Here is a quick overview of some places to visit in Icelend and some very helpful information to have when traveling around Iceland.
Iceland - A photographers dream
The Overview - Things you need to know:
SAVE RECEIPTS TO SHOW AT THE AIRPORT TO GET TAXES REFUNDED - You must spend a certain amount at one time to qualify for a tax refund. Just ask the clerk at the store. They are very helpful and are familiar with the tax laws. Fill the forms in each time you get them. That will make turning them in at the airport a breeze. WARNING - turn in the receipts prior to checking your luggage on your return flight. They can/might ask to see the items you purchased.
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/individuals/travelling/travellers-leaving-eu/guide-vat-refund-visitors-eu_en
Use a credit card for every purchase. They are totally set up for that. We use Amazon Prime Visa Card because they don't charge an exchange rate.
T-Mobile worked great. We had better cell coverage there than at home.
If you want to go to Blue Lagoon (which you should), book it as soon as you book your airfare.
Cars travel on the same side of the road as the USA. It's very easy to drive in Iceland. The hardest thing about driving in Iceland is reading the road signs.
Most Icelanders speak English.
Google Maps works great to navigate around the island. (We have T-Mobile)
Be cautious about going onto farmland (especially where animals have been grazing). You will be asked about this at customs in the USA.
The words in Iceland are really phrases. If you know a few key words, it will help you find some places you might like to see.
Key words for tourists and photographers:
Foss - Waterfall
Jökull - GlacierLónið - Lagoon
Götu - StreetVegur - RoadBakarí - BakeryKaffi - CoffeeLakkris - Licorice (they put it in chocolate candy)
Food is expensive in Iceland. Save money by shopping at the local grocery stores. We found Bonus to have the best prices on basic groceries. Try their yogurt. It's really delicious. Bonus is also a fun place to find food gifts to take home. We took home American Doritos and plenty of chocolate candy bars. Some of the Icelandic candy bars have black licorice (lakkris) in them. I hear they are delicious.
https://www.bonus.is/
Shop at HAGKUP FOR UPSCALE GROCERIES, CLOTHES, MAKE UP, TOILETRIES, TOYS, BAKERY, READY TO EAT FOOD.
https://www.hagkaup.is/
THE HANDKNITTING ASSOCIATION OF ICELAND located in Reykjavic is the best place to buy yarn.
https://handknit.is/
Favorite Places:
Hallgrímskirkja Church - pay the money to ride the elevator to the top.
BRAUÐ & CO - Dave's favorite bakery. Everything there was delicious.
Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur - Amazing hot dogs. https://www.facebook.com/baejarinsbeztupylsur/
Golden Circle -
* Þingvellir (In Icelandic it begins with a P with a funny mark on it. That particular letter sound is a TH) National Park. One of it's claims to fame is that the North American continent and the Eurasian continents (the continental plates) meet here.
* Strokkur Geysir - The famous geysir that erupts every 5 to 10 minutes.
* Gullfoss - An amazing waterfall with two waterfall drops. http://gullfoss.is/
Eyjafjallajökull - Hiking up this glacier. This has to be a guided tour.
Blue Lagoon - Get your tickets as soon as you book your flight. http://www.bluelagoon.com/
Bucket List -
Go to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Reykjanes to check for Northern Lights
Iceland - day by day
Day 1 - Walking Reykjavik
We were pretty jet lagged when we arrived in Iceland. Since we didn't know what to expect on this trip, we chose to take the FlyBus from the airport to Hotel Natura (https://www.icelandairhotels.com/en/hotels/natura). (We now know that the rental cars are a walk across the parking lot, and the drive to Reykjavik is pretty easy as long as you take the time before hand to familiarize yourself with a few key words. Google Maps worked well to navigate us around the island.) Anyway, carrying on about our day, we got back to our hotel and took a nap. We spent the rest of the day walking around Reykjavik finding coffee, Te and Kaffi https://www.teogkaffi.is/ and a bakery, https://www.sandholt.is/ and http://www.braudogco.is/ are some of our favorite places. That day we ended up at Kvosin, a bakery and coffee shop. Of course, our first night was the only night that the Northern Lights were visible. We slept right through them. (I hear when the lights are visible, you can see them in the city. On a later trip we paid for a tour to see the Northern Lights. They drove us out of the city to get away from the city lights. We did see them, but it wasn't anything like the amazing photos that I've seen. The naked eye doesn't see the bright colors that the camera picks up.)
