Iceland Travel Guide
This post is long overdue and I totally apologize! When I look back on our trip and think about how long this post will actually be, I tend to put it off. Haha my bad!
I have to admit, our trip to Iceland was a little random, to be honest. We went with 2 of our friends from high school and their girlfriends + sister! It was mainly the guys who planned the trip, I pretty much went into it blindsided which is very abnormal, because I usually plan every single trip we go on. LOL it was kinda nice to not have to worry about it!
We went the end of June/beginning of July which is considered their summer months. I'm so happy we did! We had 22 hours of sunlight to do whatever we wanted. During the winter months, you are able to see the Northern Lights, but you only have about 5 hours of daylight. Our days were a little funky trying to get used to the time difference. Iceland is 4 hours ahead of us and the whole time we were pretty off going to bed around 2/3 am and waking up at noon.
We flew into Keflavik Airport which is about a 45 minute drive from Reykjavik, the capitol of Iceland. We took a redeye and landed around 9am and picked up our car rental from there. We rented our vehicles from Lagoon Car Rental and I would recommend them. They were super easy to work with and we were in and out quickly!
What I loved about our trip is that we split up our time and spent the first half in Northern Iceland and the rest of our stay in Reykjavik/Southern Iceland so I feel like we got the best of both worlds. A lot of people will rent a camper van and travel the entire country. There are so many beautiful things to see in all of Iceland, so you cannot go wrong with WHERE you end up going. Just know some places are very "out there" with no civilization.
Once we rented our vehicles we traveled 5 1/2 hours up North to Akureyri. It was such a cute little town with beautiful views. The photo below was our view from our Airbnb. This photo was also taken at midnight! LOL. I couldn't have been happier with this Airbnb, the host was amazing and was there to answer any and every question we had. The house was clean, large enough for 7 people and their view was amazing plus only a 4 minute drive to downtown! What more could you ask for!
We explored the next few days and I wanted to share some of the must-see places that were on our list and we were in awe over! The first waterfall photo below is called Godafoss (all waterfalls in Iceland end in "foss"). It was stunning! The funny thing about Iceland is that you can walk/go wherever you want on these major scenic spots - there's rarely any "rules" just don't be DUMB. There was a cute little gift/coffee shop at this stop too. Had to grab some hot tea because of how COLD it was. Holy cow! I thought it was summer....
Our next waterfall stop was the Dettifoss! THIS WAS THE MONSTER OF ALL ICELAND WATERFALLS. To put it short, it was AMAZING. It was the largest waterfall I've ever seen and it had mini waterfalls coming off of it as you can see in the far right picture. Also - it was crazy to travel to this destination. 20 miles of gravel/rock road that took about an hour. It was insane! Definitely a MUST SEE. It will put you in awe!
After a day full of sight-seeing, we opted for the Geo-Sea which was such a neat experience. It is a geothermal infinity sea bath located in Husavik which is about an hour drive from Akureyri. The bath felt amazing - the experience was a bit of an odd one. Before you're allowed to go in the pool or even put your bathing suit on, out of respect for the locals, you have to bathe yourself naked in the locker room. You see everything from 5 year olds to 90 year olds. It was a bit of an odd experience, but nonetheless we got through it and enjoyed the sea bath for a few hours. The baths were about 100 degrees and outside it was about 40 degrees. There was a swim up bar too! All in all, this was one of Lane and I's favorite parts of our trip.
Side note: we did this instead of the Blue Lagoon in South Iceland because Lane is allergic to sulfur and can't get near it. So this was a similar experience and I would much rather do the GeoSea because the view and the smell is way better LOL.
Here's the short story... after 3 nights in Akureyri, we traveled 7 hours to a southern town of Iceland (can't remember the name) where we were *supposed* to stay the next 4 days in an Airbnb. Well, we got there and the Airbnb was preoccupied and they pretty much said we were SOL and needed to find our own place. Cool. Stuck at 10pm in a foreign country with no where to stay. So we drove an hour to Reykjavik and booked a hotel for the night. The next day we finally were accepted to stay at another Airbnb last minute. To say that wasn't stressful would be a very big understatement.
Southern Iceland is really cool. You have the Golden Circle, the basalt columns, black sand beaches, the capitol Reykjavik, continental divide, Glacier, Blue Lagoon, abandoned plane wreck, etc. I'm going to share pictures of everything we did! My favorite thing was the waterfall you could walk behind and the basalt columns! Seriously the coolest thing ever. See pictures below!
Also, if you are in Reykjavik - go to the American Bar. SO FUN!
Iceland also offered the BEST fish and chips I've ever eaten! I was SO impressed and wish I could have that for dinner every single night. I was very nervous about the food in Iceland because I am a very plain eater, but I was very happy with the selections and felt full after every meal. Definitely visit Harry's in Reykjavik - best food the entire trip! We also went to Kiki's Queer Bar the last night and they were doing karaoke and it was the most fun we had all week - def recommend! Also recommend Elder and Is Crepes!!! HOLY COW. Best crepes EVER!!!! Also the little stations that sell ice cream are delicious! It tastes like whipped cream.
If you have any specific questions about where we stayed, where we ate. Just DM me on IG or comment on here. :) I feel like we kinda ate randomly but I will do my best. :)