Iceland 2025
Posted February 3rd, 2026
Warning
This is an incredibly long post, with many descriptions and comments on big and small things alike. Your mileage in terms of it being an interesting or worthwhile read may vary drastically. Feel free to just skim the titles and jump through the images.
While all posts on this blog are in large “for myself” rather than to garner and entertain some audience, this is particularly true for this one. There are countless events or thoughts that were significant for me personally, but cannot truly be summed up into words and therefore are probably not interesting to a reader that did not experience them first-hand. My hope is for them to at least jog the memory of future me. As such, I admit that these are selfish additions that may bog down the post for you readers, and apologize in advance.
How'd this happen?
I was sitting at home one early August day when I received a text from a friend. I’ll refer to him as “Bob” for the sake of his privacy. He had a bit of a history for sudden trips, though it was often by himself, so I was not expecting him to ask if I wanted to go to Iceland out of the blue.
I actually didn’t feel like it at first. My excuse to myself was that I only had a month left to brush up on math and potentially finish a personal project I’d been putting off all summer before my masters program began. Deep down I knew I was just being lazy, and likely wasn’t gonna get all that much done anyways. So after some encouragement from family, I ultimately brought myself to agree to the trip knowing I would be glad in the end. It would be something to remember 2025 summer by, rather than me spending the whole summer wasting my days away.
Planning
To be honest, “Bob” did most of the planning and research. In my defence, when he asked me to go with him, it was with the “come tag along” kind of attitude, so I took him up on that.
Also, Iceland has so many beautiful spots. Looking at guides and reviews, oftentimes the scenic spots blended together and I realized very quickly that it would take forever to actually detailedly rank where I wanted to visit most. In the end, “Bob” must have thought similarly, because neither of us knew exactly what we wanted to hit up, and simply had some saved pins on Google Maps. We ended up with a VERY rough itinerary that was more like a short list of suggestions for certain spots on each day. This would actually work out to our advantage later.
“Bob” definitely spent more of his time on research than planning. Ultimately we ended up with a Toyota Landcruiser (goated car) from Lotus Car Rentals, as they were one of, if not the only car rental company that offered FULL insurance, including undercarriage, water crossings, and more. This beast of an off-roader and reinforced tires would certainly end up being put to the test, and on several occasions it felt like the insurance was about to be too.
The plan was to rent some air mattresses, sleeping bags, and other camping gear for car camping at campsites, and we’d resort to a hotel ad hoc.
And just like that, off we went to Iceland.
A note on photos
I am not a great photographer, and was just running around with my iPhone as a camera. In any case, I feel that most of what I got to see could not truly be fully captured by cameras, at least not without spending an exorbitant amount of time, very expensive gear, and a highly experienced photographer. So please know that the real view was infinitely more stunning than any photos I’ll be including and that you should visit Iceland yourself if you ever get the chance.
“Bob” has been pretty into photography for a while, and certainly brought a good amount of equipment with him. The best photos/videos are on his camera and drone… However, he has yet to find the time (or motivation I suspect) to process and send me the many thousands of photos and videos–aside from two drone videos which are featured later on below. For those of you who know who I speak of, go bug him to process more of the amazing shots we got so I can add it to this post.
Day 0: Flights
I had a largely uneventful flight from Vancouver to Calgary, where I stayed for 8 hours or so on a layover. Thankfully, my terrible sleep schedule allowed me to conk out at a relatively quiet gate for most of that time. Then I flew from Calgary to Keflavík International Airport.
Day 1: Groceries, Gullfoss Falls, and Kerlingarfjöll
Both “Bob” and I landed pretty early in the morning, local time on August 18th. We picked up our beautiful rental vehicle near the airport, then drove for about 20 minutes to the capital, Reykjavík, where we got our rental camping gear and groceries. While looking for a spot for lunch, we were quickly introduced to the ridiculous food prices. We’d heard murmurs, but both spent/lived in some pretty expensive cities in North America, so we certainly weren’t expecting the prices to be even higher. Most decent restaurants’ menus looked almost like fine dining menu prices in Vancouver or California. We decided to grab some quick fish and chips (relatively cheaper) and headed straight to Kerlingarfjöll.
The drive was already beautiful. We got to see all kinds of landscapes: flat plains, stoic mountains, distant glaciers, moss-covered hills, and black volcanic wastelands just to name a few. Something about the terrain felt so… artistic and deliberate, as if the glaciers that had carved the land however long ago were sentient. After an hour or two, we drove by Kerið Crater and then Geysir. Kerið is a well-known crater lake, and the Geysir park area contains multiple geysers, including Geysir itself for which the English word is named after. Both are on the Golden Circle and very accessible (no hike required, smooth highway access, close to the airport/Reykjavík). Hence we decided to dodge the crowds and aim for views that were both more stunning and less crowded.
We did decide it was worth a stop to see Gullfoss Falls though, plus we needed to stretch our legs. The waterfall itself was certainly quite spectacular and worth the visit, but we were slightly turned off by the crowd, mild construction, and the amount of manmade walkways/platforms. It wasn’t remotely as crowded as tourist attractions in popular countries like France, Italy, or Japan, but we had high hopes for experiencing near-wilderness. Leaving the parking lot, I remember noting my concerns that in another couple decades, I could see this place become totally covered by parking lots, hotels, stores, and more, much like scenic spots in China.
As we left Gullfoss and continued to Kerlingarfjöll, the highway quickly became road, and the road quickly deteriorated into some pretty crappy path, despite all of it still being route 35 and not officially an F-road. “Bob” was tired from his flight, getting used to the new car, and also learning how to drive crappy roads all at the same time, but this somehow felt like the worst road condition we ended up experiencing all trip long. The “potholes” were crater-sized and could fit one to three wheels with depths of up to ankle height. And they were EVERYWHERE. There were frequent patches where there was more pothole than road. We almost flipped one time when our left wheel dropped into a particularly deep hole without anticipation, and as the passenger I could feel my side of the car make noticeable air. I stared over at “Bob” silently (more like down, since his head was at my stomach height at that point) as he thankfully locked in and saved us from a day-1-trip-over disaster. As much as my ass hurt from the bumpiness, it was a very fun and engaging drive that you just can’t find driving on normal roads in North America or China. Plus it prepared us for all road conditions moving forward, not to mention the views made it 1000x more worthwhile. Our only complaint was the low clouds that day (plus we were already at a high altitude) which blocked much of the mountain view.
I believe the drive was only about 200km, but with the terrible roads and frequent stops for photos, it took us at least 5 or 6 hours to finally arrive at Kerlingarfjöll from Reykjavík, where we were greeted by our campsite.
We were tired and hungry, the clouds were too low, and it was going to get dark soon-ish, so we decided to get a proper meal at the hotel restaurant and sleep early, hoping to wake up extra early to clear skies and perhaps hike then. As was with pretty much every meal in Iceland, the food tasted quite good, just quite pricey (about 60-70 USD per person for an appetizer + main). After dinner we brushed up and showered at the campsite before conking out before 10pm.
Day 2: Seljalandsfoss, and back to Geysir
Day 2 was kind of hilarious. “Bob” unexpectedly had to do an interview, so we needed a hotel with stable internet for the night. I don’t think he minds me sharing that his earlier interviews didn’t go too well, and the Iceland trip was in large a chance to get away and forget about the worries for a bit. Despite how tired and sleep deprived he was, “Bob” actually felt like that was his best performance yet, and later even landed the job. Crazy plot line.
But anyways, the only reasonably priced hotel in the entire area was a small Hotel Litli Geysir, right beside the fancy main hotel at Geysir. So we knew we’d have to end up back at Geysir by early night time.
When we woke up at 6 or so in the morning, we cleaned up and had some fiber cereal (knowing vegetables might be scarce), ready to get going. The unfortunate thing is that the weather was still terribly foggy. We could not see much, and decided it was ultimately a little pointless to hike with no view, so we drove out. Plus we were feeling a little miserable since we’d yet to optimize our car camping situation (e.g. We rolled down too many windows and got cold; I was freezing all night with my feet hanging out the back window because I’m quite tall and hadn’t figured out how I could fit properly yet; I also underestimated the Iceland temperature drops at night in general and only wore a thin shirt with a sleeping bag rated for warmer weather). I will say that if there was one thing on this trip that didn’t line up well, it was the weather at Kerlingarfjöll. While I am still unquestionably glad we went, for the driving experience and the good views we saw on the way, it does feel a little like we didn’t actually “do anything” there. If I were ever to go back to Iceland, Kerlingarfjöll is a high priority.
