Iceland: An Overview

Iceland: An Overview

Blogs were super helpful when we were planning out trip to Iceland, so here’s some info that might be useful for others!

FLIGHTS
We found tickets from Baltimore to Reykjavik for $267 round trip. We parked for about $6/a day at a local hotel, and took a shuttle to BWI. This worked really well for us, and was worth it even with the 3.5 hour drive from Newport News.

This was our first time flying with WOW Air (Note: WOW Air has closed since our trip). The flight there was smooth, once we got up in the air. We did have plane trouble that kept us on the Tarmac for 6 hours. [Be flexible. We planned out so many aspects of our trip, but flexibility became the name of the game, for sure].

There wasn’t excellent communication from the flight crew to the passengers, as to how long we may be stuck, what was happening, etc.But they basically gave us all the food on the plane for free by the time we did actually take off. All in all it was fine, but it changed up our day one plan a bit. We were too delirious to be mad, and were just thrilled to arrive there alive, albeit 6 hours later than expected.

Another Note: I submitted a ticket through AirHelp regarding our flight delay, and received almost double the cost of our entire roundtrip flight back in compensation. Give them a try next time you have delays of 6 hours or more!

PACKING
On WOW Air you could carry on a bag that’s 22 lbs, as well as a small purse/laptop/camera bag. If you’re going for 3-5 days you should be able to work with that, and avoid purchasing checked baggage. Especially if you stay at a location with a washing machine. At the time of our booking the carry on luggage allowance for WOW was ONE bag that was 11 lbs or less. Due to this, our group of four purchased one checked bag to share ($100 round trip). It was helpful, but we could have managed without.

I basically packed 2 whole outfits with the goal of washing clothes midweek. Layers were important. We spent 3 days walking around Iceland in the pouring rain. My advice is to take two coats if you can. Even if you just take a rain coat to wear over whatever warm coat you take. [Embrace the weather. If you’re blessed with a sunny week, thank the good Lord. But if you’re given a rainy, windy, cold week like us? EMBRACE IT. You can, and will, be warm and dry later. And…ONE day I’ll see the Northern Lights, right? I’m not bitter. You are.]

AIRBNB
This was my first time using AirBnB. It was a great experience really. We got to stay in an apartment in Hafnarfjordur, which meant kitchen and washing machine (no dryers). Both were very useful. Also, it beat the cost of a hotel. Divided among 4 people, it was about $80/each for the week.

This leads me to food. We bought groceries when we arrived, and packed food for lunches and snacks each day. A lot of the places we drove to weren’t really near restaurants, so it ended up being a lifesaver. We ate a lot of meals on the road, and saved a good bit of money. We ate meals at a couple of cafes, and got pizza one night as well.

TRANSPORTATION
We rented a car through Thrifty (more about THAT adventure on Day 3). Gas is much more expensive there, but we still did well with that cost, as we were in a tiny fuel efficient death trap, or if you prefer its given name, a Ford Fiesta.

The car was tiny, and we were carrying around most of our clothes, and food each day. If you plan to drive a lot, and can splurge on a little bigger car I say go for it.

Before you go, get on the Google Maps app, search the area you’ll be visiting in Iceland, and download that map offline. This will help you get around without needing data or wifi. The maps stay on your phone for 30 days and proved helpful.

GAS
We found that when we used N1 gas stations we could use our credit cards without a PIN number. We tried two other stations that would not let us. So, before you go, get the pin number, or stick to N1. We didn’t use cash while in country. I had taken some just in case, but I used my card everywhere I went.

Iceland Day 3 & 4

Iceland Day 3 & 4

On Wednesday we decided to do the Golden Circle. This is a route that offers lots of different things like a crater, geysers, a waterfall, and a national park. Because of how exciting the previous day had been we were a little underwhelmed at first on the GC. To be fair, it was pouring rain, so we couldn’t truly SEE what we were driving by most of the time.

When we saw the Geyser, were were all “…that’s cool”, but then we realized that if you stand on a certain side of it you get soaked. We sent Crystal in to try it with the GoPro, and it was hilarious. So we all did it. We were already soaked, so WHY NOT. This is what started turning the day around for us all.

After the geyser, we headed to the Pvingeler National Park, and drove around. The wind was REALLY picking up at this point. We had made a list before we went of things we wanted to accomplish on the trip. This included to stand on a grass roof, and roll down a hill. We did both of these things in the park. Again, we were already soaked so, down the hill we went.

