Epic Iceland Trip! -- 2.2019
I had only seen the Aurora once previously when I was living in Montana traveling north towards Canadian border near the small town of Glasgow, MT. They were magical and I longed to see this natural chemical reaction phenomenon once again!
Kayla had added me a tad late, but conveniently had an amazing schedule planned out in advance for our daily travels of sights to check out and some must-do's while in Iceland. I will share our day-to-day adventures below. I will also link several Google Map locations incase you want to check out these places for yourselves or get directions.
Day 1: Reykjavik, Churches & Northern Lights
We arrived in the capital city of Reykjavik at 5AM in the morning Iceland time. Our hotel check in wasn't until the afternoon, so we had time to kill. We took a short nap in our rental car in a parking lot due to jet lag and exhaustion, but then headed to the downtown area to check out some shopping and sights.
We started off shopping around the local downtown district where I picked up a wool hat to cover my already cold ears from the Icelandic company Icewear using local wool. We wandered around checking out other areas, grabbed some needed coffee and great breakfast at Icelandic Cafe with an epic Waffle Bar!
After filling ourselves with some hot carbs and strong Icelandic coffee, we ventured over to Gray Line Tours to book our Northern Lights Tour and check out which days the lights were supposed to be visible. One of the nights happens to be that evening, so even though tired we wanted to push through and capture this experience.
We went grocery shopping briefly and then we were both dragging pretty hard due to jet lag. A warning would be that food in Iceland is rather expensive. This applies to both going out to eat and groceries. Even gas station food is still way more expensive than the states.
Then we went to the highly trafficked Hallgrimskirkja Church on top of a small hill in downtown Reykjavik. This church can be seen pretty much anywhere in the city and was magnificent. For only a few bucks, you can even travel to the top of the churches steeple and get an amazing view of the city looking down. You can really see how the city sits on a peninsula with clear blue cold waters surrounding everywhere. It's hard to also not mention the statue of Leif Erickson the famous Viking explorer in front of the church. A quick history nerd tidbit; he founded North America almost 600 years before Columbus in what is now Newfoundland, Canada.
We then bounced on out to our ABnB at Luna Apartments, which we loved! I could easily see myself working away on a laptop in this cute little downtown apartment while enjoying the culture of Iceland and taking in the sites living aboard. The warm shower was a welcomed cleanse washing off airplane smell and tiredness as we had been awake at this point for about 36 hours. A welcomed long nap followed.
That evening, we headed to our Gray Line Aurora Tour bus stop and headed out of the city for Mother Nature's light show. Traveling away from the light pollution of Iceland's largest city, we ventured for about an hour and got off the bus witnessing an amazing show of green light produced from the sun's solar flares now entering our atmosphere. It was very cold and very windy, but worth the bravery to view an amazing sight. We went home about 2:30 in the morning dead tired and ready to be in a warm bed, but absolutely happy.
Day 2: Icelandic Horses & Waterfalls
This was used as a fluff day as a huge winter storm moved in the early morning. The clouds were low and dark, while the wind was brisk and bone chilling. Kayla had planned for this, so it worked out perfectly. Originally, we were going to use this day to travel to the famous Golden Circle, but the wind and snow were NOT allowing that, so we made alternative plans. Our newly adjusted site was to go inland away from the raging sea storm and check out two waterfalls: Hraunfossar & Barnafoss waterfalls near Reykholt.
This was used as a fluff day as a huge winter storm moved in the early morning. The clouds were low and dark, while the wind was brisk and bone chilling. Kayla had planned for this, so it worked out perfectly. Originally, we were going to use this day to travel to the famous Golden Circle, but the wind and snow were NOT allowing that, so we made alternative plans. Our newly adjusted site was to go inland away from the raging sea storm and check out two waterfalls: Hraunfossar & Barnafoss waterfalls near Reykholt.
