*As I was writing this post I realized how incredibly long it was becoming! I am going to break this post into 2…maybe 3!
First Post: Hafnarfjordur, Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle, Silfra snorkelling, Thingvellir National Park, Ulfljotsvatn
Second Post: Second Post: Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Solheimasandur (plane), Dyrholaey Arch, Reynisfjara Beach (black sand beach), Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, Eldhraun area, Skaftafeli/Skaftafell, Höfn, Jokulsarlon, Breiðamerkursandur, Haifoss, Gjain, Hveragerdi, Reykjavik, Hallgrimskirkja cathedral, Krysuvik, Gunnuhver
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In September, my boyfriend, sister and I went to Iceland- road trip style. Over the course of 10 days we drove from one end of Iceland to the other and back again, stopping at beautiful places all along the way. I came up with an itinerary before we went and mapped everything out. We drove on Ring Road 1 from Reykjavik to Hofn in the East.
Food:
Food is very expensive in Iceland because the weather is crazy so there is little agriculture. Everything is imported. I read many blogs and articles that said one of the most expensive parts of Iceland is the food. Due to this I packed 10 days worth of oatmeal and Rice A Ronies to save money. We ate out a few times but mostly ate packaged foods.
Weather:
The weather in Iceland is just crazy. It’s a very small country surrounded by water. It’s basically an island. I read up on the weather and learned I needed to bring every type of clothing for every type of weather. I packed rain boots, sneakers, flip flops, tank tops, long sleeve shirts, winter coats, raincoats, wind breakers, scarves, gloves, hats, bathing suits and everything in between- and I needed all of it! I couldn’t believe how much the weather changed. One minute I would be freezing and it would be snowing and the next, it was pouring and the next, it was hot and sunny. This seemed to be all day, everyday. But the most frequent type of weather was rain and wind. The wind literally blew me over many times- like I fell over from how strong the wind was! And I was wet all the time! Our hotels frequently didn’t have dryers so we needed to hang dry our clothes every night. I remember one night I screamed, “I JUST WANT TO BE DRY!!!!!!” The weather got to me.
Money:
Iceland is pretty much a cashless society. They take credit cards for absolutely everything so definitely let your credit card company know you will be traveling.
Now for the trip-
We landed around 11:40pm on a Friday night. We rented a car and were told the rental car place would be picking us up from the airport but we didn’t see them at the pickup area. We called them a few times but couldn’t get through. We talked to the info desk and they let us know that each car rental place comes approximately every 20 mins or so to pick up people. We waited almost an hour but they did eventually come.
When we arrived in Iceland it was cold and raining and I stepped in a puddle. Our driver was from Finland. We met many people throughout our trip and most of them were from other countries that were now living in Iceland. For some reason we did not meet a lot of people that were actually from Iceland.
We rented a Rav 4 due to the road conditions. It is recommended you rent something with 4 wheel drive. We rented through Sadcars and were lucky enough to get the last automatic car. We were nervous about our car at first though because it seemed pretty run down. It made crazy noises while driving, we couldn’t get the trunk to open, the door would get jammed, and on one occasion while driving down Ring Road 1 our trunk opened! Luckily we didn’t lose any luggage. Though we were scared of this car for the entire 10 days, it ended up being okay!
In the wee hours of the morning we could not find our airbnb at all. We parked and walked all around in the cold and rain for over an hour. We felt hopeless and contemplated sleeping in the car. We had no service or wifi so we could not get in touch with the airbnb hosts. Thank the heavens that some guy was walking his dog in the middle of the night for some reason and he was able to help us find the room. The room was very small but would do for the night.
We had plans to go to Krysuvik early Saturday morning but we were exhausted and decided to save it for our last day instead. We slept in, way later than I wanted to but we had to. We were painfully tired.
The room didn’t have a kitchen which ruined my plans of heating up our rice for lunch. Mark found a way to heat up our lunch in the bags themselves with hot water from the coffee maker. You gotta do what you gotta do to make the trip affordable!
We later headed to our first destination, Hafnarfjordur which is a super cute town. We drove all around and stopped anyplace that looked cute or interesting and took some pictures and explored. We were here about an hour before we headed to Blue Lagoon for our 3pm reservations.
One thing I loved about Hafnarfjordur was this cool graffiti alley we found. It was really interesting and full of cool art!
Even just driving in Iceland is something cool to see. This was our drive from Hafnarfjordur to Blue Lagoon.
I booked Blue Lagoon months in advance and ended up saving money that way.
We had planned to stay at Blue Lagoon all night but time moved very slowly here! We stayed until around 6pm or so but it felt like we were there like 8 hours! Every time we looked at the clock we could not believe the time hadn’t moved at all!
I liked Blue Lagoon and all it had to offer but I was also disgusted by it. There were cups in the water and every time I swam around there was hair getting stuck on me and I felt garbage at the bottom of the pool which I couldn’t see at all, which grossed me out even more. When I got out of the pool I felt super dirty and gross and took the longest shower ever. They have a locker room with lockers and showers. And they have a leave in conditioner. I highly recommend that. My hair felt like straw for about a week after leaving Blue Lagoon!
Once we were clean and showered up, we headed to our next hotel, Ljosafossskoli which was located in Grímsnes. It was about an hour or so away from Blue Lagoon. We stayed at this hotel for three nights. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night because we had many plans in this area and it made sense for us to stay put for a few days instead of changing hotels.
