Going to Iceland has been a dream for as long as I can remember. And in 2019 we finally went! I can’t believe it’s almost a year ago, time flies when you’re having fun!
Do you dream of going to Iceland? Well, then we have one thing to say – start preparing, save and GO! It’s like nothing else. We had an absolutely fantastic time. See below for our travel guide to Iceland.
How to get there
The main capital of Iceland is Reykjavik. And that’s where we stayed. We flew with Iceland Air, and where really happy with them. They are the flag carrier of Iceland and fly to 49 cities in 16 countries. 26 of these destinations are in Europe, and 23 are in North-America. Book your flights here. Air Iceland and Eagle Air also fly to Reykjavik if you want to check out other options.
One other solution that’s quite popular is to do a stopover on Iceland. Which means that with Iceland Air you can take a stopover on Iceland when crossing the Atlantic sea, without any extra cost! How can you let this chance go?? Of course you need to pay for your accommodation yourself while staying on Iceland, but that’s SO worth it! Check out our «Must see» things while in Iceland. We’re pretty sure they’ll convince you to go to Iceland!
About Iceland
In the North Atlantic you’ll find the Nordic Island Country Iceland. The population of the whole country is just 360390, and 2/3 lives in the countries capital, Reykjavik. On Iceland you’ll find volcanos, sand and lava fields, glaciers, mountains, rivers and hot springs. The country gets 100% of its electricity and heat from hydropower plants and geothermal energy. That makes them the only country in the world using only renewable sources. Maybe we should learn a thing or two from this small country?
Settlement on the island begun with vikings from Norway and British Isles in the late ninth century. Only from 1944 Iceland has been independent.
Where to stay
Do you want to stay in the city of Reykjavik? North on the island? Or maybe both? With the tourist boom to Iceland, there are really a lot of hotels and accommodation to choose from. We stayed here in the middle of Reykjavik city centre. Which was great because we could walk to everything we wanted to do in the city. Just find something within your price range.
Take a look at this list of hotels and apartments which have gotten great recommendations;
3 stars. 0,1 km to the City centre. From approx. 700 EUR for 7 nights including breakfast. And scored a 8,4 on recommendations. Great location, good service, good breakfast. What else do you want??
3 stars. 2,4 km to the City centre. From approx. 400 EUR for 7 nights. And scored 8,8 on recommendation. Great value for your money, good location a bit outside the city centre, good rooms, good service, good internet.
3,5 stars. In the heart of Akureyri. Price from approx. 600 EUR for 7 nights. And scored 9,0 on recommendation. Good atmosphere, good service, clean, location, and good internet.
Must see
Hot springs
Hot springs are geothermal heated groundwater and rises from the crust of the Earth. The temperature range from 36-44 degrees C / 96-111 degrees F – so it’s really warm!
The Blue Lagoon
One of the big reasons that I’ve always wanted to visit Iceland, has been the famous hot springs. The first time I was told about how great Iceland is, I was also told about the hot springs, or to be exact; The Blue Lagoon. Since then I’ve been dreaming of going there. Do you also dream of Iceland and to visit the hot springs?
Well, we can tell you this; it was awesome! The first thing we did when arriving at Keflavik Airport was to rent a car and drive to The Blue Lagoon. Mostly because The Blue Lagoon lays underway to Reykjavik. When planning what to do every day, we decided that the best would be to go there right after we’d landed. And this is something we really recommend you to do! After a whole day of traveling and feeling a bit tired, it was unbelievable to walk into the blue magical water. We stayed there for more than 4 hours, and I wanted to stay even longer because it was so great! At The Blue Lagoon you do have to pay, and you HAVE TO book before hand. If you haven’t booked a date and time, you’re not allowed to enter. Check out this link where you can book this amazing experience. You can choose out of two different packages;
Comfort: Blue Lagoon
From ISK 6 990
- Entrance to the Blue Lagoon
Silica mud mask
Use of towel
1st drink of your choice
Or
Premium: Blue Lagoon
From ISK 9 900
- Entrance to the Blue Lagoon
Silica mud mask
Use of towel
1st drink of your choice
Second mask of choice
Slippers
Use of bathrobe
Table reservation at Lava Restaurant
Sparkling wine if dining
The prices are totally worth it, and you can stay until closing time if you want to. It’s totally a once in a lifetime experience. For most people. That aren’t travellers. We already know that we want to go back.
There’s a bar and a mask-bar in the pool so you can buy drinks and do face masks while your relaxing in the warm water. It’s much shallower than what you’ll expect, you can always touch the bottom. And there’s like a white mist because the warm water and the cool air meets. And that makes the whole experience a bit mysterious. The natural lava surroundings is also extremely cool!
Other natural hot springs
The Blue Lagoon is without any doubt the most famous hot spring in Iceland. But there are many, many more! And many of them are FREE.
