Now on to our official Itinerary and all that we got to see on Days 1-5 of our Epic Iceland Adventure! Get ready for some fun pronunciation of these words! It was pretty hilarious listening to us try to say these long mouthfuls of Icelandic words!
Day 1: We left from Stuttgart Airport on a Thursday evening on WOW Air. This has us arriving at KEF around 11:30 pm. Our camper van company, Camp Easy included 2 free Fly Bus tickets in our rental. This bus will take you to a number of hotels throughout the Reykjavik area or to the Bus Station. We told the driver when we boarded that we wanted to go to the BSI Bus Station, because our Airbnb room was about a 8 minute walk from there.
So around 12:30 at night we finally found our Airbnb, which was pretty dumpy. It was messy, dirty, and the guy accidentally overbooked, meaning we slept on his filthy couches instead of the room we had originally booked online. Don't get me wrong, it was cheap and a place to lay our heads for the night, but not the best experience we have had with Airbnb. To top it off we were expecting one last good shower before we hit the road, and his shower was broken. I resigned to washing my hair in the sink, and at 9:00 sharp our camper company was there to pick us up! We were determined that this little hiccup would not ruin our trip! Other than the dirty house, everything worked like a dream!
Day 2: After we finalized all the paperwork, our van was ready and without our GPS we navigated ourselves to the nearest BONUS supermarket to stock up on groceries and snacks. Then it was time to hit the Golden Circle! The Golden Circle is a smaller loop that you can easily do in a day or less and many people opt to do this instead of tackling the larger Ring Road that skirts the entire island. From the Golden Circle, we drove the Ring Road Counterclockwise.
First stop, Oxar and Oxararfoss:
Next: Silfra- space where the continental plates are shifting and the dive site to dive between the plates
Pingvallavatn: Iceland's largest lake in the Pingvallir National Park
Geyser:
Gullfoss Waterfall:
Kerid Krater:
If you have time check out Gjain and Stong, we wished would would have checked them out! We drove through the town of Sellfoss.
Seljalandsfoss and Gljufurarbui:
Stayed the night in front of Eyjafjnallajokull Volcano:
Stopped at Solheimajokull Glacier view point:
Dyrholaey:
Reynisfjara and basalt colums:
Stopped in Vik for gas and some Icelandic food (lamb stew):
Lava Fields:
Fjardrargljufur Canyon:
Foss a Sidu and Dverghamrar: Basalt and home of some hidden people!
Drove through the Sandur, which is a flat and empty land full of sand and silt:
Camped out side of Skaftafell National Park in front of the Svinafellsjokull Glacier view entrance. If you camp inside Skaftafell this is a paid campsite.
Day 4: The next morning, we paid $5 for the coldest showers at the Skaftafell National Park.
Hiked out to Skaftafellsjokull:
Hiked up to Svartifoss Waterfall:
Svinafellsjokull:
Fjallsarlon Iceberg Lagoon: Forgive my endless amount of pictures, but it was just so breathtaking!
Jokulsarlon: Larger Iceberg Lagoon:
Black Sand Beach with washed up icebergs!
Driving through the Southeast part of Iceland:
Stopped in Hofn for some gas and a nice Icelandic Hot Dog. We drove around the town and checked it out!
Saw some lovely Icelandic Horses on our way out of Hofn.
Time to head towards the East Fjords! We drove through beautiful Scenery and Lagoons surrounded by 2 large peaks. Then we hit the fjords so prepare to weave in and out of those lovely suckers!
We drove through Djupivogur town and Fjord to Breiddalsvik town and small Fjord. Shortly after this village we found a pull off point with mountains jutting up on one side and cliffs looking down to the sea on the other side. It was quiet and kind of scary at the same time. We made our meal, watched the sunset, and soaked in God's beauty.
Day 5: Up early we set off to see more of the East Fjords. This is where we detoured off of the Ring Road. If you followed the Ring Road it would divert you inland to Egilsstadir. We wanted to see more quaint villages, wildlife, and fjords, so we detoured along HWY 96 to Stodvarfjordur, weaving up to Faskrudsfjordur, until we reached Reydarfjordur. This was a nice hour-ish long drive weaving in and out of fjords, seeing mountains, and since it was early, not seeing a car or person in sight.
At Reydarfjordur we transitioned to HWY 92 which took us up to Egilsstadir. We wanted to take the mountain pass to Seydisfjordur, so we took HWY 93 that direction. This was quite gem and one of our favorite little villages with lots of waterfalls, scenery, and sheep on the way there.
Back in Egilsstadir we found a Bonus and got some more groceries and gas and reconnected with the Ring Road or Route 1.