The drive out felt a lot smoother. It was probably a mix of factors, including being more rested than when off the plane and being more emotionally prepared for the road conditions. We stopped a couple times for some quick photos but more or less got out in under 2 hours.
Once we were back onto the paved highway, we both felt like we were floating with how smooth the drive was. We realized that no matter what we did, we’d have to loop back to Geysir and it’d waste some mileage, but accepted it and agreed that we still had to do something to fill in the time. So we headed for Seljalandsfoss. We ran into a random, unmarked waterfall along the way at what seemed to be a small farm with horses, and also stopped by a coffee shop self-contained within a renovated American school bus. The coffee was mostly mid and the decorations/theme were pretty mundane to us North Americans, but it was funny and we could understand the potential appeal for Europeans.
We got to Seljalandsfoss at early noon. This is also a very popular site right on top of Highway 1 (the Ring Road), so there were a ton of tourists. Still very worth a visit though, and one of the more memorable waterfalls for me (as I’ve been to Niagara Falls, the large ones like Gullfoss and Dettifoss were not as special) because you can walk behind it. Right beside it was Gljúfrabúi, another very cool waterfall in a small cave entirely covered in mist from the splashing water. I was covered up with rain gear but “Bob” got thoroughly soaked from the two waterfalls.
When we were done, we started to head back towards Geysir and stopped at MAGMA on the way. This was a restaurant beside the LAVA Centre museum, and my first time having lamb soup in Iceland, but certainly wouldn’t be the last, as this seemed to be a staple dish.
Since we still had some time, we thought we’d visit Selfoss, as it was mostly on the way. “Foss” in Icelandic means waterfall, and on Google Maps Selfoss included photos of waterfalls. So without paying much attention, we put it into navigation and started driving. We felt incredibly sleepy on the way, but got some energy back as we approached. Then suddenly the navigation told us we had arrived… right as we were in the middle of a small roundabout. We quickly realized that Selfoss was actually a town and that we had navigated to its geographical center. After a good chuckle, we took a power nap in some random parking lot and drove to our hotel with chagrin.
Since we passed by it a second time, we decided to stop this time for Kerið Crater. It had a tiny entrance fee, had lots of tourists, and was a pretty small site. With that being said, it certainly wasn’t “ugly” either. All in all, I feel very neutral about this stop.
After checking in at the hotel around 6pm, “Bob” did his interview and I walked over to Geysir. This was a park-like area with marked footpaths. Off the footpath was wet, sandy/rocky terrain with occasional water-filled holes (not sure if they technically count as geysers) that would bubble and release sulfur-smelling steam. There were also a few actual geysers, though pretty much all but one was still consistently active. It felt a little like a small Yellowstone, with a less impressive geyser. I think for people who have never seen geyser activity, it’s not a bad stop, but it was certainly not a particularly exciting or beautiful view compared to everything else Iceland had to offer. “Bob” and I could not help but question why there was such a ridiculous amount of people there, outside of it being on the Golden Circle and accessible to people of all ages/physical abilities.
I returned to the hotel and napped again until 8pm or so, when “Bob” was done with his interview. Seeing how fancy the only nearby restaurant was, we resorted to a sad dinner of instant noodles, crackers, and a banana to save some costs.
At 9pm, we began a round of golf. Yes that’s right, the hotel had a 9 hole golf course. We suspect that the building used to be part of the fancy Geysir hotel next door, and was likely a golfing shop of some sort, before being converted to a hotel that still manages the golf course. We rented some clubs and headed out. For the record, I do not play golf, and “Bob” used to play very casually. But he wanted photos, and both of us thought it was hilarious and memorable to golf in Iceland of all places. So we mostly just screwed around and walked the gorgeous course, though it got real dark real quickly after sunset at 9:30pm or so.
We got back at 11 or so, showered, and slept by midnight. We didn’t do too much this day, nor saw particularly spectacular sights (one could maybe argue for Seljalandsfoss), but it was amusing and hence memorable nonetheless, between the random interview and mistaking Selfoss for a waterfall.
Day 3: Landmannalaugar, Bláhylur, and Westman Islands
Back on day 2, en route to Seljalandsfoss, “Bob” had noticed what looked like mountains to our right. But that can’t be right (pun not intended), I thought that was all ocean? Well after looking on Google Maps, it turned out that the Westman Islands were there, which was an archipelago off Southern Iceland. I hadn’t even heard of it, since the few guides I saw never mentioned it. But we were both curious, and many Reddit posts urged people to go, saying it was incredibly beautiful, with a cool history and less crowds. So that night we figured out a way to squeeze it into our already loose and haphazard “itinerary,” booking ferry tickets for day 3.
Speaking of day 3, we woke up at 9am, well past what we had hoped. We cleaned up and rushed over to the included breakfast in the fancy hotel next door and were allowed in begrudgingly by the staff even though it was closing time. This was a hella fancy Western-style buffet breakfast and we gorged ourselves after only having one proper (but small) meal the day before. Turns out we’d really end up needing this energy later.
After that hearty breakfast, we set off to Landmannalaugar. This was one of, if not the singular place we were both most excited about. Located in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve, it is on the edge of a lava field formed around the year 1477, and known for its geothermal hot springs and incredible views. As terrible as the roads were on day 1, somehow none of them were officially F-roads. On the other hand, Landmannalaugar did legally require a 4×4 vehicle (although the route into Landmannalaugar is not shown as an F-road on Google Maps, we even had a worker stop us before approving the vehicle and letting us into the nature reserve). Ironically, the road conditions felt much better, with less craters, but nonetheless not easy and hence still very interactive and exciting. Even more exciting, however, were the views.
One of the times we parked for photos, we didn’t check our surroundings before trying to continue our drive, and drove right over a large rock which got stuck between protective bars in the undercarriage. Thankfully with 4-low we were able to get off the rock and there seemed to be no real damage to the undercarriage. Just another close call for a trip-ending moment.
The campsite famously has a river running through. This would be our first river crossing, something we’d been looking forward to from the beginning. This is why we definitely needed the 4×4 and high clearance. The river must’ve been over 10 meters wide, with areas that were probably over 30cm deep. We watched the car in front of us navigate through the relatively shallowers parts and followed. Unfortunately I have no footage or images of the crossing (or most river crossings on the trip) because I was manning the DJI action (a better GoPro camera essentially) or the drone every time, but I assure you… it was dank.
We parked at around 1 or 2pm, grabbed some fig bars and water, and started our hike. We had decided to take the Bláhnjúkur trail, a roughly 6.1km (3.8 mile) loop that included almost 400m (~1300 ft) of elevation gain. AllTrails had suggested a hiking time of 2.5 to 3 hours… but I am convinced they accounted for absolutely no time for photos at all. Nor did they account for how out of shape we were. Granted, most posts online seem to agree that it’s a challenging hike, particularly because of the steep incline for the first phase scaling Bláhnjúkur. Nonetheless, I was made acutely aware of my lack of exercise for the past year (cardio especially) as I started panting and hearing my heart pound on my chest. We probably spent 5 or 6 hours in total, with a good 2 hours for photos (with both our phones and “Bob’s” camera), and another 30-60 minutes trying not to die sliding down an incredibly steep and poorly maintained side trail on the way down the mountain (though it was fun looking back, and allowed for additional cool photos). The weather was pretty perfect: slightly cloudy to protect us partially from the sun, but high enough to not obstruct any view.
The hike was so beautiful it was beyond words. There really is so much to say about this hike, yet nothing to say at the same time. You really just… had to be there. I would say I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but this is where I really wish I was a better photographer with better equipment than my phone. You’ll just have to make do, hope “Bob” gets me his photos eventually, and pray that I have the motivation or time to update this post.
Between skipping a proper lunch and the exertion of the hike, we were starving by the time we came back to camp. I’m sure the hunger helped, but it felt like the hotdogs and sandwiches we bought were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. Was it nearly enough food? No. But it was expensive and we had a ferry to catch, which was still a long drive away.