The drive up was unbelievable within itself. Much of Iceland in the winter reminded me of my time living in Montana, and this was no exception. The tall, jagged granite peaks were topped with a fresh layer of snow while peering over several lakes, rivers and Icelandic horse farms.
We stopped at one of these Horse Farms and took some photos, plenty of head scratches as we were in awe of their gentle ways of these small horses.
Upon arriving at the Hraunfossar & Barnafoss, the sun was quickly retreating into the distance, but still gave off plenty of glow for us to find our way down to check out the falls and take some photos and videos. Every time I see a waterfall, I realize that no one fall is the same. I will explain.
Hraunfossar or "Lava Falls" seem to leak out of the side of the landscape into the river. This is because this fresh water spring zigzags its way through a dried lava field and ends up in the river. A very strange sight.
Barnafoss or "Childrens Falls" are the more classic water falling down over rocks, but with a unique very low rock bridge crossing over the falls itself. This is impassable with the way the park is set up, but the name derives from an interesting story. The Legend has it that Barnafoss Falls once had 2 children of a widow fall into the waterfalls and perish while she was at a Christmas church service. The mother tracked the children's footsteps down to the falls and over the small stone bridge. She collapsed the stone bridge to make it impassable so the falls would never claim another child. Hence the name "Children's Falls". A morbid but interesting story.
We ventured back to Reykjavik that evening in the dark looking forward to the comforts we became quickly accustomed to in our little warm downtown apartment.
Day 3: The Golden Circle, Secret Lagoon & Traveling to Vik
This day started off early with an amazing brunch at Sandholt restaurant. I had the best breakfast in a long time and so did Kayla. The coffee was dark and strong to get you going on another cold Iceland winter day. This was our best meal of the entire trip. Highly recommended; fresh ingredients, farm to table & great service.
We headed from there off to the Golden Circle, then to the Secret Lagoon, ending up the day at the southern coastal town of Vik for that evening. Our agenda was packed! We took our 4WD Rental Car and headed out!
The Golden Circle rests in the Thingvellir National Park (or Þingvellir if you're local), is the Icelandic equivalent of Yellowstone NP. There are waterfalls, geothermal activity, hot springs, geysers and tectonic plates to be seen. Visiting during the winter, I didn't then realize some of the cool stuff available to Park visitors in the summer, but apparently you can dive down in a lake and swim in between Tectonic Plates!
However, in the winter you can start at the Welcome Center and read all about the unique earth and physical landscape that makes up this interesting park. Also, at the welcome center is the first stop for our day which was the then frozen
Öxarárfoss
waterfall which pours into the separated visible tectonic plates. This is apparently the ONLY place you can see the North American and Eurasian plates above ground physically separating. Pretty interesting stuff, once in a lifetime sites, although if you are trying to keep warm, you may not appreciate it!
We then moved onto our next stop in the Golden Circle at the Geysir. Yes, just "the Geysir" as its the original geysir that all other geysers are named after. We hung around here for awhile freezing as the wind was whipping across the frozen ground and watched the geysir erupt about 4 or 5 times. The main geysir will shoot up hot water about every 3 - 3:30 minutes. There are several other geothermal pools with unique colors from the bacteria inside them to check out as well. We grabbed a quick lunch at the tourist center and shoved onto our third stop: the Amazing Gullfoss waterfall!
The Gullfoss was my personal favorite site of the day! As many of you know, I really have a passion for the awesomeness, power and beauty of a good waterfall. The Gullfoss did not disappoint! This falls scale cannot be captured in a photo or video, but to give you the best idea of size I included a screenshot from the popular History Channel show "Vikings". There are two characters in the shot; a male in the foreground to the right and a female in the distant background to the left. Not a perfect representation, but a better idea of size and scale then my shots with no references. Amazing.
We rounded out our day and started heading south to Vik, but along the way we popped by a natural hot springs called the Secret Lagoon. This hot springs was by far my favorite of the three we visited in Iceland. It seemed well under traveled and a hidden gem. If you are touring the Golden Circle and want to end the day with a cold beer or wine while soaking in a hot natural pool made of stone, then look no further! Kayla and I had an amazing time and wished we could have stayed in the water even longer, but our time was up and we still had a bit of a drive to Vik.
