Reykjavik, Iceland

Things to know:

Booking a cold trip is 100% out of my comfort zone, but I could’t be happier I did it. Here’s my FULL and very detailed guide to planning and executing an *almost* flawless trip to the beautiful country of Iceland

• Currency: Iceland uses the Króna (ISK). 1 USD is equivalent to about 145 ISK. So don’t worry when your breakfast bill comes out to 6000 ISK like mine did (actually that’s still an expensive breakfast so you might want to be concerned if you’re ballin’ on a budget) Most places will take USD and almost everywhere takes a credit/debit card. I actually didn’t exchange any money at all on this trip and got along just fine using my card.
• Expenses: Things can add up fast in Iceland, almost everything has to be shipped there and therefore, it is all over priced so just be aware and know what you really want to spend your money on. Random but important fact- all of the water here comes from the springs and it is so good. You’ll never have to be concerned about buying water bottles or water contamination because every where you go they have free ice cold tap water available.
• Public Transportation: The bus will get you almost anywhere that you can’t walk to. There are bus stations located all over Reykjavik, find which one is closest to your hotel. Most tours will pick you up at the closes bus location. One of our tours picked us up at the Foss Hotel– be aware there’s about 7 Foss Hotels so make sure you check the addresses of places so you don’t end up at the wrong place like me.
• Weather/Clothing: It’s not as cold as I thought! The weather was similar to NY weather during the winter time, and even on the snowy days it was not so bad. Pack layers, a warm winter coat, and bring a hat/scarf/gloves every day just incase. I wore a hat most days and leggings under my jeans. Snow boots are a must. I got mine at target and wore them every second of everyday. I didn’t wear any other shoes except when I went to the club, I wore booties with a thick heel. I also bought shoe spikes off of amazon to help with the traction of the slippery ice on the tours. They are easy to use, just slip them on over your shoes. The tours all offer you spikes that are cheap and don’t really help you when you’re hiking on a glacier (trust me, we took some tumbles) The amazon ones would have worked much better… if I remembered to bring them after I bought them. sigh.
• Language: Icelandic is their native language, but everyone also speaks English and they are some of the most friendly people ever.
• Booking: I used Great Value Vacations to book this trip because I am too lazy to book everything separately. It included airfare, hotel stay, transportation vouchers to and from the airport, the Golden Circle Tour, and the Northern Lights Night Tour.

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Where to stay:

Plaza Centerhotel: Located right near bus station number 1. This location was perfect. Right across the street were selection of restaurants, and ice cream shop, and a famous Icelandic hot dog stand. The nightclubs/bars were all walking distance too, even in the snow. They had free breakfast every morning and the front desk was able to help you with any questions or concerns

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Tours:

Click any of the underlined links to see the exact tour I booked

South Coast Full Day Tour: This was my favorite tour. The tour bus has free Wifi and our tour guide was hilarious. On this tour you’ll:

• Walk behind the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (weather permitting to walk behind it) It’s slippery, hold on to the rails provided.
• Visit to the Black Sand Beach– Theres a little restaurant that has the best lamb soup amongst other desserts and sandwiches.
• Visit Iceland’s southernmost village in Vik
• Visit the Sólheimajökull Glacier – They will send you on a hike at your own risk. You’ll walk past signs that say “don’t go beyond this point” which is alarming but apparently as the glacier moves back, no-one cared to move the sign back as well. Everyone is hiking on this glacier from children to people in their 70’s. The views are AMAZING but it is extremely slippery and the spikes they provide don’t help much. This is where bringing your own will come in handy. Nevertheless, I fell like 4 times… so walk slow and be careful!
• And my favorite stop of the day the Skógafoss Waterfall. There is a perfect rainbow shooting across this waterfall and you can get as close as you want.