We liked this hotel a lot. I booked it through Airbnb.com. The hotel itself as well as the rooms and bathrooms were very spacious. There was a shared kitchen and everyone was actually very good about keeping it clean. There were a few private bathrooms but they were always full so I used the shared bathroom because no one ever used it! I had the huge shower all to myself!
In the morning we planned to do the Golden Circle. There are many stops along the Golden Circle including the Geysir Geothermal Area which has world famous, Strokkur. Gullfoss Waterfall, Fridheimar restaurant, and the Kerid Crater. The Golden Circle can easily be done in a day. We woke up nice and early and started our long adventure.
Our first stop was the Geysir Geothermal Area and Strokkur. The drive here was so cool! We saw the most beautiful horses and pulled the car over to go see them.
The Geysir Geothermal Area was so cool! We parked across the street at a gift shop and walked through the geothermal area. There were many little geysirs and little geothermal pools.
But Strokkur was really just truly amazing. It erupts every few minutes. I have no idea how long we stood there staring at it but we saw it erupt maybe around 10 times. It was just incredible and I couldn’t stop staring.
Our next stop was Gullfoss Waterfall. You can walk up to the waterfall as well as seeing it from above. The walk to the waterfall is gorgeous and reminded me of something out of Lord of the Rings.
Standing next to the waterfall is just magical. It’s so loud but peaceful in a way. It’s very powerful.
The walk above the waterfall is just as beautiful as walking next to it. I recommend doing both! It’s a lot of walking but the walk is easy and definitely worth it.
After that magical spot we headed towards our lunch reservations and what did we find? More horses of course!
Not only horses but sheep too! My favorite part of Iceland were all the horses and sheep! And they are just everywhere! They say there are more sheep in Iceland than people!
Something funny about the horses and sheep are that the horses come right up to you and the sheep always run away. They don’t like people. We saw so many post cards and art work of sheep butts. It was a funny joke about the sheep running away and never really seeing their faces up close.
We ate lunch at Fridheimar Restaurant which is right along the Golden Circle route. This is a famous restaurant and reservations need to be made well in advance. I made my reservations by email. I made reservations for 12pm which ended up being perfect timing.
Fridheimar is a green house that grows it’s own tomatoes. Iceland doesn’t have a lot of agriculture due to the crazy weather. Much of their food is imported and that is why food is so expensive. Fridheimar is well worth the trip and money. Our meal was quite expensive but I can honestly say it is the best tomato soup I have ever had in my entire life. To this very day, I still think about my meal here! But not only is the food amazing, the place is gorgeous!
Look how amazing this food looks! I would do anything for this meal right now!
Our last stop of our amazing day of The Golden Circle was Kerid Crater. You have to pay to see the crater up close. I can’t remember how much it was but it was pretty cheap. You can walk down to the bottom of the crater and then around the crater rim.
It was very sunny so it was difficult for us to get good pictures.
Yay! We completed the Golden Circle! Woo Hoo! After our long and adventurous day we went back to our hotel.
The next day we were in for another big adventure! I signed us up to snorkel the Silfra! If you don’t know what this is click on the link and look into it because it is just crazy! You snorkel in water that is just slightly above freezing in between two tectonic plates. Silfra is located inside Thingvellir National Park. This is also a Game of Thrones filming location!
We swam in that hole!!!
First of all, Mark chose to snorkel in the wet-suit which he was crazy for because there was no insulation and it’s like 34 degree water. My sister and I chose the dry suits. They did help with staying dry and warm (besides our heads) but we were still freezing. They were super uncomfortable and we could barely move at all. I am kind of claustrophobic so I was nervous I was going to panic but I did okay somehow. I really don’t know how.
I had a lot of trouble finding a good group to snorkel with actually so I highly recommend Adventure Vikings. The tour guides were amazing and they give you hot chocolate afterwards too, which you will definitely need!
My pictures and vids aren’t amazing because we had a crappy gopro knock off. Definitely make sure you get a freezing proof case. We had to make sure ours wouldn’t crack because of the cold.
You basically snorkel over rocks and cave like openings. You won’t see fish or anything. You don’t see much besides rocks but what a crazy awesome experience this was. It was quite a rush.
After this experience we rushed back to the hotel and took nice, hot showers. It was still early in the day because our tour was at 9am so Mark and I got ready and headed back to Thingvellir National Park. Luckily our hotel was closely located. My sister chose to stay behind, I don’t blame her! I was pooped after the snorkeling.
Mark and I pretty aimlessly drove around the park. We would park randomly and walk around. It was very unlike me but we had no game plan! We drove around until we saw something interesting and would pull over. We did this for a few hours. The park is so beautiful so we pulled over a lot!
There is a beautiful stream on the way to see Oxararfoss waterfall
Oxararfoss waterfall is just a short walk from one of the parking lots and well worth it.
On our walk back from the waterfall we walked straight up a hill which overlooked the park. We saw people flying drones there and they got in trouble.
More driving and more pulling over!
On our drive back to the hotel I wanted to stop in Ulfljotsvatn. There wasn’t anything really there but I saw pictures online of an old church on the edge of the water. I wanted to check it out because it looked hauntingly beautiful. On our drive to find the seaside church we saw more horses! These horses were very friendly!
The drive to Ulfljotsvatn was an adventure in itself, full of horses and beautiful landscape.
We actually couldn’t find the church right away. We turned around a few times. We saw it when we looked down over the cliff. It was down below us!
