Iceland in 7 days
The best word to describe Iceland is strange. With 24 hours of sunlight, less than 1% of trees, volcano fields galore, you can only imagine the list goes on and on only with an addition of 2 also strange Canadian girls living off of oatmeal, ramen, and when they were spoiled KD and chips this particular week! The spontaneity and pure beauty of this trip are just a couple reasons it felt so special to be in Iceland, but I don’t feel the need to ever go back now that I have seen all I need to see. When planning this trip, definitely budget for a lot more than you think!
fun fact: prior to deforestation Icelands land mass was 40% trees, compared to the 2% today — hence the mars-esque looking terrain!
Saturday, May 27th
Would you believe me if I told you we loosely planned this trip on the plane ride over? Believe it or not, it’s true! Having a few main stops we for sure wanted to make and leaving the rest for a surprise was what really made this trip its own. We seriously were taking this trip one adventure at a time!
Once we arrived in Iceland, after a $15 slice of airport pizza, our first stop was to collect our home for the week. We found our camper van company, Kuku Campers, and right away set out for who even knew what! We started with a gas station for a snack and a SIM card and debated taking a nap in the parking lot as the jet lag already started to creep up on us. Once we did a little more research, we decided to head to Glymur Waterfall, what looked to be an easy walk out and a potentially great place to nap!
After catching a few zzz’s we walked 4km total to a very underwhelming viewpoint of the waterfall. We saw a few people trek down towards the stream but we really weren’t looking for anything that crazy just yet! We decided to find a camp for the night to get a good nights rest and continue the adventures tomorrow.
tip: use the Kuku Camper Maps for finding main attractions and camping sites nearby!
⌂Hverinn Tjaldsvaedi Campground
☆ Glymur Waterfall
Sunday, May 28th
Sunday was simple. We started on the road to end up where we could end up, and our first stop was Selasetur Islands, Icelandic Seal Center. Even though our hearts were broken from our sealless experience, we got some great photos on the water.
Since I was a kid anytime my parents got lost driving we would always say “we’re not lost, we’re going on an adventure!” and that’s exactly the mindset of Sunday. One wrong turn from my lack of directions led us to this very remote hot springs that we got all to ourselves! It was run by a very sweet elderly man who even let us use the kitchen house for the few turf cabins he rented out as well. If you can, definitely try and head here!
⌂ Husavik Campground 15 per person
☆Grettislaug Hot Springs $20 per person
☆Selasetur Islands, Icelandic Seal Center
Monday, May 29th
Everyone has heard of the blue lagoon, but not so many people have heard of the Myvatn Lakes! Equally as teal, and equally swimmable, only a small portion of the cost. Nearby the Nature Baths, is the Viti Crater also known as Krafla. A small 400m hike up and you can admire the teal, egg smelling water that fills the crater and not to mention the drive up has some unique views as well! After exploring the volcano, we decided to check out the Leirhnjúkur Lava Fields where you will find endless lengths of hardened magma from the eruption of Krafla in 1975.
tip: remember not to take any hardened magma — it’s against the law!
The next stop we made was at Dettifos. Again, a short walk in to a great viewpoint of the massive waterfall, around 4-5km. We got extra lucky in that we chose maybe the windiest day of all time to head here and realized what they meant by “Icelandic sand storms”. Lucky for us our eyes got exfoliated with blowing rock debris and we really got to test out our wind breakers.
After almost being taken away in a debris tornado, we decided to find a place to rest our heads for the night. We found a small farm that would hopefully be out of the wind that looked very quaint and sweet. Once we pulled up, it felt like we were in the movie Midsommar and at any moment we would see a man wearing a bear suit in a burning turf hose. Luckily for us this wasn’t the case. We parked the van and went to the little hobbit looking cook house and made very gourmet ramen noodles, and treated ourselves to a bottle of wine where we met a pair of European cousins doing a similar trip to ourselves! We put on some cozy clothes and all headed on a walk around the farm to take photos. This night, we stayed up until 0300AM roughly and the photos above are as dark as it ever got!
tip: if you want to avoid crowds, sleep during the Iceland “day” and adventure at night
tip #2: if you are driving a vehicle with AWD definitely stop at Borgarfjarðarhöfn for AMAZING and remote puffin spottings on your way out of the farm!