- SECRET LAGOON HOT SPRING ICELAND
Or «Gamla Laugin» which means «old swimming pool». They first started to swim here in 1891! 1,5 hours drive from Reykjavik. Price: 2800 ISK.
- LANDBROTALAUG HOT SPRING
1,5 hours drive from Reykjavik. Small, free hot spring. For approx 3 persons at the time.
- HRUNALAUG NATURAL HOT SPRING
1,5 hours drive from Reykjavik. Fits 6-8 persons. Common to leave a 1000-2000 ISK donation.
- REYKJADALUR HOT SPRING HIKE
30 minutes drive from Reykjavik. Then you need to hike up a mountain to get to the hot spring. The hike will take you 30-60 minutes. Free and amazing!
- SELJAVALLALAUG HOT SPRING
Seljavallalaug is Iceland’s oldest man-made pool. It’s around two hours drive from Reykjavik.
- LANDMANNALAUGAR HOT SPRING
Just over 3 hours drive from Reykjavik. Open to the public for free. The water depth is quite shallow and the area where you can bathe is spacious.
Gullfoss
Gullfoss means «Golden Waterfall,» and is on the must see list for a good reason. We rented a car our whole stay in Iceland, and that way we were free to go to everything we wanted to see. Gullfoss is located 1 hour and 45 minutes from Reykjavik. We had beautiful weather. Cold, but beautiful. The view the whole road trip was awesome. Gullfoss is located quite close to the parking. It’ll take you just a few minutes to walk down to the waterfall. There are also many organised trips to Gullfoss and all the things on our must see list, check this out. If you don’t want to rent a car, that’s a great way to get around.
Geysir
On the same day as we visited Gullfoss, we also went to see the Geysir. They just lay minutes apart (by car). From Reykjavik to Geysir it takes you 1,5 hour to drive. Geysir means “to gush”. And is actually derived from the Icelandic verb geysa from Old Norse. You need to wait 7-8 minutes between every time the water shoots up in the air. Just the sound and the surprise when you see the water shooting out from the ground is super cool. It’s a once in a lifetime thing that’s world famous and something you have to go see when you visit Iceland. Do you dream of seeing one of the worlds wonders? Book your trip to see the Geysir here.
Follow the instructions on google maps to get there. You can park on the right side of the road if you come from Reykjavik like we did.
Icelandic horses
Icelandic horses originate from Iceland. Even though today you can find them all over the world, it’s something quite special about seeing them when you visit Iceland. There are about 80.000 Icelandic horses on Iceland. And when driving outside of Reykjavik you’ll see them in big herds running around on the gras fields. We of course had to stop to say hallo to a few of these beautiful creatures. Many places also offer horse back riding in the beautiful Icelandic nature, on a beach or even at night to look for the northern lights while riding. Check this one out for instance.
Volcanic crater
Do you remember the volcano eruption on Iceland in 2010? Well that was the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. It made 20 countries close their airspace because of the ash from the volcanic eruption that covered large areas of Northern Europe. Iceland is an island made from lava and have approx. 130 volcanos. Only 18 of them have erupted since the settlement of Iceland. Most are not active and then you can visit them. Walk around them. Or walk in/ on top of them if you dare! I must say it was a bit scary. But really cool to see, and something we really recommend you to do. We visited the Kerið. That one is just one hour drive from Reykjavik. Like we’ve mentioned you can combine several of these must see’s in one day.
Northern Light
Do you want to visit Iceland in the winter? Then you probably know that it’s a great time to see the Northern lights or Aurora. If you have never seen the Northern lights it’s really something we hope you get to see when visiting Iceland. It’s not possible to predict, but if you’re lucky and visit the island between September-April you’ll have a chance to see it. Still for people that have seen it thousand times it’s magical every single time. Stay away from buildings with lights or preferably: go northern lights hunting outside Reykjavik in the nature to get the best experience. There are also many guided tours, like this one. You can download northern lights apps that will help you know when the chances are big or small to see it.
Three great places to eat
We ate so much good food when we visited Iceland! These three restaurants we really, really recommend you to try out:
They where all just amazing. Reykjavik Meat and Old Iceland are both located in the city centre. And we ate there at night time. Fantastic locations, great atmosphere and over the top tasty food!
Perlan (The Pearl) is situated on the top of Öskjuhlíð hill. It is a prominent landmark and converted into a public building in 1991. Now it’s used as an exhibition, a planetarium, an observation deck, and a restaurant. We first visited the exhibition, the planetarium and the observation deck, before we ate at the restaurant with a 360 degree view. At night the view just gets even more breathtaking.
How do you feel about travelling to Iceland now? We bet you can’t wait to go! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! We’d be happy to help! It’s a fantastic destination. And we can’t wait to go back again!
