Travel with me to this island full of biodiversity, known as “the land of fire and ice”. Iceland, the country where you can find both glaciers and active volcanoes.
How to get there
The easiest way to enjoy this magnificent country at your own pace and as your adventurous spirit desires is to take a flight. There are also cruises that go to Iceland, but you won’t have the chance to see all that this beautiful country has to offer.
Iceland has two main airlines: Icelandair and PLAY. Icelandair was the airline we took. Leaving Boston International Airport was 5 hours and 25 minutes.
The cost of the flight varies by season. Flights can be obtained for around five hundred dollars round trip at the time of this blog. To keep the cost of the trip low, we use points from our credit card to buy the flights through the bank portal of our favorite card. We usually do not redeem points through any bank portal, as this way the value of the points is lower than when you transfer the points directly to the airline. However, Icelandair has no relationship with any bank at the moment, so you cannot transfer points to Icelandair’s account. (If you would like me to send you information about the card that gave us points for this trip, please send me a message with your email.)
Transportation
In Iceland you will need to rent a vehicle. The first step is to decide on the style in which you plan to explore Iceland. One option is to rent a campervan where you can cook and spend the night at designated campsites. The cost of parking at a campground is $10 to $20 per person. Many campgrounds have showers, but not all, and you’ll need to get there before the parking lot fills up. Keep in mind that staying overnight on the side of the road is illegal in Iceland, but there are plenty of campsites so it will be easy to find a place to stay. The second option is to rent a vehicle and sleep in a hotel or Airbnb. With the high cost of diesel gasoline on the island, we opted to rent a vehicle. There are many companies to rent a car in Iceland. When we can, we like to support the local, so we decide to rent with Lava Car Rental; Experience was 10/10 (unpaid ad). If you plan to go around the island during your trip, I recommend that the vehicle you rent is a 4X4 so that you can drive on the F roads, which are only for the use of this type of vehicle. Some of the F-roads are not paved so the vehicle needs to be a 4×4 to tolerate this type of terrain.
Day 1:
Once we landed in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, we emailed the car rental company letting them know we had arrived. The shuttle arrived promptly, and they took us to pick up the rental vehicle at the office.
As soon as we got the car, we went to the nearest supermarket to buy food that we could eat in the car and cook quickly at the Airbnb.
After doing the shopping we went straight to start our adventure heading to the Snaeffellsness peninsula.
Snaefellsness Peninsula
The first stop on the Snaefellsness Peninsula is located two hours and 23 minutes from Reykjavik. On your left side you will find the black church Budakirkja.
Then, keep driving for another 23 min and you will find Londrangar. You can park at no cost and walk to the viewpoint.
You will drive 8 minutes and find the next stop. Djupalossandur is nestled on a black sand beach. There you will see remains of a shipwreck that occurred in 1947.
Make your way to the Svortuloft lighthouse. This next stop is 31 minutes from the last one. There you will have the opportunity to perhaps see puffins if they are in their migration season at the time of your visit.
If you are a fan of the “Game of Thrones” series, then you can’t miss this last stop of the day to see the Kiskjufell mountain that is presented as “Arrowhead Mountain” in the series. This is 43 minutes from the last stop. There you will see a beautiful waterfall with the impressive mountain in the background.
The advantage of visiting Iceland in the summer is that the sun never goes down and therefore you have as much time as you want to explore. But this first day has been very long, and the time to rest has come.
Day 2:
From Kirkjufell we drove 5 hours to the capital of northern Iceland, Akureyri. Along the way you will find many beautiful landscapes to stop for a moment and admire. Our favorite stop was at the Hellissandur church which has a road full of lupine flowers. We learned that lupin flowers were introduced to Iceland in 1940 for erosion control because their roots have soil-binding properties.
Once we arrived in Akureyri we explored the city and went to rest at our second Airbnb.
Day 3:
Start your day early because on this day there will be many stops. The first stop will be the magnificent and powerful waterfall of Godafoss or “Waterfall of the Gods” which will be 33 minutes from Akureyri.