On our journey to the southern fishing village of Vik, we looked out the car window for more Northern Lights (unsuccessfully) and even popped into the Seljalandsfoss waterfall in the dark to check it out. You could see how tall and amazing it was from the road beckoning us to stop, so we did and took some footage and pressed on to our room for the night.
We fell asleep both very tired and amazed at some of the sites we witnessed that day, still wishing we were having beers and enjoying the Secret Lagoon.
The place we stayed at was kind of dumpy and over-priced, but we booked it at the last second, so no review needed as the owner was a nice guy.
Day 4: Vik, Glacier Lagoon, Glacier Hike, Ice Cave & Diamond Beach
Vik. Big Day. My favorite day of our trip! Once again, tight timeline with a packed agenda. We grabbed a quick hot breakfast at Lava Bakery & Coffee, then hurried out of town since we had a bit of a drive to Glacier Lagoon, Glacier & Ice Cave Hiking, as well as topping off the day by catching the sunset on Diamond Beach!
After the beautiful 2 hour drive along the southern coastline of Iceland, we parked our car at Glacier Lagoon and got ready for our big adventure. There were several other expedition vehicles in the parking lot, but we had chose Troll Expeditions the night before. Troll seemed to have one of the better websites, highest ratings and most reasonable prices verses some of the competition. They also had the right time slot for us. We were adamant about catching the sunset on Diamond Beach, so we needed to be back at the parking lot before dusk. Let me also add that ALL the Ice Cave companies take you to the same cave. There aren't any special routes or hidden caves one company will give you over another. Just book who you feel comfortable with and we felt comfortable with Troll.
There was some time to kill before our expedition left, which we occupied with taking in the pretty sights of the Glacier Lagoon. The visuals of icebergs fresh off the glaciers and headed out to sea were fantastic to witness. Some icebergs were small, but most were quite large and almost the size of an average house! In this lagoon, I witnessed a wild seal pop his dark gray head out of the water, take a quick look around and then plunge back into the depths. There was no problem taking up time looking at this amazing place!
A bunch of us loaded up into the oversized tire van and pushed off towards the Vatnajökull Glacier. Vatnajökull Glacier is the largest glacier in all of Europe and home to the tallest mountain in Iceland! The ride was very bumpy as we followed the other Troll Expedition van up the makeshift snow path that crept along the glacier until we ended up at the Ice Cave. At this point, the glacier was estimated to be about a 1/4 mile thick. No need to worry about breaking through or falling into crevices never to be seen again. We will leave that up to Hollywood. It was VERY safe.
The Ice Cave was both an absolutely surreal environment and gorgeous all at the same time. The Ice Cave was made by a summer flowing river that comes down from the mountains via snowmelt. The glacier walls were thick and blacken a bit by picking up the volcanic soil and rocks along the slow descent down to the sea. There were actually several large rocks visible in the ice walls. The whole encounter was really just dreamlike and such a unmatched experience!
We then made our way with heavy ice clamps up the entry of the ice cave from where the water would normally enter, and hiked a short while on top of the glacier to a great lookout point. We took several photos and videos from here and they all turned out like art. The view was breathtaking! You could see the majority of the glacier in front of you, the lagoon full of icebergs and the sea with its cool waters slowing waving "hello up there"! Definitely one of my favorite memories and an unexpected sojourn. We piled up in the monster van ready to head down as a severe storm was set to roll in from the west. We had impeccable timing!
After returning to the parking lot, we thanked our driver and guide and quickly packed up to catch the sun going down at Diamond Beach. I will mention that I read several reviews and saw Youtube videos online about Diamond Beach just being average or "not really worth the drive", but they all didn't catch it at sunset. Diamond Beach at sunset maybe in my top visions I've ever have seen with my own eyes.