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Golden Circle Fontana Wellness tour – We left at 9:00 AM (9 hour tour) This tour Includes bus fare, Guided tour, A taste of rye bread, & Admission to the Laugarvatn Fontana & Spa. Dress warm for the outside portion of the tour, and pack a bathing suit and towel for the Spa. You can leave this bag on the bus when you stop at all of the places so you don’t have to carry it around. The rye bread is cooked in the hot sand next to the spa. The sand becomes hot from the hot springs and they bury the container in the sand for 24 hours! You watch them dig it up and place the next batch in for the next day. The bread was nice and warm and offer you butter to put on it as well as the recipe.

• Gullfoss Waterfall: a beautiful, giant waterfall. It’s windy up there so stay warm.
• Thingvellir National Park: where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. It’s slippery
• Geysir Geothermal Area: The active geysirs are pretty cool to watch. Water sporadically shoots out from the earth at an incredible height. I got startled when the geysir erupted and dropped my phone. OOPS. My friend took a video (see below)
• Laugarvatn Fontana & Spa: Located in the center of the Golden Circle, this spa has the 3 pools all heated by the hot springs, saunas, and steam rooms. The water is hot, the air is cold once you get out. They give you a locker and key to keep your stuff and the key is in the form of a bracelet, I wore mine on my ankle but you can put it on your wrist. The locker room is nice and clean. They have private showers and bathrooms, and also a line of shower heads if you’re just rinsing your body from the salt and minerals from the pools. They have hair dryers, q-tips, and body lotion available for you to use. They give you a towel but I brought my own flip flops and towel because I am annoying and I need 1 for my body and 1 for my hair…ladies with long hair, you know what I mean. *DO NOT* wear your jewelry in the pools and try to avoid putting your hair in it. My silver ring was no longer silver when I forgot to take it off.

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Blue Lagoon: Need I say more? It’s an absolute must to go to the Blue Lagoon. There is far too much to write on this experience so Click Here to read my full guide on a day at the Blue Lagoon- what to bring, how to book, what to expect, etc. In the meantime, here’s a picture of me lookin bomb in the lagoon.

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Snowmobiling on Langjökull Glacier: All you need for this tour is a fearless person with a drivers license (which they did not even check). They put you on this giant bus with wheels bigger than me that drives alllll the way in up mountains in the snow. Then they gear you up in a full snow suit, helmet, and goggles. They give you a 10-15 chat and guide on how to use the snow mobile. Anyone who’s driven an ATV or even a Jetski, it’s the same thing just on ice. You then hop on your own (Me and my friend shared one) and you follow the tour guide around to an Ice Cave. They take you down these makeshift snow stairs to a cave under the ice. Pretty cool, see pictures below. We got caught in a ‘White Out” on our way back to the base where it started snowing heavily and you can not see anything except for white in front of you. It makes it exceptionally difficult to follow the tour guide but they have poles in the ground with reflective lights to help guide you. Also our bus back home got stuck in the snow for like 45 minutes and I was running low on snacks- tragic. We made it home safe but I think half the people on the tour had an anxiety attack. Make sure you have at least one calm and rational person with you (that person in this case was me). They pick you up and drop you off at whichever bus stop you tell them to, so once again, know your closest stop.

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Northern Lights Tour: This tour depends solely on if the Northern Lights will even be visible. They canceled the tour two days in a row before they predicted that the lights would be visible. They cancel for weather purposes, if its too cloudy, etc. On the third night the bus took us an hour away from our hotel to a dark spot where you can see the lights. It was FREEZING. You stand there for hours and just hope that the lights are visible. We left our hotel around 9 PM and did not see the lights until 12AM. Honestly, sit in the bus and relax instead of waiting outside with everyone. Don’t worry about missing anything, everyone will start screaming when he lights appear so you’ll know to go outside and look. We did the best to take pictures with our iPhones and there is an app you can buy to play with the settings of your camera to get better pictures or use a professional camera. Nothing compares to the views you see in person. Be patient because it is definitely a once in a life time view that just can’t be beat.

