Latest / Explore Iceland Travel Podcast / E.3: 6-day Iceland Itinerary (How to See the Best of Iceland in a Short Time)
Transcript
- Monika: Welcome to Explore Iceland Travel Podcast. If you're thinking of visiting Iceland or planning your next adventure there, you're in the right place. I'm Monica the creator of Plan Pack Explore, a travel blog where I help readers plan unforgettable trips to Europe. and I'm here to inspire you to travel to Iceland. And to plan your trip in a fun, stress free way. I'll share all the must know details about places to see, both the iconic landmarks and some hidden gems, proven itineraries tested by me and my family. and practical trip planning tips based on my own experiences and mistakes we made while exploring this incredible country. I'll cover everything I wish I had known before our first trip and things I've learned from all the trips that follow. And I'm not done yet. Think of it as travel advice from tourist to tourist. Honest, helpful, firsthand insights designed to make planning your Iceland adventure much easier and much more enjoyable. Tune in and let's explore Iceland together. Deciding what to see during your first trip to Iceland can be a real challenge. There's so much to choose from. Especially if you have limited time. So today I want to share with you the itinerary from our first trip. I call it a Taste of Iceland itinerary. it just gives you the highlights, the best of the iconic destinations. that are the must-see for every first-time visitor, at least for most. yes, they're busy and touristy, but still must-see places to visit. and they will show you enough of Iceland to be totally charmed. Now, before we get into this itinerary, I just want to mention a few things. I do recommend renting a car for this. It'll be easier to see all those beautiful things when you're independent. and if you do rent a car, I do recommend also to stay in the suburbs. Like I said, one of my favorite is the one that is pronounced, I believe, Kupovosh. I would just say Kupovogur. I'll spell it in your show notes. And as far as the car. If you just stick to the places that we mentioned in this episode, you will be fine with a two-wheel drive. If you do wanna just take tours, I would recommend staying in Reykjavik so you can have easy hotel pickup for your tours. Every single one of these destinations is possible to book a full day tour. Now those days will be long. You can slow down this itinerary, You can make it as active or as laid back as you want. We do like active and pack days, but this is totally doable with no stress. The days, especially if you go in the summer, the days in the summer are really long. I'll also give you some optional or alternative activities for each day in case you don't want to do a glacier hurt or if you don't want a horseback ride. so you can customize it to your travel style and to your needs. So let's get started. Day one for us it was arrival day. And again what you're gonna do on day one really depends on when your plane arrives and how you like to travel and how you are after a plane ride. We usually will take an overnight flight, pick up our rental car and just go. But if not treat it as your rest day and make this day one of this itinerary your first full sightseeing day. For us that year it was twenty twenty two, the volcano just erupted and we really wanted to see the lava flowing and it was very close to the airport, so we just drove there and hiked about an hour. the whole hike was two and a half kilometers. We didn't do the whole thing, we went up for about an hour just to see the lava flowing from a distance. We didn't get too too close. we were just a little worn from the flight, but it was amazing. so the lava isn't flowing anymore, I think it's still worth it to go see the lava field. it is only actually just under the kilometer walk to see the lava field from Pi eruptions. But if that's not of your interest, I would recommend exploring Reikianis Peninsula. It is literally a volcanic wonderland. There is bridge between continents where you can walk the bridge between the two tectonic plates. there is the lava rock pole, there is a geothermal field, there's a lot and it's beautiful. So I would do that on your day one and then because it's also really close to the airport I would relax at the Blue Lagoon. and that you have to Book in advance. Yes, Blue Lagoon is touristy, and yes, it is expensive, but if it's at all in your budget, just go dip in those milky blue silica waters at least once during your visits. I liked it. It is beautiful. it's very relaxing. they also have done some work. I've been there twice. the last time I was there in was 2024. And they were doing construction. I haven't seen it since I haven't gone back this last most recent trip. so there's definitely improvements. but even then, just the way it was in 2022, I personally liked it. I think it is worth it. also you're staying in the suburbs in an apartment with a kitchen. make sure you do some grocery shopping. and