8 Tips for Visiting Iceland

So, before you go barreling off to Iceland to see all this beautiful country has to offer, I have come up with a few tips you should follow. Iceland is great but it is still a small country, with an even smaller population. While in Reykjavik and Akureyri, you'll feel right at home, with restaurants galore and plenty of music stations; but outside of the cities, it's a desolate and undeveloped land. Make sure you're well prepared for your trip and you'll be loving Iceland in no time!

1. Bring an eye mask.
If you are visiting between May and September, you might want to bring an eye mask. It stays light well into the sleeping hours and the suns rises extremely early. In the time that I visited, the sun rose at 4:30 am and didn't set until 10:30 pm and even then it wasn't dark. Sometimes your blinds may not be enough to keep all of the light out.

2. Stop Frequently!
Once you begin your journey, stops are few and far between. It could be 50 to 100 miles until you see the next small town or village. So, stop and fill up when you can and make sure to empty your bladder! Otherwise, you will be sorry.



3. Don't fly in on a Sunday.
We flew in on a Sunday and EVERYTHING was closed and what wasn't closed didn't open until fairly late (about 9 or 10).

4. Bring Snacks.
If we didn't have a few snacks in the car, I'm not sure what would have happened. When visiting the small towns and villages, most of the cafes were closed and when they pointed out one that was open, we couldn't even eat there. My mom is allergic to eggs and those "cafes" that they told us to go to, served nothing but pastries or coffee. I'm not sure if it's easier to find places when it's "in season" for them or what. But we drove around hours a few days looking for a place to eat.



5. Don't Trust Your GPS!
I recommend getting a map for your trip and using it instead of a GPS. Our rental car company provided us a Garmin for our trip and it didn't really do anything except get us lost... A LOT. The only time we got to where we were going without confusion was when we used our map. So unless you have a really good GPS that is updated, then using a map will be more than enough. Our's had all of the major points of interest on it and more.

6. Bring Your Own Music.
Near Akureyri and Reykjavik, there are plenty of stations to listen to. But once you get out and around the ring road, you only get to listen to talk shows in Icelandic or static. Most of the time it was just static. And quite car rides are difficult to stay awake for. If it weren't for my iPod and the informative CD's Hertz gave us, we would have had rode in a lot of silence.



7. Don't worry about exchanging cash or withdrawing any.
Credit cards were excepted everywhere we went in Iceland, even the tiny little guesthouses we were staying at and for any amount. So avoid those ATM fees and rip exchange rates at the airport. Just use your card (and make sure your bank knows about it).

8. Last but not least: Take your time.
There's so much to see in Iceland. Don't try to cram so much of it in at once. Give yourself time to enjoy everything so you're not so exhausted the next day when you get up and start all over again. If you do like us and do the ring road, make sure you prepare well for the first couple of days because there's so much in the beginning and it slows down towards the end of it.





This is part of the #sundaytravlerseries with Chasing the Donkey and don't forget to support all of the other participants! :)

Photo Essay: Skogafoss

Skogafoss can be seen from the main road on the way to Vik. It's stunning and one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland at a width of 82 feet with a 200 foot drop. There is a sleep path with stairs up along side of the falls and on a nice sunny day, the spray from the falls brings out beautiful rainbows.

Skogafoss is located in the small village of Skogar with about 25 people. This village is home to a folk museum that is opened daily, Hotel Skogar with beautiful views of the falls and a restaurant as well.

Famous Blue Lagoon in Iceland

No matter how long you're visiting or why you're visiting Iceland, the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa is a must. At least this is what everyone told me when they found out I was going to Iceland. I wasn't too keen on going to this place though, because I don't really care about spas.

But, mom said we needed to do it and I signed us up. I'm super glad we ended up doing this! Once we ate our ridiculously good and expensive breakfast in Reykjavick, we made our way to the lagoon. As soon as we came up over a hill, we could spot the steam from the geothermal pools.