From there we headed toward our next stop for trying to find the Northern Lights. We grabbed Subway on the way (so American of us) because it was all we could see and now were not only soaked, but some of us were a bit HANGRY.

We found a forecast for the Northern Lights and headed out. With the constant rain, I doubted we would find a place that had cleared up, but what else do you do at night in Iceland, but search for the lights?

We drove further and further from our host city, not a care in the world. NOTHING could keep us down! Until we turned onto a road and hit a massive pothole, which tore up one tire and flattened one. In our rental car. In the middle of nowhere. Where the very kind people spoke very little English.

Mark called the rental car company who told us that they would not come get us, and that we could leave the car on the side of the road, and walk to a hostile or hotel. In the 27mph winds. LOL. No. We did not do this. We saw a police car a little ways down the road, and Mark walked down to talk to them. In the mean time, we stayed in the car and Snapchatted the events, while Beverly called insurance and credit card companies.

A woman came up to our car after a bit and told us to come with her, and Mark would be close behind…so off we went. She seemed nice enough.

I mean, a lady with 2 car seats in her back seat isn’t out to murder stranded motorists, right?

We found out she was the tow truck drivers wife. I was in the front seat, and being very good with human people like I am, I immediately asked her a long question right after she said she spoke very little English. I am awkward.

She drove us to the tire place, and eventually Mark and the police showed up with our rental in tow. The after hours guy kindly fixed the car, and sent us on our way.

3 things:

1. We didn’t have to pay anything, because the police had complained about that very pothole already to the city. Someone had called the police when they saw us stranded and the cop had actually come out to guard the pothole while they waited for the city to come fix it. This worked in our favor, FOR SURE.

2. We were told that the roads we had been driving had shut down earlier because the wind and rain was so bad. Our bad.

3. The police called the car rental company for us, because it’s actually illegal to leave ones car on the side of the road. Thank you, Iceland police.

Day 4
I had big ideas about using our last morning there to go see Reykjavik, or our city a bit. Our bodies ideas were more along the lines of, “let’s have breakfast at the coffee shop and take our sweet time because we are so so tired”.

After our breakfast at the adorable shop, we headed back to the Blue Lagoon to grab some photos, then dropped off the rental car and headed home.

Iceland Day 2

Iceland Day 2

We didn’t head out for the day until about 10, because we were all moving real slow with the time change, and the exhaustion from the 2 days of getting to Iceland.

We decided to head to Black Sand Beach, which was 2.5 hours from our AirBnB. We had read about an abandoned U.S. Navy plane you could hike to on the same route, and we had determined we were going to make that hike. Rain or shine.

When we planned our trip we all picked something that we definitely wanted to do. Mine was the Black Sand Beach, and search high and low for the Northern Lights. Beverly wanted to see a herd of sheep crossing the street, and stand in the middle of them. Crystals was the abandoned airplane. We knew were going to hike and find that dang thing no matter what.

Along the way to the beach, we saw a waterfall from the road, and realized we could drive to it. It was incredible. You could walk behind it. Once we were done there we walked down the path a little ways, and found an even better waterfall spot. That spot ended up being one of the highlights. As we were leaving, a film crew was coming in to film something in that same spot.

After the waterfall, we happened upon a glacier. It was a lot more amazing than I would have expected. We walked it a little bit, and I’d recommend taking the time to do so if you get the chance!

After the glacier, we drove out the Black Sand Beach which was really beautiful. It was rainy, foggy, and windy though so it was a little anticlimactic, but I was glad to get to see it. We each picked rocks that fit our personalities (whatever that means) and left them behind for some soul to find.

THEN, cold and wet, we ventured to the abandoned plane.You park on the side of the road, and take a path that’s about 2.5 miles, and eventually you find it. Wear tennis shoes if you have old lady flat feet like me. The walk isn’t bad if you’re prepared!

We found the plane right as it got dark, but WE FOUND IT. Crystals dreams came true. Life was good. Then we walked back in the dark to our car. I’ve never been so happy to sit inside a warm car (until the next day, when we were even more frozen).

I think we all figured out early on that if we wanted to experience everything in our short time there, we would have just be ok with feeling miserably cold and damp most of the time. Because, adventure.

After the plane, we headed home, did some laundry and called it a day. Also, I should note that we bought groceries when we arrived and made our lunches. This worked out well because we were in a lot of areas that didn’t have tons of food options, and our sandwiches were delicious.