the middle of the canyon. Definitely super cool. Would be even cooler if the water in the canyon was blue instead of muddy brown.
Next we checked into our hotel at Gisthusid Lake Hotel at Egilsstadir and then drove to the town of Seydisfjordur, which I really wanted to explore this artsy picturesque town, but ended up being highly disappointed. About the only reason to go to this little town would be to take a picture of this rainbow road that leads to a small blue church, which was closed. The town didn’t have many other shops to explore, and wasn’t quaint like a small fishing village. Maybe because we were here in September and things were already closing down for the season? For example, I wanted to try the Fancy Sheep’s legendary lamb burgers, but when we went there, the owner said today was his last day for the season and he just sold his last burgers. Then we went to Nordic and they had their season closing menu. So after about 30 minutes or so, we left to go back to Elgisstadir for dinner and had the 4 course tasting menu at Nielsen House, run by a Michelin starred chef in Iceland.
Seydisfjordur’s famous rainbow road church
Nielsen House: Strawberry tomato salad over herbed skyr
Nielsen House: Rhubarb lamb ribs
Nielsen House: Pan fried cod over winter napa cabbage
Nielsen House: Salted caramel dessert with wild raspberries
Day 9: After checking out, we started the long drive to Hali Country Hotel, our rest stop for the next 3 days. Along the way, we stopped off at Djupivogur, the last town in the East fjords. We used the free WC there and took some pictures of these egg art sculptures. We then continued to Hvalnes Lighthouse, and then to Vestrahorn mountain on the Stokksnes peninsula (privately owned, 900 ISK per person). Afterwards we went to take a look at both the Jokulasaron and Fjallsarlon glacier lagoons to see which one we wanted to book our boat tours on, and then checked into Hali Country Hotel.
Hvalnes lighthouse
Viking village at Vestrahorn
Vestrahorn mountain
Day 10: South Eastern Iceland’s glacier lagoons. Today was a full day where we woke up for sunrise at diamond beach and then visited the other glacier lagoons. We had gone to the glacier lagoons at 5PM the night before, and it was jam packed with people, so we decided to go back early to enjoy the lagoons without the crowds. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel at The Hali Country Hotel and had a nice breakfast of homemade smoked lamb, lamb sausages, lamb pate, smoked Arctic char salad and even tried a piece of their lightly pickled herring (actually not as bad as I imagined), and then headed out to Skaftafell national park to do a bunch of hikes. There’s also two gas stations near the national park where we could fill up our tank and not be worried about running out of gas. Gas stations are a bit more sparse around the south east parts of Iceland, but the orkan gas station actually had a large restaurant where we had a decent dinner of lamb burgers and fish and chips. They even offer an all you can eat buffet, but we didn’t want THAT much food. And then that night we drove out to Jokulasaron glacier lagoon for some northern lights viewing. Amazing!
Diamond Beach, where icebergs wash up onto the black sand beach and sparkle in the sun
Jokulsarlon is a large glacier lagoon that is carved out by the breidamerkurjokull glacier tongue, and from the parking lot, you can walk over to the shore to see large icebergs floating in the lagoon. Some smaller ones can be seen slowly drifting out to under the bridge. The icebergs look different each time we come back here and we could sit out here for hours watching these if not for the crowds. When the winds are calm, and there are not too many people (come before 9AM, after that the parking lot is jammed and the crowds reminded me of Lake Louise in Canada), the lagoon is so peaceful and beautiful, you might even hear the icebergs cracking or flipping over.
Jokulsarlon AFTER the hurricane wind storm: compare THIS picture to the one above and you can see how much changed! All the icebergs have moved and are all smashed together. And the air wasn’t that clear, maybe from all the sand/ash kicked around in the air, as you can barely make out the glacier behind the icebergs compared to the previous picture. Even trying to take this picture the next day was scary. There were still a few gusts of wind every now and then.
