Iceland

Iceland, the land of fire of ice, is a treasure for travellers. From giant waterfalls to volcanoes, from glacier lagoons to geysers, from midnight Sun to northern lights - the options are countless.

Best time to visit:

Both Winter and Summer are beautiful in Iceland. In Winter you can experience the magical northern lights, whereas in Summer you can make use of the daylight and can roam around from day to night. We chose the latter, as we had already been blessed to catch the northern lights in Finland and Summer is the best time to drive around the island. May-August is the best time to enjoy Summer in Iceland. Since Iceland is famous for being the land of midnight Sun, there is effectively light for the whole 24-hour period during Summer. We chose the last week of May as it came with a long weekend.

Transport:

Driving is the best way to explore Iceland. It can be both easy and difficult though. Easy because there is only one Ring Road (1) which is connected through out the island. Difficult because Iceland has one of the most unpredictable weathers. Additionally, if you want to drive on the F-roads, you will need a 4x4 vehicle. You are not allowed to drive on F-roads with a normal 4x2 vehicle and it will not be insured for the same. We booked out car from Orange Car Rental. You can also cover most of the places by bus as they run to most places on the Ring Road. Other options would be hiring a car with a driver or booking tour packages. However both (esp the latter) can turn out to be quite expensive.

Quickies:

• Plan your trip in advance, as airfares are quite expensive.
• Iceland has many hotels, B&Bs and hostels which are pocket friendly and come with great views. Therefore, while choosing accommodation, explore all the choices before making a decision.
• Food can be quite expensive in Iceland. If you want to stock up food, there is a super market named Bonus.
• Water is equally expensive there. Therefore, don't waste money on it. You can have water directly from tap as you get pure volcanic drinking water everywhere.
• Weather in Iceland can be really unpredictable. Be careful while opening car doors, as few places can get extremely windy (Yes, I almost got our car door broken in Gullfoss). Below are the pictures of Icelandic weather within the span of 10 minutes.

• Always keep your headlights on, even during the day.
• Get familiar with all the road signs. For one way bridges, vehicle on the bridge gets preference.
• Carry warm clothes (even during Summer), shoes and rain coats.
• You can make use of the app 112. You need to check in all the places you visit on the app and it will send an SMS to the Icelandic emergency service as and when required.

Itinerary:

We went for a 3 days trip and covered mostly the southern part of the island. If you have more days to spare you can drive to the western part to visit the Snæfellsnes peninsula or cover one of the volcano tours. With 3 days in hand this is what we could come up with:

Day 1: We reached  Reykjavik on the previous night and picked up the car. Instead of staying in Reykjavik, we took a hostel in Keflavik, as it was comparatively cheap and near Blue Lagoon. The next day we started early and drove down to Blue Lagoon. Navigation was pretty easy. We could have reached even without sat nav, as there were road signs in almost every turn. Do not forget to pre-book your slot on their website and reach on time. Parking is free in Blue Lagoon (and in most of the places in Iceland).

Once we were done with one of the 25 wonders of the world, we cleaned ourselves properly and started towards the next destination. Carry your own towel, if you don't want to pay extra and hire them.

Our next destination was Seljalandsfoss. As mentioned earlier. navigation was pretty simple as we had to stay on the ring road. However, we took a little detour to get a view of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Right before exiting the town Hvolsvöllur, take a left onto road 261 and follow it till Fljótshlíð. After driving for some time we managed to spot the volcano. As they say "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey". The short journey was full of waterfalls, horses and amazing views. However if you want to try something like this, please ensure that you have a 4x4 vehicle.

We finally returned to the ring road and kept following it until we had to turn onto road 249 that led to Seljalandsfoss. You can walk behind the waterfall, but be prepared to get drenched. Hence a raincoat is a must.

You can continue on road 249 for a km or so to visit another waterfall named Gljufurarfoss. After that return to the ring road and continue till you reach Skógafoss, which was our home for next 2 days. Imagine hiking to the top of the waterfall at midnight (Yes, that's how amazing Summers are in Iceland).

Further to ring road 1 keep driving till you reach the parking lot for the famous Sólheimasandur Plane Crash. Be ready to walk a lot as the location of the airplane is quite far from the parking lot.

Day 2: After a hectic day of hiking around the waterfalls and walking on black sand, it was a day to walk on the glaciers (whoa!). Skaftafell national park offers different types of glacier walks based on difficulty levels. It is going a to take a lot of your time (and energy, needless to day) of the day.

After glacier, it was time to visit glacier lagoon. Jökulsárlón seems to be straight out of a fairy tale - ice bergs, floating in blue lagoon and surrounded by glaciers. We took a boat tour in the lagoon and it was worth every penny we spent. While returning, the tour manager asked us if we knew Shahrukh Khan (Yes, Gerua made him so famous in Iceland).

We wanted to spend the rest of the day on the beach and later at Skogafoss. Reynisfjara  black sand beach is Iceland's must see volcanic beach with cliffs and caves. Even though we did not have a proper sunset, the sky was a little dramatic as the day ended.

Day 3: This was the time to bid adieu to Skogafoss, as we were about to drive through Iceland's one of the most popular tourist routes - the Golden Circle. We covered Gullfoss (hands down the windiest place I have ever visited), Geysir (Iceland's most famous geyser; Get your cameras ready as it erupts to heights of up to 30 metres every few minutes), Kerið (the oh-so-pretty volcanic crater lake) and finally Þingvellir national park (in between Eurasian and North-American tectonic plates).

We had a pit stop at the capital before we headed off to the airport. It was definitely one of the best driving experiences and hardest goodbyes. I love the nostalgia the below video brings, every time I watch it.