10 Day Iceland Itinerary - 𝙻𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚗 𝙴𝚒𝚍𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚘

10 Day Iceland Itinerary

9.10.21

Lauren Eidson Photo

—————————

When I decided to fly to Iceland for my annual trip in December of 2019, I knew in my heart that it would change my view on the world. The island is full of beautiful and massive formations which can be quite humbling. I had seen photos from other photographers and travelers and thought “there’s no way this tiny island has thousands of waterfalls, active volcanos, black sand beaches, glaciers and ice caves…” Well, I’m here to tell you that I was absolutely wrong, and there’s SO much more to Iceland than the photos I have shared with you today.

Right after I bought my plane ticket, I began to research places to visit during my nine day journey. To be frank, I was overwhelmed with the amount of planning involved. I had to consider how Iceland only receives 4-5 hours of daylight during December. I also had to factor in how long it would take to get from point A to point B since many of the places on my list were hours of driving apart. If there’s one piece of advice I could give to you, it’s that you need to give yourself ample time to explore and relax. Rushing while on vacation is really no vacation at all. I decided it’d be best to do 1-2 major events a day. I had to find hotels, restaurants and grocery stores next. I used AirBnB to help with this task. My itinerary was beginning to come together and I was finally ready to pack.

Let’s talk about the food. Iceland is known for lamb, so of course I had plenty of that, but they also had some amazing fish including my favorite, salmon. Every single restaurant felt like I was walking into someone’s cozy living room; They were warm and inviting. The grocery stores were packed with yogurts and homemade breads and chocolates. I would honestly recommend every, single thing I had!

The most relaxing part of the whole trip was my visit to Krauma, a natural hot springs resort. I spent hours trying out their hot springs pools that were set at different temperatures. The ambiance was surreal…. maybe I was in a dream.

The least relaxing part and perhaps the most frightened I have ever been in my life was when I took a glacier tour. We had to wear spikes on our boots that were meant to be jabbed into the ice to keep us from slipping into a “hole-of-no-return”. Yep, that’s right. So I psyched myself out which made me physically exhausted which made it extremely difficult to dig the spikes into the ice which led me to almost having a panic attack atop a glacier. Couldn’t tell from the photo though, could ya?

There were a few things that caught me off guard while exploring the island. I had no idea that the wind would be as harsh as it was with 90mph gusts shaking the car while driving. The opening hours for restaurants and grocery stores were mostly wrong online, and quite a lot of places were closed due to it being close to Christmas. You can’t tell from my photos, but there were tons of tourists in certain “popular” areas. Though I was able to avoid them for the most part and mingle with the locals.

The most magical part of the whole journey actually happened on Christmas Day. I was driving along the stretch of road on the south side of the island when I saw a herd of reindeer—REINDEER on Christmas! I cannot wait to go back during the spring or summer to experience Iceland in a whole new way.

Iceland itinerary

12.17

- 6:45am | pick up car

- 2pm | Reykjavík hotel check in

12.18

- 9:30am | hotel check out

- 12pm | Krauma check in

- 4pm | Grundarfjordur hotel check in

12.19

- 2pm | Walter Mitty town

- 3pm | Kirkjufell

12.20