Glaciers, Waterfalls & City Streets: Iceland Trip Recap | Jo-Lynne Shane

Then there are some really interesting landmarks, most notably the geometric glass Harpa concert hall on the waterfront and Hallgrímskirkja, the iconic hilltop church overlooking the city. Iceland really is a fascinating mix of modern life and deep history. If we ever come back, I’d love to see the Iceland Symphony Orchestra perform at Harpa and visit the Alþingi, the world’s oldest parliament, founded in 930.

Since we were only in Reykjavík for a day, I tried to make the most of it, and we took advantage of the many shops with locally made gifts and outerwear. I bought a knit hat and head wrap, which I immediately put to good use as we explored the city. The temperatures in Iceland are deceiving. With the wind and off-and-on rain showers, it often felt 10–20 degrees colder than what my Weather app suggested.

I also found an Icelandic wool sweater and a beautiful piece of pottery by a local artisan to bring home, and Paul bought a few pieces of Icewear, one of Iceland’s locally designed brands of outerwear.

Visiting the Hallgrímskirkja church was also a highlight. It is such an imposing structure, which you can see from almost every point in town. When we got close, I was overwhelmed by its size and the attention to detail.

It was designed by a local architect, inspired by the basalt lava columns that are found in many parts of Iceland. Here’s a photo we took at ‎⁨Reynisfjara Beach near Vik a couple days later, to see what I mean.

Overall, we found Reykjavík to be very walkable and easy to explore on foot. It also isn’t very large, so you can pretty much see it all in an afternoon—or in our case, just one morning. If we ever go back, I’ll look into taking a walking tour so we can get more information about the history and architecture.

After exploring the city on our own, we went back to our room to take a nap before our Food Walk later that afternoon. That worked out perfectly to serve as an early dinner. We ate at five local restaurants, including the hot dog cart beside our hotel, and our guide, Ben, was a wealth of information and so much fun. We really enjoyed getting to know him, as well as learning more about the food and culture of Iceland.

After that, we were afraid to go to sleep too early, so we went back out to Hús Máls og Menningar—a bar with live music every night by The Bookstore Band. Paul ran across them when he was here before, so we looked them up, and they are absolutely amazing. Evidently they play every night there, and since it was a weeknight, it wasn’t terribly crowded, although it filled up as the night went on. We stayed out way too late, but we couldn’t bear to leave. Every song they played was better than the last, and they got the audience involved in a way I’ve never seen before. It was a blast, and a great way to end our first day in Iceland!

Day 2

We were up bright and early the next day to meet our guide. We planned the trip with Whirlaway Travel (highly recommend), which provides a private guide in each destination, which is always such a treat. Our guide, Sigrún, was wonderful—laid back, easy to talk with, and a wealth of information.

We hopped in the car and started making our way east along the South Shore toward the town of Vík, where we had an ice cave excursion planned for the afternoon. Along the way, we stopped to see the hot steam rising from the ground in ‎⁨Ölfus⁩ and two of Iceland’s most iconic waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss.

In Vík, we ate lunch at the acclaimed Black Crust Pizzeria, which turned out to be some of the most delicious pizza I’ve ever had. The crust is literally black, inspired by the black sand beaches of the South Coast. They use activated charcoal to give the dough the color of volcanic ash, and many of the toppings were unique to the area. We chose one that seemed most similar to our American pizza, which included pepperoni sausage, cream cheese, cherry tomato, homemade date pesto, and fresh basil. It was so good, we stopped again for lunch on our way back to Reykjavik yesterday.

After that, we had an ice cave excursion that involved riding in a “Super Jeep” across a black volcanic sand desert to Kötlujökull Glacier, which covers the Katla Volcano. From there, we put on helmets and crampons and hiked up the glacier to explore a natural ice cave. It was very cool, but the weather got really ugly during our climb back down, and I was happy to be back on even ground and walking without crampons.

We stopped at Reynisfjara Beach on our way to our next hotel, where we would stay for just one night. It was windy and cold, but I’m glad we took the time to see the towering basalt columns that inspired the church in Reykjavík as well as the famous black sand beach.

The Umi Hotel was small and secluded but charming, with decor inspired by the surrounding nature and Icelandic colors. It also has views of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and Svaðbælisá river. Such a pretty spot! The restaurant was also quite good, and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner after a long day of outdoor excursions in inclement weather.

Day 3

The next morning, we headed back to Vík for a Thakgil Buggy Adventure. Both of these off-roads adventures were with Katlatrack Adventure Tours, if you’re ever interested in booking one! This one involved suiting up in protective gear and driving open-air dune buggies off-road through Þakgil Canyon.

