After my trip to New York City earlier this year, I remember saying to myself, ‘I need a relaxing holiday. I need sun, sea and a beach because I am KNACKERED’, so, what did I do? Book a trip to Iceland. I know, totally hit the nail on the head with that one.
For a while, me and my friend Sara, had been talking about going away for a weekend with the criteria including, somewhere with a hot tub alongside lots and lots of cheese. Luckily, Iceland is renowned for having one of the largest hot tubs in the world and brie isn’t that hard to find in the local supermarket (thank, God).
I’m going to do this a little bit differently to my Four Days In New York City blog post (you can have a nosey at that here) and instead, I’m going to go through the companies we used on the trip, the places we went, what we did and tips that I want to share with you to make your trip to Iceland that little bit easier if you ever fancied going!
We decided to book our trip to Iceland for the end of September, so *hopefully* it wouldn’t be so cold that we’d freeze to death as soon as we stepped off the plane. When we were in the process of booking our trip, I’d talked to a few people who had visited Iceland before and a lot of them recommended renting a car to get around and honestly, I don’t know how people get around the place without one. We booked our rental car through Blue Car Rental and they were excellent from start to finish. The booking process was super easy (and this is coming from someone who’s never rented a car before), there are loads of cars to choose from, you can sort the insurance out through them and the overall cost wasn’t bad at all.
When you land at Keflavik Airport, there’s a shuttle bus outside which runs every 15 minutes and takes you directly to Blue Car Rentals. The staff were lovely, went through everything clearly and we were in our little Kia in no time. The tricky part was actually driving the thing on the other side of the road, however, thankfully, Sara was on hand to occasionally remind me that I needed to drive on the right side and not drive into oncoming traffic (what are friends for?).
Having a car in Iceland is a must. There’s a lot of open land and unless you’re staying in the centre of Reykjavik, there’s not really anything to do which is within walking distance. Where we stayed was about 15 minutes away from the capital, 50 minutes away from the Blue Lagoon and 40 minutes away from the national park we wanted to visit. We left feeling very thankful that we didn’t have to spend time and money on multiple taxis and buses to get ourselves around and obviously, with a car, you have total freedom to get around and go to places at any time you want, which is perfect when you’re booked to go to the Blue Lagoon at 8 am, meaning getting up at the crack of dawn (that one was painful).
You might be noticing a bit of a ‘blue’ trend going on here, purely coincidental I promise, but even if this place was called Green Towers or some other random name I could think of that doesn’t include the colour blue, I would still book one of their apartments every time. We found Blue Mountain Apartments through booking our flight on Expedia and we thought it was too good to be true as it was a bloody bargain and had a near five-star rating. How. Posh. Are. We.
The apartments are in a great location with a free car park right outside, a supermarket literally across the road and a gym, if you feel like squeezing a HIIT workout in the morning, next door (if you’re one of those who likes to exercise on holiday, I mean I envy you and your motivation but why??).
We went for a family studio apartment which gave us more than enough room and included a large double bed, satellite TV, small kitchen and dining area, a decent sized bathroom (which had a heated towel rack!!!) and an incredible view of the mountains from the sofa in the living room/bedroom. We thought an apartment would be perfect for us as we knew Iceland was notoriously expensive, so by going for an apartment rather than a hotel room, we were able to just pop across the road to get the essentials. Nutella and cheese. Sorted.
While we were staying at the apartments, we discovered that there’s a room on the bottom floor which is where leftover food, herbs, cooking utensils, condiments, literally the middle aisle of an Aldi, is available to use by anyone staying in an apartment. This is really handy when you’ve bought all the ingredients for a pasta dish, only to discover that you don’t have oil to fry your veggies in. Thank you to whoever kindly left their olive oil!
Without a doubt, if I ever go back to Iceland, I wouldn’t think twice about booking anywhere other than Blue Mountain Apartments.
We were lucky to just be only 15 minutes away from the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, and walking through the city it became apparent that I have a thing for buildings. I kid you not, Reykjavik has some of the prettiest houses and shops which made us feel like we were in Disneyland accommodation. If you look through my camera roll, 80% of my photos from Iceland are of gorgeous coloured buildings. No shame.
There are car parks dotted around the city, the one we went to was right on the seafront and was cheaper than 2 hours in a multi-storey in Manchester for a day so, I was happy. Reykjavik is perfect to explore and get lost in. Walking around the city, we stumbled across lovely little parks, cute shops which had all the puffin and whale-related items you could imagine and gorgeous churches, including the parish church, Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík’s main landmark. Don’t worry about not being able to find it, you can see it from pretty much anywhere in the city. It’s huuuuuge. Walking into the church, you’re hit with stunning architecture and features which just makes you question, how on earth did Guðjón Samúelsson’s design get built back in 1937? (totally didn’t just Google that). The structure itself is breathtaking and probably one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever been in. Albeit, I’ve not been in many but with the number of people taking photos, I got the impression it’s in the top ten.
Under the umbrella of ‘Dreamy buildings in Reykjavik’, make sure you have a wander around the concert hall, Harpa. The building is striking and hard to miss with its glass honeycomb effect, I actually don’t know how people built these places, I was just in awe the whole time I was there. If you have time (and want to get out of the biting cold), go in and have a nosey around their gift shop, they have some really quirky pieces, including some Christmas tree decorations which were so different I had to buy one.
