September 13-16, 2017
Iceland is beautiful and needs way more than 3 day to take in all the sites. So how can you get the most out of your time in three days?
We narrowed it down to our top "must-dos" and stopped at places along the way. Although it is best to plan when you are trying to make the most out of a short amount of time, we still like to try to leave room for spontaneity because those seem to be when the best moments happen.
Here is a rundown of our three day adventure along with visual aids and helpful tips.
Day 1
·We all arrive to Reykjavik (KEF) in the early morning.
Just a side note: at baggage claim you will see a store where many of the locals will be stocking up on supplies because things are much cheaper before leaving the airport.
- After arriving we drove to Reykjavik, downtown area, to check into our hotel (about 1 hour driving)
It took us a little over an hour because we made a pit-stop in Keflavik, there, we came across cute light houses and glorious cliffs.
Watch the selfie taking magic unfold...it was very windy in our defense.
Helpful tip #1: Something we found out from our parking situation at our hotel is that parking is very cheap considering how expensive Iceland is, it was roughly $2 USD for an entire day to park in a garage. Such a pleasant surprise.
·After check-in we took ourselves on a 2 hour walking tour of Reykjavik to see all the major sites and got some much needed food. Most things are walking distance around the city which was very nice.
Helpful tip #2: If on a budget bring snacks from home, Iceland is not cheap weather you are dining out or in.
· We were scheduled to visit the famous Blue Lagoon by 7p.m. to catch the sunset and relax. We booked the basic package that included entrance and the complimentary mud mask a few weeks prior to our arrival. Each person is allowed to purchase two drinks with his or her entrance that you charge to your bracelet that is given to you upon arrival, so don't worry about carry money with you.
Beauty tip: If you don't want your hair to dry out from the sulfur in the water, listen carefully to the instructions and apply plenty of the provided conditioner in your hair when you rinse off to enter to the lagoon (some of us didn't listen and regretted it later...Nikki 😉 haha).
We spent a few hours at the lagoon then made our way back to our hotel. There are not too many roads leading away from the lagoon but if you happen to take the wrong one you will be taking a very long detour like we did.
*More on our trip to the Blue Lagoon in a future post.
·Finally, we arrived at the hotel around 11 p.m. for much needed sleep.
Day 2
·After a restful night sleep we were going to spend the entire next day on the road. What better way to start the day than with a big homemade breakfast. We figured with a group of six people and food being a bit pricey we would save and use the kitchen in our hotel room to make our own breakfast. We were wrong about saving money because a carton of eggs cost about $10 and that wasn't all we bought but it gives you an idea.
·Our goal for the day was to make it to Jokulsarlon Lagoon (Diamond Beach) and catch a few other stops along the way. It was going to be about 4 hours from Reykjavik and 4 hours back, not including any stops. But first we had to relocate to our Airbnb further away from the city.
·First stop we made along the way was Seljalandsfoss. An amazing waterfall that can be seen from the main road. Be sure to take the footpath behind it for an even better view, beware of the splashing water.
·Next was Vik where we decided to go off roading a bit and take a small path over a small stream. It made for some cool shots with our drone.
·We made a few more small stops along the way but we wanted to make it to the lagoon before sunset.
Included in these stops were stopped for gas and some famous Icelandic hot dogs, the only affordable food we came across but perfect for a road trip ($5/each).
Helpful tip #2: Gas stations close early so don't miss out on getting your hot dog fix or you will miss out.
Helpful tip #3: You may want to purchase a prepaid gas card some stations offer. We had a few conversion issues with our banks charging us much more than they should have.
Helpful tip #4: Stop every time you see a gas station, they are few and far between, plus it will keep you from spending so much every time Since most cars run off of diesel you get much more mileage per tank but it will mostly likely be much more than you are used to paying either way. We had turns paying each time. Perfect place to travel with a group when on a budget.
·Made it to Jokulsarlon Lagoon right on time, giving us just enough daylight to capture some awesome shots! We took some amazing drone footage so keep an eye out for a small video.
·After getting all of our photos and videos we made our night drive back to our Airbnb. Being the beginning of the northern light season, we caught some faint ones on the way back, but not enough for a good photo.
Day 3
·We left our Airbnb at 7 a.m. and made our way to Silfra for our snorkeling adventure between the tectonic plates of Eurasia and North America. We booked ours about a month prior at www.dive.is
·Checked in and ready to go by 8 a.m.
·Our awesome guide, Stefano and his lovely wife, walked us through everything, took photos of us, and we were off for a swim in the freshest, clearest water you will have taste or see. (more details in a future post).
·We were in and out of the water in about an hour. Afterwards we hung out with Stefano while drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. It was a funny coincidence that a couple of us had just come from a friend's wedding in a small town in Italy, which happened to be where Stefano and his wife were from.
·We had much of our day left since we had an early start, so we toured the Golden Circle. Each location is fairly close to one another so we were able to see the sites in about 5 hrs.
·Bruarfoss ·Gulfross ·Blaskogabyggo
·We were also able to stop and check out the wildlife.
·We finished just in time to go back to Reykjavik for dinner. We chose a place that would have a variety things to try that we could only find in Iceland such as horse, whale, and lamb. (averaged about $60/person)
·On the way back from dinner the Northern Lights started going crazy, we had quite a bit of cloud cover by the time we got back to our Airbnb,out of the city, so we got a few photos of the diffused northern lights.
·To conclude our three days we soaked in the hot tub at our Airbnb and watched the northern lights dance around in pure amazement. The perfect ending to our trip before we left the following day.