Let me set the stage visually for your imagination.
There is jet black fine soft volcanic sand everywhere, but on top of this ebony sand are tiny, small, medium, large and humongous pieces of ice washed up on the shore (hence the name "Diamond" Beach). Most of the pieces of ice were reasonable, like the size of a basketball or smaller, but there were several larger pieces the size of cars and buses both floating out to sea and on the black sand washing ashore. The waves are gently crashing on the black sand shore dropping off even more ice diamonds. As the setting suns orange glow hits the ice, the sparkles dance into your eye making you feel like you are happy. It's a magnificent sight to see and I don't think anything else I will witness in my life will be even close to this particular experience. Crazy!
We took several photos and videos. This was the first time I was able to fly the drone up and get some shots. Previously the weather, wind and being in National Parks (drones are strictly not allowed) had prohibited flying. The wind was still high, but I took the risk and the footage speaks for itself. I will embed it below.
After the sun slipped behind the horizon, we walked back to the car along the river with huge icebergs heading out to sea and witnessed several seals hunting in the chilly waters of the ocean for the evening's dinner. We got in our rental car and headed back to Vik for the night as the storm challenged us from time to time along the way.
We checked into our spot at Hotel Katla and had a well-earned feast, delicious beer and hit the hay in our awesome room for the evening. Falling asleep with a huge smile on my face after the day's activities and new memories replaying in your mind is always extra soothing.
Day 5: Black Sand Beach, Skógafoss & Seljalandsfoss, Hidden Lagoon, Blue Lagoon & Aurora
This was our final full day. We woke up early and gorged ourselves at the amazing breakfast buffet and we chugged down some strong coffee and headed out of Vik back to the capital of Reykjavik. This was about a 2:30 hour drive, but there were several sites along the way. Once again, to Kayla's credit, we had a full plan; Black Sand Beach, 2 waterfalls, Reykjavik hotel check in, Blue Lagoon followed quickly by the final Aurora Borealis tour that evening.
We popped into the Lava Bakery & Coffee yet again for a quick coffee and to shop around a bit at the Icewear store attached to the bakery that had better prices than what we found in Reykjavik. Kayla purchased an Icelandic wool blanket and I got an Icelandic zip up sweater.
The Famous Black Sand Beach was beautiful but EXTREMELY cold and windy. This weather would be a precursor for the remainder of the day and night. Our coldest day by far.
Next up was Skógafoss waterfall. This was a pretty epic falls as it was both super high and super powerful. There were a ton of tourists, but it still wasn't too bad to grab some shots and head up to the top of the metal staircase for a top-down view.
After Skógafoss, we headed to the same falls we popped into the other night; the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. This time in the daylight, it was even more amazing and grand! We took several shots of this famous falls and went into a little hut to warm up, shop and grab a coffee.
Inside this shop we met a very sweet local university aged girl who was studying to become a doctor. We chatted for a bit and she even gave us some advice about a hidden gem of a hot spring nearby that we could take a small hike to which was a local secret. We were totally game!
We got some quick directions and headed down the road about 20 minutes to the clandestine lagoon, now knowing called the Seljavallaug Lagoon. We parked the car and made the short 15 minute hike along the valley. The views were breathtaking, however when we reached the hot springs, the lagoon was pretty chilly. We wanted HOT, but being it was only about 70ºF, we decided against the lukewarm waters and headed back on the highway. If it had been warmer, we likely would have forgone the Blue Lagoon that evening, but now we were a bit pressed for time and scurried down the road for the reminder of the drive to the city.
We hurriedly checked in to our pleasant apartment (ABnB) at Iceland Comfort Apartments. This place was great, modern and had an awesome stand up shower!
We quickly got ready and brought both our bathing suits and cold gear for the northern lights tour. We knew we would be cutting it close!
Upon arriving slightly before our assigned time at the Blue Lagoon, the customer service people were awesome! They let us sneak in a bit before our slot to get ready and soak in the lagoon. Here is where the night takes a sudden unexpected turn.