We made our way into the spa and checked in. I knew that it was required for us to wash off before we got into the pools, but it is required to bathe fully naked and wash with the provided shampoo and conditioner and stuff. Thank goodness there were some covered showers because most of the women were just using the uncovered ones, which was a shock for me. I'm not a prude or anything, but old lady parts are not something I enjoy seeing in the morning.



After bathing and changing, we made our way to the beautiful blue, 98 degree waters of the lagoon. The water from the lagoon is rich in silica, sulfur and other minerals, which are said to have healing properties for certain skin problems. The lagoon is man made and the water comes from Svartsengi, a nearby geothermal power plant that was built in 1976.



The water was such a comfortable temperature and never too hot. There's also a bar you can swim up to and grab a couple of cocktails and relax for a few ours. On the sides of the lagoon, there are buckets full of a mineral mud mixture. I put this all over my face and shoulders and just let it exfoliate my skin and relaxed.

Afterwards, I felt so refreshed. Jet lag didn't seem to be a problem any more and we were ready to begin our trip.

Lovely Village of Vik, Iceland

Mom and I spent our night in a beautiful guesthouse in between Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. On our way to our new destination for the day, we passed through Vik. A charming little village that is located at the southern most point in Iceland and also known as the wettest.



This quite little village is home to about 500 people and sits on the coast with views of tall cliffs, filled with sea birds, black sand beaches and the Atlantic Ocean. Vik also sits below the Myrdalsjokull glacier and this glacier is located right on top of the Katla volcano.



If the volcano were to ever erupt (the last eruption being in 1918), the city would be flooded and washed away from the melted waters of the glacier. The village's church is located high up on a hill in the village and is believed to be the only area that could survive a flood should it happen. Periodic drills go on in the town, so if ever an eruption happens, people will be able to run to the hills!



The cliffs nearby are home to many types of seabirds, including the well-known puffin. Unfortunately, for us, the cliffs were closed due to puffin breeding season and we were unable to visit or see a cute little.



Out of all of the towns and villages we passed through, Vik was my favorite. Even though there are not many people, it has everything you could need and beautiful views that stretch on for miles.

Seljalandsfoss: Bucket List Completion

Seljalandsfoss has been on my bucket list for years. It is actually the main reason I even wanted to go to Iceland in the first place. I'd see amazing pictures of the falls in a vibrant orange glow from the setting sun surrounded by bright green grasses and moss. The falls looked like it came from a dream world and I wanted to experience it for myself since I'm a mega waterfall lover.



We had already had such an eventful first day and done so much, mom and I were pretty exhausted. But lucky for us, the falls can be seen from the Hvolsvöllur to Vik route and on our way to our guesthouse for that night.

As soon as we came around the curve, I saw it and acted like a 6 year old girl getting to meet her first Disney Princess in Disney World. Seljalandsfoss was as magical as I thought it would be. Since it wasn't sunny at all this day, I didn't get to see the beautiful orange glow from the sunset. But I still got to see my dream waterfall :).



There were also two other mini waterfalls falling off of the same area as well. I walked the path to the side that was laid out and ran up to the top of the second one to see the view of the area.



There are multiple viewpoints you can get from the falls while you're there if you visit. There is a platform that you can walk up to view it from the side and the path leads down to get behind it. The wind was blowing very hard and it's super wet behind there, so instead of taking my clumsy butt back there, I just admired it from my nice little side view. You can also climb up a steep but short path up a hill on the other side of it as well for another angle.



Even though it's not the biggest or even considered the best waterfall, I still loved it.

*Note for visitors: During the winter time or at night, the falls are eliminated by bright lights, making the falls come alive during the darkness. If you're lucky, you can even experience the breathtaking northern lights over the falls as well. Make sure you know how set your cameras because it's going to be one helluva site. :)




This is part of the #sundaytravlerseries with Ice Cream and Permafrost and don't forget to support all of the other participants! :)

Dettifoss

Dettifoss is the largest waterfall in Europe by volume of water and has a reputation of being one of the most powerful waterfalls. It sits on a river that flows from the Vatnajokull ice cap and there's a few other waterfalls in the area as well.