This is where we started driving into the NORTH part of Iceland. It was a very mars-like scenery and not many pull off points for several hours. We drove until we hit the Jokulsargljufu National Park the northern section of Vatnajokull National Park.
Dettifoss Waterfall and smaller Selfoss:
Continued along the gravel road to Asbyrgi a large canyon.
This was a diversion off the ring road that landed us on HWY 85 to drive the peninsula toward Husavik. We had gorgeous sunset views as we drove. Husavik is THE town for whale watching and tours, but we did our tour out of Dalvik, so this isn't the only town where tours are offered.
From Husavik we connected to another gravely highway HWY 87 that spit us out in the Myvatn Region. We found a pull off and made dinner and went to sleep, where we were awoken by a local kicking us off the private property OOPS! So we drove a few minutes up the road and paid to camp in the Bjarg campsite. This entire area is protected so if you are staying in Myvatn just pay to camp to avoid any issues. Good news, we got hot showers the next morning!
Day 6: The Myvatn region is full of nasty knat like bugs that are apparently good for the areas wildlife and several people wore nets over their heads to avoid the annoying buggers. It is also a geothermal area so don't mind the strong sulfur smells all around you!
Krafla Viti Crater:
Krafla Geothermal Area:
Leirhnjukur Lava Field:
Hverir:
Grjotagja Cave: Cave in Game of Thrones- wouldn't let us get in the hot waters, but apparently you can hike to another hot cave called Storage.
Dimmuborgir Lava Formations:
Gassed up at Reykjahlid (main town in Myvatn area) and headed over to the Myvatn Nature Baths to soak in the thermal sulfur waters for a few hours!
Back on Route 1 we stopped to see Godafoss Waterfall:
We drove the Ring Road until we reached Akureyri- the capitol of the North. This town was super cute and the largest in the North. We wished we had more time to explore it, but we continued driving until we found a pull off area to camp. We camped right outside of Dalvik and had a wonderful Ocean view while we made our dinner for the night.
Day 1: We left from Stuttgart Airport on a Thursday evening on WOW Air. This has us arriving at KEF around 11:30 pm. Our camper van company, Camp Easy included 2 free Fly Bus tickets in our rental. This bus will take you to a number of hotels throughout the Reykjavik area or to the Bus Station. We told the driver when we boarded that we wanted to go to the BSI Bus Station, because our Airbnb room was about a 8 minute walk from there.
Leaving Stuttgart!
So around 12:30 at night we finally found our Airbnb, which was pretty dumpy. It was messy, dirty, and the guy accidentally overbooked, meaning we slept on his filthy couches instead of the room we had originally booked online. Don't get me wrong, it was cheap and a place to lay our heads for the night, but not the best experience we have had with Airbnb. To top it off we were expecting one last good shower before we hit the road, and his shower was broken. I resigned to washing my hair in the sink, and at 9:00 sharp our camper company was there to pick us up! We were determined that this little hiccup would not ruin our trip! Other than the dirty house, everything worked like a dream!
Day 2: After we finalized all the paperwork, our van was ready and without our GPS we navigated ourselves to the nearest BONUS supermarket to stock up on groceries and snacks. Then it was time to hit the Golden Circle! The Golden Circle is a smaller loop that you can easily do in a day or less and many people opt to do this instead of tackling the larger Ring Road that skirts the entire island. From the Golden Circle, we drove the Ring Road Counterclockwise.
First stop, Oxar and Oxararfoss:
Oxar
Pingvallavatn: Iceland's largest lake in the Pingvallir National Park
Geyser:
Gullfoss Waterfall:
Kerid Krater:
If you have time check out Gjain and Stong, we wished would would have checked them out! We drove through the town of Sellfoss.
Seljalandsfoss and Gljufurarbui:
Stayed the night in front of Eyjafjnallajokull Volcano:
Day 3:
Drove to Skogar and saw Skogarfoss:
Breakfast in front of a Volcano!
Skogarfoss
We hiked behind Skogarfoss for a while seeing more waterfalls and Volcano views. This hike would have been awesome to complete, but we didn't have time. Next time we are doing a full on hiking/camping trip! Stopped at Solheimajokull Glacier view point:
Touching Ice!
Dyrholaey:
Reynisfjara and basalt colums:
Stopped in Vik for gas and some Icelandic food (lamb stew):
Lava Fields:
Fjardrargljufur Canyon:
Foss a Sidu and Dverghamrar: Basalt and home of some hidden people!
Foss a Sidu
Exploring Dverghammar
Drove through the Sandur, which is a flat and empty land full of sand and silt:
Bridge Memorial in the Sandur
Camped out side of Skaftafell National Park in front of the Svinafellsjokull Glacier view entrance. If you camp inside Skaftafell this is a paid campsite.