On the way out, we saw a car that seemed to have made it past the river but was stalled immediately after, with its passengers frantically making calls… water probably got into the engine in which case RIP the whole vehicle, I hope they had insurance for it.
After leaving the campsite, we decided to take a small detour to Bláhylur, a spectacular crater lake that put Kerið Crater to absolute shame both in its scale and beauty. This is one of the two drone videos “Bob” actually processed:
We had originally intended to take 208 back out (the road we took coming to Landmannalaugar). Hilariously, however, due to the spotty signal and my own hubris, we ended up taking the wrong road, F225. We realized this immediately, between the signs and getting a signal again. However, we also realized that F225 was actually a shorter path to the ferry terminal, though likely a harder drive, being an F-road. “Bob” and I agreed that the drive in was way too tame though, and road conditions are so inconsistent anyways (refer to the drive to Kerlingarfjöll being worse than F-roads). So we decided to continue with F225.
This may have been our singular best decision the whole trip. Starting with “Heaven” by fellow Canadian Bryan Adams, I began blasting the aux as we drove down F225 with the windows all the way down… While I might not consider the scenery along F225 to be the absolute best in a vacuum (Landmannalaugar probably takes the cake for peak beauty), I do believe F225 might be my favourite experience of the whole trip. We had coincidentally perfectly caught the sunset timing while driving it, there were practically no other cars during our drive, it was majestically breathtaking, and all of this was because I made an erroneous judgement of direction. Not to mention that we got to ford two or three more exhilarating river crossings, and almost died again when we accidentally made air from an unexpected bump, thankfully managing to not “faceplant” and flip after landing back down. The entire drive was just so magical and intoxicating, surrounded by a sense of mystery, exploration, and reverence, shocked again and again by the view after every turn. If we weren’t in a rush for our ferry, we easily could’ve spent a whole day stopping every 5 minutes along the road. After Landmannalaugar, we never expected to be so impressed again, especially not that same day. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a powerful and lengthy adrenaline rush before, starting with the hike and only ending well after finishing the drive through F225.
The rest of the drive was quite uneventful, as it was more or less well-paved roads or highway. The post-adrenaline drive on such boring roads, combined with our lack of sleep and general fatigue from the past 4 days caused “Bob” to almost fall asleep multiple times at the wheel. A small neat moment was when Google Maps told us to take a small shortcut via 272, which took us through what appeared to be farms. Along the way we almost ran over an arctic fox, which by itself is already a rare occurrence, but it was particularly coincidental because on day 1 we had discussed and googled what species were actually native to such an isolated island, with the answer being the arctic fox as the only native land mammal, arriving after the last Ice Age.
Arriving at the ferry terminal just in time for the 11:15pm crossing, we let out a big sigh of relief and thanked our lucky stars that we had ultimately decided on the last boarding, despite initially feeling like it was too late at night. Everything on day 3 worked out so perfectly.
I took a nap on the 45 minute ride, and we drove straight for the Vestmannaeyjar Camp Site after exiting the ferry. We were literally too exhausted and felt too filthy to even set up our sleeping bags in the back, so we just conked out in our seats.
Day 4: Westman Islands, Skógafoss, Dyrhólaey, and getting lost at Bláfjallafoss
That was a close second in terms of worst nights for me. It wasn’t quite as bad as day 1, where I was severely underdressed and slept with my feet outside, but it was still quite chilly. While we were fully dressed, we also didn’t use our sleeping bags, and there was a light, damp drizzle throughout the night, along with a noticeable breeze. Plus we didn’t get to shower and were quite sticky and uncomfortable from the sweat during the day. In short, we woke up feeling quite uncomfortable. “Bob” headed inside and found a shower, while I struggled to get myself moving against the sleepiness and bone chill. “Bob’s” reinvigorated appearance gave me the motivation to also finally start moving. This campsite actually included a really nice shower/large private bathroom and it was incredibly needed (especially considering how the night would play out later, read on viewer!).
After a simple breakfast mainly consisting of more fiber cereal, we got going from the campsite. Funnily enough, we drove past another golf course across from the campsite on our way out. The whole island of Heimaey is only a measly 13.4 square kilometers. As such, we reached the harbor (and what felt like the heart of the town) in no time, where we grabbed some surprisingly decent coffee.
Our first real stop on the island was Eldfell, a volcanic cone formed during the 1973 volcanic eruption. It’s actually quite an interesting short history about how the eruption affected the residents that I’ll let you read on your own (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldfell). The hike up was quite steep, with terribly sandy ground that crumbled underfoot harder than my childhood dreams did when I grew up. It was literally two steps forward, one step back, as we slid down with every step. Thankfully it was a very short hike, and I had very effective high-heeled hiking boots, but “Bob” managed to get half a beach in his shoes and socks in the process. In hindsight, perhaps we should’ve taken the longer but much more gently sloped route, but it was fun nonetheless, with a great view of the entire island from the top.
We came back to the town for a quick lunch at a diner, where I had some decent lamb chops and “Bob” had his hundredth burger (I don’t blame him and might’ve done the same if I wasn’t allergic to dairy–it’s calorie dense and relatively cheaper than other dishes). On the way to the southern tip of the island to hopefully see some puffins, we passed by the local museum explaining the island’s history, particularly with how they dealt with the eruption. While we didn’t go in, we got to see a building covered by ash and rocks (cooled magma) that was preserved right beside the museum.
After parking near the Big Heart Lighthouse, we waded through the tall grass towards the western cliffs and were lucky enough to indeed see puffins. Having nothing more than a phone really sucked here, though even “Bob” wasn’t satisfied, remarking he should’ve brought a long lens if he knew he’d be taking wildlife photos of all things on this trip. We found out a couple days later that the puffins had just left Northern Iceland a week or two ago, meaning they were probably about to leave Iceland altogether soon, and we had fortunately just caught them at one of the southernmost parts of Iceland.
We rushed back to catch our ferry at 2pm or so and said goodbye to this absolute vibe of an island. As the engines came to life and our ship began to hum, I began to imagine life on Heimaey. I’m sure it would be incredibly inconvenient, but the tiny little romantic part of me did wonder how it’d feel like growing up here in such a cozy, small town surrounded by untamed wilderness and ocean.
Anyways, after getting off the ferry, we headed straight to Skógafoss. It was certainly quite an objectively decent waterfall… but sort of… visually vanilla (nothing wrong with vanilla, great flavor by the way, just using the expression). It’s tall, but not the tallest waterfall; it’s powerful but not the most powerful; it’s a straight single drop; and it lacked any gimmick like being able to go behind it. I think the most exciting part would be the fact that you can get right up to the base of it if you really wanted to, but you would have needed to cross a somewhat wide and unexpectedly deep river. Both “Bob” and I have cut ourselves on sharp river/lake rocks before, but neither of us felt like going all the way back to the parking lot for sandals, so ultimately we didn’t make the cross to get closer. I do slightly regret being lazy, but at the same time, it probably wouldn’t have made the viewpoint significantly more interesting. We just took some quick photos with the other tourists in the shots, and left. It’s still worth a visit, especially since it’s so close to the Ring Road, but I didn’t personally find Skógafoss to be a particularly special stop.
Our next stop along the Ring Road was the Dyrhólaey Viewpoint, for some more quick photos, this time of the local black sand beach and striking rock formation. It was quite beautiful, though the lighting was pretty bad (late afternoon) for ideal photos. Certainly worth visiting, especially because again, it’s right off the main highway. But again, not much more to be said here.
The village of Vík was basically right beside the beach. We stopped for gas and dinner at Black Crust Pizzeria. It was… alright? I thought the dough was not bad, but the sauce was way too overpowering and sour, with the rest of the toppings not having much flavor to them. Most importantly, the vegan cheese (I somehow developed dairy allergies nearly a decade ago) confirmed my doubts and reasoning for only ever having tried it a handful of times ever. “Bob” also wasn’t a big fan of his, even though it had regular cheese. Overall though, certainly not the worst thing, and the high calories were helpful for starving travelers like us.
