One Week in Iceland - Everything I Wish I'd Known
Last September my wife and I spent 8 days in Iceland - the country, not the awful British supermarket chain. Iāve wanted to visit Iceland for years, and it didnāt disappoint.
Hereās the review of the trip, along with all the things Iād wish Iād known beforehand. Hopefully it will be of interest to anyone planning a trip to the worldās 172nd-most populous country.
Why Visit Iceland?
In a word, nature. When I hear āvolcanic islandā, I think tropical heat - but Iceland is on the edge of the Arctic circle, and this strange combination of hot and cold gives it a unique landscape thatās like nothing Iāve ever seen.
And itās diverse. In a few daysā drive you can see mountains, glaciers, tundra, enormous waterfalls, plains, geysers, and more - not to mention gigantic expanses of igneous weirdness which look like the surface of another planet.
Iām not a photographer; my photos were taken on a smartphone and donāt do justice to the sheer majesty of Icelandās scenery. There wasnāt a single day of the trip when Icelandās nature didnāt blow me away.
Logistics
We flew into KeflavĆk Airport, 40 minutesā drive from Reykjavik and the only international airport in the country. From there we rented a car and spend most of our time driving around the island exploring.
We booked a hostel in Reykjavik for the whole trip. This was, without a doubt, the biggest mistake we made. It would have been a much better idea to drive around the whole island staying in a different place each night. (Icelandās main highway goes around the edge of the country in a loop.)
Instead we made a series of day trips, returning to Reykjavik most nights to sleep, which of course meant we could never venture too far, and didnāt get to see the eastern side of the island at all.
On a couple of nights, having realised our mistake, we booked a room out in the countryside as a stop-off point to allow us to make some longer trips - but of course this meant we were now wasting money on a hostel bed back in Reykjavik that we werenāt using.
(The hostel itself was Hlemmur Square, a decent place in which Iād happily stay again. It was pricey, but then so is everything else in Iceland.)
Iām not too upset - we didnāt run out of interesting things to see within a two-day-drive radius of Reykjavik - but if I could do it again, I would definitely try to circumnavigate the whole island. Supposedly this takes about a week.
Where to go?
Our first excursion was the so-called āGolden Circleā, a popular tourist trail that starts and ends in Reykjavik and can be completed in a day. The three main stopping points here are the Gullfoss waterfall (very large and impressive), the rift valley in Ćingvellir National Park (former location of the Icelandic parliament), and Haukadalur, a geothermal area full of geysers. One of them is called Geysir, and itās where we get the English word āgeyserā from. Betcha didnāt know that!
The whole route was very crowded - in fact, it was the only busy place we went in all of Iceland - but it didnāt matter. Itās popular for a reason and itās definitely not one to miss.
From then on we just mostly drove around the island without much of a plan. It was never hard to find interesting things to see: such as the JƶkulsĆ”rlĆ³n glacier lagoon in the southeast:
And the waterfalls - God, the waterfalls. I already mentioned Gullfoss on the Golden Circle, but thatās just one of christ-knows-how-many we saw throughout the week. Iāve never seen so many amazing waterfalls in such a short space of time. Any one of them by themselves would have been worth the whole journey. By the fourth day Iād seen so many that I barely even noticed them anymore as we drove past. āNo big deal, just another stunningly beautiful waterfall.ā
One of the coolest attractions in Iceland is the wreckage of a U.S. Navy plane that crashed on a beach in 1973 after running out of fuel in bad weather. (Check it out in this Google Maps satellite image.) Itās a long walk - about an hourās trek from the road, over crazy black rocks that look like the surface of the moon - but it was definitely, definitely worth it.
Then thereās the Blue Lagoon, a big hot spring near Reykjavik where you can bathe in the naturally-heated water; basically a glorified outdoor swimming pool. Itās one of the most famous and popular things to do in Iceland - but we didnāt go because itās absurdly expensive. Instead we found a smaller, cheaper alternative and went swimming there instead. It was an enjoyable outing and I donāt regret missing the main show. (Iād tell you the other placeās nameā¦ but itās a Secret š)
Reykjavik
We took one day off from driving to explore Reykjavik itself. Itās an interesting place, but we didnāt need more than a day to feel like weād seen it all. We didnāt do much except wander around to get a feel for the place, and sample a few of the cityās many museums.
My favourite one was the āSaga Museumā, a smallish place full of wax models and exhibits where you can learn about Icelandic history. (Spoiler alert: Vikings are badasses.) They even have a bunch of replica weapons and armour that you can dress up in.
Reykjavik is also home to the world-famous Icelandic Phallological Musem, which according to Wikipedia āhouses the worldās largest display of penises and penile partsā, including ā55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammalsā. We didnāt have time or the inclination to visit (Iāve already seen a penis) but if staring at shrivelled-up animal dicks in jars of formaldehyde is your idea of a good time, look no further than Icelandās capital.
Renting a car and driving in Iceland
In my opinion, if you plan on spending more than a few days in Iceland and/or doing anything outside Reykjavik, youād be nuts not to rent a car if you have the budget. Itās by far the best and easiest way to explore, and Iceland is an easy place to drive because itās so unpopulated that most roads are usually empty. (This was a particular concern of mine because, as a Brit, it was my first ever time driving on the wrong side of the road. Iām proud to report that I made it all the way through the week with only one or two near misses.)
One piece of advice: if youāre planning on a long trip, pack more food than you think youāll need. We often struggled to find a decent meal while on the road; Iceland is just so goddamn empty.