Even though we had the aim to save money and cook from the apartment, we still wanted to try at least a couple of restaurants and try the local Icelandic cuisine. To be honest, I just wanted to hunt down the largest prawns I could find. When in Iceland! If you’re a fan of fish and seafood, there’s a restaurant across from the seafront, aptly called, Icelandic Fish & Chips, which have deeeelicious (and big) langoustines. We also visited a vegan restaurant called Gló, which had been raved about online and in the plane food magazine, clearly a must if it’s recommended by Icelandair. It has a range of fresh food, which you can eat while watching the busy street below, so if you’re a people watcher (like me), then this place is perfect. Bonus points, you feel super healthy afterwards which makes up for the multiple bars of salted chocolate I had over the course of four days #Balance.
So, I’m going to mention the next thing just because I want you all to know that it’s something you can do, however, our experience wasn’t really 10/10. Before we went to Iceland, we booked a Whale Watching trip which we were SO excited for because when do you ever get the chance to see whales?! The closer we got to the date we were due to travel, the weather was looking more and more grim. I was basically leaving the North for the North. Anyway, after our first trip was cancelled (red flag number one), we rebooked for the next day, only to be greeted with the sign ‘Very rough waters’ and handed seasickness pills (two more red flags). We got on the boat on the Reykjavik seafront, got into our *very* fetching onesies and went out on the search for whales. Unfortunately, Sara ended up running to fetch me sick bags, a poor woman hit the deck (literally) from the rough waves and the only wildlife we saw was seagulls. Wouldn’t say it was the best boat ride in the world but we gave it a go! I’d recommend if you want to go whale watching, to check the weather beforehand and try and go when the waters are very calm. Makes sense.
Saturday was the day I was looking forward to the most. It’s time for the main event, the one you’ve all been waiting for… the Blue Lagoon (the huge hot tub I was referring to at the beginning of this blog post, in case you didn’t get it). We were up at the crack of dawn as we wanted to get to the Blue Lagoon early to try and avoid huge crowds. It was worth it. Even though the Blue Lagoon is a bit of a tourist trap, I have to admit, it was one of my favourite parts of the trip.
The lagoon itself is huge, actually blue (don’t know why I doubted it) and hot. Kettle hot. You might think you’d be cold, you know, being in Iceland and all, but don’t be fooled, you’ll be suitably warm even in your bikini. When we got into the lagoon, we were given a complimentary Silica Mud Mask which is composed of the Blue Lagoon’s iconic white wonder and ‘deep-cleanses and strengthens your skin, leaving your skin fresh and clear.’ The stuff of skincare dreams. We were also given a complimentary drink from the bar which offered a selection of soft drinks and alcoholic drinks but what we went for was some gorgeous, yoghurt based smoothies. I’d recommend the strawberry one, especially if you’re up at 7 am and had to force down Nutella on toast.
You can stay in the lagoon for a good few hours but after two, we looked like we’d aged 40 years. Not a great look but well worth it. My main tips if you’re planning to visit the Blue Lagoon is, book well in advance on their website as they book up pretty quickly, and go for an earlier time slot rather than a late one as, to avoid the crowds, you need to brave the early morning rise. While you’re there, pop some of their conditioner into the ends of your hair and tie it up so it’s not going in the water. As pretty as the lagoon is, it’s a bugger for drying your hair out *all hail Liz Earle*.
Before we came to Iceland, we had a bit of a Google to see what local walks we could do and found the Thingvellir National Park. It’s roughly 40 minutes from Reykjavik driving on one (very) long road, but the views you see make it that little bit more interesting. There are houses dotted everywhere, all so far away from each other (the introverts dream) and we kept seeing horses and sheep roaming the fields, doing their own thing. Essentially, it was like being at home. The route we took got us to car park three and if you see that one, park in there as it’s free and we found the walking route it took us was the best one.
Even though it was ridiculously windy and I couldn’t hear anything that Sara was saying from the multiple layers covering my ears, the views walking from the car park to the centre of the park were breathtaking. All you could see was vast, gorgeous covered land, huge mountains (when the clouds decided to move) and appropriately, a rainbow! It’s the little things. The park sits in a rift valley which was caused by the separation of two tectonic plates, meaning there was some serious hand-eye coordination needed to navigate our way across the rocky path towards the waterfall, Öxarárfoss. You can’t beat a good waterfall and you wouldn’t be disappointed with this one. I mean, if it’s good enough to wack the selfie-stick out (shout out to the tourist who had a solo selfie-stick shoot right in the splash zone) then it’s good enough for me. A walk through the park is a must, even in rubbish weather, it’s a fairly easy, relaxing walk which takes up an hour or so and treats you to some gorgeous sights – Just remember your walking boots and waterproof!
As we were only in Iceland for three nights, we only had time to fit in the main attractions but I actually feel that three nights was enough to get a feel for the main touristy part of the country. It’s a beautiful country and I recommend everyone to visit!
I hope you enjoyed my own little guide to Iceland, thank you for reading and let me know if you’ve been before and have your own recommendations that I need to add to my list for the next time I go!
Sarah x
Recommended:
Read my Four Days In New York City blog post here.