About another 10min drive south, you will find Fjallsarlon, another glacier lagoon, but smaller. There’s fewer icebergs here, but the icebergs are “cleaner”, plus you get a good view of the glacier. You do have to hike down a gravel trail for about 10 min to see this though, but we liked it because there were fewer people at this smaller lagoon.
Skaftafell National Park: 750ISK to park, and there are nice exhibits and maps. There are many trails to choose from here, and this one pictured above is the Geology Trail Blue S1 trail that is an easy 2.3 mile round trip stroll to see the glacier tongue that runs off Vatnajokull. However when we got to the end of the trail, access to the glacier was blocked by a river. So if you want to be able to touch a glacier tongue, this isn’t the glacier to come to.
Instead, drive outside the national park to Svinafellsjokull. Park at the little lot, and hike in about 20 min. At the split off, take the trail To the right—it leads you to the glacier tongue where you CAN touch it.
Then come back up to the junction and this time, take the trail on the left and it takes you to this mini iceberg glacier lake of the Svinafellsjokull . This hike is actually shorter than the Geology Trail blue S1 in Skaftafell national park and prettier, and not too many people were hiking here. It was a nice hidden gem.
Skaftafell National Park: Another hike we did here was the hike to Svartifoss, a 60ft waterfall gushing over basalt columns. It’s a steep uphill climb, 2.5 miles round trip, and at first we came up to a lookout for this waterfall pictured above. It was gorgeous with the fall colors, and I thought this was it. “Oh, that’s not too hard of a hike.” , I thought to myself. Easy! But to my dismay, the hubby kept climbing up hill after we snapped our obligatory pictures, and I said, “Wait, why are we still going uphill?” Turns out, the above waterfall is NOT Svartifoss… it’s way further up.
Skaftafell National Park: this is Svartifoss
We got to see some amazing northern lights at Jokulasaron which was only 10min rom our hotel at Hali. We stayed out here to enjoy the northern lights for about 1.5hr and then drove back to our hotel.
And of course as luck would have it, right after we changed to PJ’s the aurora app goes off again, so we ran outside, and sure enough, you can see them even from the hotel parking lot!
Day 11: Well, we got several texts from Safe travels.is as well as from our rental car company that a storm was coming in, where there will be hurricane wind conditions this weekend. We were trying to use the Veður.is app to figure out if there were a safe few hours to drive from Hali to Vik, our next destination for the next 2 nights, but basically, winds were predicted to be high all day— as high as 40m/s which is about 90mph with gusts that can go even higher. So we decided to eat the cost and book an extra night in Hali so we didn’t have to drive through the epic winds, even though we already paid for accommodations at Vik, which at this point were non-refundable. We felt that was the safest choice. (They said that cars have flipped over and doors have been ripped off if not opening against the wind, so we didn’t want to chance it. We got all the full insurance you can get in Iceland, but the said a door ripped off isn’t covered by ANY insurance.)
We did have an ice cave tour booked for this day at 1:30PM, and it still was a go, so we bundled up in our waterproof outfits, and got on the Glacier adventure van out to the Breidamerkurjokull glacier. (Our tour guide gave us the pneumonic “bread, milk yogurt”. Say that fast to pronounce the glacier name). After a 6km bumpy ride, we parked at the lot; and from there we hiked 2km to the mouth of the cave, and got to experience going into the cave for about 30min. It was advertised as 40-50 minutes inside the cave, but in reality only 30 min because there were so many other tour groups waiting to go into the cave, and one couple in our tour group arrived 30 min late, so we had a late start. Apparently the ice cave season just started this week (normally only available Oct-Mar) and hence the crowds, even though the tours are not cheap (around $140 per person).
On the hike back, the winds were picking up, and a strong gust lifted me and blew me over the edge of the trail. Luckily it wasn’t a bad fall, as it was a gravel trail. My hubby said he dug his foot into the ground, but even the wind pushed him and made him slide to the edge. Gosh, made me feel really glad that I booked an extra night in Hali to not have to drive the next day, when the winds were supposed to be even worse!