The Blue Lagoon has warm milky water and all the conveniences of health spa, bars for adult beverages, party music and mud mask stations that you would expect to find in Las Vegas or LA. When you start to notice that the water is milky because everyone is getting the free silica mud mask, then exfoliating and washing their dead skin and mud into the lagoon, it kind of grossed me out. I'm not very squeamish, but that's the reality. If you catch a mouthful of salty water, you are getting who-knows-what on your taste buds. Also, the water was warm, but not really HOT and it was a man made lagoon. Basically, it's a cement pool with a deep well of hot spring water being pumped into the pool, so not as unique as the Secret Lagoon honestly. Maybe I'm jaded after going to several hot springs in the states out west, but the natural aspect definitely wasn't there either. Then there is the price; it's expensive! $100 USD for 1 hour of time in the lagoon. That's a bit steep even for tourist prices. The Blue Lagoon is a man-made tourist trap. That's my two cents at least. I will say everyone seemed to be having a great time, we had fun and once again the customer service was first class. Rant over.
We rushed from the Blue Lagoon off to meet our northern lights BusTravel Iceland tour bus for our final viewing of this natural phenomenon. We had a 45 minute drive back to the city. However, along the way we saw the Aurora dancing around us! There were greens everywhere accompanied by the very rare streaks of pink! We are witnessing all this while traveling down the highway in the car going 60 mph. It was unbelievable! It was the kind of experience you can't describe to anyone and instill the proper emotional response you embodied at the time. We were now pumped and eagerly got on the tour bus to head out into the rural county to check out even more lights!
We drove way out from the city to a lava field and parked the tour bus. The weather was colder and windier than anything we experienced in Iceland prior. Any exposed body part quickly became wind whipped and numb. After about an hour of waiting, the lights finally showed and put on a brief 15 minute display, then just as quickly vanished. We all piled on the warm bus and headed back to the city for our final night to catch the flight back to the US in the morning. What an end to a great day!
Overall:
Iceland was an amazing trip and totally unique adventure. If you are the nature type, the scientific outer space type, the adventurous type, or the experience over comfort type, then Iceland has magic in store for you. If you prefer to sit on a beach and do nothing all day everyday for a week, then maybe this isn't the trip you're looking for.
I 100% loved my experience in Iceland. I don't regret one day, one experience or one stop on the trip. When I look back now I realize how much we crammed into 5 days of travel around a foreign country in the middle of a harsh winter climate, it boggles my mind. The weather was cold, but the Icelandic people were very warm and welcoming. The food was great with plenty of healthy options. Iceland's landscape was unreal even to the most experienced of adventurers. If you have the travel bug, this is a great one to check off the list!
There is something very special about Iceland. Between the insane waterfalls, geothermal pools, black sand volcanic coastlines, high jagged granite mountains, slow moving glaciers, icebergs headed out to sea and horses friendlier than most humans I know are all incredibly special. It's a land of mystery. It's a land that time forgot, but then we showed up anyways. Iceland is a great reminder of how slow the earth and Mother Nature craft our planet, but also in some of the most violent ways possible. No matter where I travel next, there will only be one Iceland.
Here is the YouTube video playlist of most of the sights along the trip:
We then moved onto our next stop in the Golden Circle at the Geysir. Yes, just "the Geysir" as its the original geysir that all other geysers are named after. We hung around here for awhile freezing as the wind was whipping across the frozen ground and watched the geysir erupt about 4 or 5 times. The main geysir will shoot up hot water about every 3 - 3:30 minutes. There are several other geothermal pools with unique colors from the bacteria inside them to check out as well. We grabbed a quick lunch at the tourist center and shoved onto our third stop: the Amazing Gullfoss waterfall!