just keep in mind the safest time to go it's between ten a.m eight PM You're guaranteed that bonus and coronan will be open. So that's your day one. now on day two I recommend the golden circle. And I know some people say it's not as beautiful, it's not as stunning. To me, I love that it was beautiful. It was our first day of actually driving in Iceland. We stopped at a lot of viewpoint to see the sheep, and as you know, I'm obsessed with sheep, so that was beautiful. the Golden Circle is that iconic route that has three main stops and a whole bunch of little detours that you can also do, which will fill more than one day, so you won't see them all. The main stops are Thingvillier National Park. And I apologize for the pronunciation. It's probably some Polish American mix. Definitely not Icelandic, but you'll have all the spellings and the show notes and in the blog post. the second one is Geyser Geothermal Area or Geyser Hot Springs as they also call it, and the third one is Gulfoss Waterfall. Those are the three main points. So the first one we went to was the national park. And it's really really easy drive. It's beautiful. I recommend just parking in parking lot number one, which is right in front of the big visitor center, right by the main area of the park. So walk into the visitor center, there are really friendly employees there that will explain everything to you. And the main things to see will be the Almanagia Gorge. Again, I'm not sure about the pronunciation, but Almanagia Gorge, which is the gorge between the two tectonic plates, the North American and the Eurasian. And actually, right next to the visitor center is a big viewpoint, and that's on the corner of the North American tectonic plate. So that's pretty cool. and the walk is really easy. The path can get a little bit busy, but it is easy walk to the waterfall. It's about two kilometers. it's flat gravel path so go there, check out the waterfall. You can come back to the visitor center on the other side just cross the wooden bridges Then you'll find a little church. It's just beautiful. If you're feeling adventurous, you can also do diving or snorkeling in Silfra. I did not do that. Those activities are way out of my comfort zone, but I know people who have done it and they loved it. so I've linked some tours for that in my article. I would say that visit will take you a couple of hours if you're walking, and if you're really just enjoying the abuse. Of course you're also walk by the place of the first Icelandic parliament. So it's a peaceful area, and you can just feel the historical and geological significance. I think it's definitely worth seeing. Your next stop will be Geyser. Gyothermal area that is where the gazier erupts. Actually, it's not gazier that's dormant, it's how we call all the erupting hot springs gaziers. So the one that erupts right now it's called Stracor and it erupts every 10 minutes. again it will be busy, but it's worth it. The first time we went there was a gazillion people around the geyser, but everyone had a spot, everyone could see, everyone could take a photo and a video. The second time we went around eight in the morning and we basically had the place to ourselves. So it was great. and then the third stop on your route that day will be Gulfos waterfall. That is a beautiful, beautiful, powerful waterfall, one of many beautiful powerful waterfalls in Iceland. you can park on the lower parking lot and just walk the gravel path. You can also go up to the other parking lot Where you will have a viewing platform and a restaurant and just go down the steps to the main level and see the waterfall. Just be careful it can get a little slippery when wet and you will get wet when you get close to the waterfall. So those are the three main stops. on the Golden Circle route. All three are worth seeing. and I wanna mention between Gazir and Gulfos, if you want to see some Icelandic horses, stop by the road, you'll see them. It's called Brew Farm B R and you can See them you can pet them. and then there's a whole lot of detours, like I said. We chose two that day. after we saw Goldfast, we went to the secret lagoon, which is my all time favorite. Icelandic hot spa or pool. It's not luxurious. It's just one stone pole, but it just has this authentic atmosphere to it. It's a little bit deeper than the other lagoons. it actually has pool noodles. You can float and swim a little bit. but it's beautiful, it just it just has that aura about it. And around the main pool. You'll have little gasiers erupting also and cute little troll houses. It's just super charming. It's my kind of thing. And then as a last stop for the day, we actually went to the Carried Crater, which is a really cool red and green volcanic crater. You can just go around the whole perimeter of the opening. And it's an easy walk. You pay a small fee to enter, but it's definitely well worth it. As far as other detours, there's a lot of them. You have the blue waterfall called Brewer Foss. You can get some