We spent quite a bit of time walking around looking for a famous hot dog stand that Dave had read about. All he knew was that is was near the bay front. It's a food cart type stand located between tall buildings so it's a bit difficult to find, but you get the benefit of a name and address. It’s very near Harpa, the concert hall on the waterfront. Anyway, the hot dogs were well worth the walk. We didn't have the benefit of using google maps on our first trip. T-Mobile has now changed their coverage so we had roaming at no additional charge (be sure to call them before your trip to set everything up). the http://www.bbp.is/ and Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur Tryggvatagata 1, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
Day 2 - Golden Circle
We were supposed to go on our glacier hike this day, but the winds were too heavy and so our trip was rescheduled. The wind didn't seem so bad to us and so we decided to get our rental car a day early and we set out on our own to see the Golden Circle. By the time we got to Gulfoss, we understood why hiking on a glacier wasn't the best idea for the day. We stopped to photograph this beautiful church along the way.
First stop – Þingvellir (In Icelandic it begins with a P with a funny mark on it. That particular letter sound is a TH) National Park. It is a place where the continental plates are pushing apart from each other. We didn't spend much time here, but I highly recommend walking down the trail and go across the bridge. The bathrooms there had an amazing view. This visitor center was very nice. There wasn’t any food, but it did have nice information and a nice gift shop. *We spent more time there on our second trip. You can see more photos on the Iceland with a kid page.
Second stop – Geyzir (pronounced gayz sure in Icelandic). There is one active geyzir that erupts about every 5 minutes. If you watch carefully, you can get a picture of the gorgeous blue bubble the precedes the huge eruption. Use a tripod and set your camera on high speed continuous shots to get a great combination of shots. The pool of water will be begin to form a bubble just before it's ready to erupt.
Third stop – Gulfoss – an epic waterfall. This is the second largest waterfall in Iceland. It’s amazing. Be sure to bring cloths to wipe your camera lens dry. The falls shoots off a lot of spray that isn’t very noticeable through the camera lens, but boy does it ever show up on your computer screen and prints. Those water spots are very tedious to Photoshop out. If you have crampons for your shoes, take them. Although now they close the path down to the water if it's icy. They didn't when we were there on this trip. There are several viewing places to take great shots of the waterfall so be sure to take the trails. There are many walking trails to get photos of the waterfalls from different angles. Because of time, we didn’t do the others on this trip. We were there on a nicer day on our second trip. You can see more photos from different angles on the other page.
There are bathrooms and gift shops at all three stops, and food at Geyzir and Gulfoss. Be ready to do quite a bit of walking and stair climbing. I highly recommend taking a rental car and doing a self-guided tour. It's very easy to find the places. If you see something you like at the gift shop, get it. I thought I could get it at all the shops, Not true. Gulfoss had my favorite gift shop.
Day 3 - Hiking the Glacier
To hike the glacier, you need to have go with an experienced guide. They will provide you with the proper equipment and training to be safe on the glacier. There are large cracks deep cracks in the glacier that drop all the way to the ocean water running underneath the ice. You don't want to fall into one of those clevises. I'm not sure how far in advance you need to book your tour. We booked ours when we bought our airline tickets. Dave and I aren't spring chickens and we aren't in the best shape, but we were able to do the hike without trouble. You need to have hiking boots (not shoes) for this tour.
Because of the storm the day before, the ice was gorgeous! When the ice is wet, it gets that beautiful blue hue. The black veins in the ice are made from the ash from the recent volcanic eruption. The combination of colors was absolutely stunning.
The ice has ravines and holes the go to the icy sea water running underneath the glacier. Extreme caution needs to be taken.
