I went to Iceland in October of 2016 with my husband. We also met my good friend from Germany and her boyfriend there. It had been a dream of ours to meet there since we were 16 and we finally did it! Iceland is a beautiful country. Some people’s opinion is that it’s very touristy. I disagree. Reykjavik and the tourist stops close to it do draw in more crowds. But as you get further out of the city you feel like you might be the only people in the whole country at times. We started our journey in Reykjavik and drove southeast along the Ring Road going counterclockwise around the whole country.

Day 1

We flew on Wow Air into Keflavik Airport (the international airport outside of Reykjavik) and took the Flybus to Reykjavik. You can book tickets ahead of time(I think it’s cheaper to do round trip) and it stops at a lot of the hotels and guest houses in Reykjavik. There’s a list of which ones it stops at on their website. https://www.re.is/flybus/
We spent the first day and a half in Reykjavik and just walked around. It’s a small city so it’s easy to walk everywhere.  Some places to see there are the Hallgrimskirja Church(you can pay to go to the top and get a view of the city) and the Harpa Opera House. There was a play going on at the Harpa called “Being Icelandic” that we really wanted to see but unfortunately it was sold out. It’s in English and is supposed to be good.  There’s lots of good places to eat there. Lots of good seafood and lamb stew.  I would recommend a restaurant called Icelandic Fish and Chips. https://www.fishandchips.is/ Great food and not too pricey. The food is pretty expensive in Iceland so it’s worth looking around at a few different places if you want to get a better deal.  I would say the average meal might be around $25 a person. Alcohol is also really expensive because it’s heavily taxed so we really didn’t have much to drink when we were there.  We stopped and got wine and beer at the liquor store in one of the towns.  It’s only open for a few hours a day so make sure you take advantage of it when it is open. We also stopped at grocery stores a lot and just made sandwiches for lunch throughout the trip.  In Reykjavik we stayed at a guesthouse called Guesthouse Odinn https://odinnreykjavik.is/ which was very nice and in a good location.  I would highly recommend it.

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Day 2

We picked up our rental car in Reykjavik.  My friend booked the car through his work and got a little bit of a discount. He got it through Sixt rental car.  We just walked to the rental car place in Reykjavik. We did get a 4 wheel drive SUV because there are a lot of gravel roads called “F roads” and you need a 4 wheel drive vehicle if you want to drive on them.  If you don’t have a 4 wheel drive vehicle you just have to stay on the main roads.
We left Reykjavik and headed east along the Ring Road to Gullfoss Waterfall and Geysir Geothermal Area.  Both very cool! These were both big tourists stops since they are close to Reykjavik so there were quite a few people there but we still enjoyed it. We also stopped along the Ring Road and were able to get a view of the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano. This in the volcano that erupted in 2010 and halted air travel. After that we headed south towards our next guesthouse called Hotel Drangshlid in Skogar. It was nice and had a free breakfast.  We stopped at a couple different waterfalls along the way called Seljalandsfoss (you can walk behind this waterfall!) and Skogafoss.  There are a lot of signs along the Ring Road about different tourist stops so it’s very easy to figure out. We ate dinner at the restaurant at Skogafoss right by the waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful.

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Day 3

We stopped at Skogafoss Waterfall again to walk around more. You can walk to the top of it and the view is really nice. There are also hiking trails at the top of the waterfall where you can get views of the glacier and volcano nearby.  I would have liked to have spent more time there hiking around.  We did get some hiking boots for the trip which ended up being really nice because it rained on and off several days and was muddy in places. I would definitely recommend hiking-type shoes instead of just tennis shoes if you want to get out and explore. Our next stop that day was on the southern tip of Iceland in a town called Vik. It was another beautiful stop. There’s a really cute church there and a nice black sand beach called Reynisfjara. I could have spent the night in Vik just to have more time there.  There’s a lot to do around there on the Vatnajökull Glacier, like glacier tours and snowmobiling(there’s also a lot of other glaciers around Iceland that have these activities too). 
After Vik we stopped at Vatnajökull National Park at Skaftafell to walk around.  Then stopped at Fjallsálon and Jökulsárlon which are glacial lakes. All very cool to see (you’ll see signs for all of these along the road).  You can even go out on boats in these lakes.
We left Vik and drove to a town called Höfn for the night. Also a very cute little fishing village with just a few restaurants. We stayed in a nice hotel called Hotel Edda. https://www.hoteledda.is/en/hotels/hotel-edda-hofn Another nice hotel that we’d recommend and had free breakfast.

