I went to Iceland for a week. Before I left, I called my grandma and she said “Well good for you that you’re going on vacation. But... why the heck are you going to Iceland?” I didn’t really have a good answer for her, and I don’t have one for you. I went to Iceland because everyone has always said that I need to go to Iceland, and my husband and I saw some cheap flights, so we jumped on them. If you’re thinking about going, here’s all the stuff I wish someone had told me!
Iceland is extremely expensive
We took a WOW Airlines flight (sidenote: do not take WOW, it sucks) because it was $450 round trip instead of $1k through Icelandair. This seemed like an amazing deal, until we realized that a) WOW is the Spirit Airlines of Scandinavia, and they will charge you endlessly for everything in sight so that your flight ends up costing the same anyway, and b) everything once you get to Iceland is unavoidably, stupidly expensive. We had a hard time finding a single meal for less than $50, or a hotel room for less than $250/night. Add to that the ridiculous price of gas and one’s desperation when there’s no other restaurant within 100km, and you will start to understand. All in all, we ended up spending about twice what we had hoped to spend there, which is not ideal.
If you’re going, I suggest going into what I call “Disneyland mode” and just acknowledging that you’re going to spend a ton of money, because otherwise you’re just going to be pissed about it the whole time. And hungry. If you do want to try and go on a budget, you should look into staying in hostels or even camping, and you should plan to eat lots of gas station snacks. Or you could eat those terrible hot dogs.
Sidenote on Icelandic money: it’s in Kronor. We did not need to get any cash, we just paid for everything with credit cards. For conversion rate, a dollar is worth slightly less than 100 Kronor, so you can just move the decimal over two to roughly figure out what it costs in USD.
You do not need to buy an entirely new wardrobe to survive
We went at the end of winter (last week of March), and I panicked reading all the survival tips about Iceland in the winter. My husband and I both bought snow boots, thermal underwear, new fleeces, hats, nicer gloves, etc etc.
I got these Sorel boots on sale and wore them every single day. They’re extremely warm, they’re waterproof, and they’re comfortable. They allowed me to walk in a river into a cave. I brought 3 pairs of boots in my suitcase and felt dumb because these were all I need. (Believe me when I tell you you do not need a “casual” or nice pair of shoes.)
I was very very happy to have warm gloves that worked with my phone. I basically never took my gloves off when we were outside of the car, so it was handy being able to take photos and look up maps and stuff while we were walking around. These are nice.
Thick, warm socks are your friend. I brought a couple fancy new wool pairs, but really my trusty Bombas socks (same as I wear at home) were just as good.
I wore this thin but warm vest under my jacket most of the days we were there. It was nice that it zipped up all the way to my chin so it kept my neck warm without making me too overheated when we were in the car or inside. As a bonus, it crumpled up into a tiny little ball that was easy to stuff in my very full suitcase.
I wanted to wear these fleece-lined leggings every day, and only didn’t because it started to make me feel gross. They’re super cheap on Amazon so you should just buy like 4 of them and not bring any other pants with you.
I’m obsessed with this lined flannel, which I wore on the couple warm days that didn’t require a winter jacket and which is my new favorite thing to wear at all times when I’m at home.
Polarized sunglasses! Snow blindness is real, y’all.
What I feel dumb for buying:
A ridiculous variety of undershirts and pants, which I never ever used.
A second (fluffier and taller) pair of Sorel boots, which were very cute but I only wore a couple times because I would have been mad if I didn’t wear them at all. But super unnecessary.
Extra hats (I really only needed one).
A new fleece (it was too bulky under my jacket so I ended up just wearing a long sleeved shirt, that vest, and my jacket and was totally comfortable).
...and countless other clothes and accessories. Just like with any other vacation, you’re gonna end up wearing the same comfortable outfit on most of the days.
If you’re getting in on an early flight, make sure you have somewhere to go
Our flight got in around 4am Iceland time (like midnight for us) so we didn’t sleep at all that night. For some reason, it didn’t occur to us that it might be a problem not being able to check in to our airbnb until 2pm - I think I just imagined we’d wander around Reykjavik for a while and find fun stuff to do. But we felt horrible (obviously) and nothing at all opens in Reykjavik until 8am. So we wandered around in the very cold, windy, foggy, empty city for a couple hours until we found a Dunkin Donuts. We posted up there for as long as felt reasonable, and then ended up driving to a mall so we could sleep in our car in the parking lot. It was not our finest hour, and was a pretty shitty start to our time in Iceland. Don’t be dumb like us.