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Things To Do:

Fly over Iceland: Cost about $30 which is a little pricey considering the whole experience itself is about 5 minutes long. It’s a quick virtual simulation ride where it feels like you’re flying over Iceland. It feels real (anyone who’s been to Disney World has probably experienced this type of ride) and the sights were beautiful, but it was definitely not worth the price they charge.

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Phallological Musesum: A local told us about this museum and we thought… hmm why not. Cost 1700 ISK or about $12 to enter. It was entertaining, we spent about 45 minutes in the museum. They have every mammal’s penis in jars and they give you an audio tour option with random facts about it. There’s a gift shop and guest book where you can sign your name and write something funny. The staff was very cheerful and friendly at the front desk.

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Hallgrimskirkja Church: Just walked by it- didn’t tour it but they offer tours daily!

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Food:

Tapas Barrin was hands down the BEST tapas place. It was so good we wanted to go back twice just to keep trying more items on the menu. The place offers tapas (small dishes) The waygu sliders are to die for. If you go here please order that and then order it again a second time just because. See below for the other tapas we tried.

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Baejarins Bestu- SS Hot Dog Stand: Famous for their Icelandic hot dogs. Get everything on it. Even if you think you don’t want to- trust me you do. There’s hot dog stands all over you’ll find one very easily.

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Messinn Seafood Buffet: Right on the marina, open for lunch. Make sure you check out their hours so you don’t miss out. I linked their website

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Fjallkona: Came here to try some traditional Icelandic cuisine. We ordered Lobster Tempura and the Icelandic platter that had Puffin, Minke whale, and Lamb. Very authentic… that’s all I’m going to say about that. The Confit duck “Beijing style” was phenomenal. The meat was tender and the caramelized pears on the side were tasty and sweet. Highly recommend this dish, plus they 5 stars on presentation. See pics below!

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On our walk during the day we stopped at this little restaurant called Meze Restaurant. What really won us over was the happy hour sign outside as we walked past. Half price glasses of wine? We had 6 (total, not each. But honestly If we didn’t have evening plans we could have stayed even longer) We also ordered a pizza and shared it. It was was perfect size for sharing as an afternoon snack. We then walked 4 blocks in the wrong direction on our way home because I had too much pride to check the GPS, thanks a lot wine.

Nightlife:

The bars and restaurants close early on the weekdays (9-10PM depending on where you try to go) and then stay open until about 5AM on weekends. No cover charges anywhere you go and they don’t check your bags so bring a flask or two or three :). They have coat check for a small price or if you don’t care like me I bought a cheap jacket to wear out and just found a spot to just put my jacket down (near the DJ booth, on a chair, etc.) Keep your bag/wallet/phone on you always though because, duh. All walking distance and near each other on the Main Street: Laugavegur. OH, and don’t order a vodka soda, they have no idea what that is you have to say vodka club.

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Sæta Svínið (The Sweet Pig): Came here for a quick bite on a Wednesday night since it was directly across the street from our hotel and it was getting late and we weren’t sure how long anything would be open. I got a burger that and this red onion jam that was delish) and it just so happened that Wednesday is Karaoke night. One of my favorite things to do when I travel is do Karaoke because I know I’ll never have to see anyone in the crowd again. You volunteer and get to pick a song (I obviously picked Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson.) After you sing everyone claps for you even if you did a crappy job because everyone in Iceland is just nice and then you get to spin a wheel where you can win a prize! The prizes include a beer or shot from the bar, or you can pick from a prize bag that had a bunch of random things in it.

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B5: We waited over a half hour to get into this club. Not sure why but we figured if there was such a long line the hype must be real. The music was good and the place was packed. Totally gave me Bounce NYC vibes as it had a similar layout with the VIP booths and many people celebrating what looked like birthdays or events with bottle service. The bathroom was in the basement and was very small gross btw.

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Astur: Came here two nights in a row actually. Music was better at B5 but we had fun and made friends at this bar. And like I said you can go back and forth between bars if theres no line since there are no cover charges anywhere.

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Honorable mentions go to American Bar, Pablo Discobar, & Lebowski Bar