- Sarah Marlatt
- Oct 9, 2019
- 3 min read
A little trip to Iceland in January from the 23rd to 27th. Here is the story...
Day 1
Reykjavik and Hallgrimskirkja
Spent our first day exploring the city and getting settled in for the next couple of days. Explored Hallgrimskirkja church, listened to the beautiful organ music and had the opportunity to go to the top and see the view of the city. The city centre is very quaint with many small souvenir and local shops.
Warning when travelling to Iceland, be prepared to spend a lot of money.
The way to avoid this was by getting a cheap airbnb and buying groceries the first day. Making packed lunches for when were out, which was very handy and meant that we could be out all day no problem. We also rented a car which took away any extra costs on any bus tours. Only thing that that we ended up spending a large amount on was the Blue Lagoon, which is worth it.
Airbnb: £350
Car rental: £200
Petrol: £100
Groceries: £80
Blue Lagoon: £180
Souvenirs: £50
Trip cost: Priceless
Day 2
Blue Lagoon in the morning
We started our second day by relaxing in the beautiful Blue Lagoon. We spent a couple hours there, part of it in the lagoon itself and the other wandering around taking pictures. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal pool located in the heart of the Reykjanes UNESCO Geopark. The water is heated up by the internal heat of the earth. With some areas being hotter than others, it is an amazing experience. Along with our tickets, you get a silica mud mask and a drink from the pool bar.
Afternoon journey to Skogafoss and DC 3 Plane Wreckage
After our fantastic experience in the morning we headed out on a bit of a journey driving about 2 hours along the southeast coast. We soaked up the volcanic mountain landscape and waterfalls (foss) along the way. Our goal location being the famous Skogafoss and the DC3 plane wreckage alongside the black sand beach. We made it just in time to see Skogafoss in the day light. Unfortunately, we didn't realise that to get to the DC3 we would have to walk 7km. We did it in the bitter cold as the sun was setting. It was a big open flat field area, it was so windy and cold. We ended up walking and seeing it but once we got to the plane is was pretty much dark, maybe a little light in the background. We weren't able to really get the photo we wanted but we got a few and made do with what we got. It was quite the adventure. This wasn't the end of our day as we still had just under a 2 hour drive back to our Airbnb. It ended up being a very interesting drive back, driving through the snowy mountains. We got back no problem and was absolutely exhausted. We were going to try and got out to see the northern lights but ended up falling asleep.
Day 3
Pingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss
We had a bit of a lay in as we were in no rush to get anywhere today. Had a few plans but they weren't to far. We eventually got ourselves up had a good breakfast and made our way on the road. We travelled along through the Pingvellir National park, stopping at many waterfalls like Oxararfoss. We stopped at a nice pit stop area that had an amazing 360 view of white mountains and landscapes. Our main location to get to was Geysir and Gullfoss.
Northern Lights
We went back to the spot we passed earlier that day just outside of the city and it was perfect. Not much light pollution and big open skies above the mountain peaks. We got there around 1030-11 ish at night I think we ended up sitting there for about 15-20 minutes and they appeared! Not only did they appear but so did 2 coach buses full of people to look at them too. We ended up having to move our vehicle over so that the tour buses could get in.
Check out our video below!