The Gullfoss was my personal favorite site of the day! As many of you know, I really have a passion for the awesomeness, power and beauty of a good waterfall. The Gullfoss did not disappoint! This falls scale cannot be captured in a photo or video, but to give you the best idea of size I included a screenshot from the popular History Channel show "Vikings". There are two characters in the shot; a male in the foreground to the right and a female in the distant background to the left. Not a perfect representation, but a better idea of size and scale then my shots with no references. Amazing.
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| From the Show Vikings, Male on right, Female in distant left |
We rounded out our day and started heading south to Vik, but along the way we popped by a natural hot springs called the Secret Lagoon. This hot springs was by far my favorite of the three we visited in Iceland. It seemed well under traveled and a hidden gem. If you are touring the Golden Circle and want to end the day with a cold beer or wine while soaking in a hot natural pool made of stone, then look no further! Kayla and I had an amazing time and wished we could have stayed in the water even longer, but our time was up and we still had a bit of a drive to Vik.
On our journey to the southern fishing village of Vik, we looked out the car window for more Northern Lights (unsuccessfully) and even popped into the Seljalandsfoss waterfall in the dark to check it out. You could see how tall and amazing it was from the road beckoning us to stop, so we did and took some footage and pressed on to our room for the night.
We fell asleep both very tired and amazed at some of the sites we witnessed that day, still wishing we were having beers and enjoying the Secret Lagoon.
The place we stayed at was kind of dumpy and over-priced, but we booked it at the last second, so no review needed as the owner was a nice guy.
Day 4: Vik, Glacier Lagoon, Glacier Hike, Ice Cave & Diamond Beach
Vik. Big Day. My favorite day of our trip! Once again, tight timeline with a packed agenda. We grabbed a quick hot breakfast at Lava Bakery & Coffee, then hurried out of town since we had a bit of a drive to Glacier Lagoon, Glacier & Ice Cave Hiking, as well as topping off the day by catching the sunset on Diamond Beach!
After the beautiful 2 hour drive along the southern coastline of Iceland, we parked our car at Glacier Lagoon and got ready for our big adventure. There were several other expedition vehicles in the parking lot, but we had chose Troll Expeditions the night before. Troll seemed to have one of the better websites, highest ratings and most reasonable prices verses some of the competition. They also had the right time slot for us. We were adamant about catching the sunset on Diamond Beach, so we needed to be back at the parking lot before dusk. Let me also add that ALL the Ice Cave companies take you to the same cave. There aren't any special routes or hidden caves one company will give you over another. Just book who you feel comfortable with and we felt comfortable with Troll.
There was some time to kill before our expedition left, which we occupied with taking in the pretty sights of the Glacier Lagoon. The visuals of icebergs fresh off the glaciers and headed out to sea were fantastic to witness. Some icebergs were small, but most were quite large and almost the size of an average house! In this lagoon, I witnessed a wild seal pop his dark gray head out of the water, take a quick look around and then plunge back into the depths. There was no problem taking up time looking at this amazing place!
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| Glacier Lagoon |
A bunch of us loaded up into the oversized tire van and pushed off towards the Vatnajökull Glacier. Vatnajökull Glacier is the largest glacier in all of Europe and home to the tallest mountain in Iceland! The ride was very bumpy as we followed the other Troll Expedition van up the makeshift snow path that crept along the glacier until we ended up at the Ice Cave. At this point, the glacier was estimated to be about a 1/4 mile thick. No need to worry about breaking through or falling into crevices never to be seen again. We will leave that up to Hollywood. It was VERY safe.
The Ice Cave was both an absolutely surreal environment and gorgeous all at the same time. The Ice Cave was made by a summer flowing river that comes down from the mountains via snowmelt. The glacier walls were thick and blacken a bit by picking up the volcanic soil and rocks along the slow descent down to the sea. There were actually several large rocks visible in the ice walls. The whole encounter was really just dreamlike and such a unmatched experience!