Ice Cave Tour
Ice Cave Tour
Ice Cave Tour
Ice Cave Tour
Day 12: Today is the strongest of the wind storm, and with our zodiac boat tour of the glacier lagoon canceled, we stayed in our hotel room all day. I’m sad because I wanted to get a chance to try the langostine (Icelandic lobster) rolls from the food truck at Jokulasaron lagoon parking lot. But I guess it wasn’t meant to be… The ring road from the east fjords down to Kirkjubaejarklauster was closed starting around 8:20AM. Later, the staff came and knocked on our doors to tell us to move our cars from the gravel parking lot to the grassy area behind a house facing the wind so the gravel doesn’t kick up and crack our windshields. From our hotel window, we could watch the wind blowing the grass and trees.
At around 12:35PM, it looked like the winds had died down a bit, so we walked outside to explore the Hali farm, and the free on site museum about the great writer Þórbergur Þórðarson (1888 – 1974) who grew up on the farm Hali. The museum is interesting as it depicted the author’s life during a time when the area of south east Iceland was really isolated. The bridges crossing both glacier rivers were not yet built, and so one had to depend on farming and fishing for food, and would often be hungry. Sometimes a French fishing vessel would get shipwreck on shore, and de facto bring in a rich supply of French cheeses, meats, and booze. And they would use the wrecked ship’s nails and wood to fortify their houses and barns. Sounded like a really tough life… all in all, I was impressed with the museum, as it is mainly the curating work of one of the owners of the hotel. Even the exterior of the museum is made to look like a library where the wall of one side of the building represents the spines of a series of books. It’s pretty cool!
The museum exterior looks like a bookshelf with books! Cool, right?
Inside the museum, there’s a replica of the authors bedroom.
Loot from Shipwrecked French fishing boats.
Day 13: We were checking road.is last night and since 6AM this morning, and the roads were still closed all the way until 12:30PM. The workers at Hali said that there were lots of accidents up north east where it was both windy and snowing because they didn’t close the roads soon enough. Anyways, the wind conditions down south looked ok, so we checked out and started to drive to Vik. On the way, we stopped off at Fjadrarglijur (Feather Canyon) which was made famous by a Justin Bieber music video, Gigjagja (cool cave, but was closed because someone set up a wedding reception there inside the cave!), and Reynisfjara (basalt column black sand beach).
Fjadrargljufur: Drive about 10 min on a gravel road off of the ring road that leads to a free parking lot with free WCs, then walk up the designated path that leads you to several viewing points of this long canyon. Don’t veer off the path as the vegetation around the area is fragile. After visiting this, now I gotta see that Justin Bieber video…
Gigjagja: Would have been nice to go inside, but there was a private event and they said to wait 40min. We didn’t want to wait that long. Although I was perplexed that a public cave on public land could be “booked” for a wedding, and kick out the general public. In the least, they should have put up a sign near the ring road so people didn’t have to drive the long bumpy pothole road to get here only to find out it’s occupied.
Reynisfjara black sand beach cave. Need to watch for high tide, as it is possible for the tide to come in and get stuck in the cave.
Reynisfjara sea stacks. Gotta watch those waves! They are sneaky! We saw a girl get her shoes and pants soaked cuz she wasn’t paying attention.
Reynisfjara Basalt columns
We stayed at Hvambol house, which is about 15-20 min from Vik, so away from city lights. At around 11PM, we stepped outside our studio and were treated to a light show. It was spectacular, covering the entire sky, and the best we’ve seen thus far with more colors than just green. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! It was also nice to be able to just step back inside the apartment to warm up every once in a while.
More northern lights. We are sooooo lucky!
Icelandic horses right at the place we were staying! They liked being petted.