ice cream at the FSD dollar farm where you can see the cows as you eat your ice cream. You can stop by Friedheimier Tomato Farm and get some of their delicious Tomato soup, there is a lot you can do. I recommend you read my blog post on the Golden Circle. You've got all of these stops listed, and just try to make your day. My recommendation is see the first three main stops and then see what else you have time and energy for. It's probably gonna be less than you planned. That's exactly what happened to us. So that was day two. Day three, we're gonna go in a different direction. We're gonna go west to Snefflesness Peninsula. It is as they call it Iceland in miniature. You have a little bit of everything there. You've got black sand beaches, you've got dramatic cliffs, you have a cute little church waterfalls, you name it, that area has it. It's a full day tour and again you're not gonna see exactly everything there, but there's some major points and one walk that you should not skip. So as you enter the peninsula arriving from Reykjavik, your first stop it's called Gergeburg Cliffs. There's just like a wall of Basalt columns that are just cool. You can climb on top of them and check out the view. you'll see those basalt columns a lot in Iceland, but that's a really cool place to stop and stretch your legs because it will take you about an hour and a half to drive to that point. And then you'll just be making many small short stops as you drive along the coast of the peninsula. your second stop will be Budir Black Church. you probably have seen pictures of it. It's just a cute black church in the middle of nowhere It is just super charming. And next you're gonna go to Arnor Stuppy. That is just a little village where you can do a coastal walk. You're gonna walk from Arnor Stuppy to Hell Nar. You can do it in the other direction, but I recommend doing it that way. you can park your car there and just head over to this arch looking stone structure. You'll see it. It's a statue of Bardur Sneffelsas. It's like half man, half troll, from which the peninsula gets its name. And when you're facing the statue, this is what we missed. When you're facing the statue and facing the ocean, first go to the left. There's actually signs for it now. I was just there. And see the famous stone arch. it's really cool. It's a little bit smaller than I saw in the pictures that I imagined, but it's really beautiful. It's only a couple of minutes. And then go in the other direction and you're going to start your coastal walk. You're gonna walk through some gravel paths first and then you're going to walk on some wooden boardwalks and you're gonna walk through a lava field and have beautiful cliff views on the rugged coastline on your left the whole time. And then you're gonna come to a little place that looks like a patch of a rocky beach. you can go down and see another arch. And then if you wanna have a bite to eat, just go up the path to a little house. It looks like just a house in the middle of nowhere, but it's a little cafe, fewer housing cafe. And you can have a bite to eat, get some rest, and then head back the same way. it is definitely a beautiful walk that I recommend. then as you drive along the coast you're gonna have Lawn Drag Nar Cliffs where you can see lava rock structures. You've got a black sand beach, Dupalon Sunder, a black sand beach, I would stop there for sure because you got some lifting stones that used to measure the strength of the fishermen. If you couldn't lift the stones, you were not fit for life at sea. So that's really cool. you have Saxhole Crater that you can go up, and then you have the iconic Kirkufell mountain, the church mountain that appeared in the Game of Thrones. So you definitely wanna try to make your way there. That is a full long day of driving. There is a lot more to Snefflesnes Peninsula. I'll link the whole article on it in the show notes. I actually have to update that with some new places that I have seen. but there's a lot more to it. just pick the destinations that you would like for your day trip. and just use the long summer days to see as much as you can. It's definitely worth it. It's one of my favorite areas in Iceland. So now we have day four. Day four, what we did was a glacier hike and we visited the south coast. I will give you an alternative if you don't want to do a glacier hike. But I strongly recommend that you do that. We did the hike on Solhei Mayakutl Glacier. It's one of the most accessible and closest glaciers in Reykjavik. We were really, really lucky. We had a beautiful sunny day, so that made it even more fun. And then we met with our guides, got our gear on, the helmets, the harnesses, the ice picks and crampons, and went up on a glacier. It is not a strenuous activity. If you're reasonably fit, you can do it. There's not a lot of uphill hiking. There's some. And of course, you're gonna walk on the snow, with crampons on. So it's gonna take a little bit more effort than regular walking. But just the fact