We then made our way with heavy ice clamps up the entry of the ice cave from where the water would normally enter, and hiked a short while on top of the glacier to a great lookout point. We took several photos and videos from here and they all turned out like art. The view was breathtaking! You could see the majority of the glacier in front of you, the lagoon full of icebergs and the sea with its cool waters slowing waving "hello up there"! Definitely one of my favorite memories and an unexpected sojourn. We piled up in the monster van ready to head down as a severe storm was set to roll in from the west. We had impeccable timing!
After returning to the parking lot, we thanked our driver and guide and quickly packed up to catch the sun going down at Diamond Beach. I will mention that I read several reviews and saw Youtube videos online about Diamond Beach just being average or "not really worth the drive", but they all didn't catch it at sunset. Diamond Beach at sunset maybe in my top visions I've ever have seen with my own eyes.
Let me set the stage visually for your imagination.
There is jet black fine soft volcanic sand everywhere, but on top of this ebony sand are tiny, small, medium, large and humongous pieces of ice washed up on the shore (hence the name "Diamond" Beach). Most of the pieces of ice were reasonable, like the size of a basketball or smaller, but there were several larger pieces the size of cars and buses both floating out to sea and on the black sand washing ashore. The waves are gently crashing on the black sand shore dropping off even more ice diamonds. As the setting suns orange glow hits the ice, the sparkles dance into your eye making you feel like you are happy. It's a magnificent sight to see and I don't think anything else I will witness in my life will be even close to this particular experience. Crazy!
We took several photos and videos. This was the first time I was able to fly the drone up and get some shots. Previously the weather, wind and being in National Parks (drones are strictly not allowed) had prohibited flying. The wind was still high, but I took the risk and the footage speaks for itself. I will embed it below.
After the sun slipped behind the horizon, we walked back to the car along the river with huge icebergs heading out to sea and witnessed several seals hunting in the chilly waters of the ocean for the evening's dinner. We got in our rental car and headed back to Vik for the night as the storm challenged us from time to time along the way.
We checked into our spot at Hotel Katla and had a well-earned feast, delicious beer and hit the hay in our awesome room for the evening. Falling asleep with a huge smile on my face after the day's activities and new memories replaying in your mind is always extra soothing.
Day 5: Black Sand Beach, Skógafoss & Seljalandsfoss, Hidden Lagoon, Blue Lagoon & Aurora
This was our final full day. We woke up early and gorged ourselves at the amazing breakfast buffet and we chugged down some strong coffee and headed out of Vik back to the capital of Reykjavik. This was about a 2:30 hour drive, but there were several sites along the way. Once again, to Kayla's credit, we had a full plan; Black Sand Beach, 2 waterfalls, Reykjavik hotel check in, Blue Lagoon followed quickly by the final Aurora Borealis tour that evening.
We popped into the Lava Bakery & Coffee yet again for a quick coffee and to shop around a bit at the Icewear store attached to the bakery that had better prices than what we found in Reykjavik. Kayla purchased an Icelandic wool blanket and I got an Icelandic zip up sweater.
The Famous Black Sand Beach was beautiful but EXTREMELY cold and windy. This weather would be a precursor for the remainder of the day and night. Our coldest day by far.
Next up was Skógafoss waterfall. This was a pretty epic falls as it was both super high and super powerful. There were a ton of tourists, but it still wasn't too bad to grab some shots and head up to the top of the metal staircase for a top-down view.
After Skógafoss, we headed to the same falls we popped into the other night; the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. This time in the daylight, it was even more amazing and grand! We took several shots of this famous falls and went into a little hut to warm up, shop and grab a coffee.
Inside this shop we met a very sweet local university aged girl who was studying to become a doctor. We chatted for a bit and she even gave us some advice about a hidden gem of a hot spring nearby that we could take a small hike to which was a local secret. We were totally game!
We got some quick directions and headed down the road about 20 minutes to the clandestine lagoon, now knowing called the Seljavallaug Lagoon. We parked the car and made the short 15 minute hike along the valley. The views were breathtaking, however when we reached the hot springs, the lagoon was pretty chilly. We wanted HOT, but being it was only about 70ºF, we decided against the lukewarm waters and headed back on the highway. If it had been warmer, we likely would have forgone the Blue Lagoon that evening, but now we were a bit pressed for time and scurried down the road for the reminder of the drive to the city.