Loftsalaheiler cave: Doesn’t look like much…
Loftsalaheiler cave from the outside doesn’t look like much, but scramble up the steep hill and go inside the cave for a cool framed picture of Reynisfjara and Dyrholaey beach. From the picture above, you can see this friendly dog leading the way. We don’t know who the owners are…
Dyrholaey: one of the many natural sea arches here. In the summer, there’s puffins here, but none in September. You do get fantastic views of black sand beaches for as far as you can see, as well as the sea stacks characteristic of Reynisfjara beach
Dyrholey Lighthouse looks like a castle
Solheimajokull glacier: 750ISK parking, free port-a-potties, then take the gravel trail to walk out to glacier. We saw some groups go out with gear for glacier walking tours. This is the 4th glacier we visited on our trip. All 4 glaciers that we visited are classified as calving glaciers.
Skogafoss is much broader than Seljalandfoss, but here, you don’t really get very wet. You might get a bit of mist as you get closer to the base of the falls, but that’s about it. Parking is free, and there’s free WC here too!
Seljalandfoss is unique in that you can walk behind the waterfall. Even though the waterfall is only 210 ft high, it provides a rare “behind the scenes view” of a waterfall. You do need waterproof pants, shoes, and jackets, as you will be constantly sprayed with water throughout the walk. It’s safest to go counter clockwise as it’s wet, and slippery with steep rocks. Parking is 700ISK. There’s free WCs, and a souvenir shop and cafe.
Behind Seljalandfoss
Day 15: We spent the night in an Airbnb at Selfoss. In the morning, we did part of the Golden Circle, stopping off at Skalholt Church (Catholic church with stained glass windows and a crypt), Geysir, Gullfoss, and Bruarfoss. Later, after our hike, since it was still only 3:30 PM, we decided to stop off at Laugarvatn Fontana, made famous by the Netflix Zach Effron documentary on renewable energy. This is where they make this rye bread baked for 24hrs in a pot buried in the ground that’s heated by geothermal waters. We arrived too late for their “digging up the bread” tour (only available twice a day—at 11:30 and 2:30), but bought a tasting of their 24hr cooked rye bread, and then walked around outside to see the site where they cook the bread.
Gullfoss (golden falls) has two free parking lots. We parked at the lower lot, walked to the bottom of the falls for one view, and then walked up a bunch of stairs to a platform to view the falls from above.
Ok, so we tried to go to the original parking spot for Bruarfoss, but there was a giant truck there and a closed gate. I’m not sure if the parking lot is permanently moved because the original parking lot is on private land, but we parked at a lot for Burafoss that required a 4.4 mile round trip hike. There are trail signs at this parking lot, so maybe this is the new official parking lot? Along the hike to Bruarfoss, there are two Small waterfalls. Above is Hlaurtungufoss.
Bruarfoss: so pretty blue even on an overcast day, that I can’t imagine how much more beautiful this would be on a sunny day. Definitely worth the hike
Laugarvatn Fontana to try their rye bread cooked 24h in geothermal pools. The taste is very good—especially if you slather it with Icelandic butter. Complex almost like molasses bread, but I didn’t care much for the texture of the bread. It was very dense.
The pot of bread is buried here to cook for 24h. The stone marks where each pot is buried. I guess tomorrows tour group will get to dig these up!
So many goodies to choose from at GK bakery! We finally decided on a Danish, banana cinnamon bun, and a chocolate croissant to go with our 2 coffees.
Hellisheidi power plant: I’m not sure this place was worth the $15 per person entrance fee because the exhibit is very small. The first floor has one panel with the Iceland map showing where the geothermal areas are. The second floor has one exhibit to explain how CO2 is recaptured by forming precipitates (CaCO3 and MgCO3) that then fill the rock crevices and remain in the rocks for a millennia. The third floor has views of their actual power plant and exhibits on how their plant works, and some films. That’s about it. So while I’m very impressed with their technology and leading the way for renewable energy usage, I wished they also offered a walking tour of the actual power plant on site. That would have made the admission fees totally worth it.
