Iceland: Land of Fire & Ice

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All post-trip commentary will be in bold!

ICELAND VIA RING ROAD

Click the icons above to see the first and second half of our trip to Iceland!

Smart to get some currency (króna), but most places take cards here! The more remote places you go, the more likely you will need cash. We brought $100 each, and that was more than enough.

March 12th:

Depart JFK 7:25pm

March 13th

Arrive KEF 6:05am
- Right at sunrise!
Take shuttle to rental car spot
- Once you get through customs and enter the arrivals hall you will see a sign for Car Rental Shuttle Service and the logo for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Take the shuttle to the car rental center where Enterprise will be the fourth stop on the route.
  - Shuttle service: Skutluþjónusta
  - Car rental: Bílaleiga
- Reservation already booked with full coverage (Ring Road can be unpredictable, especially in the winter)
I am from Minnesota, and the first time feeling the Icelandic air at 6am during their winter season was brutal. No MN winters could prepare me for this. However, the shuttle was only a few minutes outside of the airport doors. Once there, the shuttle picked us up and brought us right to the rental cars! Make sure you read the signs as listed above so you are in the correct spot to get shuttled to the rental car area.
Begin drive to Reykjavik (45 min East)
BLUE LAGOON – The Blue Lagoon would technically be considered on the way to Reykjavik. IF YOU WANT A REAL AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE SKIP THIS. It is overpriced and not a true local hot spring. If you want the classic tourist experience go for it, but if you want the real deal Icelandic experience, go to the hot springs we went to in Akureyri later on this trip.
Arrive around 8am and explore Reykjavik!
- Hallgrímskirkja – Iconic church; take the elevator for city views for $10-$12. We ended up looking at it from the outside, but wanted to save some money and skipped going in!
- Sun Voyager (Sólfar) – Quick, scenic photo stop by the water.
- Harpa Concert Hall – Striking glass architecture
- Old Harbour – Walk the waterfront, cafés, whale tour departures (will not have time to do any whale tours)
- Perlan – Observation deck + interactive Iceland exhibits. $40-$50 each… We ended up skipping this as well. The point of going to Iceland is to see the unforgiving nature in all its beauty… Not to see a fake exhibit of what it looks like. We wanted to see it in person!!
- Food!!!
  - Sandholt
    - Phenomenal bakery with very reasonable prices (food can be pricey in Iceland due to high import costs) (it will be expensive if you get entrees, we fueled up on just carbs and it was about $5-$10 each).
    - I am not going to lie to you guys, our goal was not to come to Iceland for the food. If you are going to Iceland for that, you picked the wrong country. With limited local agriculture, the food is extremely mid, and as mentioned before, super expensive. With that being said, I will not be recommending on a ton of restaurants on this itinerary.
    - GET GAS STATION HOT DOGS!!!
      - An absolute classic in Iceland, and extremely affordable
      - They are made from a blend of lamb, pork, and beef, and they are typically ordered “eina með öllu” (one with everything, although you do not need to pick this). “eina með öllu” features ketchup, sweet brown mustard, remoulade, and both raw and crispy fried onions.
    - Load up on groceries at “Bonus” (grocery store with a big pig as the logo)! They have these all over Iceland, and we saved a lot of money getting out food from them. Super fun trying out different foods and brands. One thing we noticed is that pretty much all of the energy drinks didn’t go above 100mg of caffeine.
Begin the real adventure and see what the hype of Iceland is all about! The Ring Road technically begins here in the capital of Iceland. Leave around 10am.
- If your goal is to see nature in Iceland (which should be everyones…), you do not need much more than a day here in the capital. We only spent a few hours and definitely could have stayed longer, but we were itching to get out and adventure.
First official stop: Troll Waterfalls (Fossatún)(Right next to the Fossatun Rock N Troll Bistro and Cafe) (had some cool souvenirs/gifts that we bought here) 1 hour and 15 min from Reykjavik. Arrive around 11:30am with adding in other scenic lookouts along the way.
- Right before is a super cool road that reminds me of The iconic longboarding road from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (the real one is in Eastern Iceland). We took some cool pictures here. Right after the waterfalls there are some really cool Icelandic horses as well! Just follow the linked google maps itinerary at the bottom of the page to hit all these spots! Essentially we are just following the Ring Road, but have some different spots hit/missed just as anyone decides when planning their trip!
Leave around noon (quick stop) and head to the Barnafoss and Hraunfossar waterfalls (same location). It is just 30 minutes away! Arrive around 12:30pm
Barnafoss and Hraunfossar waterfalls
- Hraunfossar (“Lava Falls”) and Barnafoss (“Children’s Falls”) sit right next to each other in West Iceland’s Borgarfjörður region and are super easy to visit from the same parking lot. The whole hiking loop is about half a mile. Hraunfossar is a long stretch of small waterfalls that seem to pour straight out of the lava field, while Barnafoss, just a short walk away, is fast-moving, bright blue, and incredibly powerful as it rushes through a narrow gorge.
- Should spend at most an hour here. Leave around 1:30pm to head towards Snæfellsjökull National Park.
  Explore the National Park – Snæfellsjökull Glacier & Volcano
- Most Western tip of the island!
- The iconic glacier-topped volcano that crowns the park
- Incredible views from down below (guided hike optional)
- Mythical setting (featured in Journey to the Center of the Earth)
BELOW I WILL LIST THE PLACES TO HIT IN ORDER!! Again, the google maps itinerary will be attached at the bottom, but make sure you hit these spots one after the other. We have worked our way North on the Ring Road, and now will begin going to the Western-most point of the island, before going East. The Ring Road simply circles the whole island! The National Park is very big, so we planned out one stop at a time to make sure we saw everything!
Head to Bjarnarfoss on the way to Snæfellsjökull National Park – 2 hour drive, arrive around 3:30pm/4pm
Bjarnarfoss
- Just under a mile out and back hike to get to the viewpoint of this stunning waterfall!!
- Moderate/easy hike. Can be slightly more challenging simply from the steep incline throughout most of the hike. Should take 45 min.
- We, being college boys, decided to go a bit further than the lookout spot… As you are aware it was the winter time. We made our way up about 50 yards from it, and as we took a few pictures, the frozen ice on the waterfall began to break off causing a mini avalanche!! We started sprinting down the mountain and got behind a big boulder as the large ice chunks flew down the hill… First day here and we almost died. Again, the nature is extremely unforgiving here. It adds to the beauty of the country, but don’t be stupid like us. Below is a picture of us as the avalanche began, with us all smiles and no clue what just happened behind us.
Búðakirkja, 356 Búðir, Iceland 5 min from waterfall
- Iconic black church
Stop at Snæfellsjökull View Point – 5 min from church and a nice view of the glacier & volcano (will get a better view later)
I WISH WE STOPPED HERE BUT WE NEVER DID: Arnarstapi & Gatklettur Arch
- Super cool arches with dramatic views of the ocean behind it. The Gatklettur Arch you can actually walk over if you are not scared of heights (right in between black church and Londrangar)
Lóndrangar – 20 min drive from the little beach stop, arrive around 5:45pm
- Twin basalt rock pillars rising from the sea
- Crazy rock formation with a gorgeous view of the ocean!
- Malarrif lighthouse in the same area!
- We found a cool swing in this area as well!
Djúpalónssandur Black Sand Beach – Keep heading West another 5 min and then arrive here around 6:15pm
- Black pebble beach!
- Rusted shipwreck remnants
- You can see the famous volcano and glacier from the beach as well! (you can pretty much see it from everywhere around the peninsula it is so high up!)
- The view is pretty from here… but I do not think that is the correct word for it. The terrain is rugged and the weather is unforgiving, the views are breathtaking all throughout Iceland in that type of way.
- You will want to spend plenty of time exploring this spot! It is so cool.
- Perfect spot for a cold plunge which is what we ended up doing!
Leave around 6:45
Svörtuloft Lighthouse – 30 min drive, arrive at sunset!
- Gorgeous bright orange lighthouse parched
- The lighthouse sits on the westernmost cliffs of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, dramatically perched above the North Atlantic
- One of the most breathtaking moments of the whole trip
- Cliffs reminded me a lot of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland
- We also saw a ton of cool seabirds! At the time we thought they were penguins… Kind of wish we never looked it up… Ignorance is bliss
Sunset is at 7:22pm
Drive to Hostel! (25 min drive, arrive around 8pm)
Freezer Hostel (26 euros per person per night)
- https://property.godo.is/book-thefreezerhostel
- Got the job done. Nothing fancy about this hostel in any way. It did have a lot of character, and we met a lot of really cool people here who were doing similar trips