that you walk in on a glacier is absolutely amazing. We loved every minute of it. I think the whole tour is about three, four hours total with the instructions and getting up there and putting your gear on and coming back. So you're not hiking for four hours. but that's a half day adventure. if you don't wanna hike on the glacier, you can walk to the glacier. It's only about a ten minute walk from the parking lot to a nice viewing platform and you can see that glacier. You're not gonna touch it, you're not gonna get close. pretty close, but not close enough to touch and walk on it. This is only a guided activity for safety, but you can see it. So if you want to see it without hiking, that's also a great stop. And then we had some lunch and continued to the Venice Fiera Black Sand Beach. that is definitely a must-see. It's that iconic Icelandic beach. You definitely want to see it, just be careful. There are warning lights before you enter the beach. and just make sure you pay attention. There's green, there's yellow, and there's red. make sure you pay attention to the lines where you're allowed to go, depending on what light is lit up. the first time I was there the light was green. The second time I went back the light was yellow and it was already really windy and the waves very strong so I can only imagine what it would be when the light is red. Pay attention, do not go too close to the water, do not turn your back to the ocean. there's sneaker waves they come fast, strong, totally unannounced, and they can sweep you out to sea. So you'll see the famous Rainy's Dranger sea stacks. they're pointy lava structures, sticking up from the ocean that are supposedly trawls turns to stone at daylight. You can also see Derhole cliffs from the shore with the famous arch. then the next stops will be Skogafoz and Cellulance Foss. Those are the two waterfalls along the south coast. we had gone to our glacier hike first and so we were gonna see those waterfalls on the way back and there's a reason for it too which I will get into in a minute. if you're not going to do a glacier hike you still wanna save Celluland's Force for the way back. And I will explain why. so if you're not gonna do a glacier hike and you're just gonna go to the viewpoint, keep going, you can go as far as Vik, the most southern village in Iceland. You can do a lot of stuff in Vik. You can have some black crust pizza, you can see the iconic church. You can go to the lava show you can even drive a little past since you're gonna have the time and go and see the Yoda cave, which is a really cool place. It's a cave with an opening shape just like Master Yoda from Star Wars. So for Star Wars lovers that's cool. Even if you're not a Star Wars lover, that is still a fun place to be. and you can check out the Derholite cliffs and drive up to the lighthouse and see the arch up close. but I strongly recommend doing the glacier hike and saving these destinations for another time. unless you start really, really early. So we went as far as Rainy Sfierra Beach. We did not go to Vic that first time. We started turning around and we saw Skoga Foss first as it's closer to Vik and it was beautiful. It's a massive waterfall. supposedly there is treasures hidden under the veil of the water. but the waterfall is beautiful. It's an easy walk from the parking lot. You can get as close as you can. Sometimes you see rainbows. I recommend also making an effort in climbing all those stairs up to the top of the waterfall. There's about 500 or so. I didn't count. I was focused on getting up there. I've been there a couple of times and I never counted those stairs, but it's a lot. It's takes a little bit, but it's definitely worth going up there. See the waterfall from the top. And that's where a hike starts called Waterfall Way. You will not have the time to hike the whole thing. But just go maybe 20, 30 minutes along the path. You will see so many waterfalls. It's so peaceful. It's so beautiful. It's magical. It's my favorite word for a lot of destinations in Iceland. But that's what we did. We just did 20 minutes, maybe half an hour, and walked back and it was gorgeous. So that's my recommendation for that. Depending on where you are time wise, you can also see another waterfall. That's literally a minute drive right next to Skogafoss. Don't come out back on the main road, just go to Skogor Museum and that's where you park and hike to Kvernifoss. That's a waterfall you can walk behind. It's a small one. You may get a little wet for that, but just be careful, put on the right gear, rain pants and raincoats. But that's a beautiful, beautiful walk to kind of a hidden gem, not many people go there, probably more now than before, but still a lot of people skip it. But it depends if you have the time. You would have to add an hour total for the visit. It's about a 20 minute walk each way and you want to spend some time there. we did not do that the first time. We did it the second trip. so we only saw Skaga Foss and then we went continued driving to Celluland's Foss. That is the iconic waterfall that you can walk behind. So that's definitely when you want to put on your rain pants, your rain jackets, keep your gears safe, your cameras, your phones, you will get what? It is a powerful, gorgeous waterfall. it's a one-way traffic. You're gonna walk up the path. and you're going to go around and behind the veil of the waterfall, behind the water, and come out on the other end. the path changes. Sometimes it depends on the conditions, which way you come out. Just follow the path, follow the people. and then when you come out back to the main paved path, keep walking away from the parking lot. About five minutes later you're gonna find another waterfall that we did not see. that first visit. So if you have time and energy, it only takes a few minutes to see it. It's a five minute walk. It's called Gliouferbui. I'll spell it for you in the show notes. And it's a waterfall hidden in a little canyon. You're gonna walk through a short canyon. You may get your shoes a little wet so keep your rain gear on, and you'll see an opening And it comes down from above you. you can see the sky and you can see the waterfall coming down. It's beautiful. So that's something I definitely recommend doing. And that will be your last stop if you're following my itinerary from that first trip. Now why do I recommend saving and visiting Celia Lance for the way back? Because you're going to get wet. And if you don't have fully waterproof jacket, pants, and especially shoes, you just don't want to spend the rest of your day trip in damp clothes. If that's not possible, just have some spare clothes in the car, especially socks. Guess how I know that? After our visit, It turned out that my son's hiking sneakers weren't as waterproof as we thought, so we had to buy him a pair of socks at the gift shop there. So now he owns a very nice pair of puffin socks and by the way, that gift shop is really nice. Now you may ask, what about the glacier lagoon? That's another two hours past Vek. So if you're not doing the glacier hike and you definitely want to see the Glacial Lagoon, and the Diamond Beach, I would recommend planning to spend the night somewhere between Vik and Haufen. unless you're gonna do ten hours of driving in one day, which I don't think it's a good idea 'cause you're just going to spend your day driving. However, that kinda defeats the purpose of staying in one place as a base and just doing day trips, which is what we did. and we actually loved it. It was easy. So it's up to you. I would recommend just sticking to Vek this time, or if you're going to definitely see the lagoon and the diamond beach, you wanna plan on spending the one night on the south coast and moving those two days to The end of your itinerary, so you don't have to switch hotels too many times. so that's my tip for that. then we have our day five, which initially for us it was an unscheduled day, but then my daughter really wanted to ride Icelandic horses, she's an avid horseback rider, and I found the hike. to Reikiattal or Geothermal River in the steam valley and it ended up being one of my favorite days. the horseback riding, my daughter's the only one that actually rides. My husband, my son and I were not riders at all with no prior experience except me watching her lessons. But it was a great, great fun. we did A tour about fifteen minutes from our apartment It was called Red Lava Horse Riding Tour. And it was great. We had a little later morning because we didn't have to get up so early. We went up there. We met our guides, we met our horses, they gave us instructions, we put helmets on and off we went. Those horses know what they're doing, so you are safe. it is beautiful. It's a one-of-a-kind experience. You definitely are going to have more fun than you think. And like I said, you don't need to know how to ride horses. then we came back to our apartment for lunch and in the afternoon we did the Ray Ketalur hike. What a hike. It's beautiful. It's about forty-five minutes up. It's not a strenuous hike, but you do go uphill. You go through the beautiful, beautiful valley. You see canyons, you see steam all over. You're at the edge of the highlands, not too close, but it does feel a little more wild than the other destinations. and you hike. the whole area is just magical. You have canyons that you see, you meet some sheep, you have some streams to cross, over a little wooden bridges. It's it's beautiful. And then you finally get up there and you see just wooden boardwalk and wooden structures that are supposed to serve as kind of half open changing rooms. There's no real changing rooms and there's no facilities there other than the parking lot, so use that before your hike. But it's just beautiful. It's a hot river in the middle of Icelandic wilderness. It is just something that I haven't seen anywhere else that I've ever been to and it was magical. I did not want to go through the whole thing of changing. My husband actually