Day 4

We drove along eastern fjörds. Absolutely gorgeous! This was one of the highlights in my opinion. It was some of the prettiest scenery in Iceland. This was a long day of driving. You could split it up if you wanted to. Right before getting to our hotel for the night, we stopped at a geothermal area called Hverir. It reminded me a little bit of Yellowstone with the rotten egg smell coming from the geothermal activity. It was an interesting place to stop.  We drove all the way to the north and stayed overnight at Lake Myvatn at Hotel Gigur. https://www.keahotels.is/en/hotels/hotel-gigur   This was a really nice hotel right on the lake and included breakfast.  It had it’s own restaurant there with reasonably priced food. We also ate at place called Daddi’s Pizza in Myvatn. https://www.daddispizza.com/english   It was really good!

Day 5

We stayed in Lake Myvatn.  We climbed a volcanic crater called the Hverfjall Crater and the saw Dimmuborgir Lava Field. This is a must see if you are a fan of Game of Thrones because they filmed some of the scenes there! It is a very interesting area. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was created by volcanic activity and it almost feels like you’re on Mars. We also saw an underground hot spring in this area called Grjotagja Lava Cave where another Game of Throne’s scene was filmed. Later in the day we went to a local nature bath in this area. https://myvatnnaturebaths.is/ Definitely a must at some point while you’re there!  Lots of places have them.  We did this rather than going to the Blue Lagoon (although I am sad we didn’t go there. I’ve heard it’s awesome). It was so relaxing! It’s like a gigantic outdoor hot tub. We went at night which was cool. We were able to see the northern lights a little bit here. After the nature bath we ate at a great restaurant called Gamli Bistro.  https://www.visitmyvatn.is/en/eat-and-drink/gamli-bistro Good food and delicious bread pudding!  We stayed overnight again at Hotel Gigur.

https://goo.gl/maps/4ycRw3qeQbB2 (click here to see our route thus far)

Day 6

We stopped at Godafoss Waterfall.  Then drove to Akureyri to go whale watching in one of the fjords next to Akureyri. Another highlight!  It was amazing! We saw a Humpback Whale jump out of the water like 15 times!  Akureyri is one of the bigger cities. We would have liked to have spent more time here too. This would have been a good place to spend the night if we had more time. I think it’s a good place to see the northern lights too. We drove to Blönduós for the night where we stayed in an awesome cabin called Gladheimar.  https://www.gladheimar.is/1index.asp It had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. It was really nice but not a whole lot to do in the area.  We enjoyed staying in that night and cooked dinner and played cards.

Day 7

We drove to Snaefellsjökull National Park on the west side of Iceland.  Lots of scenic places to stop along the way.  We stayed overnight near a town called Hellnar at Guesthouse Snjofell.  It had a good restaurant that we ate at several times but the guesthouse was our least favorite. I would recommend staying somewhere else maybe in the town of Ólafsvik because it’s bigger or a different place in the Hellnar area instead. I would recommend the restaurant though if you’re looking for somewhere to eat. 

Day 8

We spent time driving around the national park and glacier. There are lots of scenic places to stop and walk around. We were able to drive our car up onto the glacier and get out and walk. That was definitely very exciting! We stayed overnight again at Guesthouse Snjofell.  

Day 9

We drove south to Reykholt.  We stopped at Hraunfossar and Barnafoss waterfalls. Very pretty.  We also went the the local swimming pool near there. That was really nice and I’d recommend going to one somewhere while you’re there. Lots of towns have them.  The pools are all outside and are heated and it was so nice in the cool weather. It is definitely a very Icelandic thing to do and made us feel like we were one of the locals.  We stayed at Hotel A that night in Reykholt. https://hotela.is This was our favorite hotel!  Very warm and welcoming and it had a cabin feel.  It is family run and they had great food.  I would definitely recommend this hotel if you’re staying in the area.

Day 10

We started to head back to Reykjavik.  We stopped at Langjökull Glacier and Thingvellir National Park where we were able to hike around.  We made it back to Reykjavik and stayed at the Blaklukka Guesthouse. It was not that great of a guesthouse. It was located in someone’s basement.  I definitely liked the first Reykjavik guesthouse way better.  
We left the next day after spending the morning in Reykjavik and flew back to the U.S.

https://goo.gl/maps/oFZGQg96Wo22    (click here to see the rest of our route)

Overall, it was a fabulous trip. Iceland is a country where you can see glaciers, waterfalls, hot springs, fjords, volcanoes, open countryside, and the ocean all in one place. I would love to go back someday and do some more hiking and explore some of the areas we weren’t able to spend as much time in. I think October was a nice month to go because the weather was still decent and there weren’t as many tourists. We brought along winter clothes which was a good choice because the weather was a little cool and we were outside a lot. Iceland is a place to go and get outside and enjoy nature. The air is so clean and the atmosphere is relaxing. If you’re looking to explore and have a laid back vacation, then Iceland is the place for you.

skál!

Caitlin