The next objective was to reach Maelifell–a strikingly lonesome moss-covered volcano surrounded by black sand in the highlands–and camp there for the night. We had done some basic research days ago on the ways to get there, and were well aware that F210 was closed due to the river crossing being too inundated. We had always intended to head in via F232 instead, which was an alternate route listed on Epic Iceland, a well-known and content-rich web guide to Iceland.
Despite Epic Iceland claiming that the drive through F232 is less scenic than F210, we still thoroughly enjoyed it just as much or more than the other highland F-road escapades (obviously not F225 though). And just like F225, we were driving at sunset hours, creating a wonderful vibe and allowing for great photos/drone shots. A large part of the highlands/F-roads undoubtedly comes from the views, but what truly sets them apart in my opinion, is how engaging the drives are. There are barely any other cars, the bumpy road makes the ride so much more immersive, and you get the chance to have the drone film and follow the car. Every time we got on an F-road, we felt so alive again no matter how tired or lethargic we were feeling earlier that day. Unfortunately I have no photos of my own up until much later on in this drive, but honestly, photos wouldn’t be able to sufficiently capture the excitement of any of these drives anyways (take F225 for example, even though I did have a couple photos for that one).
The signal was very spotty or completely missing for much of the drive, so we kept thinking we were reaching the waterfall (Bláfjallafoss) we knew would be along the way, until eventually we finally got to it. But right before the waterfall was Öldufell, an absolutely gorgeous moss-covered mountain with a stream passing along the side and the Mýrdalsjökull glacier as a backdrop.
As we rounded the bend around Öldufell, Bláfjallafoss finally came into view. I had mentioned above that it was a waterfall along the way… but perhaps you didn’t understand how literally I meant this: we were to drive over Bláfjallafoss as a river crossing. That’s right, we drove over a waterfall. It was arguably one of the deepest river crossings we did on the trip, with a noticeable current and large rocks at the bottom that made driving over more challenging. Nonetheless, it was also one of the most fun river crossings, both physically and visually.
It was easily past 9pm by the time we crossed Bláfjallafoss, and as we continued to drive through the rugged terrain, visibility began to drop off sharply in those last 30 minutes of sunlight and with the clouds lowering. Before we knew it, it was practically completely dark, with only our headlights lighting the way. With no signal or idea of how far away from Maelifell we were, we began to get serious about our situation. Eventually we spotted a blinking light, only to realize it was a road sign that mentioned F210 being closed. This was something we already knew, but didn’t expect to run into given that we were taking F232… we began to suspect that F232 connected back to F210 for the last stretch before reaching Maelifell and decided it was best to stay put in the area and figure out where to go in the morning.
In hindsight, there was nothing particularly dangerous about it. Worse comes to worse, we drive 2 hours back the way we came towards Vík. Even without a signal, there was only one road. And even if we somehow got stranded, we had plenty of gas, food, and water on the car to last multiple days, at which point someone would have driven by us, no matter how scarce cars were here. Nonetheless, we hadn’t seen another person in hours, and in the blackness of the night, with no way to contact anyone, we did feel slightly concerned. Therefore, along the way to the F210 intersection, we had briefly gotten a 1 bar signal which we used to let family and friends know where we were heading, just to be safe.
In the end, we made good use of the headlamps we each brought and set up for sleep on the side of the road. We were able to optimize the sleeping situation in various ways on this night, including removing and placing the back seat headrests backwards, allowing them to be used as a pillow; being able to move the front seats forward more, leaving more space; and realizing we probably didn’t need to crack so many windows open. As such, this was my first “comfortable” car camping night, even though we were in the middle of nowhere. Again, thank goodness I dragged myself to the shower in the morning. It would’ve been a lot more miserable if I still had the previous day’s hiking sweats.
Day 5: Glaciers, Vestrahorn, and an unexpected surprise
We naturally woke up sometime after 8am, and felt a lot more optimistic in the morning with the sunlight streaming into the vehicle. We ate some bars and discussed where to head next. Since we were still around the area, we decided to scope out the sign again in daylight, which still said F210 was closed as expected. Curious, we decided to keep going so we could at least see what the state of the river was like to have the whole route closed, not expecting to be able to reach Maelifell.
Turns out, it was a literal whole ass river river, not just a crossing. It was probably nearly as wide as a football field, and while it didn’t seem too deep relative for a river of that size, it was still at least as deep as the deepest crossings we did, and we were not about to find out just how much deeper it ran. The worst part is that Maelifell was right across, within sight, taunting us. But we would’ve needed to be drunk, stupid, and crazy to try our luck at that. I’m kinda disappointed I forgot to take any photos of my own of this river, with Maelifell in the background. So unless “Bob” gets to it, I can’t show you guys the drone video crossing the river to see Maelifell.
Anyways, we obviously turned back the way we came and made our long journey out of the highlands. Was it slightly disappointing to never have reached Maelifell? A little. I definitely would want to visit if I were ever back in Iceland. On the other hand, we got some long-distance photos, and the experience of driving through F232 in and of itself was magical, perhaps only short of the F225 drive. Öldufell and Bláfjallafoss alone were worthwhile views, much better than pretty much anything along the Ring Road. The morning lighting was much worse than the sunset lighting, but thankfully we already got all the shots last night.
As we made it closer to the Ring Road, we got a signal again, and I was able to confirm online that F232 inevitably connected to F210 just as we saw first-hand. It had ended at Bláfjallafoss on Google Maps, so we had fallen for Epic Iceland’s poor wording (it never mentioned connecting back to F210, only that F232 was an alternate route from the East aside from F210).
Once we connected back onto the Ring Road sometime after 11am, we continued counter-clockwise along it, heading towards the Vatnajokull ice cap (largest in Iceland, and second in Europe). We stopped at a gas station, intending for a meal. However, apparently the hotdogs had dairy in them for some reason, and they had nothing else of real substance for food. This began my streak of living off oreos and candy as energy sources for the remainder of the trip.
The Ring Road circles the Southern edge of Vatnajokull, and as such, we got to see several angles to it as we drove, stopping very occasionally for photos. A little before 2pm, we stopped at a tour agency about halfway through the length of this Southern edge. Neither “Bob” nor I had ever taken a plane tour before, and decided that after coming all this way, we might as well. Plus, we did not have the time to explore the glacier properly by foot (via hikes and the like), which could have easily taken multiple days. We got booked for a flight sometime after 4pm if I recall correctly, so we had an hour or two to kill. We found the only cafe in the area, grabbed a few sandwiches, and took a well-needed break consisting mostly of reviewing drone footage and offloading them onto a computer.
Once it was time, we got back for our flight, which costed a mid-to-high hundred USD. I have no reference for plane tours, but it seemed pretty pricey for a quick 15 minute experience, so I had somewhat high expectations. Were they met? More or less. I wasn’t blown away, but it was cool and provided a unique view, but now that I’ve been on a plane tour, would I go again? Debatable.
In any case, 3 other travelers joined us for the tour along with the captain, making it a perfect 6/6 seats taken on the plane. We took off and flew in an oval to admire the nearby outlet glaciers of Vatnajokull, including Svínafellsjökull and Skaftafellsjökull. We wanted to open the windows for a better view, but understandably the cold and strong wind that would blow in meant that was only allowed on private flights. The captain pointed out some landmark names and statistics that I don’t remember, as well as interesting trivia. Hollywood absolutely loves Svínafellsjökull, shooting movies like Batman Begins, Interstellar, and Game of Thrones there, just to name a few. He also showed us just how much the glaciers have receded in the past few decades. Seeing the multiple kilometers of lost ice from the sky was quite jarring, and really helped to visually quantify the global warming we all hear about. It also helped explain one of our questions driving in, when we saw a random, unconnected bridge running parallel and on the side of the highway. Even just a decade or two ago, that bridge was part of the Ring Road, but now with the glaciers receding so far, they rebuilt the highway to not require the bridge anymore.
After the plane tour, we continued along the Ring Road with glaciers on our left and the ocean on our right. After an hour or so, we reached the famous Diamond Beach, named after the ice shards that wash up onto land. The ice comes from melting glaciers and icebergs of the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon right next door that has a short waterway leading into the ocean. Depending on the lighting, the ice resembles diamonds, lying picturesquely on the black sand beach. Unfortunately, we did not get the best lighting for said photos, plus I have no clue how to take still life images, so there will sadly be no photos of “diamonds” here. The sheer number of people on the beach was pretty distracting as well. The lagoon on the other hand, had noticeably less people admiring it, even though it was arguably a more interesting sight and just a 3 minute walk from the beach (sharing the same parking lots). Here we got to sea (sea what I did there?) seals, icebergs, and mesmerizing eddies as water flowed in and out of the lagoon from/to the ocean, all with the surreal glaciers in the backdrop.
