Iceland

I am not one to usually go for guided tours, but we felt like we’d get more out of the trip with a knowledgeable guide. We booked a 10-day tour (8 full days with 2 travel days) through Guide to Iceland. You can also book optional activities to do (for additional costs) throughout the 8 days.

We arrived at Reykjavík at the crack of dawn, 6:30 in the morning. After getting breakfast at Joe & the Juice, our first stop was The Blue Lagoon. As we were trying to relax in the lagoon, wind and rain slapped us in the face. We realized that different spots in the lagoon were different temperatures, which was unexpected. They offered drinks and mud masks during your swim and had a waterfall you could swim under to get a nice hard massage from. We decided to have lunch at the restaurant attached to the Blue Lagoon called the Lava Restaurant. It was good but wasn’t amazing. After lunch we caught the bus to our hotel (The Blue Lagoon has a place to store you luggage while you are swimming).

Tip: Remember to check out the bus schedule before heading to go and swim. At the bus
dropoff/pick up building, they have a timetable with all the different bus companies and the times
they pick you up at. We forgot to check, and had to wait an hour for our bus to come

Day 2

We had to meet our tour guide at 8am in the morning. Although we booked through Guide to Iceland, but they partnered with Troll Expeditions. Our tour group was small, only about 18 people or so. With the small group, the tour never felt rushed, we were able to customize the tour to what we were most interested in seeing. August, our guide, made sure everyone was on board before we left for our next stop (something that we did not experience in Ireland). Our first stop was Þingvellir National Park, which is where the Icelandic parliament was founded. The park is spilt in half onto the Eurasian and North American plates. From there we went to ‘The Great Geysir”. The Geysir is no longer erupting, but the neighboring geyser erupts every 10 minutes or so. We also ate at the food court at the visitor center, it was meh.

 Our next stop was the famous Gullfoss, which is one of August’s favorite waterfalls. There are two waterfalls that fall into a dramatic gorge that was formed during the last ice age. There is are two viewing areas, one at the top looking down at the waterfall, and another path leading you closer to the waterfall. If it is sunny out that day, you can see a nice rainbow over the waterfall.

Our first additional activity we booked was horseback riding. There was a total of 7 of us riding. There was one guy, named Kevin, who joined our group because no one else from his tour wanted to do it.  I got a horse named Klan, he was a nice brown horse.  Klan was a back of the pack kind of guy, who was quite a klutz. He kept tripping and slipping during our ride. It was a nice ride along the Iceland countryside. After horseback riding, we went to our next hotel called Hotel Hvolsvöllur. We found this restaurant that was only a couple of minutes’ walk from our hotel called Valhalla Restaurant. My mom and I both got this really good BBQ Burger. It had pulled pork on top with cheese and bacon, it was delicious. They also had ax-throwing there, which we attempted.

Day 3

We were informed that the glacier hike we were supposed to do that morning was delayed due to bad weather. Instead, we went to two waterfalls that we were supposed to do after the glacier hike. We stopped first at the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which is one of the most iconic and famous waterfalls in Iceland. We ended up getting there before any other tour groups were there, so we had the waterfall to ourselves for about 10 minutes. The cool thing about this waterfall was that you could walk behind it (Highly suggest doing). After that, we went to the next waterfall called Skógafoss. On sunny days you can see a rainbow or two… it was not sunny that day. There were stairs leading up to the top of the waterfall. It was a little sketchy walking up those stairs because it was rainy and very windy. A couple of times I had to stop walking and hold on the rail because I didn’t want to be blown away. From there we went to this lookout point called Dyrholsey Arch, where you were supposed to see this rock with a hole in it. Well, it was so windy that people weren’t walking straight. Going up to the lookout point was an adventure in itself. The waves were super big and no one dared to go towards the edge to see if they could see that hole. Driving to and from the lookout point it was so windy that our van was almost pushed off the road from gusts of wind. We drove to the town of Vík where we got lunch at the Ice Cave Bistro which was ok. We then went to the famous black sand beach called, Reynisfjara. Be careful though and don’t go near the water. There are waves called “sneaker waves” that come and leave with people if they aren’t careful. It was a pretty beach with huge waves (because of the storm we were in). We saw a couple of people get soaked from the sneaker waves, a couple of those people were in our tour group. After coming back to the van, August called it a day (at 2pm because everyone was freezing) and drove us to the hotel. The hotel we stayed at is kind of in the middle of nowhere called Hotel Katla. I like the idea that they put us in the middle of nowhere so we have a better chance of seeing the northern lights… but not when it’s rainy and cloudy out. We ended up eating at the hotel at their buffet that was super expensive.