Getting to the waterfall was very... uh... interesting. We ignored our GPS and took a newer road that was just recently built, which was the better choice because this side had port-a-potties (ew) and a better view of the falls.



The falls isn't too far from the parking lot and was only about 800 to 900 meters away. But, we didn't realize it would still be covered under a foot of snow! The path was well marked and carved out by previous hikers, so it wasn't as difficult as it could have been. Some of the trail made me nervous though because of the "Stay on trail! Deep waters nearby." Deep water nearby?!? I tread very carefully after reading that one!



Once we finally reached the beautiful Dettifoss, it was difficult to get a good picture. Because of all the waterfall mist and the cold, the lower region, where the best view points are, were marked off due to the frozen ground. Although it looked like someone had been down there recently, I was not going down there in my little sketchers and risk slipping off of the side to get the picture I wanted. I was perfectly fine viewing the falls from where I was. Dettifoss was beautiful, but maybe I'm bias because of my love for waterfalls.



But there were also some mega mean looking clouds coming our way and we needed to snap, admire and run back before we got slammed by whatever it was that was coming for us. We carefully but speedly made our way back and just as we came to the car, the storm unleashed its power. Down came ice and snow, covering our car and the roads before we could get away. Luckyily though, we made it out fine and left the big wall of white behind us. On to our next destination.

Bucket List Completion: Jokusarlon Glacial Lagoon

Jokusarlon was every bit of amazing and more. After mom and I had finished our glacier walk, we headed to our hotel and ended up passing it on our way. It was unexpected and the moment the lagoon came into view I squealed with excitement and demanded we pull over.



We didn't stay long, but long enough for me to take in the wonder of it. Huge and small icebergs float throughout this huge lagoon. It's 8 km from the shore to head of Breidamerkurjokull and it doesn't even look that far.



The lagoon was created once the glacier began receding, much like other lakes and such that are formed in front of glaciers. The lagoon is only about a mile from the ocean and covers almost 7 square miles! While you are at the lagoon, you're visiting the lowest and highest point of Iceland. The lake is around 814 feet deep and the peak right near it is the highest point.



Getting up the next morning and knowing that we would get to take a boat ride around the lake had us leaving our beautiful guesthouse at 6:30 am. I wanted to make sure we were finished with our Svartifoss hike by the time the rides started at 10 am. Since our hike finished up way early, we got to the lake right at 10.



They had us on a car boat thing which was weird and at first I though they were just going to drive us around on a car that looked like a boat, but no, they drive the boat to the edge of the lagoon and then turn the motors on and everything.



The 30 minute ride around the outside of the lake was incredible. We saw icebergs covered in ashes and dirt and ones that were completely white or blue. The icebergs that appear white are the ones that have been on the surface the longest. I'm not going to get all scientificky because I don't really understand it but the "blue" icebergs are not really blue. It's just an illusion. A pretty illusion but an illusion none the less. If the icebergs do appear blue, those are the ones that have more recently flipped over and out of the water. 90% of an iceberg is hidden under water, so you can never fully see all of it.



Once the guide finished giving us our lesson about the lake, he grabbed an iceburg out of the water and cut little pieces of ice off for everyone to try. I got to eat a 1000 year old piece of ice!! How freaking awesome is that? And then... I got to hold the iceburg, which was heavy and extremely extremely cold.



So if you're visiting Iceland and don't know if you should take the boat tour, you really don't have to. When you're on the ring road (road 1), you'll see it right from there. There is a parking area and a path around the lake you can walk. The boat goes about three km into the lake and no further because of how many iceburgs there are but the different view points you get are worth it and the fact that they let you have a piece of iceberg to eat!

Svartifoss in Skaftafell National Park

After our wonderful two hour glacier walk, we planned on hiking to Svartifoss. Little did I know, it was a four mile round trip. Once our hike was over on the glacier and we sat down to eat, I knew there was no way we could do that. So we planned to return in the morning before our Jokusarlon boat tour.