We finished up at Diamond Beach around 7pm, and were positively famished (as we were for most of this trip). As we continued on the road, it was about 8pm by the time we found a restaurant. Shout-out to Fosshotel Vatnajökull for the amazing food and service. It was a somewhat fancy hotel restaurant with higher prices, so “Bob” and I asked the waitress which meal had the largest portion size, only intending to order one dish each. If I recall correctly, she had pointed us to the lamb steaks, though she also asked the chef to throw in extra potatoes and vegetables seeing how hungry we must have been.
The next stop, and our final planned activity for the day, was Vestrahorn, a dramatic-looking mountain just off the Ring Road. It wasn’t too far from the restaurant, but by the time we pulled into the parking lot, it was closer to 10pm than 9pm. Between how late it was, and the fact that we were now definitely too far from Reykjavík for day trips, there were hardly any people here (still lots of cars at the campsite, but most people seemed to be preparing for bed already). We both got some great photos, but I also encouraged “Bob” to really take his time. So I waited in the car catching up on some emails while he went out in the dark freezing wind with a tripod and second camera better suited for night photos (photos that maybe he’ll share with me eventually *cough cough “Bob” if you’re seeing this).
It was probably 11pm when we finally pulled out of the Vestrahorn parking lot and headed for our Airbnb. We were incredibly exhausted by the past few days and just wanted a comfortable night with a nice shower, feeling like we earned a proper rest after finishing the most tiring leg of the journey. However, Airbnb’s, just like hotels in Iceland, were incredibly expensive (it also didn’t help that we were booking same-day). There weren’t any real options around Vestrahorn, and anything along the South side (including Diamond Beach) were astronomically expensive, costing USD$300 at a minimum for one night. As such, we had agreed to push ourselves and stay on the East side of Iceland, knowing we’d get a good night’s sleep anyway with real beds. When we decided on the Airbnb (earlier that day), we likely didn’t expect to finish up at Vestrahorn quite so late, nor did we think about how slowly we’d have to drive in the pitch black of night. As such, we ended up getting to the Airbnb after 2am (granted we also had a long delay I will explain in a moment), which was an hour or two past our intended timing. The long drive from Vestrahorn to our accommodation in the town of Egilsstaðir was made in essential complete darkness. It was a bit unfortunate, because we could tell we were driving on a cliffside for much of it, so I’m sure the view would’ve been splendid during the day with the ocean on our right. At the same time, we did manage to get an insane amount of driving done on this day: starting the morning squarely in the South, and ending up squarely in the East, covering roughly a quarter of the island’s circumference (if you ignore the Westfjords), at least seemingly visually on a map (I didn’t check the math). Driving around the Ring Road was an inevitability and almost “chore” to some degree, so it was satisfying to know that we got so much of it out of the way, even if we missed out on some potential scenery. I say “chore” because as beautiful as the drives in Iceland were, we doubted anything on the well-paved Ring Road would beat the engagement and excitement of the highlands and F-roads.
Right, so what was this mysterious long delay I mentioned? Well, it was the freakin’ northern lights of course. Iceland is pretty famous for being a good place to see the aurora borealis, but they’re generally more known to show up during the winter, so “Bob” and I didn’t really expect to see them on this trip. As such, neither of us really looked into the matter, making this encounter ever so unexpected but amazing. In fact, this was my second time ever seeing them, and they were stronger than when they graced us in Vancouver with their presence.
This all happened when we split off the Ring Road to take a “shortcut” (road 939, which has a few small “scenic” spots supposedly based on Google Maps that I only realize now while writing this, given that we couldn’t see a thing that night). Funnily enough, this was also where we had the conversation I mentioned on the home page that inspired this blog. After that conversation, we began to complain about how Google Maps made us take this “shortcut” when the Ring Road seemed roughly the same distance on the map and would’ve been a hell lot smoother of a drive. Just as we started complaining though, suddenly “Bob” said “Hey, doesn’t the sky look funky?” We stopped by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at 1am and turned off the car lights to observe faint, pale, and wispy streaks across the night sky. Taking out our phone cameras, we were immediately dazzled by bright green waves dancing across the black sea of stars. It was a pretty clear sky, and we were at a somewhat high altitude, with no car or house in sight, so even without the aurora, it would’ve been a beautiful stargazing opportunity. With the northern lights though, it became an utterly enthralling light show.
The adrenaline from such an encounter carried us all the way to the Airbnb, where we took nice, long, and hot showers before promptly passing out.
Day 6: Stuðlagil, Dettifoss, whales, and hotsprings
We woke up quite late, some time after 10am. The Airbnb host was nice enough to let us stay a little past the 11am check-out so we could finish sorting our belongings and eat our cereal.
As was the case with any other part of the trip, we didn’t have much of an itinerary for this day. However, because we drove so much farther than originally anticipated on Day 5, we also felt like we had more time than we had allocated for the rest of the trip. Most of Iceland’s more interesting locations (at least, based on our research) were generally all on the south side, and we had originally expected long driving days to rush through all of the northern and western parts of the island. As such, we did some debating over breakfast on the plan for the day. We made a decision to stop at the town of Húsavík later that day when we headed north, but couldn’t find anything that really drew our attention in the current area (though we considered taking a soak in the highly rated local hotsprings, Vök Baths), and hence ultimately decided to simply head to the next main attraction on our “itinerary” of Stuðlagil, a basalt column canyon known for its striking hexagonal formations.
We took a quick stop on this roughly hour-long drive when we noticed other cars parked to the side. Turns out Rjúkandafoss (another waterfall) was just off the road.
To be honest, we were both still rather fatigued, despite getting nearly 8 hours of sleep on real beds. I think it was a mix of the built-up exhaustion from the previous days, as well as us slowly “running out” of excitement. It’s not that we didn’t care for the trip anymore overnight, but we simply could not believe that we’d be surprised anymore. General online consensus, and our own research, seemed to suggest that we’d already experienced the best parts of Iceland (or at least, the best parts of our trip, as we no longer had time for certain remaining highland locations). After Landmannalaugar and F225, we knew at the back of our minds that the trip probably already peaked. There were still plenty of adrenaline-filled moments since then–Westman Islands’ beauty surpassed our expectations, driving over the Bláfjallafoss waterfall was exhilarating, and the northern lights were an unexpected spectacle–but nonetheless at this time on Day 6, it felt like the “magical spell” on us finally broke, at least when coupled with how tired we felt for most of this day.
Given this fact, by the time we rolled up to Stuðlagil, we weren’t feeling very energetic or excited. I was still personally willing to go down, walk around, and grab photos, but “Bob” was particularly out of it, and understandably so. He was the one doing all the driving, and hadn’t gotten much sleep even before coming on this trip. We also didn’t grab coffee this morning like we often did. Furthermore, the clear skies and noon sun made photos look pretty bad, which probably destroyed one of the only remaining incentives for him to bother going down. I didn’t really care either way, so we ended up just taking some quick photos from the parking lot and then headed for lunch at a nearby coffee shop/restaurant.
After some lamb chops and more importantly, coffee, we were feeling marginally more lively as we drove for Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe (according to one of the signs there, though this is based on multiplying the water flow by fall distance, and not purely on volume discharge or flow rate, but I digress). What was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive became 2 hours, as the last portion of the route included a suboptimal, bumpy, dry road. I mention dry because man, you could not drive fast when the car in front of you is kicking up dust like it’s a Mad Max movie.
Eventually we reached Dettifoss, and got to spend some good time admiring the view. It’s not quite as aweing as Niagara Falls with its scale, but was nonetheless an impressively powerful waterfall. I also certainly appreciated how there were infinitely fewer tourists than at Niagara, and that it was one singular waterfall. The comparison really doesn’t make that much sense, but simply came to mind because of Dettifoss’ reputation as “the most powerful in Europe.”