Day 4

We left to go glacier hiking at 8am in the morning. We hiked at Sólheimajökull glacier. I am quite glad that the hike was canceled the day before because it would have been very sketchy to hike in that wind. Our group combined with about 2 other groups. Which was about 50 people or so. We got on our helmet, harnesses, crampons, and pickaxes. It was a beautiful hike going up to the top of the glacier. The glacier used to be out by the parking lot 24 years ago. Now it is about a 15-20 minute walk to get to the bottom of the glacier. It is one of the fastest receding glaciers Iceland. Near the glacier hike is the spot where the crashed plane site is. I would love to see that next time I visit Iceland. From there we went to get lunch back in Vík at the Ice Cave Bistro. After lunch, we drove through the lava fields. There was a volcano that erupted for about 13 months and it left miles and miles of lava. Now there is moss growing out of the mounds of lava. From there it was about an hour and a half drive to Jökulsárlón, where the diamond beach is located. In Iceland, there are one-lane bridges crossing the rivers. We had waited our turn until everyone was over it (coming the opposite way). We started going and then another car started going coming towards us. We met in the middle when they did not want to back up. So August had to go out and talk to them and convince them to back up. When we got to the diamond beach, we realized there no ice diamonds out on the beach. All the ice blocks/ diamonds were on a truck. Apparently, they were moving the diamonds from one side of the beach to another. It was pretty, but a little chilly. We called it a day and went to the hotel and ate there too.

Day 5

This by far was the best day of the trip. We started off the day by going ice caving. We met our Guide to Iceland tour guide named Fannar, who was amazing. He was so knowledgeable and so excited about this cave we were going to. They had discovered this cave about 3 weeks beforehand and had been setting it up for us to go and explore. We got to drive in one of these big tired vans. Apparently, Fannar’s father was the one who created this kind of vehicle. We went off-roading and drove straight onto the glacier. It was quite a bumpy ride, but it was so fun. Before we went onto the off-roading part, Fannar lowered the tire pressure psi from 25 psi to 15 psi. This makes the tire fatter and wider, creating a better grip for when we are on the ice. Sometimes they lower the tire to 0-5 psi when on snow, that way they are kind of floating on snow. On this glacier, they have filmed Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Interstellar. The terrain of the glacier looks like outer space, Mars and Moon terrain. NASA has sent their astronauts in spacesuits and their rovers here to test them out on the terrain. This glacier has receded back so much that they predict that this glacier won’t be here in 100 years. It takes about 15-25 meters of snow to make a baseball size of ice that creates part of the ice caves. At this lake is where the game of thrones scene where one of the dragons falls into the lake in season 7 episode 6. The ice cave was amazing, but my camera decided to stop working kind of, so not all my pictures were in focus. From there we drove to the Jökulsárlón lagoon. We had some free time so myself and another couple from the tour decided to take a zodiac boat ride onto the lagoon to look at the icebergs and glaciers. It was such a cool experience, and I highly suggest it. It costs about $75 for an hour tour. Each boat can hold up to about 10 people including the captain. Our captain was named Olan (I think that’s his name), and it was me and about 8 people from one group from China. After that, we went to grab a late lunch at Gistiheimili. I got the tomato soup, and it was delicious. From there we drove to our next destination, stopping at a couple more photo stops along the way. We stopped at this art gallery and there was the most adorable dog. I named her Daisy. I think her real name is Ms. Triyna which it says on the rock. Daisy had this stuffed cat toy that she loved. She would drop it in front of you and wait till you grabbed it. If you didn’t move to grab the toy, or if it was too far, she would grab it again and move it closer to you and nudge it with her nose. I played with her for about 15 minutes. Another highlight of my day. It was about a 3-hour drive to our next hotel stop in Egilsstadir. We were staying at the Icelandair Hotel Herad and I finally have my own room. We ate down at their restaurant, which actually was quite yummy. I tried my Dad’s reindeer burger, and it was good.

Day 6

It started off as a typical Icelandic day, rainy. We headed towards the Mývatn Nature Baths but stopped in the middle of the mountain to get some coffee and a photo stop. We met two more dogs there. This poor dog was so cold and shivering, but he was such a cutie. From there we stopped at the Dettifoss and Selfoss waterfalls. When we left the bus it was raining sideways and by the time we came back, it was snowing sideways. It was a brutal walk down to the waterfall, but it was pretty. From there we finally went to the hot thermal baths, which were so nice and warm. It was similar to the Blue Lagoon, but just a bit smaller and not as many people there. We stopped at the lava fields that were created from an ocean volcano and at the Goðafoss waterfall. It still was crappy weather out, but a few of us made the trek down to go and see it. It was one of my favorite waterfalls I had seen on the trip and I wish it was nicer weather so I could spend more time there. We then made our way to Akureyri, where we stayed at another Icelandair Hotel. We ate dinner at Bautinn in the city center, and it was delicious.