It sounded like fun, but the weather had turned extremely cold and windy, and the gear ended up being more than I could handle. I started to feel claustrophobic once the helmet was on, so I stayed back with Sigrún while Paul went off with the Katlatrack guide. He had a blast and came back saying it was the best fun a guy could have. I was glad he got to experience it, even though I didn’t care to.

When I backed out, I just planned to sit in the pizza shop with my laptop, but Sigrún had a better idea. She took me to a quirky little coffee shop inside a converted school bus called Skool Beans Café. Evidently it’s become quite the hot spot in the area. It was a cozy spot on a rainy day, and we had such a good time chatting and getting to know each other better. The coffee was delicious too!

Afterward, we had time to shop at the IceWear Outlet, where I picked up a few more gifts and souvenirs, before meeting back up with Paul for lunch. We ate at the Smiðjan Brugghús in Vik, a brewhouse also known for their burgers, and it was truly one of the best I’ve ever had. Honestly, almost all of the food we had in Iceland was amazing.

We spent most of the afternoon driving east toward our next destination, and along the way, we stopped to wander through these moss-covered lava fields.

Finally, we reached Diamond Beach, which is a stretch of black volcanic sand where blocks of ice from the glacier drift ashore, sparkling in the sunlight like scattered diamonds. I wish I’d gotten a better shot from further back on the beach. It was so cool.

After taking that in, we crossed over to the famous Glacier Lagoon, where massive icebergs break off from the famous Vatnajökull Glacier and slowly float through the lagoon before drifting out to sea. Both were absolutely surreal, and we lingered for a while, just enjoying at the scenery.

That evening we checked into the Glacier Lagoon Hotel, which was my favorite hotel of the trip, and I was so glad we got to spend two nights there. It has an outdoor area with hot tubs and a sauna, which looked enticing, but we were too tired to rally. Instead, we relaxed by the bar and enjoyed the incredible views through the wall of windows.

We enjoyed dinner at their Gunna á Leiti restaurant, and then headed back to our room to catch up with the kids and turn in early. It had been a long day, and we knew we had a strenuous hike ahead of us the next morning.

Day 4

We met Sigrún the next morning and headed to the nearby Múlagljúfur Canyon Hike, a trail along the edge of this picturesque canyon with views of the glacier and two waterfalls. It was challenging, but doable, and the scenery all along the way was amazing.

There are a few spots you can stop that offer amazing views, so it isn’t necessary to go all the way to the top to enjoy the hike, but we really wanted to make it, so we pushed on, and I’m so glad we did. It was a great sense of accomplishment. Sadly, fog rolled in as we arrived so the views weren’t quiet as spectacular as we hoped, but we still enjoyed sitting there for a while and taking it all in. That was a huge drop-off behind us, overlooking the canyon.

Once we were back down, we went back to the nearby Glacier Lagoon, where there are restrooms and some food trucks. I had fish and chips and an Icelandic beer for lunch… I know, who am I??? I don’t drink beer, but it seemed appropriate. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the Glacier Lagoon Hotel, and we ate dinner there again that night.

Day 5

Yesterday, we headed back to Reykjavik, stopping in Vik along the way for one more Black Crust Pizza. It was about a 5-hour drive, all together, but we made a stop to tour the Caves of Hella—manmade caves that have been uncovered and studied and are now open to viewing. Some believe they date further back than the settlement of the Nordic Vikings. It was all very interesting, but I also enjoyed the farmland and seeing his Icelandic horses up close. It was a beautiful day, crisp and sunny without much wind, a nice day for a drive with a few stops along the way.

We stayed at the Konsulat Hotel in Reykjavik again last night, and then we wandered around the city for a bit before having dinner at an amazing seafood/sushi restaurant nearby called Fish Market. It looked quite unassuming from the outside, but the interior was very cool and fancy, and the food (a creative fusion of seafood and Japanese flavors) was amazing. We did a tasting menu so we could get a good variety of what they have to offer, and I would 100% do it again. They even had a 3-glass wine pairing that went along with it, which was perfect. All in all, a great way to end this portion of our trip.

Then we were up bright and early this morning to fly to Glasgow for the next phase! I’ll be sharing more about our adventures in Scotland in another post.

There’s so much more I could tell you, and I have so many more photos, but I think this is long enough for this post! I’ll share a few more when I post what I wore on our trip next week, and you can check out what all we brought to brave this ever-changing climate in my His and Hers Iceland Packing List.