March 14th

Wake up around 8am – Make breakfast from groceries bought yesterday
Leave hostel by 9am
Begin driving to Kirkjufell – 25 min drive – arrive around 9:30am
- Distinctly shaped mountain with waterfalls pooling into a river below
- Super cool spot, no real hike required!
Stykkisholmur Shipwreck – 55 min drive from Kirkjufell – arrive around 11am
- a Dutch-built (1925) steel fishing trawler that crashed in 1980
- Fascinating view. We ran through a marshy area to get a closer look at it because it is pretty far away from the road.
Head further East – Drive to hvitserkur rock (Hvitserkur, 711, Iceland), it is 2 hours and 15 min away. Arrive around 2pm
- A 49-foot basalt sea stack in Vatnsnes Peninsula, one of Iceland’s most striking rock formations.
During this 2 hour drive we hit a brutal snow storm that had us stressed out just a bit. Driving around icelandic fjords with low visibility is kind of a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, we had a driver born and raised in Minnesota and bodied the drive. We ended up arriving and departing much later than the time listed.
Leave around 2:30pm (if you have not noticed already, if you are not planning a guided hike, you will not stay long at a lot of these scenic spots. Most of them you can just drive right up to the main part and enjoy the view!)
Drive to Saudarkrokur (A town a bit East of our Air B & B) (1.5 hour drive) Arrive at 4pm.
- Grettislaug (hot springs)
- Take a ferry to Drangey island (PUFFINS)
- Explore town and the museums in it
  - A TON of viking history!
The snow storm slowed our drive down so much that we ended up making it to the town where our Air B & B was around dinner. Because of this we skipped out on exploring Saudarkokur.
Stop in Blonduos for groceries
Go to Airbnb ($38 per person per night)
- One of our best chances at seeing the Northern Lights was in this region, and as we were all sitting in the hot tub at our place, we started to see some green dance in the sky. It kept on getting brighter and brighter and slowly it turned to a lime green color. One of the coolest experiences in my life. The boys chilling in a hot tub practically in the arctic circle as the Northern Lights were above us.
- https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1304270507538142409?check_in=2026-10-07&check_out=2026-10-10&guests=4&adults=4&s=67&unique_share_id=aaae1a16-5042-4fa1-b474-bb0ce967e264