It’s not as weird as it looks. Also, most things are also written in English, so you really don’t have to worry about it. But if you’re getting thrown off by place names in your planning phase, here’s a few tips to help you out:
ð is pronounced like "th" in "feather", "father" and "that", and if it’s the first letter of a word, it'll be represented as a þ. If you’re trying to google something with a ð in it, you can type it in as a d.
þ is pronounced like the "th" in "thunder", "theatre" and "thong". If you’re trying to google something with a þ in it, you can type it in as th.
Two L’s are pronounced sort of like tl, with a flattened tongue and a click. I cannot do this. But even if you can’t do it right, I think pronouncing something like Seljavallalaug as “sell-ya-vat-la-laug” is better/closer than pronouncing it as “sell-ya-val-a-laug”.
Those were the most helpful few to me, but you can read more here.
So, if you look now at something like Seljavallalaug, you might not know exactly what it says, but you at least know it’s a hot spring - which is true! Or you might not be able to figure out the whole meaning of Reykjavík, but you do know it’s at least partially called a bay (the full translation is smoky bay). Or here’s a couple good ones: Laugarvatn and Svartifoss. You figure those out! You can read more about Icelandic place names and their meanings here.
Here’s the stuff you should do
Here’s a map I made of all the stuff we did (or at least the stuff I’d recommend doing - I left out a bunch of things that I don’t think were worth it). If you’re going in the summer, you’ll probably want to do things a little differently (like, you should go whale watching and find some puffins) but I think in general the highlights are the same.
If you have about a week there, you have enough time to spend a few days in Reykjavik and then either head up to the northwest (where the fjords are) or the southeast (where the glaciers are). We did the latter and I feel good about it, but if I went back I’d definitely go up to the north because I think there’s a lot of cool things to see up there too.
If you want a super detailed list of all the things we did, here it is. I hope this is helpful!
Day 1: Airport & Reykjavik
Good thing I had a Bloody Mary in the airport in NYC because bloodies do not exist on Icelandic planes (or in Iceland, for that matter).
Landed at Keflavik airport and, as I mentioned, drove to Reykjavik and spent most of the morning being essentially homeless and sleeping in our car in a mall parking lot. Felt considerably better after sleeping.
Went to the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which I can’t in good faith recommend, but I also know nothing could have stopped me from going, so just go ahead.
Checked in to our incredible airbnb, which I highly recommend if you’re staying in Reykjavik and it’s available. Central location, beautiful high ceilings, comfy couch, big tv, nice kitchen, the works. They even left us some skyr in the fridge!
Ran around Reykjavik and got drinks at The Lebowski Bar (overpriced and overcrowded, but still cool to see), Bar 7 (a very strange place that’s sort of a museum and gave us super cheap drinks one night and ridiculously overpriced drinks another time), and Monako (a tiny casino bar where everyone stared at us and it was filled with cigarette smoke but we enjoyed it).
The airbnb owners also run an awesome bar/restaurant downstairs called Vitabar, where we had dinner and which we loved. Good burgers and (relatively) cheap drinks. Also one of the few places we found in Reykjavik that wasn’t extremely crowded.
We got coffee at a chain called Kaffitar, which has good coffee but is extremely disorganized and takes forever so I can’t super recommend it. And their food is not good.
Then, we got in the car and drove THE GOLDEN CIRCLE, which is the most popular thing to do in Iceland and probably my favorite thing that we did. You drive a bit outside of Reykjavik and make a bunch of stops around what’s roughly a circle, getting to see a ton of different landmarks and cool things along the way. One of my favorite things we saw was just a big old snowy field that we got to run around in.
First, we drove through þingvellir National Park, which didn’t really do it for me but you can’t really avoid so drive through it I guess.
Then we stopped at the Laugarvatn Fontana which was AMAZING. It’s a small hot spring with a bunch of different pools (as well as a cold lake you can jump in) and fresh hot bread that they bake right in the sand next to you. I loved the hot springs, I loved the food, I even bought some of their lotion. The only downside is that (like with every other hot spring) you have to shower naked with a bunch of strangers, but this actually didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.
Went to Geysir, which is the geyser after which all other geysers are named. It actually doesn’t go off anymore, but there’s a bunch of other ones right there that do and one in particular rewarded us with a pretty impressive blast every few minutes. Worth seeing for sure. (This may not look big until you notice how tiny all the people are.)
Stopped at Gullfoss Falls (a bit redundant if you’re paying attention), which was very beautiful but probably much more fun in the summer. It was freezing up there.
Went to Kerið Crater Lake, which I loved. I am a sucker for crater lakes. It’s beautiful and you get to walk RIGHT down to the lake, which (like most things in Iceland) is as dangerous as it sounds.