After Dettifoss, we took a quick pit stop at a gas station to resupply on snacks (well-needed energy in the form of sugar), then headed to Húsavík. Most of the drive was along the water, and provided great coastal views.
We got to Húsavík at 4 or 5pm, just in time for our whale watching tour. After all, Húsavík is known as the “Whale Capital of Iceland,” and one of the best spots for whale watching in Europe. As was the case for many of our experiences in Iceland, this was a very spontaneous decision we had made the morning of when we realized we’d actually get some time in the north. Now did we have to do it in Iceland? I suppose not, but it is a popular local attraction, and allowed us to see some of the northern coast, whereas most of the Ring Road on the north side of the island was slightly inland, barely ever providing a chance to see the ocean.
This was our first time whale watching, and neither of us were very sure if we’d actually enjoy it. But as we checked in, then put on the thermal overalls they provided, and boarded the speedboat, we could feel our excitement slowly building. As we shot out of the harbor, I felt more energized than I did all day. I didn’t bring contacts on the trip for convenience and hygiene reasons (expected the worst in terms of camp sites), but I did regret it a little when the speedboat went full speed and I had to hold onto my glasses in fear of having them fly off.
Our guide was Argentinian (or was it Brazilian? I can’t quite remember), and studying marine biology here in Iceland for their masters or PhD (again, it’s been a while and I can’t remember the details). She was great, clearly passionate and knowledgeable, and explained how the bay was so popular for whales because of the small streams bringing nutrients down from the surrounding mountains. As such, our first stop was near the cliffs at the opposite edge of the bay. After a short search, we did find a whale coming up for breath a few times before diving back down for food. It was a small “kid” based on our guide’s estimates, only a few meters long, though I certainly could not tell as such just based on the glimpses we got (plus, only a portion was visible at a time above the water). The whale disappeared after some time, and we headed to the next spot in the bay: a nearby small rock jutting out of the water that was supposedly a popular spot for whales. Unfortunately, after circling the rock a couple times, none showed up. We then motored to the last spot, towards Flatey island, nearing the western mouth of the bay. There was another boat in the area that already found a whale (and I believe radioed our captain to come over, which was cool because it was a different company). This whale was much larger, estimated to be around 14m long or so, though my memory on this detail could be very off. It resurfaced several times, seemingly not minding us at all. While it never graced us with the dramatic “whole-body-jumps-out-of-the-water” show, it was still oddly majestic. Both whales we saw were humpback whales, which were by far the most common species seen in the bay. We stayed a little overtime before eventually heading back to the docks. In the end, two hours really did just fly by even faster than the speedboat, especially considering we only really stopped at two places. I am very glad we actually got to see some whales. They did have a policy of giving you a lifetime voucher if you didn’t end up seeing any whales (which we joked were going to be paid actors in suits), but obviously we didn’t have time to stick around for another tour the next day if that happened.
So… was it worth it? Well, the tickets weren’t cheap, coming in at around USD$170 per person. My personal opinion on the experience is similar to the plane tour. I think it was pretty worth it all things considered, as it included a 2 hour tour with a guide, captain, speedboat, and thermal suits. The whales were definitely pretty cool too, but even the anticipation for them to surface was quite exciting, as odd as that might sound. You could feel the suspense in the silence as everyone waited with bated breath, followed by an excited exclamation when someone spotted it again, and then everyone frantically whipping their phones around like the paparazzi. Between the boat ride itself and the whales, the tour was pretty exhilarating. Now would I go again? Probably not for a very long time, but I do think it was a worthwhile experience at least for that first time.
Unfortunately, by the time we undressed and returned the clothes, it was almost 8pm. Pretty much every restaurant in town closed at 8pm according to Google Maps, so we might’ve been a bit too late anyways, but some of the stores we ran by seemed extra dead, as if they never opened that night in the first place. It was weird. We only found a couple of bars still open, as well as Naustið, which had the best reviews and seemed like the tastiest restaurant by far. Unfortunately, Naustið had a ridiculously long line already (that was undoubtedly going to force them to open past the closing time already), and the manager was not able to let us join the waitlist. At the end of the day we resorted to a bar that hadn’t quite closed yet, Jaja Ding Dong Húsavík, which happened to have a couple of food items. It was very mid and expensive, so I couldn’t justify ordering more than 1 lamb stew (even though I’m sure I was hungry enough for at least 10), and decided to just accept the hunger for the night.
The misery of running around for food and still being hungry in the end was slightly alleviated by our visit to the local hotsprings, Geosea. The actual soak and sauna weren’t anything particularly special, but it was very nice to relax and wind down in such a manner after so many intensive days of travelling. While it was too dark to fully appreciate the view, I will still mention how nice it was to get to soak and look out on the entire bay at the same time.
Aside from being a way to relax, we had decided to finally visit a hotspring to get a chance to clean up properly instead of having to use a campsite’s messy shared utilities… if we actually stopped at one that is. I should not praise or encourage what we actually did because it was technically illegal and could’ve gotten us fined, but at the same time, worked out well. Basically, we noticed how insanely packed the Húsavík campsite was, and how bad the reviews were, so instead of trying to make last-minute reservations, we car camped outside of a designated campsite (which is the illegal part of this). I know we technically did the same thing on Day 4, but I felt less guilty given that we did genuinely intend to camp at Maelifell but got lost and had to make emergency decisions, whereas here we technically knowingly and intentionally broke rules. But it worked out well so what can I really say?
Now, where did we end up camping? Well, we simply went back to the beach from earlier. Funnily enough, there were a few others with the same idea, as multiple other vehicles with passengers were parked there for the night. If the “camp at designated campsites” rule is for safety reasons, we were right by the highway and just outside of town, with multiple other people around us and cell reception. If the issue was about helping the Iceland economy (campsites aren’t free)… then uh… truly sorry Iceland.
It was all worth it though, because right before bed, we got lucky enough to see the northern lights for the second night in a row. I don’t remember exactly how we noticed this time. Did “Bob” see faint white streaks across the sky again? Or was it because I was checking the borealis strength website as a joke? Not sure. In any case, we got a few more nice photos before crashing.
Day 7: Goðafoss, Akureyri, and giving up in Blönduós
I can’t quite remember what time we woke up, but probably around 9am. It was one of the more comfortable nights in the car because we’d finally fully optimized the sleeping arrangements by then. Just a shame that the trip was ending by the time we finally got it figured out.
Despite feeling relatively rested in terms of sleep quality, I think this was the day where we really ran out of gas for the trip, emotionally or physically. It’s not to say that we didn’t get excited over anything anymore, but relative to the highs of the trip, things did begin to tone down significantly. The “magical spell” mentioned for Day 6 had fully broken by Day 7, and unfortunately (spoilers), there were no more big surprises for the rest of the trip like the whale-watching and second northern lights. It was a mix of the weariness really settling in, as well as there genuinely being less fun things to do left in our remaining 2-3 days. Of course, being tired limited our ability to be hyped over things, and having less exciting moments meant there was less reason to be hyped, forming a cycle. The rest of the trip was still very enjoyable of course, just in a much more subdued and relatively laid-back manner. Explaining our lowered excitement levels is less of a “critique” of the trip and more of my attempt at “honest journalism” if you will, for the readers and also for myself to accurately note down the vibes of the trip.
In any case, we bought some coffee and snacks as “breakfast” in Húsavík, before getting to Goðafoss Waterfall an hour later. Goðafoss isn’t particularly tall, but is a decently wide, curved waterfall. Overall, not a particularly beautiful or impressive attraction, but still decent considering how conveniently located it is (right off the Ring Road, it took us an hour because Húsavík was not on Ring Road). Additionally, there’s an interesting myth involving the local chieftain throwing his old pagan god statues down this waterfall back when Iceland first converted to Christianity, which is supposedly the source of the name (meaning “waterfall of the gods”).
Continuing along our journey back to Reykjavík to finish our circle of the island, the next stop was the city of Akureyri. On the way, we took a small detour from the Ring Road to avoid a toll tunnel and get a better view of the ocean/inlet. We stopped to inspect a tiny “hotspring” across the inlet from Akureyri that seems to have become somewhat popular online in recent years. The “hotspring” is literally just part of a small warm river running down towards the ocean, and did provide a decent view of the inlet and city, but we ultimately decided not to take a soak because someone was already in it and we were quite hungry.