Soaking in the Fontana geothermal pools. Perfect thing to do on a rainy cloudy day!
Shrimp and pulled pork tacos at Takko
Miso cod at Samuelsson Matbar-delicious, but not a miso sauce…tasted more like a hollandaise sauce
Ice cream at Isbud Huppu— ha, we actually had this before the dinner because we had been dreaming about trying Icelandic ice cream ever since we missed the chance to do so at Akureyri due to rain.
Thingvir: The crack between the North American and Eurasia plates. Too bad the “crack” is too big to straddle one foot on each continent. Hee Hee
Thingvir: Church and location of Iceland’s ancestral equivalent to a Roman Forum or Agora. It’s where all the chieftains and their assemblymen would gather once a year.
Oxarafoss in Thingvir
Reykjavik city walk
Lobster soup (flavorful, but not too many pieces of lobster), seafood soup (I was surprised it had a mild curry flavor, but it was tasty with plenty of fish, scallops and shrimp), and fish stew with rye bread (less cheesy than the fish casserole we had at harbor cafe and had the consistency of mashed potatoes with fish and onions and lots of pepper) at 101 Reykjavik Street Food. Plenty of seating upstairs and afterwards you pay downstairs and they hand you two free Prince Polo Chocolate bars!
Ok, lobster soup at Saegreifinn, while delicious, had even fewer pieces of lobsters than Reykjavik 101 street food. Maybe only about 3 to 4 pieces? The soup had a hint more cream and a stronger tomato base than the lobster soup at last nights place and hit the spot on a cold and rainy day.
Trout skewer with garlic cream sauce was really tasty with a perfect grilled taste. Tasted like salmon but fattier.
Ice cream from omnom chocolate ice cream shop, another shop that was featured in the Zach Efron Netflix film on Iceland. Look at how cute the little panda is! Ice cream was more soft serve like, and the chocolate cookies were not very sweet, almost a slight salty taste when paired against the vanilla sauce underneath the pile of cookie crumbs.
Man made ice cave
Perlan sits on top of 7 water storage tanks and is an exhibit about plate tectonics, geothermal hot spots, volcanos, glaciers, auroras, and underwater life and birds (ie their famous puffins). I highly recommend a visit here!
| Date | Time | Activity |
| Tues Sept 2022 | 10:00AM | Flight via Alaska Airlines |
| Wed | 06:00AM | Arrive in Reykjavik,pick up luggage, get rental car from Hertz and some money (only need enough for the WC’s because Iceland is a cashless society) |
| 09:00AM | Blue Lagoon | |
| 12:00PM | Costco and Bonus (supermarket right next door to costco) | |
| 03:00PM | Check into Hotel: Fosshotel Baron in Reykjavik, 1 nt, no fridge, no breakfast, free parking lot for guests | |
| 06:00PM | Walk to Sun Voyager Sculpture, Harpa Concert Hall, Hot dogs at Baejarins Beztu plysur for dinner | |
| 09:30PM | Northern Lights (go to Sun voyager sculpture to get pictures of northern lights with city lights and sculpture in background) | |
| Thurs | 08:00AM | Walk to Baud & Co for breakfast pastries and coffee, eat outside the Hallgrimskirkja church |
| 09:00AM | Check out | |
| 11:00AM | Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, short waterfall hikes from parking lot | |
| 01:30PM | Grabok Crater (320 step staircase climb before you can see the crater) | |
| 03:00PM | Berserkjahraun lava field (yellow lichen alien like field, can just walk 10 min to see) | |
