Iceland Travel Guide: My road trip to south Iceland.

Did you know, that the only horse breed existing in Iceland is actually the Icelandic horse?
Once you drive along the ring road, you will not get past those cute little ponies - they are literally everywhere! My boyfriend had to stop several times along the road, just so that I can get out and pet them. 

From the beginning of this trip I knew we would need to do a horseback riding trip. My boyfriend is not a huge fan of horses, however he was willing to join me once he saw that those horses are rather small :-)

There are many stables offering guided riding tours. We decided for a 2 hours beginner tour near Reykjavik. The tour led through a lava field, which was a crazy scenery. Even though the scereny in Iceland changes every 100 kilometers drastically and you see many differnt lava formation, each scenery is beautiful and interesting in its own way. If you are a more experienced rider, or quite brave in general, you can also go for a faster tour and lear how to do "pass" and "Tölt", which are two additional gaits of icelandic horses.

A nice alternative to the lava field ride would be a black sand beach ride. Who does not dream about galopping along the waves?

No worries, these ponies are very gentle and easy to handle also for beginngers! However, you will feel it in your muscles the next day ;-)

In Iceland, it was the first time that we saw glaciers. Spotting them for the road, still miles away, is already very exciting. There are several view point where you can get quite close to the glacier, like the Skaftafell viewpoint.

However, you should not get too close or iside the glaciers on your own, but with a guide. There are several companies offering guided tours on top of and trough the glacier.

We decided to do a 3-hour Ice Cave tour. Beforehand we saw many beautiful pictures of crystal clear, large ice caves on Instagram & Co. We were quite sure that these pictures are edited extremely well and such giant caves are more an excemption. Therefore we tried to keep our expectations low. After a very bumpy 30mins off-road  drive we arrived at some kind of parking lot. From there we started our walk to the glacier, which took around 20mins. When we arrived at the cave we could not believe our eyes! The cave was not only huge, but sparkled in all different shades of blue. In total we spend around 1,5 hours in the caves. The walk was perfectly suitable, as the paths mainly consisted out of gravel.  For us beginners, it was the perfect tour! 

For the next time, we would definetly go with a 5-6 hour glacier tour, where you also walk on and trough the glaciers. For these longer tours you will need special equipment (like spikes under your shoes), but no special level of fitness. Before we did the 3-hour tour we were a bit unsure about the longer tour, because we feared that it would be too long. However, time flew by, so I would defintely recommend to do the longer tour.

Many people heard of the famous "Blue Lagoon" or "Myvatn Nature Baths", but did you know there are anctually many other, smaller natural hot springs in Iceland?

In my opinion the Blue Lagoon is extremely overpriced! I am sure, it is a great spot and somehow worth the money, however we wanted to look for an alternative. Something smaller, more personal, a hidden gem.

During my research about hot springs in Iceland I came across this tiny one near Fludir. It looked like so magical, like straight out of a fairytale, so we definitely had to visit!
If you decide to also got there - be aware, the road is quite bumpy! We only drove a little Hyundai i10 and made it without any problems, however we needed to drive quite slow. You can park quite near to the hot spring. You will also find  little box there, where you can put the entrance fee (1.000ISK per person) - hope you are a honest person :)
From the parking lot it is only a 2 minute walk to the hot spring. You can get changed in the little "house" and also put your stuff there.

If you are lucky you will have the spring to yourself! The water is more than 40 degrees and there is a second little lagoon on the other side of the house.
We came once in the afternoon and once in the morning. Both times there were only 2-4 people. Plan to spend around 1-3 hours there, it is very relaxing! Especially after all the walking you will do in Iceland ;-)