When we returned in the morning, I double checked our maps and the description of the hike. It said the hike should take us about two to two and a half hours and be about 7 km round trip. That's what were planning on. What we didn't plan on was our GPS taking us on a secret route that would cut our time in half.



There's this road a little bit further up and a parking area down at the bottom of the hill but our GPS man told us to keep going up and the warning sign said the road was only monitored June 1 through September 1. So we kept going. We didn't see anyone and no one tried to stop us.



After an extremely steep drive up and making it to the top, we kind of looked around trying to find out where we were. There were these cute little houses built into the mountain on one side and cliffs with stretches of land on the otherside. There was a spot big enough to park two cars, so we parked ours and got out to look around. We found a hiking trail that said Svartifoss and we began our two and a half hour trek up.



Five minutes after hiking straight up a mountain, we saw a sign that said Svartifoss was only .5 km away from where we were. Uhh... What?!? The hiking guide and all other signs said it would be a 3.5 km hike!! Some how, we had significantly decreased our walking time and mileage by taking that turn at the other parking lot. I'm still not even sure if we were allowed up there but we hastened our pace after that sign. The clouds were not looking promising. The last part of the hike was down hill and made it easy but it is some what difficult if you have knee problems.



Svartifoss is not as big as the pictures make it look but worth a visit. If you take the hike you're supposed to take, you get views of one of the glacier tongues near by along with another waterfall and nature life.

Glacier Walk in Skaftafell National Park

After our shockingly late wake-up and beautiful visit to the town of Vik, it was time for our glacier walk! I had no idea what to expect and just knew that it would take anwhere from 2 to 3 hours to do.

The glacier we walked on, Skeidararjokull, is located in Skaftafell National Park, which is part of the larger Vatnajokull National Park. Skaftafell was named a national park on August 23, 1968. The park has amazing views of Iceland's highest mountains and the area has the biggest valley glacier. When Skaftafell was first established as a national park, it was 500 square km. In 2004, it was extended to 4800 square km!



On June 7, 2008, the entire Vatnajokull ice cap became a national park in Iceland. Discussions about making the ice cap a park had been going on for some time and it finally became a reality. Skaftafell National Park is now apart of Vatnajokull National Park which takes up 13% of Iceland and is that largest national park in Europe.



Our walk began with a lesson on how to put on crampons. I had never heard of these things but they are to fit around your shoe and tied on tightly to help walk on top of the glacier. We had to be taught how to walk in them as well so we didn't fall or slip. When you walk up a hill, you have to walk hard and penguin like, making you look silly. And going down, you point your toes straight down. Easy peasy.



The guide took us all up and down and around this beautiful glacier, showing us all of the different views. There were small and large crevices in the glacier due to the melting of the glacier and the need for the water to find a way out. Some of the crevices were quite large and nerve-wracking to walk close to.



Glaciers are formed by snow build up over an extremely long period of time. Snow falls one year and doesn't melt all the way and then the next year the same thing happens and so on. After so many years of that happening, a glacier is born. It is natural for them to begin receeding, especially now but they are receeding very quickly, which causes concern.



We came to a small flow of water in the glacier and the guide informed us that all of the water in Iceland is some of the purest water in the world to drink. I couldn't resist asking if I could have a small sip from the water flow and I'm so glad I asked! The water was ice cold (of course!) and so delicious. If you're not a water drinker, it probably won't make a difference to you but I drink water all of the time and had never tasted anything so good. But because the ice traps in all of the minerals and only releases the water, you could not survive off of glacier water. It lacks nutrients and minerals like all other water does.



The darker colored ice we passed that looked like dirt was full and covered in ash from past eruptions. Also, the mounds of ash we found were from holes in the glacier. The glacier used to be about 30 to 40 meters higher than it used to be and when water and sediment needed to find a way out, it would find holes in the glacier. The sediment would dump in the hole and the water would keep flowing, creating these huge mounds of ash that solidified due to the freezing conditions.



