Iceland doesn’t ease you in.
We landed at Keflavik Airport simply because the solar was happening — and the views from the aircraft on descent had been already one thing else. Golden gentle spilling throughout a volcanic panorama that regarded like nothing I’d ever seen from 30,000 toes. That was our welcome to Iceland.
4 days later I left having seen the Northern Lights twice, walked inside a glacier, stood on a black sand seashore in 50mph winds, and located a spot that regarded a lot like Mars I genuinely needed to remind myself I used to be nonetheless on Earth.
That is the precise route we took — each cease, each restaurant, each second value understanding about. My dad and I did this journey in January with Secret Spots Iceland, a neighborhood tour operator who is aware of these places higher than anybody. If you need a guided expertise, they’re value each penny. That mentioned, each cease on this Iceland winter itinerary is totally doable by yourself — and I’ll provide you with all the pieces you want to navigate it independently.
Earlier than you pack — try our Iceland Packing Checklist for precisely what to put on and convey. Waterproof all the pieces. Belief me.
Earlier than You Go: The Winter Mild Actuality
One factor no one absolutely prepares you for in Iceland in winter the daylight window is tiny.
Dawn wasn’t till round 10:30am and sundown hit at roughly 4pm. That’s lower than six hours of daylight. It sounds limiting but it surely truly works in your favor, the golden hour gentle lasts all day, each picture seems unimaginable, and the darkness offers you the very best situations for Northern Lights searching.
Plan your driving between stops accordingly. Don’t underestimate how shortly it will get darkish.
Day 1: Reykjavik & The Northern Lights
Keflavik Airport → Reykjavik (45 minutes)
Flying into KEF is a dream. