Our family vacation begins!
The full album of pictures is available here.
It all started with booking a Disney Cruise out of Dover to visit to British Isles. Since we were heading all the way to England, we decided to plan a longer vacation around it. First, we used Alaska Airlines miles to pay for our flight to London and they have a great policy that allows you to book a practically unlimited layover while only using miles as if you booked directly. This allowed us to stop in Iceland on our way to London without paying for an extra flight. So…
We started our long family vacation off with a flight to Iceland!
First, with our Chase Sapphire card we get lounge access at various airports around the world, including Seattle, so we hung out there for a while which the kids loved; they’ve gotten spoiled with that perk, I don’t think they realize it’s a privilege not everyone gets. They are in for a shock when they move out. Oh well.
Next, since this was an overnight, I decided to ask if there were any upgrades to 1st class available; there were at a reasonable cost ($350 per person) so I upgraded Summer and myself (kids actually said they would rather not sit with us, even though I had no intention of paying for their upgrade anyway). It was worth it! Champagne, surprisingly awesome steak, some Icelandic beer (yay IPA!) and then actually a great night sleep leaving us fairly refreshed for our first day in Iceland which would be essentially a full day since we arrived at 10 AM local time.
Day 2 – Arrival and Reykjavik
Upon arriving in Reykjavik, we rented our car and made our way down to the Residence Inn Hotel. There was a slight problem with our room (it only had one bed), but we sorted it out and got a much nicer room with a view of the water on the top floor with vaulted ceilings and plenty of space for us, without any increase in price; the hotel was easy going about the error in the booking and very accommodating. Turned out to be a great location as well, right off the main street in downtown Reykjavik.
Upon arriving we found out that the next day most of downtown would be closed to car traffic due to the marathon and half-marathon races and a culture night celebration. Not a problem, but we would need to figure out where to park in order to be able to get out the next day. Also, I didn’t know there was a race while we were in town (I looked for races for our entire itinerary and somehow missed this one). At first, I didn’t want to run because I didn’t want to take away time from visiting things plus I had just run a marathon the weekend before and my body hadn’t fully recovered. But, Summer convinced me to do it (when else would I get to run a half marathon in Iceland?) so we planned to go to the registration pavilion later so that I could register.
First though, everyone was hungry and sleepy, so we set out for a walking tour of downtown to eat and stay awake. We stumbled upon Icelandic Street Food which I had found earlier when looking for food options, so we stopped and had some traditional soup and fisherman’s meal (cod and mashed potatoes mixed up). The food was excellent, but our first experience of Icelandic food prices. Our food in Seattle isn’t cheap, but Iceland is another level all together. Expect to pay a lot if you are going out to eat.
Next, we ventured around downtown checking out various shops and a cool museum where the unearthed an old Viking longhouse when building a new hotel. The downtown area is very cool; reminds me a bit of Copenhagen, but smaller. Very walkable, peaceful and cute buildings all over the place. After registering for the half marathon, we visited Hallgrimskirkja including climbing up the tower which gave a great view of downtown. Highly recommended!
To end our long day we found a food market where different restaurants were selling food and chose to eat there, where everyone could pick something different. If you are looking for a good place with variety and quick service, this is a good option. Prices are fine for Iceland standards.
Day 3 – Half Marathon and Golden Circle
Next day we woke up early and headed to breakfast at 7 AM. My half-marathon was a 8:40 AM start and I wanted to eat well-before that (6 AM would have been ideal, but they didn’t open breakfast until 7 AM). After breakfast, we walked from our hotel to the start line (it was super close, maybe 1/4 of a mile). There were lots of people already out there taking pictures and warming up. We hung around there until the start of the race and then I took off. I wasn’t sure how the race would go, but I paced myself and felt good throughout, even speeding up a bit the last couple miles to finish in just under 1:30. Not a bad time considering the circumstances; I was really excited and felt great after the race.
After a quick pit stop in our room, we headed out to do the Golden Circle tour. We started by driving out to the Thingvellir National Park. This area is significant for two reasons. First, it is the location of the early Icelandic council (called Alþingi) where leaders from across Iceland would meet yearly to decide on relevant matters, including legislating laws. Second, completely coincidently, it is the place where the Eurasian and North American continents meet which creates an amazing landscape between the two. There is also an amazing lake (Þingvallavatn) as well as the Silfra fissure, whiich is a narrow channel of water extremely popular for snorkeling or diving as the visibility of the water is some of the best in the world. We wanted to do this, but the kids were too young.