In 1996, a huge eruption occured in Vatnajokull. About 15 million cubic meters of iceburg broke off of the glacier and was carried away by a flood that occured three weeks after the eruption. That's Iceland's main concern with an eruption. Not the lava, but the floods that occur because of the eruption. A lot of those glaciers sit on active volcanoes, so it is a constant concern for the people in that area and careful monitoring is done to watch seismic activity.



The hike around the glacier was tiring but very rewarding. We got to see many different geological features of the glaciers and learn how they're formed, what happens when they melt and the effects is has on communities. We also got to see where some scenes of Game of Thrones was filmed for scenes from outside of the wall (whatever that means. Fans, I'm assuming you do). We learned a lot, had tons of fun and was plenty exhausted by the end of it!

Day of Getting Lost

Our third day in Iceland was rather frustrating. It was spent getting lost because of our GPS, but every negative has a silver lining and we found it. Mostly.

We began our day driving back to Skaftafell National Park through the snow and taking a nice hike to Svartifoss. Mom and I had to get up extremely early to catch up from not seeing it the day before. It was gorgeous, of course and I'm glad we took the time to go back and see it.



Our hike finished up just in time because it started snowing! We headed over to Jokulsarlon Lagoon (second bucket list completion!), making it just in time to grab a cup of coffee and be off on our lagoon boat ride. It's impossible to take a bad picture of this wonderful place.



Next up, the eastern fjords of Iceland. This is where things got really frustrating. Our GPS got us incredibly lost and kept telling us to go the wrong way. However, we saw beautiful views of the coastline.



We stopped at several villages looking for gas and food (which our GPS told us there would be). It was hard to find something open and that didn't serve pastries. The towns were cute but weren't necessary to go in to since almost everything was closed anyways.



After finding food, we made our way to our hotel. Or so we thought. I plugged in our hotel's address and was taken 30 minutes in the wrong direction. Finally we gave up and stopped using the GPS all together and used our trusty map instead. We got to our hotel and hunkered down for the night.



Even though this day was filled with frustration, we actually saw a lot of gorgeous sites. Traveling around the eastern fjords and coastlines is something magical to behold and after ignoring the GPS, we made our way up a mountain and crossed it to get to our next town. It was truly amazing. Pictures do not do it justice.

Recap of Day 2 In Iceland

Today was just as fast paced as yesterday because we woke up about an hour late. Jet lag, combined with a few hours’ sleep and non-stop go, go, go really wiped us out. But every moment was worth and tomorrow is going to be just as full because we ended today early.



After being shocked awake at hearing "OMG Taylor, it's 8:30!," mom and I rushed to gather our things, eat breakfast and head out. Our first stop was Skogafoss.



We had stopped there the night before to eat dinner but decided to come back today to get some better pictures. Unfortunately, because we woke up an hour late, I didn't have time to run to the top. However, the views from the bottom were perfectly fine.



We headed to Vik to fill up on gas and was pleasantly surprised to see how absolutely gorgeous it was. This beautiful little city sits on the coast with a lot of character.



Next up, Skaftafell National Park. I knew we were there the moment I saw the HUGE glaciers come out right in front of us. Vatnajokull is the largest glacier in Europe and the second largest in the world. Our hike was on Skeioararjokull (don't ask me to pronounce it!) and it was more than I could have hoped for. I also got to try some glacial water! How awesome is that??



The hike took us two hours and after climbing up and down the icy hills of the glaciers, we were both freezing, tired and hungry. So we hopped on over to have some dinner with the best of intentions to return to Svartifoss. Once we sat down, ate and relaxed, the weather went slowly down hill. It got colder while we were inside and started raining.



To see Svartifoss, we'd have to do two mile hike there and then two miles back. We decided to head to our guesthouse and come back tomorrow. While that seemed like a great plan at the time, we looked at tomorrows schedule and realized it will be even busier than today.



But I do not mind one bit. I came to this beautiful country to see and do as much as I could. Iceland deserves more than 10 days from me, but it is all I can give and I will spend it well. I do not want to end up regretting something I missed out on because I was "too tired." So, here's to tomorrow being an amazingly scenic day!