At some point, we also drove by some horses which I got to pet and feed. This was the highlight of my entire week. Icelandic horses are the best.
On our way back to Reykjavik, we stopped at a Vínbúðin (the state-run chain of liquor stores) to stock up on very expensive alcohol for our airbnb. They have very wacky hours (like, 12-4 in some cases) so make sure you plan ahead. We had to race against the clock and got there 2 minutes before they closed.
Had dinner at Icelandic Fish & Chips, which was great but not the best fish & chips I had in Iceland. The cool part though was that I got to order NINE DIPS to eat with my dinner. That was fun.
Got drinks at Gamli Gaukurinn, a cool cocktail bar that wasn’t too crowded, had a relaxed vibe, and good music. Only downside was that they had very sketchy bathrooms that everyone could see into. So I did not pee there.
Wandered over to the Hallgrímskirkja (Hallgrimur’s Church), which is very worth seeing in person.
We attempted to go to the Laundromat Cafe, which seems cool, but which was incredibly crowded like everything else in Reykjavik. We actually wandered around for like an hour trying to find somewhere to eat breakfast and couldn’t find anywhere without a long line of people already waiting. UNTIL we came across Prikið, which was awesome and I don’t understand why it had open seats. Their Breakfast of Champions was one of the best things I ate in Iceland.
On our way out of Reykjavik, we checked out Perlan (”the pearl”), which used to be a restaurant in a rotating glass building that overlooks all of Reykjavik. The restaurant is closed permanently, but they’re working on turning it into a museum and for now you can still go in and get coffee and walk around. The views were incredible.
We drove to Seljalandsfoss, my absolute favorite nature-y thing in Iceland. It’s a huge gorgeous waterfall and on the day we went there it was sunny and covered in rainbows. You can walk up next to it and get sprayed by the water, and you can walk down around the mountain to find other waterfalls and a cool little cave you can walk right into.
When we got to Vik (a small town in the south coast of Iceland which is right in the middle of Reykjavik and the glacier lagoons to the east), we stopped by Dyrholaey, which has some beautiful and dramatic rock formations, and which is a hot spot for puffins. Sadly, we found out that the puffins don’t show up until spring, so I didn’t get to see any. But we did get to almost die in the strong winds up on the cliffs!
We checked into our hotel (Hotel Edda Vik), which we hated, but luckily we were able to switch to a room in the Icelandair Hotel for our 2nd night in Vik. I would not recommend the Edda, which literally felt like sleeping in a hospital room. We went to a little local restaurant called Halldorskaffi, where we had expensive but delicious fresh fish. Their wine was terrible, but that’s ok, Iceland is not known for its wine.
We also hung out in the Icelandair hotel bar, where they gave us some hákarl (rotten shark) to try. I did not eat it. Erik did. It smelled horrible. We also tried some of the local drinks, like Brennivin (”Wash down the shark with it.” “Oh, will that help the taste?” “No, that actually tastes worse than the shark.”) and birch schnapps. If I were you, I wouldn’t taste any of this stuff, but I know you’ll do it anyway.
Day 4: Skogar & Seljavallalaug
Outside of the Golden Circle, this was my favorite day of the trip. First, we went to the Black Sand Beach outside of Vik, which is incredibly beautiful and where we invented a new sport that involved trying to guess which of the tourists would get swept out by a sneaker wave next. (NEVER TURN YOUR BACK TO THE OCEAN.) We also popped into the Black Sand Restaurant to taste some traditional lamb soup, which I did not enjoy because I felt bad for the lambs.
Then we went to the tiny town of Skogar, which is a delightful spot nestled in between a couple mountains. They have a waterfall there (Skogafoss, predictably) which we didn’t care about seeing because we were sick of waterfalls, BUT they had an amazing museum which I highly, highly recommend stopping for. One part is a transportation museum, which was really cool. But the other part is a “folk museum” with Viking relics and intact houses showing you how the original Icelanders lived. We got to peek into a bunch of houses, a schoolhouse, and lots more. It was great.
We ate at the little food truck in Skogar (”Mia’s Country Grill”) because it was the only thing in town, but it ended up being the best fish & chips I ate in Iceland. (Fish & chips are literally the only thing on the menu.) It was so lovely eating fish & chips outside and watching the waterfall and the mountains, but we got lucky with the weather that day so I don’t know if that’s a normal occurrence.