The tour bus stopped at two of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland, Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss. I think they are the most famous simply because of their proximity to Reykjavik. Take plenty of cloths to wipe off your camera lens because even in calm days, the spray from the falls get on the camera lens. On a windy day, you get doused.
We were on the tour bus and so we didn't get to make all the stops that we would have liked. There are caves that the farmers use as barns. Also, there are plenty of nice places to pull off the road and photograph the Icelandic horses. Be sure to stay on the road when you photograph them. Stepping onto the grassy area could cause you problems when answering the questions in customs. Also, DO NOT feed Icelandic horses anything! This is critical because if the horses get other food they quit eating the Icelandic hay, which is very course.
Day 4 - Reykjanes and Blue Lagoon
This peninsula is pretty close to Reykjavik. There are some beautiful churches, very old cemeteries, views of the rocky cliff coastlines, pastures of horses, acres of volcanic rock, lighthouses, and the bridge that crosses the mid-Atlantic ridge. After touring about for a while, we headed to Blue Lagoon.
Blue Lagoon is worth every penny. Be sure to book your spot when you book your airfare. Only a certain number of slots are open per day and they seem to book up quickly. Bring your own towel or robe unless you want to rent one from them. Also, inside the locker rooms are dispensers that look like soap dispensers. Look carefully to be sure you are using the correct one, but there is conditioner to put in your hair prior to getting in the water. DO THIS! I learned the hard way. I thought it was for after you get out of the water. The minerals in the water make your hair very dry.
The lagoon itself is pretty warm. We were there on an extremely cold and windy day so we hovered around the intake to be near the hottest water. There are places around the pool that have white mud on them. You use this on your face. The minerals are very good for your skin. Look for the waterfall and stand under it for a nice natural massage. Next time I go, I'm springing for a massage while floating in the water. There is a nice restaurant that overlooks the lagoon. We plan to spending an entire day at Blue Lagoon the next time we go to Iceland.
Day 5 - Exploring Reykjavic
We returned our rental car and spent the day walking around Reykjavic. We found out that we could ride up the elevator to the bell tower in the church. Do this. It doesn't cost very much and there are great views of the city from the top. If you take the stairs from the bell tower level, there are openings without windows to get much better photos. It can get extremely windy up there.
There are many murals painted on the buildings around the city. There are also some great photo opportunities along the bay front and Tjörnin, the lake in the center of the city. We came back to the city at night with our tripods and took some evening photos. There are three nice churches at are beautifully lit at night. Also, the park has lovely lighting.
Day 6 - Tjörnin before heading to the airport
Our flight didn't leave until afternoon and so we packed up so we were ready for the FlyBus and then walked to town to spend the rest of our time enjoying the city we grew to love. We had to get one more hot dog before we left so that was our first stop. We spent the rest of the time enjoying feeding the ducks and swans at the lake.
The FlyBus is a convenient way to travel to and from the airport, but since we tend to over pack for every trip we prefer to have our own rental car.
Speaking of over packing...we were going to Iceland so we had to take a bunch of gear for the cold, right? I only wore about 1/2 of the clothes that I took, but we did use our coats, hats, scarfs, and gloves. I couldn't keep my hands warm no matter what gloves I wore. I even bought a pair of wool mittens while I was there, but those didn't keep my hands warm either. Since we were taking the glacier hike, we had to bring our hiking boots. I will pack lightweight long or short sleeved t-shirts, two pairs of jeans (one for days of hiking that will get dirty and one for days of touring that should stay clean), my 32 degree long underwear, enough socks and underwear for each day, pajamas, a sweatshirt to wear over my lightweight shirts, a coat, and my swimsuit. Dress in layers. Re-wear the top layers. If I'm not going on the glacier tour, I would just bring two pairs of tennis shoes (one that can get wet) and a pair of shoes for the pools. Dave and I did invest in a pair of water socks so we can stand in the glacier water and not get cold. https://www.nrs.com/product/2347/nrs-boundary-socks-with-hydrocuff
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