By the time we pulled into Akureyri and parked, it was early afternoon. We ended up choosing a burger joint called “Taste” that was surprisingly quite delicious (and able to accommodate my allergies). As mentioned above, this was the day we decided to start taking things easy, and as such, spent the whole afternoon strolling around the area. This included shopping for potential souvenirs and chilling at a coffee shop nestled in the Akureyri Botanical Garden. The alternative plan was to visit Grafarkirkja, Iceland’s oldest turf church, but we were feeling too lethargic, and Grafarkirkja was a rather small attraction that would’ve required a decent detour from the Ring Road with nothing else around it.
By 5pm or so, we decided it was time to get going again, with the intention of grabbing dinner along the way and seeing Hvitserkur around sunset (an aesthetic 15-meter tall rock on a black-sand beach). However, we ran into a few issues on our way. Namely, it took about 30 minutes longer than the 100 minute drive Google Maps predicted to get to Blönduós, a small town somewhat near Hvitserkur where we had intended to get dinner. More importantly, we didn’t realize how tiny this town was, with only 4 small restaurants in total, each with probably only 1 or 2 cooks. The first two places we visited were both completely full with tourists already and not taking any more customers.
We resigned ourselves to Teni, an almost totally deserted Ethiopian restaurant. That’s right, an Ethiopian restaurant of all things in this middle-of-nowhere tiny Icelandic town. And of all the possible places or of all the possible people, the Ethiopian waitress asked us the classic “where are you from” question, as well as the follow-up “where are you from from” question when I initially answered Canada (ethnically I’m Asian). It’s not something I’m personally ever offended by, but is often a racially sensitive question for many, so it was really… interesting… to hear it in this context of all places. But anyways, the food ended up being… palatable, but not much more than that. More problematic was that it took probably 40 minutes to arrive, meaning it was past 8pm by the time we started eating. Despite seeming close on the map, Hvitserkur required another hour drive because the road doesn’t follow the shoreline but takes a detour instead. We ultimately opted out of going at all. I’m sure we could’ve gotten some decent photos and had a good time if we had made it, but at the end of the day I wasn’t too bummed out over a piece of rock and black sand (having seen similar things at Dyrhólaey on Day 4). We stopped rushing and enjoyed our dinner (less so the food and more so our conversation). As cliché as it sounds, we got onto the topic of the meaning of life, which ironically, I had never really had a proper conversation about before, and was able to better understand my own subconscious opinions on the matter.
Afterwards, at like 9:30pm, we noticed how absolutely abandoned the large parking lot was, and I took the opportunity to have “Bob” give me a simple driving lesson. A very long story short: I had a brain surgery when I was around 12, and lost significant peripheral vision on one side as an unfortunate side effect, which disqualifies me from driving permanently. So this whole trip, “Bob” has been an absolute soldier and driving solo while I was the useless passenger princess (massive shoutout to this man). But yes, back to the main story. This felt like a rare opportunity in my life to at least get to drive a small lap, and “Bob” was nice enough to teach me. I must say though… As an overthinker and perfectionist, it was insanely stressful to check every single angle for what felt like every second. And I was driving at like 3 km/hr with not a soul in sight. I’m almost glad I can’t actually drive.
We spent the night in the car at the Blönduós campsite, having already brushed our teeth in the Teni bathroom. We slept probably around 11pm or 12am.
Day 8: Reykjavík
This was our last real day in Iceland, given that the next would simply consist of catching our morning flights back home. After waking up around 9am, we discussed our plans for the day. It was quickly agreed upon to spend our last night in Reykjavík, so that we could get to the airport reasonably quickly the following morning. We also decided to get an Airbnb again so we could comfortably clean up and pack up for the flight back. However, the more difficult decision was what we would be doing during the day. The original plan for this western side of the island was to visit Kirjufell, an iconic mountain that’s on most peoples’ itineraries when they decide to drive around Iceland. Aside from the Westfjords, which are remote even by Iceland standards and would’ve required a lot more days and planning, Kirkjufell was more or less the only real big tourist attraction commonly talked about on this side of the island. However, the drive alone would’ve taken an extra 3 hours, and by this point of our journey, we did not feel energetic enough to take the detour, as opposed to properly exploring Reykjavík beyond the 1 hour grocery shopping and lunch spent on Day 1. Compared to the likes of Grafarkirkja (the turf church) or Hvitserkur (black-sand beach and rock), Kirkjufell was certainly the scenic spot I was personally most hesitant to skip. I’m sure that it would’ve been beautiful. Nonetheless, I still doubt it would’ve been better than something like Öldufell, which we also had entirely to ourselves. I could also see the weariness really setting in for both of us, and was concerned in terms of safety on the road. With the trip ending imminently, the very last thing I would’ve wanted was for us to end up in an accident and missing our flights back. So in short, we prioritized getting a few hours in the capital and some rest before our flights instead of squeezing in a visit to one more mountain.
Upon deciding on our plan, we set off immediately, snacking on the car for breakfast and taking a very small detour to grab coffee in the village of Hvammstangi. As we neared Reykjavík, there was a funny moment where we noticed on Google Maps that we were seemingly about to drive through the ocean before realizing that there was an unexpectedly very long tunnel running under the inlet instead (Hvalfjörður Tunnel, nearly 6km in length).
After a 3-4 hour drive, we arrived at Reykjavík in the early afternoon. We first dropped off our rental camping gear, then looked to satiate our growing hunger. We were trying to find a restaurant that offered quick food and was reasonably priced (as you should know by now, the latter seemed extremely difficult to find in Iceland). In the end, we settled on a ramen shop called Ramen Momo. The food was ok. I respect that it tried to be different from the more classic ramen flavors, and still tasted entirely acceptable, but it was certainly not nearly as delicious as the ramen you’d find in Japan or many of the big cities on the West coast (obviously I did not expect Ramen Momo to compete with those, am simply attempting to describe the quality).
No longer starving at least, we walked around, admiring the mix of older European-styled houses and more contemporary buildings like the Reykjavík City Hall. Given that we were in the area, we of course made a stop to see the Hallgrimskirkja cathedral, which towered above all other structures and acted as a great reference for navigation during our stroll. Being the shopaholic that “Bob” is, he also bought some more clothes from a small local brand focused on wool products (sheep and wool being what Iceland is more known for in terms of clothing). It was pretty knit (neat, haha yes I know I’m hilarious) getting to talk to the salesman, who was also the designer and owner simultaneously.
It was probably around 5pm by the time we finished our walk, so we drove over and checked into our Airbnb. We spent quite some time debating over where to go for dinner, before choosing KRÖST, a nearby small grill and wine bar inside a small building containing a few other small restaurants. I do slightly regret not having a particularly nice/fancy meal the entire trip, as that could’ve been one more memorable moment. However, I also respect our thought process in choosing food options: 1) We were there to explore Iceland’s natural beauty and not necessarily food, 2) Iceland isn’t exactly known for their food, at least not truly any “local” food, 3) the food prices were just so insanely exorbitant already even for “cheaper” options, 4) the nice restaurants would’ve just been more or less European/Western cuisine and not quite so “special” to Iceland, and so we felt that we could find similar food elsewhere for cheaper. In any case, I had a delicious steak frites and “Bob” was very satisfied with his Icelandic cod (or some other fish).
Speaking of special local specialties though, I did buy some Hákarl at a grocery store on the way to KRÖST to try at night after dinner. As all my friends know, I’m a very adventurous eater (this has had some very dire consequences at times *cough cough raw chicken in Japan) and really value the experience of trying new foods regardless of if I think it’ll actually taste good or not. This was definitely one of those things I knew I’d hate, but had to try nonetheless. To my understanding, the vast majority of locals hate it too, and avoid eating it outside of traditional celebrations, given it was created out of necessity but starvation is no longer a real concern in Iceland nowadays. For those of you who don’t know, Hákarl is fermented shark cured in a way to render it no longer poisonous. All I can say is… it was about as rancid as everyone said it would be, and undoubtedly one of the hardest things I’ve had to swallow. Just cracking open the package alone had the stench pervade the whole room. And you know how smell is part of flavor? Well, once it was in my mouth, that fetor was multiplied ten-fold and invaded every single olfactory gland so unapologetically. It’s similar to the smell of old urine you might find in corners of subway stations, except infinitely stronger, to the point that it stung my nose. As for the taste? It was insanely salty, with hints of sourness. You know the slight prickly sensation on your tongue from eating pineapple, especially if it wasn’t soaked in salt water? Now imagine that, but more intense until it almost hurts. It was also hard to swallow immediately because of how stringy the meat was. All in all… a miserable experience. But I’m still glad I tried it, because I know I’d have regretted it terribly if I had left Iceland without doing so. I probably broke some Geneva Convention laws regarding biological warfare by throwing out the rest of the Hákarl in the trash bin. The poor person who had to do the cleaning… opening that… yikes.