Itās discouraged to drive on certain mountain roads unless you have a 4x4, and some roads are closed during the winter months in any case. Itās all clearly signposted and the rental place explained the rules to me, but I canāt remember them now. All I know is that it was never an issue; we were more than able to get where we needed to go on the available roads.
The maximum speed limit in Iceland is an infuriatingly slow 90kph (~55mph). While I of course kept within this stupid limit at all times, Iāll note that speed cameras in Iceland are few and far between, and are clearly signposted. (PSA: donāt speed through tunnels! Every single tunnel in Iceland contains speed cameras without exception - or at least thatās what I read online somewhere.)
Parking was a non-issue, even in Reykjavik. We never had any trouble finding free parking within a five-to-ten minute walk of our hostel - and we were staying fairly close to the centre. (It helped that many of the paid parking spaces are only non-free during the daytime, and we usually only needed to park overnight.) Outside of the city things were even easier. The only places we ever had to pay to park were at a couple of busy spots in the most popular parts of the tourist trail, and even then it wasnāt much.
Seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland
The best time to visit Iceland is probably in June or July for the sake of the weather, but we waited until September for one reason: we wanted to see the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights. Who doesnāt have this on their bucket list?
The Aurora is visible at night from roughly September to March. To see it you need clear skies, patience, and luck - itās brightest at different places on different nights, and thereās never a guarantee youāll see anything. The Icelandic Meteorological Office maintains a website showing you the best spots to look for the Lights on any given night.
Naturally, there are tour companies that can take you out into the wilderness to the spot where they think the Lights will be most visible, so thatās what we did. Itās the safest option, because if you donāt see anything on one night, theyāll keep taking you back out for no extra charge until you get lucky.
We got lucky on our second attempt. We didnāt take any photos, because smartphone cameras are useless here. But even if I had a nice camera, the photo would look far more impressive than the real thing.
Type ānorthern lightsā into Google Images and youāll see stunningly beautiful images of the sky ablaze with crazy greens and reds. What no-one told me is that these pictures are generally taken with a very long exposure (several minutes or more), scooping up every stray photon with an end result thatās far more impressive than what be detected by the naked eye. On the camera screen of the guy next to me, the sky was on fire. All I could see was a faint blue streak through the stars.
Donāt get me wrong - it looked cool, and Iām glad I got to see the Northern Lights at last. But I have to admit I was a little disappointed. By all means do a Northern Lights tour if you can, but set your expectations accordingly. And take a better camera than my iPhone.
How Expensive is Iceland?
Iceland is not cheap. Despite our best efforts to be frugal - we cooked every single meal ourselves, didnāt drink any alcohol at all for the whole trip, and stayed in the cheapest accommodation we could find - we still went over our budget.
The total cost of our seven-night trip was something like Ā£1400, including two return flights from the U.K., accommodation, car rental, fuel, food, and tickets for a few touristy things like Reykjavik museums and the Northern Lights tour.
With a bit more planning Iām sure we could have reduced our costs slightlyā¦ but only slightly. Unless you want to hitch-hike and camp (see below), youāll be hard-pressed to travel in Iceland for much cheaper than us - and itās possible to spend a lot more. Other than the Northern Lights tour, we did basically no other organised touristic activity - and those can get very expensive very fast.
Iām sure the costly options - guided hikes in the mountains, cave exploration, climbing, helicopter tours and more - are fantastic, and Iād love to give them a go if I ever come back when I can afford it. But I donāt regret skipping them this time around - there were more than enough free and cheap things to see and do in Iceland to keep me thoroughly entertained for eight days.
One thing you donāt need to budget for in Iceland is ATM fees. Literally everywhere we went on the entire island accepted card, even tiny, remote establishments in the middle of nowhere. I still donāt even know what Icelandic currency looks like; I didnāt handle a single physical Kroner in my entire time in the country.
(If youāre a UK resident, I highly recommend the Halifax Clarity card if you want to get the best exchange rates while travelling abroad. If credit cards arenāt your thing, I used to use Monzo, who are great, and Iāve heard good things about Revolut too. Youāre throwing money away if you go abroad without using a service like this. And no, Iām not being paid to say this.)
Hitch-hiking and camping in Iceland
I hitch-hiked thousands of miles across Europe in my early twenties, so I know what a fun and unique way to travel it can be. Since then Iāve always stopped to pick up hitch-hikers whenever I can, and in Iceland I got plenty of chances.
Hitch-hikers are everywhere; the practice is extremely common among tourists. If you want to see Iceland on a budget, hitch-hiking is the way to go. Everyone I picked up told me theyād had a positive experience: finding rides was easy and they were generally able to get to where they wanted to be.
They were all camping as well - another great way to see Iceland on a budget. āOfficialā campsites are plentiful, and are a nice option if you want to do your business in a real toilet, but like everything else in Iceland theyāre stupidly expensive. Every hitch-hiker I spoke to told me theyād had no trouble finding secluded places to camp outside of the designated areas - technically prohibited, but tolerated as long as you donāt leave a mess, and in a country as sparsely populated as Iceland no-oneās going to catch you anyway.
So while Iāve neither hitch-hiked nor camped in Iceland myself, Iām confident in vouching for them as a fun and safe way to see the country for cheap. My only recommendation is that you donāt camp unless you know what youāre doing; Icelandās climate and remoteness are unlikely to be forgiving if you forget to bring the right kit.
That about covers it! Enjoy your trip.