Tour of Iceland, May/June 2021
Map of our route and points of interest:
PHOTO ALBUM:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FU2mbd6TfUj9czvS7
We flew Icelandair from Washington-Dulles direct to Reykjavik International Airport which is actually by the town of Keflavik about 40 minutes southwest of Reykjavik city. This was the first Washington, D.C. Icelandair service established post-COVID.
Arrival in Iceland at the end of COVID
Upon arrival we noticed that in the flight arrivals list there were very few flights from continental Europe – as tourism was not yet permitted. Ironically, only from the U.S. and for vaccinated Americans only.
Our passports were checked, and the place where you would normally be coming out of baggage claim and arranging ground transportation, was a COVID document check, where we showed our vaccine cards. We were given case numbers on post-its and asked to proceed to the testing station which was in a large temporary structure outside, with one or two dozen people testing the arriving passengers. PCR tests, i.e. the more complicated and reliable tests that do NOT have instant results. We were told to quarantine in our hotel until the results were emailed to us, up to 8 hours. I had to do a few mental somersaults in my head before I realized we would be perfectly fine hiking to the volcano and visiting the Blue Lagoon, as there were not police controls of any sort during that time period before we got to our hotel. I mean, respect to people who follow through on these policies which are totally unenforced, but if I’m vaccinated, I think the likelihood of me transmitting COVID to someone in that interim period between the test and receiving the results is minimal.
The two extra letters in the Icelandic alphabet
It’s good to know for reading signs and maps, that there are two letters in Icelandic that we also used to have in Old English but we no longer have:
- capital Ð, small ð – which is pronounced like the “th” in “there”
- capital: Þ, small: þ – pronounced like the “th” in “think
How much to see in your time there?
Every Icelandic or European person you will ask will say that circling Iceland in six days and five nights is absolutely insane, tiring, too much driving, not enough time to see the local sites, etc. Well, we are Americans who were raised on road trips, so we really, really don’t mind driving 4-6 hours per day and we are happy spending, say, an hour at a waterfall, and we don’t need lots of time in the evening to relax over wine and beer or to “read books” in the hotel room. So we opted for the sense of accomplishment of having seen a bit of each region of the island, and to have circled it completely, and we did have big days where we left the hotel at 9AM, and checked in at 10PM. The midnight sun allowed us to fit in many activities at 6, 7, even 8 PM… Oh, and we also opted to skip museums, such as the art and history museums in Reykjavik. The city is so small we still got to know downtown quite well even in just a couple of hours on a couple of different days on our way in and out.
Day One – Arrival, Volcano, Blue Lagoon
- Arrival at Keflavik airport and COVID test
- Car rental at ACE Keflavik (great experience)
- Drive to Keflavik town for breakfast at the sole bakery open
- The volcano is known both as Geldingardalur and Fagradalsfjall. Drive to the volcano parking lot https://goo.gl/maps/B1xmywT8QJowUhbb8
- 60-90 minute hike (moderate difficulty, a few steep climbs, broad well marked an busy path) to the volcano observation site.
- Hike back down to the car and drive to Blue Lagoon, first for an excellent brunch in their restaurant and then for a long soak & swim.
- Drive to Reykjavik and check-in to the Borg Hotel.
Day Two – Drive from Reykjavik to Akureyri via Siglufjörður
Akureyri, near the north coast, has around 18,000 people but is still the second-largest urban area in Iceland. There is a five-hour road from Reykjavik, which includes the 5.8-km underwater Hvalfjörður Tunnel. However, we started early and took a detour to the northern fjords via Siglufjörður (part of the municipality of Fjallabyggð, so either name may appear on the map). Turns out, Siglufjörður is actually one of the two towns in which the Icelandic Netflix series “Trapped”, which we were fans of. We ate dinner in Siglufjörður and continued to Akureyri, and had a light night walk around that town in the midnight sun.
Day Three – Akureyri to Seyðisfjördur
This was a big, big day and if we had had more time I would definitely have split it into two! We drove from Akureyri early to Goðafoss waterfall, then north to Husavík, center of the whaling industry and a charming old town. We took in the scenery of the northern fjords. We headed back to Highway 1 at Skinnastaðir and headed south to Detifoss waterfall along a large canyon. Older books and maps show that highway 864 is the way to go, but in fact it was closed. Highway 862 may be shown as a dirt road only for 4x4s but in fact we found it newly paved the whole way. We had a short easy walk around the well-marked paths at Detifoss. Then we stopped at Hverir, which is a desert-like landscape with geothermal activity and hot-water (stinky) pools (no geysers though). Finally, we walked around the Dimmuborgir rock formations near Lake Myvatn. We had dinner in the hotel in Egilsstaðir and arrived at 10pm in our boutique hotel in Seyðisfjördur, a very small town where some scenes from “Trapped” were filmed. It is where the weekly ferry from Denmark and the Faroe Islands arrives.
Hotel: Við Lónið Guesthouse, highly recommended. Spacious rooms and a lot of attention to simple but nice design.
Day Four – Seyðisfjördur to Iceberg Lagoon
We took a wrong turn out of Seyðisfjördur and were heading due south instead of southeast along the fjords, so we tried going east a little later on a road marked for 4x4s only, it was one of the smoothest gravel roads I’d ever driven on, but higher up we were blocked by snow (in June!). So we turned around and followed highway 1 to Höfn, the Iceberg Lagoon, and a bit after that we stopped at the Fosshotel Iceberg Lagoon, which is a new 4-star hotel in the middle of nowhere. The coast after Höfn was some of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen, with mountains of white, brown, and green hugging the coast.
Day Five – Fosshotel Iceberg Lagoon to Selfoss, Geysir, Gulfoss, Thingvellir and Reykjavik
We continued driving along the south coast. At Selfoss you are kind of back in civilization as it’s a larger town centered around tourism, with, say, more than one restaurant option for lunch. We did our COVID test here, as required by the US for re-entry; this was NOT required by Iceland. I believe there are only the government clinics for being tested and they only operate at certain time, so we HAD to be here at 1 PM. It went flawlessly and we had our email with negative results as promised 8 hours later. We proceeded to the popular “Golden Circle” attractions Geysir, Gulfoss, Thingvellir, which were all nice but I wouldn’t say go out of your way to see them if you are circling Iceland. We stayed at the Eyja Guldsmeden hotel which was a weird combination of feeling like it had originally been built as something institutional housing but they had overlaid it with a lot of designer furnishings. It was fine but both the Guldsmeden and the Borg were not memorable experiences *as hotels*. I would say just get whatever 4-star hotel is a good price and close to the shopping street Laugavegur, and the western end of Laugavegur is more upscale and closer to interesting walking areas such as the old harbor.
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