But anyway, with that excitement out of the way, we cleaned up, packed, and conked out early around 9 or 10pm.
Day 9: Morning Flights
This was our final official day in Iceland, though there’s not much worth talking about. We woke up early at 6am and drove straight for Keflavík International Airport, stopping to get gas and return the beloved vehicle we’d grown so attached to. Beyond transportation, we literally lived out of it. We also had to guiltily dispose of more extra food than I care to admit, including pasta/sauce that we bought on Day 1 but never ended up having time or energy to cook with our rented gas stove. Then Lotus shuttled us to the airport, where we grabbed a quick breakfast and said goodbye to this unbelievably beautiful country. I remember not being as sad as I thought I would be though, but rather being more numb, because to this day, this trip still feels like a fever dream. It was an absolutely extraordinary 9 days.
Concluding thoughts
So much happened I don’t even know where to begin.
To this day, this entire trip still feels entirely surreal, like I dreamt the whole thing.
Let’s start with two quick shoutouts.
This is obviously not sponsored, but a massive shoutout to the car. It not just physically allowed us to visit so many places, but was also spacious, had comfortable seats, and provided great connectivity. We were concerned if we’d be able to keep everything charged, but there were enough ports that with some careful cycling, we were able to keep everything charged the whole time, including two cameras, a pocket/vlogging camera, a drone, two phones, a laptop, a portable wifi packaged with the car rental, two airpods, and potentially more I’ve forgotten about.
Also a gargantuan shoutout to “Bob.” This was his idea in the first place, he did most of the planning, AND had to do all the driving. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to take such a trip this lifetime if it wasn’t for him, so seriously a huge thank you to him.
Now regarding the trip…
Iceland felt so special because it offered such a uniquely perfect balance between so many aspects that make a memorable trip: wilderness vs. accessibility, isolation vs. safety, and infrastructure vs. exploration. There are still countless places I want to go in my life, but objectively I’ve been pretty well travelled, visiting multiple countries on each of half the world’s continents so far. Yet never had I felt the same sense of adventure as I did in Iceland, while still feeling in control and safe throughout. Compared to other countries popular for tourism like the US, Japan, and much of Western Europe, Iceland still sees a relatively low amount of tourists, especially in the highland areas. On multiple occasions we were the only people in sight for miles around, which feels like such a rare occurrence in this day and age and helped us feel like real adventurers. It felt like we had the immense beauty of Iceland mostly to ourselves. At the same time, we got to experience a tiny bit of that raw survival feeling, not unlike when you go camping somewhere somewhat remote. Yet throughout it all, we were never more than half a day’s drive from civilization, had cell service for the majority of the trip, and there were search and rescue teams everywhere, etc. Iceland allowed us to explore seemingly uninhibitedly, but without most of the hassle or danger of a real multi-day off-roading trip in the wilderness of say, North America.
As such, this was undoubtedly the most engaging trip I’ve ever taken. I felt so fully immersed almost every day, actively participating in what made the country unique (its land). This is in such stark opposition to many other trips I’ve taken, which were generally great in their own ways too of course, but lacked this same level of engagement or rich sense of grounded, physical attachment. As an example, when I travel with my dad, we tend to visit museums and historic sites non-stop. I do genuinely love history, but eventually, the 100th piece of old rock is only so interesting, and artifacts sitting in a glass case can only excite you so much, even if you grew up listening to stories of that time period. Or, another example is spending a week in the bustling city of Tokyo, with half that time shopping and the other half eating. The food’s great (shopping is, uh, more mixed for me), but technically I could experience much of that similarly elsewhere if I really wanted, just maybe without the charm of Japan, sure. But I could never experience Iceland the way I did elsewhere. You can’t simulate elsewhere the experience of driving over more pothole than road, droning your drives like you’re shooting a car ad, breathing in the Icelandic winds, taking in the breathtaking landscapes almost fully to yourself, and just being so in the moment with nothing but the land and sky around you.
And yet in all the nature there’s also so much variety. I think “Bob’s” comments on how poorly prepared he felt in terms of camera gear really reflect the richness of experiencing Iceland. First he lamented not bringing an even wider lens for landscapes like Landmannalaugar, then wished he had a long lens for the puffins or whales, and complained about not having a sturdier tripod for long-exposure photos of the northern lights. The list goes on, each representing yet a new aspect of what Iceland had to offer.
My favourite moment was either the Landmannalaugar hike or the F225 drive. Landmannalaugar was spectacularly magnificent, and the hike really made it feel like I earned that view. On the other hand, F225 was just such an insane surprise, with jaw-dropping views and river-crossings that kept the drive equally physically engaging. I really wish we had a whole day to stop and take proper photos, though at the same time, part of the magic of F225 was how ephemeral it felt while we were trying to catch our ferry. The fact that we could not capture it with anything but our own eyes and memory makes it extra special.
As such, I suppose the trip did technically “peak” early on the trip on Day 3. However, by choosing to drive counterclockwise, we were aware that we’d frontloaded a lot of our best activities. This wasn’t really a mistake at all, as it allowed us to experience the best parts while we still had energy. It also made us set our expectations lower, allowing for continued surprises one after another even after Day 3. This included the impromptu trip to Westman Islands, which had a great vibe and were surprisingly beautiful in their own right. If we had never visited any of the highlands, Westman Islands may have even been the highlight of the trip. Then there was getting lost at Öldufell, my very first plane tour over some stunning glaciers, Vestrahorn, unexpectedly catching the Northern Lights, my first whale watching tour, my first time “driving”… nonstop positive surprises, big or small, even going into the last days.
Day 7 and 8 were objectively more “lackluster” than the rest. I didn’t really mind though, as we were very tired and more than satisfied with the trip already. We played things safe, instead of pushing ourselves and being a danger on the road or elsewhere. While it sounds relatively boring, we still enjoyed our last two days, chilling and engaging more with the towns or people. This also leaves room for a potential revisit to Iceland, whenever that may be. One of the most notable skipped locations was Kirkjufell on the west side of Iceland, and would be conveniently on the way to perhaps explore the Westfjords on a future trip.
Truly, I hadn’t felt so alive in a while. Likely not since COVID. It felt like I got to experience half a lifetime of things in just one week. Looking back, it was a very needed trip to mark an otherwise largely lacking 8 months of mostly being lost, unproductive, and sitting at home. Now these surreal landscapes get to live rent free in my memories for the rest of my life. Plus it also inspired me to start this very blog.
Despite my laziness and hesitations initially, I cannot understate how glad I am I ended up going. An unquestionable top 3 trips of all time for me. And I hope I can remember to say yes to every opportunity like this in the future as well.
I cannot recommend Iceland enough to everyone who is ever lucky enough to be able to visit. This is a literal country of ice and fire, with varied, unique, and unparalleled natural scenery, along with unexpectedly amazing infrastructure. Arguably, it’s still worth visiting even if you just travel the Ring Road, but I do think the real best parts of Iceland are in the highlands (and we didn’t visit a ton of locations still, highlands or not). What made the highlands so engaging and special is the ability to feel like a real adventurer, with no other tourists in sight, driving into the middle of nowhere. Please go if you ever get the chance, and better sooner than later because I’m sure Iceland will only get even more popular.
Beyond that, this is a simple reminder to everyone (mostly myself) to grab the opportunities that are afforded to you. If you’re anything like me, you might feel lazy at times, or sit there all day evaluating risks and costs. But nothing will happen if you do nothing. Don’t miss out on golden opportunities. Who knows, maybe it’ll lead you to your own Iceland adventure.