Day 4: The next morning, we paid $5 for the coldest showers at the Skaftafell National Park.
Hiked out to Skaftafellsjokull:
Hiked up to Svartifoss Waterfall:
Svinafellsjokull:
Great Wall in Game of Thrones
Fjallsarlon Iceberg Lagoon: Forgive my endless amount of pictures, but it was just so breathtaking!
Do you spy Ryan?
Jokulsarlon: Larger Iceberg Lagoon:
Hello, Seal!
Ryan eating Ice
Black Sand Beach with washed up icebergs!
Hey there cutie!
Buddies!
Just playing around out here!
Driving through the Southeast part of Iceland:
Sheepies!
Sheeps!
Stopped in Hofn for some gas and a nice Icelandic Hot Dog. We drove around the town and checked it out!
Saw some lovely Icelandic Horses on our way out of Hofn.
Time to head towards the East Fjords! We drove through beautiful Scenery and Lagoons surrounded by 2 large peaks. Then we hit the fjords so prepare to weave in and out of those lovely suckers!
We drove through Djupivogur town and Fjord to Breiddalsvik town and small Fjord. Shortly after this village we found a pull off point with mountains jutting up on one side and cliffs looking down to the sea on the other side. It was quiet and kind of scary at the same time. We made our meal, watched the sunset, and soaked in God's beauty.
View from our campsite
Campsite view
Camp site for the night
Ryan relaxing with his oceanside view!
Our camping neighbors!
Day 5: Up early we set off to see more of the East Fjords. This is where we detoured off of the Ring Road. If you followed the Ring Road it would divert you inland to Egilsstadir. We wanted to see more quaint villages, wildlife, and fjords, so we detoured along HWY 96 to Stodvarfjordur, weaving up to Faskrudsfjordur, until we reached Reydarfjordur. This was a nice hour-ish long drive weaving in and out of fjords, seeing mountains, and since it was early, not seeing a car or person in sight.
At Reydarfjordur we transitioned to HWY 92 which took us up to Egilsstadir. We wanted to take the mountain pass to Seydisfjordur, so we took HWY 93 that direction. This was quite gem and one of our favorite little villages with lots of waterfalls, scenery, and sheep on the way there.
Seydisfjordur in the distance
Seydisfjordur
Blue Church in Seydisfjordur
Cute little cafe with yummy food!
Back in Egilsstadir we found a Bonus and got some more groceries and gas and reconnected with the Ring Road or Route 1.
This is where we started driving into the NORTH part of Iceland. It was a very mars-like scenery and not many pull off points for several hours. We drove until we hit the Jokulsargljufu National Park the northern section of Vatnajokull National Park.
Dettifoss Waterfall and smaller Selfoss:
Dettifoss
Drove a terribly long 30 mile gravely pot holed road and thought we may die to Vesturdalur to see craters and crazy basalt lava formations at Hljodaklettar and Raudholar (short hikes to both locations).
Vesturdalur
Continued along the gravel road to Asbyrgi a large canyon.
This was a diversion off the ring road that landed us on HWY 85 to drive the peninsula toward Husavik. We had gorgeous sunset views as we drove. Husavik is THE town for whale watching and tours, but we did our tour out of Dalvik, so this isn't the only town where tours are offered.
Husavik
Campsite in Myvatn
Day 6: The Myvatn region is full of nasty knat like bugs that are apparently good for the areas wildlife and several people wore nets over their heads to avoid the annoying buggers. It is also a geothermal area so don't mind the strong sulfur smells all around you!
Krafla Viti Crater:
Krafla Geothermal Area:
Leirhnjukur Lava Field:
Hverir:
steaming vents
Namafjall Mountain: attempted to hike up this steep mountain and I freaked out!
Lake Myvatn
Grjotagja Cave: Cave in Game of Thrones- wouldn't let us get in the hot waters, but apparently you can hike to another hot cave called Storage.
Hot Cave pool as seen in Game of Thrones! John Snow anyone?
View of the Lake from our Campsite
Mini Craters in the Lake:
Hverfell Crater:
Dimmuborgir Lava Formations:
Gassed up at Reykjahlid (main town in Myvatn area) and headed over to the Myvatn Nature Baths to soak in the thermal sulfur waters for a few hours!
Nature Baths and relaxing!
Nature Baths
Back on Route 1 we stopped to see Godafoss Waterfall:
We drove the Ring Road until we reached Akureyri- the capitol of the North. This town was super cute and the largest in the North. We wished we had more time to explore it, but we continued driving until we found a pull off area to camp. We camped right outside of Dalvik and had a wonderful Ocean view while we made our dinner for the night.
Akureyri
Campsite Views
Campsite Views
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