Adventure,  Europe,  Iceland,  Road Trip

Iceland Wonders

August 28, 2020 / 49 Comments

A trip to Iceland is like no other trip. This country is incredibly beautiful. I had heard about and seen many pictures of this paradise over the years. I finally put a trip to Iceland on my bucket list and made it happen in 2017.

I’ve been seeing this week my Facebook memories come up from our trip 3 years ago. This made me decide to write a dedicated blog post about our wonderful time there and to share with you my Iceland Wonders.

Iceland
Typical scenes with country houses, small fishing boats, and gorgeous backdrops

You may also be interested in my other posts where I mentioned Iceland. Check out these posts: 10 Unique Places to Stay and Here they are… my Top 5 Destinations.

Kirkjufell Mountain in the northwest

If you are impressed after seeing my photos and reading about my experience, then you may want me to help plan your perfect Iceland trip! Go to my Itinerary Planning page for more info or drop me an email at jan@janadventures.com!

And don’t forget to check out my comprehensive video that shows day-by-day the route we took and what we saw along the way…

Hot lava rocks in Mývatn area

I’m a lover of nature at heart. If you put me outdoors surrounded by nature, I’m one happy camper. If you give me a camera at the same time, I’m an extremely happy camper!

The Ring Road and route we took

Iceland shouts out ‘nature’ in its purest sense. Every turn along its 1,332km/828mi long Ring Road brings new and intriguing vistas to marvel at. The landscape is diverse and often reminds you of being on another planet.

There are many cute houses and chapels

We didn’t do long hikes during our trip, but we did short walks to see some really cool spots. There are gorges that you can easily access. Sometimes you have to drive off the main road a bit to find these places. We visited the gorge called Fjaðrárgljúfur, and it was as beautiful as my photo shows.

Fjaðrárgljúfur Gorge

We drove the Ring Road in only seven days and stayed in different hotels each night. One thing you should know is that accommodation in Iceland is expensive. Most of the simple hotels are 3-star quality, but with 5-star prices. I was also surprised at how few accommodations you can find. I would definitely recommend booking early during the high season to find a place to stay.

Hraunfossar waterfalls

Many people book camping cars to drive and sleep in along the way. I think that would be a fun option to do next time. We chose hotels and BnBs because of the long driving days we had. I wanted a nice comfortable bed to sleep in each night.

At the bottom of beautiful Skogafoss

If you like waterfalls, you will love Iceland. There are many popular ones that attract tourists, but you will see others just along the main road. What I found fascinating about the waterfalls was the rainbow effect from the sun and water. It is a photographer’s dream to capture that!

Gullfoss Falls which is part of the Golden Triangle route near Reykjavik

Most of the popular waterfalls have large parking lots where you can easily walk a short distance to see the falls. If you want to avoid the crowds, it’s best to get there early or later in the day. I tried to plan some easy hikes to get to the more remote waterfalls, like the one below called Skaftafell.

Skaftafell Waterfall

There are so many unique and fascinating sites to visit in Iceland. One of the most amazing scenes I witnessed was Jökulsárlón which is a large glacial lake in the southern part of Vatnajökull National Park. The lake size has expanded over the years due to the glaciers melting.

Jökulsárlón

This area is considered one of the natural wonders of Iceland. You can plan a few hours here to walk around the water edge and even take a boat ride to get up close to the icebergs. You will see many birds and seals frolicking in the cold water.

Beautiful shade of blue on the icebergs

There is a variety of wildlife to see in Iceland including horses, sheep, and birds. My favorite sighting was the adorable puffins we found in the area of Dyrhólaey.

Got lucky to get a zoom shot of the puffins

There were hundreds of these delightful birds flying around a cliff and rock structure offshore. There are 8-10 million puffins that inhabit Iceland, amounting to more than 60% of the world’s entire Atlantic puffin population. If you get lucky enough to see them up close, it will be a highlight of your trip!

View from the cliff at Dyrholaey

The scarcity of people in this country, even during our August high season trip, was very welcoming. It was as if we had this huge island to ourselves.

The Golden Triangle route

I believe most visitors stay in the southern part of Iceland where you will see some of the main attractions and highlights, especially that of the Golden Triangle. I was happy that we did the full Ring Road tour to take the ‘road less traveled’.

The rugged coastline of northern Iceland

In addition to the remote nature of Iceland, you will definitely come across some tourist traps. I tried to avoid the the typical tourist attractions, but I did want to include some special ones in our itinerary. One of these attractions was the famous Blue Lagoon, very close to the capital and airport in Reykjavik.

Here I am in the Blue Lagoon at sunset

The Blue Lagoon is Iceland’s most popular geothermal pool, with 70% ocean water and 30% freshwater, enriched with silica, algae, and minerals. It originates 2,000 meters below the surface of the earth. In 2012, National Geographic awarded the Blue Lagoon as one of the Wonders of the World in the Water category.

Nice ambiance in the lagoon at night

I loved the experience of walking in the huge warm pool and putting the silica mud mask on my face. You can order cocktails or drinks at the pool bar in the water. We went there in the evening of our first night in Iceland and enjoyed the full experience of daytime, sunset, and night views.

If you do want to go to Blue Lagoon, you must make your reservation well in advance, maybe even two months before you go. It was expensive for the basic package (ranges from $42 to $65 without spa treatments or extras), but I was happy that we did it.

Spacious bubble room – yes it was heated!

Another fun experience we had was to spend one evening sleeping in a plastic bubble. I had read about the 5 Million Star Hotel and was sure to include one night there in our week itinerary. The toilets and showers are in a common building just a short walk from each of the bubbles.

Our cozy bubble late at night

This hotel has 9 different bubbles in a forest close to the Golden Triangle route, about 40 minutes from Reykjavik. As with most accommodations in Iceland (and especially this unique one), you need to book well in advance.

One thing for sure, you won’t get bored in Iceland if you love nature and the outdoors. We were lucky one night to see the green dancing Northern Lights, just outside our country inn hotel. They say that you can only see these lights from late August to mid-April, but we saw them in mid-August. So very cool!

Iceland
Our picture of the lights above our hotel

A trip to Iceland is not complete without a tour of the colorful, vibrant city of Reykjavik. We ended our week here with two nights in a cute BnB right in town. I loved all the brightly colored buildings and funky ambiance of this town. The local seafood restaurants are a definite must.

Iceland
View of town buildings from the top of the cathedral

I could easily return to Iceland to see a few more places that we didn’t have time to visit. However, I think we managed to see the best of Iceland Wonders in the one week that we were there.

Here’s our trip summary… 2220 kilometers around the Ring Road in 7 days, 1483 photos on my Canon camera, 7 different hotels and apartments, 6 sunny days and 2 with clouds or rain, temperatures ranging from 10-17 celsius, 4 rainbows, a few glaciers, bursting geysers, hot springs and mud pots, lots of wild Icelandic horses, many sheep, and 2 times seeing the northern lights! I highly recommend a trip to the land of Fire and Ice. So, are you ready to go?

Iceland
Hvítserkur Rock Formation
Click on the image to save to PINTEREST!

For many more videos of our trip to Iceland, check out my Iceland Page!

For more amazing pics of our trip, feel free to view my dedicated Facebook Album!

If you are looking for assistance to plan your next trip, I am here for YOU! I love to plan travel itineraries for myself and others. For more details on how I provide this service, please check out my Itinerary Planning page and drop me a quick email at jan@janadventures.com to get started!

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