Day 7

We started off the day by going to the Akureyri Botanical Gardens. It was alright but wasn’t anything special. The views from the gardens looking out onto the mountains were pretty.  Today we were going whale watching and sea angling, but we stopped at a mall to grab food from the grocery store inside for lunch. We arrived at Hauganes Village where we got dressed in our warm jumpsuits (That are also buoyant). That way if we decided to take a swim in the freezing water, we would be semi-warm and would float. We got onboard to the fishing boat and went looking for whales. We ended up seeing 4 whales, 3 humpbacks and 1 minke whale. After the whale watching portion was done, we went closer to shore and people could try fishing. This one guy caught two fish at the same time. The lighting on the mountains was gorgeous and I could not stop taking pictures of that. The last three photos were taken by Kevin. We met Kevin horseback riding and we learned he was from Seattle. We ran into him throughout the trip and he was such a nice guy. We headed off to our next hotel which was in Bifrost. The hotel, there was alright, but the water was contaminated, so we couldn’t drink it. The hotel restaurant was meh. We all didn’t really like what we ordered. After that, we went aurora hunting. I thought that meant getting into the van and riding around to find clear skies. Instead that meant walking outside our hotel room to where there was little light pollution and looking up at the sky. We did not see the northern lights.

Day 8

Today we headed off towards the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. We stopped to pet and feed some horses on the side of the road which was really cute. We stopped at the famous black church and took photos there. Then we went to lunch while some of the group went to their paid experience. We opted out of doing the Vatnshellir Cave. Instead, while they were doing that, we ended up eating at this good restaurant called Stapinn. both my mom and I had fish and chips and my dad had soup. After that, we walked along the coastline. It was a bit windy and cold but it wasn’t raining so that was a plus. When the others came back, they went to lunch, so we went to this cute little Icelandic food cafe. My parents got some really good rhubarb crisp/pie. They even got one to go because it was that good. After that, we just drove around some more of the peninsula and stopped at this crater. There were stairs up to the top, and that was a workout. We stopped at the famous waterfall mountain, Kirkjufell. The views from the bus were amazing but were hard to capture. By the end of the tour, I think I improved a lot on my moving bus window photo-taking skills. We ended up back at the same hotel and ate down at their restaurant again. I ended up getting their carrot and coconut milk soup which was actually very good.

Day 9

Today was the last day of the tour. We had a beautiful sunrise, with crazy amazing colors. We started off by going to another hot spring. We visited the spot where Snorri Sturlusson lived and was killed. We saw where his house would have been and a refurbished pool, where he was supposedly killed. We visited two more waterfalls called Hraunfossar and Barnafoss that were right next to each other. One of the waterfalls was unique because it was coming out of the lava fields. Our tour guide called his niece to see if their neighbor charged for doing goat farm tours. It was about $11 to get a tour of his goat farm. His family owns about 205 goats, and every year they have about another 200 kids. Some of them are stars because they were extras on Game of Thrones. We drove back to Reykjavík and checked back into the Hotel Klettur again, with the same room. We walked around going into all the little souvenir shops. Reykjavík is a small enough city that we saw three people from our tour as we were walking. We heard that Iceland hot dogs were good, so we went in search of the best ones in town. We ended up going to the  Hot Dog House, and wow, it was super yummy. We all got the Icelandic Hot dog. It was a perfect balance between the ketchup, fried onions, mustard and mayo/aioli sauce. The bun was nicely toasted and the hot dog itself wasn’t super processed tasting. Probably one of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had. We found a cute little bakery called Sandholt where we got croissants and a chocolate mousse. For dinner, we went to Mixed Thai Food restaurant. The wait was long, but the food was yummy. I had booked my mom and me for a northern lights tour on a bus, but that got canceled due to bad weather.  We did not see any northern lights, but that is ok because that gives us another excuse to come back here or go to Alaska.

Day 10

Today was our last day in Iceland. We decided to go out and explore more of Reykjavík. We went to visit the famous church, Hallgrimskirkja as we were walking there we saw the cutest little boy at daycare. He was wearing this cute yellow jumpsuit and a red hat and mittens. He was no more than 3 years old and was pushing around a red wheelbarrow. We waved at him and he lit up and dropped the wheelbarrow to wave at us. At this point, we decided not to be creepy anymore and walked away. After going to the church we went to the Harpa Concert Hall to look inside. We saw some more school kids and they all had bright neon vests on. This one little boy took a bit of a tumble down the stairs and stayed horizontal until his teacher picked him up and carried him down the last two stairs (he was not hurt). It was so cute. We then went back to our favorite hot dog stand again, and it was the same guy there. It was just as good as the day before. We went into this one shop and there was the store cat. She was so cute. We wandered through different neighborhoods as we made our way back to the hotel to collect our luggage before getting on the bus to the airport.

Until my next adventure!