Essential Iceland Tour

The day we arrived in Iceland, we stayed in a hotel waiting for our day trips to start the day after. We had just time to get on a boat to chase the northern lights. 

Unfortunately, the night was windy and very cold and we didn't manage to see anything more than a distant incipit of the northern lights. 

We explored the city for a couple of days on final days in Iceland. 

We arrived at Thingvellir early in the morning after a long bus ride from Reykjavik. Despite the cold weather and the ice covering the walking trails, the area was packed with visitors. 

We spent around one hour wandering around and we learnt that when the Vikings colonized Iceland they chose this place for the 'national assembly'. Here all major political decisions were taken by the chieftains. 

You will be able to walk through the fractures caused by the tectonic movements, Iceland being on the fringe of both Eurasian and North American plates.

The best adventure you can have is diving within the tectonic fractures in the Sifra lake. We weren't equipped for the rigid winter temperatures but it looked like an amazing activity to do.

We arrived at the Geysir area late in the morning and found it packed with people. The smaller geysir named Strokkur is where most of the people stop because the water gashes are more frequents, on average one every 5/10 minutes. 

We wouldn't recommend to wait at the bigger geysir because it erupts once an hour at most. 

In winter it is particularly fascinating to see the hot water erupting since a dense plume of steam follows. 

We stayed around one hour in the area, grabbing a quick bite at the small commercial center nearby before moving to our next destination.

Gullfoss is the most fascinating waterfall we saw in Iceland. 

We arrived in the afternoon and walked all the way from the parking to the top of the crevice where the river Hvita jumps for 32 meters. We would recommend to walk to the upper observation deck, a further 10 minutes walk to have a great view of the waterfall and the valley. 

Our stay was rushed a bit because the sun was beginning to set. We wish we arrived a bit earlier to spend more time here, enjoying the view and the roar of the water falling in the crevice.

We spent the night at Sellfoss Hotel. We didn't have time enough to explore the town but just walked around the hotel before dinner. The nearest and coziest restaurant we found was Tryggvaskali. We loved the food and the service. 

The hotel offers a northern light wake up call, i.e. if the northern lights are visible, they will call you to let you know. 

We arrived to Skatafell parking in the morning, after having booked a guide to take us on the glacier. It is quite a long walk from the parking to the base of the glacier and we struggled a bit walking on the ice for so long. 

Our guide gave us crampons that helped us a lot to speed up our pace. While you can reach the base of the glacier by yourself, you are not allowed to climb it alone since it is extremely dangerous. 

We walked a couple of hours on the ice and learnt a lot about how the glacier formed, how it moves and the effects of climate change on its extension and structure. The blue color of the compacted ice, with the black strikes caused by the volcanic sediment are fascinating. We had such a great time and we wish we stayed more and climbed even higher. 

As a bonus, our guide from Troll Adventures took us into an ice cave, where we could take some stunning photos. 

We reached our bus exhausted but really happy. The walk is demanding but it can be done by anyone with regular fitness level.

We spent the night at this hotel after visiting Skatafell glacier. It is quite isolated, thus guaranteeing higher chances to spot the northern lights and to get a good night's sleep. 

It is run by a family and you'll love the home made food they serve. If it is available, ask for the traditional lamb soup. We had 2 plates each because it was super.

We arrived at the glacier lagoon early in the morning, but it was already packed with people. To avoid the crowds we decided to walk inland for a couple of minutes. 

The quieter the place, the higher the number of seals that show up. If you are particularly lucky, you can get a selfie with one of them while they swim in the calm waters. 

There isn't much else to do here, so we stayed less than a hour around.

We also walked downstream to the diamond beach where the ice blocks stop on the black sand. They are of all sizes and they look like diamonds, especially with the sun reflection. 

Guided tours usually club the two attractions in the trip, however keep it in mind if you decide to travel by yourself.

On our way back to Reykjavik, we stopped at the famous plane wreck, abandoned by Americans on the beach shore many decades ago. 

We were quite surprised to learn that we had to walk more than one hour to reach the crash site from the parking. There is a shuttle bus that connects the wreckage with the parking but it is slow and usually there is a queue of people waiting for it. 

After one hour of power walk, we reached the plane wreck and were dismayed by the nonsense of this attraction. There were way too many people around and above it, ruining any attempting to get a nice photo of what remained of the fuselage. 

We did not find it wow, the landscape is not really unique and we wouldn't recommend to visit this place unless you have many hours to kill.

Reykjavik is quite a big city and considering that we stayed just a couple of days as base for our daytrips, we didn't have time to visit everything. We walked around the city center every evening, looking for a place where to have dinner.

Only on our last day in Iceland we had the time to explore the city, buying souvenirs to bring back home. 

We selected only two attractions that we fancied visiting, the phallological museum and the main church. 

The first was quite different from what we were expecting. It had a big collection of animal penises and anecdotes about them but nothing really sensational. 

The church instead was really interesting, not only for the music played at the organ but also for the possibility to go up to the church tower and enjoy a beautiful 360 degrees view of Reykjavik. We had to wait 15 minutes before being able to use the lift, but the view was worth the waiting. 

We also bumped into a frozen lake, not distant from our airbnb. Indeed, Lake Tjornin is usually frozen in winter and you can easily walk on it. Be extra cautions though since in certain points the ice is very thin and you can fall in the water. There are several ducks and swans living in the lake and they survive the rigid weather thanks to geothermal water that keeps a corner of the lake unfrozen and the local population that from time to time feed them with bread.

If you have time, you can also check out Harpa concert hall which has impressive architecture, and walking along the coast you can reach the Sun Voyager, an interesting sculpture of an old viking long ship. 

We came to Arnarstapi because we are huge fans of Jules Verne's book "Journey to the center of the earth". We had a long drive from Reykjavik to the peninsula and stopped on the way to take photos of waterfalls and inactive volcanos. The village of Arnarstapi is quite small but there are few view points with unusual rock formations worth visiting.

However, the highlight of the trip was the guided tour in the Vatnshellir cave, that is a tunnel the magma left during the last eruption of the Snæfellsjökull. We arrived in the early afternoon and our guide took us down in the tunnel. 

He was very knowledgeable and gave us a short but exhaustive lesson on geology and volcanology. We really liked the walk in the cave, which is one of the highlights of our trip.  

We decided to pamper ourselves with a VIP access to the Blue Lagoon. You can visit the Blue Lagoon either on a day visit, or by staying at one of the hotels in the complex.  Plan to spend at least half a day there. For day visits, there are 3 packages available at different prices.  We chose the luxury Retreat Spa package, which gave us access to the private lagoon as well as a treatment, locker and amenities. 

Since it's quite close to the airport but one hour from Reykjavik, we recommend to plan it on the day you arrive or depart to save time coming and going.