⌂Fjallakaffi Farm Camping 15CAD
⌂Fjallakaffi Breakfast 25CAD
☆Myvatn Nature Baths
☆Krafla Volcano
☆Viti Crater
☆Leirhnjúkur Lava Fields
☆Detifoss
Tuesday, May 30th
Tuesday we decided that we were now off roading experts and really wanted to see what our van could do. After at least 20mins of bumps, lumps, and cliff side driving, we made it to the parking lot. Despite Iceland being extremely windy, you WILL get a sunburn! So make sure you pack your sunscreen or you’ll end up like myself, hot and bothered and all in the worst ways possible!
tip: if you type Stuðlagil Canyon into maps you will likely come up to the main lookout point on the opposite side of the columns. This is good if you just want to see the canyon but if you want to explore into it, make sure to head to the East Side Parking Lot
After our day of hiking and exploring what felt like a scene from Lord of the Rings, we found ourselves in the small town of Djupivogur. Here we set up camp, made some dinner in the cook house, and had showers!! Well, attempted to have showers. To our luck, the showers we paid for only wanted to drizzle ice water onto us so instead, a bird bath in the sink was had.
tip for this campsite: make sure you visit “Hotel Framtid” for all booking inquiries as we had a lot of trouble trying to use the booking QR code!
⌂ Djupivogur Waterfront Camping 18CAD
☆ Stuðlagil Canyon
Wednesday, May 31st
Wednesday was one of, in the most literal sense, coolest days! We started our day by exploring the town of Djupivogur where we set up camp the night before, wandering the waterfront and capturing a heard of reindeer running through town!
fun fact: Icealnd has roughly 3,000 reindeer in the NorthEast and Eastern regions
at Glacier Lagoon
Next, we were off to Glacier Lagoon which was one of the prettiest drives yet, winding through mountain ranges and lake sides. Once we got to the Lagoon we did not leave for at least a couple hours! The bright blue glaciers floating amongst one another was breath taking, not to mention the seals and ducks that were happily swimming around as well. Just down the road from the Lagoon is Diamond Beach which is exactly what it sounds like! Chunks of glacier wash up onto the black beach and look like sparkling diamonds that were placed there by the water itself. This was also a great spot for seal watching!
tip: again, don’t forget your sunscreen! Sun reflects a lot more than you think!
After our ice filled day, we headed into Vik where we spent the night at one of our favourite campgrounds all trip where we had the best showers of our lives! Not only were we cleaner than we’ve been all trip, we were mountain side meaning no wind!
⌂ Vik Mydral Camping 15CAD
☆ Glacier Lagoon
☆ Diamond Beach
Thursday, June 1st
Thursday was a very impromptu travel day. We started our day at the Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool, which happened to be filled with a high school group from Mexico led by a local Icelandic man who was very kind, chatty, and had immense knowledge on Iceland! After we did our dips and made a friend we headed to the world famous Reynisfjara Black Beach. Here we got to see incredible pillars, caves, and rocks. After we did a walk along the beach we wanted to try and see some puffins! We hopped in the car and headed up to the Dyrhólaey Lighthouse where we went for a short walk with incredible over views of the beach.
tip: to use the washrooms here is paid! So make sure you go in Vik if you have to!
After our “beach” morning, we headed back into Vik to grab some snacks from the grocery store and started researching some nearby things we wanted to see for the rest of the day. We REALLY wanted to see some puffins so we found an island called Vestmannaeyjar where was said to have great puffin nesting sights! We decided to give it a go and wait for the next available ferry, While waiting we stopped at the very popular Skógafoss. Despite this foss being beautiful, it was extremely crowded and you had to pay to park and view!
fun fact: foss = waterfall
Heading to Vestmannaeyjar Island was a short ferry ride that was perfect for editing photos and taking in the views around us. That is, if it was a clear day. As we got closer to the ferry we entered a very thick wall of fog but that wasn’t going to stop us. How could we go to Iceland and not see a puffin?! Once we got there we felt like we were in a scary movie. The houses were older, the fog was thick, and the sheep were looking at us all in the wrong way! Not to mention the black Heimaey Stave Church (Stafkirkjan) that we happened to stumble across. Throughout this spooky town, we did end up finding puffins, at the Puffin Lookout and more or less had them all to ourselves! Once we saw our puffins and had about enough eerie island for our lives, we hopped on the last ferry back to the main island where we found a small camp to stay at. For this trip we didn’t bring a cent of paper money with us and the credit machines weren’t working at the camp we stayed at, similar to the gas station nearby so the kind lady let us have our 4 hour sleep for free!
⌂ free camping
☆Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool
☆ Reynisfjara Black Beach
☆ Dyrhólaey Lighthouse
☆ Skógafoss
☆ Vestmannaeyjar Islands 84CAD round trip
Friday, June 2nd
Friday was a more tame day for us. We booked our flights home and were reminiscing on the trip we just got to experience together. Originally we were going to go home Sunday but more or less had seen everything we wanted so decided on leaving Saturday instead. For our final full day we hiked up to Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River, about an 8km round out and back. This spot was buzzing with people but the river stretched on for what seemed like forever so it didn’t feel as busy as it was.
fun fact: the further up you go, the hotter the water is!
The campsite we stayed at this night was in the small town of Vogar in a field beside a soccer field and aquatic centre. The showers were warm and the cooking house was full of friendly people and food for sharing.
⌂ Vogar camping 15CAD
☆Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River (Reykjadalur gönguleið) 10CAD (parking)
Saturday, June 3rd