Next stop was Fontana Hot Springs where they bake bread in the ground using geothermal heat. They literally put the watertight pot with dough on top of a bubbling fissure in the sand, bury it for 24 hours and the next day there is bread. (delicious sweet bread!). After this quick pit stop, we continued on to Geysir thermal fields and which included the very active Strokkur geysir which erupts every 5 – 10 minutes and the no longer active, but significantly named Geysir geysir from which the name originates.
Next up, the amazing Gullfoss Falls. These are huge waterfalls, both in height and width and truly a sight to see. Following this, we stopped at the Secret Lagoon for our first geothermal bathing experience and finished the day with a quick stop at the Kerid crater.
Day 4 – West Iceland
The next day we headed out to West Iceland, starting with a quick stop in the city of Borganes just to check out the town; it was pretty early on Sunday morning and not much going on, so we proceeded to drive to our first stop, the Deildartunguhver Thermal Spring. These were small, but extremely active. It’s amazing to be driving across the country and just see steam rising from random places across the landscape.
Next, we stopped at the Hraunfossar waterfall which were quite incredible. These exceeded our expectations for sure, with a unique, extremely wide set of falls over beautiful volcanic rocks. The guide books said this was an optional stop, but I wouldn’t miss it.
Our main attractions of the day were the Into the Glacier and Into the Cave guided tours. The glacier tour on Langjökull was amazing! Expensive, but worth the money for sure. When else do you get to drive up on top of a glacier and then tour inside it, going deep into the ice, learning about how it is formed and changes year over year? This was the highlight of our entire trip for sure. This was followed by a great tour into a lava tunnel cave that is 1 KM long and quite wide. Amazingly these two were within 10 km of each other as the lava field was from an eruption of a volcano that today sits under the glacier. Amazing.
Day 5 – South Iceland
Day 5 brought on the worst weather of the trip and heading south didn’t help. Nonetheless, when you’re in Iceland you don’t let the weather slow you down if you are going to see anything so on we went.
On this out and back trip we started by visiting the Seljalandsfoss waterfalls which are a set of waterfalls just off the road as you head down the south coast. The biggest of the falls is neat because you can go behind the falls water; many jokes were made about the 8th wonder of the world (the backside of water). A small walk from the main waterfall, you could get close to the Gljufrabui waterfall if you were willing to make your way through a small passage stepping over small rocks in the water which of course with two boys we were more than happy to do. Definitely worth it, although at this point we were all pretty wet.
Next up was Skogafoss waterfall a bit farther down the coast. On the way there we stopped to have lunch at Gamla fjosid where you can see your beef roaming around outside before you eat it. It was a good place to stop and recommended if you are touring the south coast.
Next we headed toward the Solheimajokull Glacier. The boys were pretty soaked and tired so they decided to stay in the car while Summer and I took the short hike to the glacier. Pretty incredible! We were able to walk right up to the glacier and on top of it. There were many people out there, including some that had booked excursions to climb up the glacier. We didn’t want to do anything more here since we had done the glacier trip the day before. Still, it was worth visiting. At this point Summer and I were also quite wet. Carry on!
Dyrhólaey Lighthouse was our next step which required a 4×4 to get to. It was incredibly windy on top, so much so the boys didn’t even get out of the car. Summer and I took a quite lap around the lighthouse and almost blew away. Seems like an incredible spot and the views were amazing, but the weather was epic so we just make a quick stop and moved on.
The Black Sand Beach near Vik was next. It’s interesting that this particular beach is called out as basically every beach we saw in Iceland was black sand. The basalt columns and interesting rock formations just off the coast were beautiful, but I am not sure there aren’t more beautiful beaches. That being said, since it was still stormy, the waves were crashing hard and people kept getting hit by them as they weren’t paying attention trying to take pictures. It was pretty hilarious to watch.
Day 6 – Reykjanes Peninsula and Blue Lagoon
For our last full day in Iceland we decided to go to the Blue Lagoon. We had been debating the entire trip as to whether it’s worth it, but decided that we’d regret not going. We booked for 2 PM because we wanted to visiting the Reykjanes Peninsula a bit before. This area is quite beautiful with great volcanic landscapes, a huge lake as well as plenty of geothermal activity at the Gunnuhver Hot Springs. We also took a small 4×4 detour to visit the Hafnarberg Sea-cliffs before having lunch and going to the Blue Lagoon.
The Blue Lagoon was pretty incredible. Surrounded by a lava field, the murky blue water is striking. There is a huge geothermal power plant right by it as well which just adds to the feeling of being surrounded by the raw power of the earth. So was it worth it? I think we’re glad we did it – if money is an issue, I’d say it’s ok to skip, but otherwise it’s worth experiencing once.