Exploring Iceland

sophieleblanc
May 13, 2019
6 min read

Hello! Luckily I keep detailed travel journals on all my holidays, so I have all the information I need from my family's two-week long trip to Iceland from July 2017. Now, Iceland is probably not a destination I would select to travel to on my own student budget (everything there is quite expensive), but as a family vacation it was much more manageable. We stayed mostly at AirBnbs and ate peanut butter sandwiches to reduce our expenses.

The first thing we did after landing at the Keflavík airport and getting our rental car was drive to Rekjadalur, where we hiked about half an hour into some hills to visit beautiful, remote hot springs (Yeah, get used to the crazy long Icelandic names for places. More coming up). We got to sit in the warm, clear, steamy water and enjoy the serenity and beauty of our surroundings.

We then drove to Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall, on our way to the town of Vík. In Vík, we visited the famous black sand beaches that run along towering cliffs filled with fascinating geological structures, such as pentagonal basalt columns.

Southern Iceland - Vík, Vatnajökull and Höfn

Seljalandsfoss and the basalt columns at the black sand beaches of Vík.

Iceland is a starkly stunning place, and our drive took us through expansive fields of purple flowers, mountains in the distance, or desolate, seemingly endless lava fields, towering green hills crowned with rock with little white farmhouses nestled at their feet, and we would occasionally have to slow the car down as a herd of sheep crossed the road. The jet lag and travel fatigue was a bit of a struggle, but we made it.

Our rental cottage was just past Kirkjubaejarklaustur, which we had a lot of fun trying to pronounce. It was in the middle of a lava field which consisted of large rocks covered in yellow-green moss and lichen.

The next day, we drove to Skaftafell National Park, which I believe is part of Vatnajökull National Park. Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Europe and covers 8% of all of Iceland, but sadly, due to global warming, it is shrinking annually. At Skaftafell, we did a 15.5 km hike up a mountain ridge with arms of the glacier on either side. During this hike, we walked past the waterfall Svartifoss, depicted below.

We went on a little Zodiac boat on a tour of the glacial lagoon Fjallsárlón, which literally means "mountain river lagoon." Afterwards, we also looked at the more famous (and much more crowded and touristy) glacial lagoon Jökullsárlón, and saw stunning chunks of ice, glimmering like white and blue pieces of diamond on the black sand beach.

The following day, we did a hike alongside a canyon called Fjaðrárgljúfur. It's a pretty easy hike, more of a walk really, but the canyon is very beautiful. We discovered that the purple flowers we had been seeing everywhere are Nootka lupin (my family loves to Google search random things).

Since it was raining, we ate sandwiches in our car at Dyrhólaey, the other end of the Vík beach, where we watched the puffins that nest on the cliffs. The weather in the summer is Iceland is similar to that of Scotland - definitely pack a lot of layers and a rain coat.

We left our house on the lava field and drove to our next accommodation, a place called Lambhús near Höfn. This was on a grassy plain with Icelandic horses in a paddock nearby, and the mountains and glacier Vatnajökull visible. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and it's amazing. We ate dinner at a cool place nearby called Pakkhús. The things to eat in Iceland are definitely (in my opinion) sea food like lobster and fish, lamb, smoked salmon, skyr (Icelandic yogurt) (yep - not a lot of good vegan or vegetarian options, especially in the rural areas, which is like 95% of the country. If you are a very committed vegan/vegetarian, probably the best thing to do would be to stay at AirBnbs, buy groceries and cook your own meals).

Our second day in the Höfn area, we went on an ice-climbing adventure. Even though it was a beautiful hot summer day (by Icelandic standards, so still only about 17 degrees Celsius), it was very chilly up on the glacier, and windy. The ice-climbing was actually pretty scary, but fun.

That's me in the black jacket.

The next day we packed up and drove to Reykjavík, stopping at the waterfall Skógafoss on the way.

Reykjavík - the capital city of Iceland

Reykjavík is a cool city and it was fun to explore the main streets and waterfront area. We enjoyed getting avocado and tomato sandwiches and freshly pressed juices (for terrifying prices when you converted the Icelandic currency to Canadian dollars, but we tried not to think about it too much) at Joe & The Juice.

Snaefellsnes

After Reykjavík, my parents and I went to the Snaefellsnes peninsula to the northwest of Reykjavík. My younger sister is a competitive equestrian, and she went on a 5-day riding trip in the Icelandic wilderness with a couple of friends, which she really enjoyed. My parents and I do not ride horses, so we did our own thing in Snaefellsnes. We stopped at a beautiful hotel called Buðir and it was a beautiful sunny day along the coast, the snow-capped Snaefellsnes volcano distinctly visible in the distance.

We stayed in a cottage by the sea in a village called Arnarstapi.

ree — The coast near Arnarstapi, Snaefellsnes.

BEWARE THE ARCTIC TERNS - these small white birds will dive-bomb your head if you get too close to their nesting area, usually close to the sea. I learned that these deceptively small birds actually have the longest annual migration routes of any animal, traveling from the arctic to the antarctic. They will attack the highest point so holding a stick above your head should protect you.

We drove to the town of Stykkishólmur for dinner one night (we finally found a place with a veggie burger on the menu!). We went on a nice walk along the coastal cliffs from the town of Arnarstapi to the neighbouring village of Hellnar.

Then we drove to Djúpalónssandur and walked to Dritvík. The beach was covered in lovely, dark, black-blue-grey volcanic pebbles, smoothened by the sea. In the afternoon, my mum and I went on a trail ride with Icelandic horses to the beach (for inexperienced riders). Afterwards, we went to a nearby outdoor pool hot spring and floated in the warm water for a while.

I can't seem to find exactly when in our itinerary we went to Kirkjufell, a very famous mountain in Snaefellsnes. But in any case, here's a photo.

The Golden Triangle and Landmannalaugar

We were having problems starting our rental car, and we actual had to get a guy to deliver us a new battery! So that was a bit annoying. But, new battery in place, we started the fairly long drive to Landmannalaugar. The roads were not very good, they were mostly not paved and extremely bumpy - a four wheel drive is almost definitely required. Despite the overcast day, Landmannalaugar was probably one of the most beautiful places we visited. Golden hills of volcanic rock, streaked with red and green and violet, surround a flat plain criss-crossed with the silver strands of rivers. We hiked up to Brennisteinsalda, which translates to sulphur wave in English. It was rainy and not very warm, but the scenery was lovely. After the hike, we enjoyed a dip in the natural hot springs at the base of the hike. There is also a campsite at the base.

The last couple of days of the trip was just my dad and me, since my mum had to leave early for a conference. We went to place called Kerlingarfjöll and went on a 2 hour hike. From the top, we had view of the valley and 2 glaciers in the distance: Langjökull and Hofsjökull. It was cool, but it was in the middle of nowhere and I'm not convinced the long, bumpy drive was worth it.