Then, we went to Seljavallalaug, which is a hidden little pool made out of a hot spring that you have to hike ~20 minutes to get to. (We were previously warned that we had to ford a river to get to it, and that part ended up being a little scary, but otherwise it’s an easy hike.) I think this is worth the trip, but you should know two things: 1) this is less of a hot spring and more of a lukewarm pool, so it’s not the greatest when you’re already cold, and 2) you have to change in some seriously grimy changing rooms that have doors that don’t close all the way, let alone lock in any way. But it’s all part of the adventure, right? We also met a great dog there who seems to live on the road on the way to the pool.
Afterwards we stopped at the restaurant at Hotel Anna a little to the west and I ate the best tomato soup of my entire life. Seriously, if I were you I would drive very far out of my way to eat that tomato soup.
We attempted to get dinner in Vik at the end of the day, but every restaurant was closed, so we ate premade sandwiches they sold in the Icelandair Hotel lobby. Not my favorite dinner.
Day 5: Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon
We got back on the road and drove towards the glacier lagoons in the southeast. On the way there, we drove through Eldhraun (the lava fields), which I had imagined would be red and black but instead were covered in moss and therefore a shocking and beautiful green. We got out and ran around the fields (it’s really fun because the thick moss makes everything so bouncy) and found a tiny little forest to explore. A recommended stop for sure.
We drove out to Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, which is supposed to be beautiful, but I became incensed when the bathrooms were closed for the winter so we ended up leaving instead of hiking. But what we saw was very nice!
We stopped off for lunch in the little town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur and ate at a restaurant called Systrakaffi, where I had a giant bowl of vegetable soup followed by a giant fish and baked potato that I very much enjoyed.
Unfortunately, a few minutes after this, Erik made me hike up a mountain in Vatnajökull National Park to see Svartifoss (the black waterfall) and I regretted my giant lunch. But the waterfall was very beautiful. The only downside is that, like everything else, the waterfall was totally overrun by rude tourists climbing all over the rocks, so we didn’t enjoy it as much as we might have.
On our way out of the park, we stopped at Svinafellsjokull, a beautiful and bright blue glacier lagoon that was really stunning. (I think most people miss this one on their way to Jokulsarlon, but I thought this one was actually more impressive.)
After this, we continued on our way to our hotel, the Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon, which was my favorite place we stayed in Iceland. It’s nestled under a foggy mountain (very dramatic), has beautiful high-ceilinged rooms, and provided us with a delightful happy hour and a really amazing dinner. We felt no need to leave the hotel once we got there.
Day 6: Glacier Lagoons & Reykjavik
We stopped at the famous Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon and the Diamond Beach right across the street. Both were really beautiful and striking, but I think we had seen so many amazing sights at this point that we were a little underwhelmed. If this is the only thing you’re coming to the southeast for, I’m honestly not sure it’s worth the trip.
We stopped in Vik for lunch on our way back but couldn’t find a table anywhere other than our old stomping grounds, Halldorskoffi, so we just ate there again. I liked it less this time.
We drove all the way through to Reykjavik because we wanted to maximize our remaining time in town. Once we got there, we checked in to the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina (which we loved) and had a drink in the lobby bar, Slippbarinn, which is definitely the nicest and most varied cocktail bar in Reykjavik.
We stopped into the Punk Rock Museum, where you should absolutely not waste your time.
We had dinner at Old Iceland, which was THE most incredible dinner we had the whole week. I started with shellfish soup which had dill oil (!) on it and was out of this world, and then had a just ridiculous fish and mashed potato entree that was so good I wish I could eat it forever.
On our last morning, we actually had a reservation at the Blue Lagoon (that big famous hot spring everyone will tell you about) but decided not to go because we wanted to spend more time in the city. I don’t regret not going to the Blue Lagoon - the reviews are really mixed, it’s supposed to be incredibly crowded, and I really can’t imagine how it could be better than the experience we’d already had at Laugarvatn.
We spent the morning buying a few presents for friends (and I really seriously considered buying a reindeer rug) and just wandering around enjoying the city (it was another beautiful day) and then headed to the airport. I think a week was the PERFECT amount of time because by the last day I was totally ready to go home.
So: is it worth it or what?
I think that if you have a searing need in your heart to see Iceland, you should go to Iceland. But if you’re just looking for a vacation or an adventure, there are many places you can go which are cheaper and less of a pain. It’s beautiful, and I had a good time, but I’m not sure that I would go again or that I would recommend that anyone else definitely go. Also, we didn’t get to see the Northern Lights even though we were there in the winter, which was a bummer - so definitely don’t go just for that experience.
All that said, if you go, you will have a good time. You will also spend a lot of money and have a lot of inconveniences. So you need to decide if that’s the right vacation for you! For me, it probably wasn’t the right call, but we still had a great time.