We hurriedly checked in to our pleasant apartment (ABnB) at Iceland Comfort Apartments. This place was great, modern and had an awesome stand up shower!
We quickly got ready and brought both our bathing suits and cold gear for the northern lights tour. We knew we would be cutting it close!
Upon arriving slightly before our assigned time at the Blue Lagoon, the customer service people were awesome! They let us sneak in a bit before our slot to get ready and soak in the lagoon. Here is where the night takes a sudden unexpected turn.
The Blue Lagoon has warm milky water and all the conveniences of health spa, bars for adult beverages, party music and mud mask stations that you would expect to find in Las Vegas or LA. When you start to notice that the water is milky because everyone is getting the free silica mud mask, then exfoliating and washing their dead skin and mud into the lagoon, it kind of grossed me out. I'm not very squeamish, but that's the reality. If you catch a mouthful of salty water, you are getting who-knows-what on your taste buds. Also, the water was warm, but not really HOT and it was a man made lagoon. Basically, it's a cement pool with a deep well of hot spring water being pumped into the pool, so not as unique as the Secret Lagoon honestly. Maybe I'm jaded after going to several hot springs in the states out west, but the natural aspect definitely wasn't there either. Then there is the price; it's expensive! $100 USD for 1 hour of time in the lagoon. That's a bit steep even for tourist prices. The Blue Lagoon is a man-made tourist trap. That's my two cents at least. I will say everyone seemed to be having a great time, we had fun and once again the customer service was first class. Rant over.
We rushed from the Blue Lagoon off to meet our northern lights BusTravel Iceland tour bus for our final viewing of this natural phenomenon. We had a 45 minute drive back to the city. However, along the way we saw the Aurora dancing around us! There were greens everywhere accompanied by the very rare streaks of pink! We are witnessing all this while traveling down the highway in the car going 60 mph. It was unbelievable! It was the kind of experience you can't describe to anyone and instill the proper emotional response you embodied at the time. We were now pumped and eagerly got on the tour bus to head out into the rural county to check out even more lights!
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| Cellphone photo from the car |
We drove way out from the city to a lava field and parked the tour bus. The weather was colder and windier than anything we experienced in Iceland prior. Any exposed body part quickly became wind whipped and numb. After about an hour of waiting, the lights finally showed and put on a brief 15 minute display, then just as quickly vanished. We all piled on the warm bus and headed back to the city for our final night to catch the flight back to the US in the morning. What an end to a great day!
Overall:
Iceland was an amazing trip and totally unique adventure. If you are the nature type, the scientific outer space type, the adventurous type, or the experience over comfort type, then Iceland has magic in store for you. If you prefer to sit on a beach and do nothing all day everyday for a week, then maybe this isn't the trip you're looking for.
I 100% loved my experience in Iceland. I don't regret one day, one experience or one stop on the trip. When I look back now I realize how much we crammed into 5 days of travel around a foreign country in the middle of a harsh winter climate, it boggles my mind. The weather was cold, but the Icelandic people were very warm and welcoming. The food was great with plenty of healthy options. Iceland's landscape was unreal even to the most experienced of adventurers. If you have the travel bug, this is a great one to check off the list!
There is something very special about Iceland. Between the insane waterfalls, geothermal pools, black sand volcanic coastlines, high jagged granite mountains, slow moving glaciers, icebergs headed out to sea and horses friendlier than most humans I know are all incredibly special. It's a land of mystery. It's a land that time forgot, but then we showed up anyways. Iceland is a great reminder of how slow the earth and Mother Nature craft our planet, but also in some of the most violent ways possible. No matter where I travel next, there will only be one Iceland.
Here is the YouTube video playlist of most of the sights along the trip:
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