went into the river, my kids and I we just dipped our feet and then I just sat on the grass and watched the steam come up because the river is hot. The air was about fifty, fifty five degrees maybe. it was kind of a cloudy afternoon and it was just magical. I could see that if I wasn't as hungry as I was, because we took everything with us except for food. So I was actually starving. we probably would have stayed a lot longer. So needless to say, we power walked down and got some food at the from the car and at the r little restaurant that's there. so that's definitely something that I recommend. option if you don't want to do horseback riding, very close to the river hike, it's a lava tunnel. it's called Rao for a horse. I can't say it correctly, but it's lava tube that you can visit. It's just over a kilometer long and you have beautiful lava columns inside. I haven't been there, I've seen pictures and you do it with the guide and I've talked to some people who have done it and they actually love it, so that's definitely on my list. but that's something you can do if you don't want to do horseback riding. But again, like with the glacier hike, if you have the time and the budget, I would definitely recommend trying that. Then our day six was our departure day, but we had a late flight home. So day six we actually ended up going to Reykjavik finally because you may have noticed that we haven't included the capital city yet. so that's what we did. It was our last day. We were all packed. We were checked out of our apartment and we went and saw the church. You can go up for some awesome views in an elevator. We strolled down the Rainbow Street. We walked to see the Harpa Music Hall. We saw the Sun Voyager. there's a lot you can do in Reykjavik. There's the famous philological museum you can you can go to. get some hot dogs, from the hot dog stand. go to this famous bakery, Broad Co., to get some of their iconic cinnamon rolls. Sometimes they sell out of the cinnamon rolls. Any other pastry you get from them will be amazing as well. So that's definitely what you want to do. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to appear at the airport about three hours. prior to your departure but also allow some extra time to return your rental car. We just had a five minute walk from the rental car and the drop off was really easy with blue car rental but if you need a shuttle, depending on where you're rented from, that's something you need to take into consideration when you plan your last day. So that was our six day itinerary. I feel like that allowed us to see enough of Iceland to totally fall in love. I was absolutely homesick when I got home. I was Iceland sick when I got home. We started planning the next trip literally immediately after we came back. now that I knew so much more that I kinda had a test drive of what it's like to be in Iceland and this is where my addiction started. so this itinerary can do that to you. So be ready. But to recap, this is your first Iceland trip at a glance if you follow this itinerary. So day one, you can do Reikianis Peninsula as it's very close to the airport and you can do the Blue Lagoon. day two will be the golden circle, day three will be the Snefflesness Peninsula, day four will be the South Coast, either with the glacier hike or without the glacier hike. Day five will be the horseback riding and the steam valley geothermal river hike, which again I strongly recommend both, and day six will be Reykjavik. and your departure day or if you depart the next day it'll be a full day in Reykjavik. There's a whole lot of activities other than what I just mentioned in Reykjavik as well to fill the day. So I can link those in the show notes as well. you can have some modifications. if you'd rather do your day one in Reykjavik you can. And that way you can spend your first day in Reykjavik, come back to the suburbs and do your Reykiness Peninsula and the Blue Lagoon right before you leave. A lot of visitors do that as well. And then if you want to extend the South Coast visit to the glacial lagoon, again it's about five hours from Reykjavik, so you want to spread it over two days, and there's a lot more to see in between Reykjavik and Hafen, which is kind of the unofficial end of the South Coast. post so I will link the whole article so you can choose and make a decision in the show notes. but if you're gonna do that whole drive I would definitely recommend two days on the South Coast. There are two day tours if you're planning to do tours as well so you can do that as well. But like I said, I would move that to the last two days of your trip so then you don't have this random day in Reykjavik or in the suburb between the time that you visit the South Coast and you leave. So hopefully this was helpful and gave you some good ideas on how to plan your first trip to Iceland, especially if you don't have a lot of days to spend there. feel free to reach out if you have any more questions and I will see you in the next episode.