The next stop will be in Hverir which will be 1hr and 10 min from the Godafoss waterfall. On the way you will find Lake Myvatyn. In this area of Myvatyn there are also the natural baths of Myvatyn which is a geothermal water lagoon. We decided to continue adventuring, but if spending a few hours in a thermal bath is what your body needs, this is an excellent cheaper option than the famous Blue Lagoon.
When you arrive in Hverir you will have no doubts, the smell of sulfur and the smoke coming from the ground will not go unnoticed in this geothermal area located at the foot of the Namafjall volcano.
After exploring this area full of mud springs and mineral deposits, I invite you to continue your tour in the Leirhnjukur lava field which will be only 9 minutes from Hverir. It was very captivating to find ourselves at the foot of an active volcano walking on dry lava which was still hot enough to release smoke.
When you finish your tour of the lava field it will be time to drive 1 hour and 13 minutes to the Dettifoss waterfall.
To get to Selfoss Waterfall you will have to walk about 30 minutes from Dettifoss Waterfall.
After touring the waterfalls, drive two hours to the Studlagil basalt canyon. I promise you won’t regret it.
The last stop is 1 hour and 21 minutes from the canyon. We will spend the night in the small village of Sedisfjordur. Sedisfjordur is home to the rainbow street and the blue church.
Day 4
I hope you had a good rest, because today will be a day full of pure adrenaline. But first, head to Jokulsaron lagoon (3 hours and 32 min). In Jokulsaron, we did a tour of climbing the glacier on board a monster truck. There will be restrooms and food trucks in the parking lot.
The next stop will be in 45 min to see the Svartifoss waterfall. Once you have reached the parking lot, you will have to walk about 30 minutes to get to the waterfall.
The Fjardrargljufur canyon will be the next adventure. This snake-like canyon is impressive. Between the canyon you will see the Fjadra river running through it. This place exudes peace.
Continue your way to the second lava field that we will visit on this journey. The Eldhraum field. This lava field was born between June 1783 and February 1784 during the eruption of the volcano that lasted 8 months. The astronauts who walked on the moon aboard the Apollo trained in this field for their journey on the moon. Now the ground is covered in moss giving a green color to the whole field.
And finally, we will visit the black beach of Vik.
Day 5
The first stop of the day will be to see Reynisfara Beach. This beach is famous for its black sand and basalt columns. These basalt columns are formed when lava cools.
If you have binoculars bring them with you to this beautiful beach. There you can try to spot Iceland’s picturesque birds better known as puffins.
When you finish exploring the beautiful black beach, keep driving for about 20 minutes and you will come across the wreckage of the USA Navy DC plane that ran out of gas and landed in Solheimasandur. Driving to the plane is prohibited so you will have to park and walk for an hour to get to the plane.
Continue driving along the beautiful southern coast until you reach Skogafoss waterfall.
Seljalandsfoss is located 25 minutes away from Skogafoss.
Then walk for about 10 minutes to find the Gljufrabui waterfall. Here it is essential that you have waterproof clothing as the spray from the waterfall is very dense and you will get soaked.
Day 6
Today we will begin our journey around the “golden circle”. If you only have 2-3 days to explore Iceland, then you can focus on just exploring this area. The first stop will be Gulfoss.
Then visit Strukker Geyser, which belches every 4-8 minutes. This is located 10 minutes from the waterfall.
Pingveller National Park is one you can’t miss. There you can walk between two continents, Europe and North America.
Finally, head to Reykjavik, where you can visit the Hallgrimskirkja church in the city center. While exploring the city center, visit the various souvenir shops, eat a lamb hot dog at Baejarins betzu pylsur and don’t forget a dessert at Braud & co.
Day 7
To round off our trip, we took the morning to relax and rest before taking our flight home. We spent the morning at the famous blue lagoon.
Tips:
Whenever you see a gas station, try to stop and fill up your tank, as you never know when you will find the next gas station. This is more important in northern Iceland where there is more distance between towns.
Waterproof hiking boots is a must, so that your feet don’t get wet in the waterfalls during the various hikes.
Waterproof jacket to avoid getting wet from the sprinkle of the waterfalls.