| 04:00PM | Check into The Old Post Office at Grundarfjordur, 2nt, private room and full bathroom, has view of kirkjufell mountain, no fridge, no breakfast but has shared kitchen facility | |
| 05:00PM | Kirkjufellfoss water fall hike (short 15 min hike) and sunset pictures. Most photographed Mountain | |
| 07:00PM | See the Icelandic horses (west on 54 immediately after the falls parking lot) | |
| 08:00PM | Dinner at Harbor Cafe | |
| Fri | 06:00AM | Sunrise photos at Kirkjufellfoss water fall |
| 09:00AM | Shop at Samkamp supermarket for sandwiches and other dinner supplies | |
| 10:00AM | Snaefalles national park: Svodufoss waterfall (short 30 min hike), climb Saxholl Crater, walk along Djupalonssandur black sand beach | |
| 01:00PM | Malarrif lighthouse (free WC) | |
| 03:00PM | Arnarstapi hike (1.5 hr) to see basalt formations and the stone sculpture of half giant/half man | |
| 05:00PM | Black Church (built 1703, most photographed church in Iceland) | |
| 07:00PM | Back at hotel: Made dinner of smoked icelandic salmon salad and pasta with marinara | |
| Sat | 09:30AM | Check out, get gas |
| 10:00AM | Gerduburg Basalt Columns | |
| 01:00PM | Hvitserkur (animal like rock formation that looks like a troll) is a 3 hr drive from hotel. Hike down to the beach and eat packed lunch | |
| 06:00PM | Check into G19 Boutique apartment in Akureyri, 2 nts, has washer, fridge and stove. 2Hr drive from Hvitserkur | |
| 07:00PM | Grocery shop at Netto supermarket, Made dinner of lamb and an apple salad | |
| 09:00PM | Look for northern lights | |
| Sun | 10:00AM | Godafoss waterfall (not ideal order in itinerary but had to switch the day’s activities due to weather) |
| 01:00PM | Myvatn Pools (free WC) just to look, if using the pools, will need more time | |
| 02:00PM | Namafjall Geothermal area (lots of cool bubbling mud pots, steaming sulfur vents, etc) | |
| 03:30PM | Krafla viti crater walk around rim (deep blue water filled crater) | |
| 04:30PM | Dimmuborgir lava formations, 45 min hike | |
| 05:30PM | Skutustadir pseudocraters, 45 min hike | |
| 06:30PM | Drive back to Akureyri and dinner | |
| Mon | 09:00AM | From apartment, walk into town and explore shops and Akureyri church |
| 11:00AM | Check out and drive to Akureyri botanical garden (free) | |
| 12:30PM | Drive to Santa’s Workshop (has worlds largest advent calendar, and in Atlas Obsura book) | |
| 02:00PM | Drive to Myvatn (bring mosquito nets, lots here!) | |
| 03:30PM | Check into Dimmuborgir Guesthouse at Myvatn, 2 nts, private cabin with full bathroom, no fridge, no breakfast, has shared kitchen in a nearby cabin | |
| 06:00PM | Dinner Kaffi Borgi or Fish and Chips Myvtn or Gamli Baelin, then look for northern lights | |
| Tues | 10:00AM | Drive out to Dettifoss and Selfoss waterfalls and hike (2 hr hike) (also not ideal order in itinerary, but we already did a lot of the Myvtn activities 2 days ago due to weather) |
| 02:00PM | Krafla shower, Hverfjall crater hike, Pseudocraters hike, and Grjotagja caves (famous from Game of Thrones) | |
| Wed | 08:00AM | Check out and get gas because there are no gas stations for 2hrs from Myvatn to Egilsstadir |
| 10:00AM | Studlagil Canyon hike (2 hr hike) | |
| 03:00PM | Check into Gistihusid Lake Hotel at Egilsstadir, 1 nt, no fridge, breakfast included | |
| 04:00PM | Drive to Seydisfjordur (artsy picturesque rainbow road to church) | |
| 07:00PM | Dinner at Nielsen House | |
| Thurs | 09:00AM | Check out and drive to Hofn (4hr drive), so Stop at Djupivogur where there is a free WC, Hvalnes Lighthouse, Vestrahorn mountain |
| 04:00PM | Check into Hali Country Hotel, 3 nts (but ended up being 4 nts due to windstorm closing all roads), no fridge, breakfast included, and coffee tea in lobby all day. Its the only hotel in Hali that is 10min from diamond beach | |
| 05:00PM | Drove out to Jokulsarlon and Fjallsarlon for a quick assessment of which is better to book boat tour, then dinner | |
| Fri | 06:00AM | Sunrise at Diamond beach (pieces of icebergs on a black sand beach) |
| 07:00AM | Jokulsarlon and Fjallsarlon Glacier lagoons (huge icebergs floating in a blue lagoon. For Jokulasaron, can see icebergs right at parking lot. For the other, walk a bit uphill from parking lot to see icebergs) | |
| 09:30AM | Breakfast at hotel | |
| 11:00AM | Drive to Skaftafell National Park | |
| 12:00PM | Skaftafell National Park: Geology trail hike, Svinafellsjokull glacier (can walk on glacier) | |
| 03:00PM | Svartifoss waterfall | |
| 06:00PM | Get gas and then dinner at Veitingasala Restaurant | |
| 09:00PM | northern lights at Jokulsarlon Glacier | |
| Sat | AM | breakfast at hotel, then stayed indoors due to windstorm |
| 01:30PM | Ice cave tour (surprisingly not canceled!) | |
| Sun | AM | breakfast at hotel, then stayed indoors due to windstorm |
| PM | boat tour got canceled due to windstorm, so braved the wind to walk to Hali farm and museum | |
| Mon | 11:00AM | Check out and drove to Jokulsarlon glacier to see what the icebergs look like after the storm |
| 01:00PM | Fjadrarglijur (feather canyon) hike made famous by Justin Bieber video | |
| 03:00PM | Gigjagja (cave) | |
| 04:00PM | Rreynisfjara black sand beach and basalt columns | |
| 06:00PM | Check into Hvambol Apartment near Vik, 2 nts (paid for 2 nts but ended up staying 1 nt due to storm and couldn’t cancel because I was not able to reach a live person even though I emailed every day 3 days before), has fridge with kitchen, no breakfast | |
| 09:00PM | Northern Lights right outside porch | |
| Tues | 09:00AM | Check out |
| 09:30AM | Loftsalaheiler cave hike (30 min hike) | |
| 10:30AM | Dyrholaey sea arch and lighthouse | |
| 12:00PM | Solheimajokull glacier (free port-o-potties) 20min walk from parking lot | |
| 02:00PM | Skogafoss waterfall (free WC) can see from parking lot but can also climb 500 step stairway | |
| 03:30PM | Seljalandfoss waterfall hike (free WC) 1 to 1.5 hr hike to go BEHIND a waterfall. | |
| 06:00PM | Check into Airbnb at Selfoss (Selfoss Center apartment), 3 nts, fridge, kitchen, full bathroom and parking | |
| Wed | 09:00AM | Skalholt Church, Fridheimar tomato farm (in Zac Effrons Netflix episode), Geysir, Gullfoss, Bruarfoss (4.4 mi hike), Laugarvatn Fontana (rye bread cooked in the ground, also featured in Zac Effrons Netflix episode) |
| Thurs | 08:00AM | GK bakery |
| 10:00AM | Hellisheidi Power Plant exhibit (featured in Zac Effrons Netflix episode) | |
| 01:00PM | Fontana geothermal pools (soak and sauna) | |
| 05:00PM | Selfoss Market place | |
| Fri | 08:00AM | Check out |
| 10:00AM | Thingvir National Park (get here early to avoid crowds) | |
| 01:00PM | Start drive to Reykjavik and check into Airbnb in Reykjavik (wonderful apartment downtown with free parking) (3 nts, fridge, kitchen, washer and dryer, garage parking) | |
| 03:00PM | Reykjavik city walk following Rick Steves book and then dinner | |
| Sat | Walk around town souvenir shopping and food exploring and taking pictures of iconic buildings | |
| Sun | Perlan museum | |
| Mon | Last minute shopping and flying out |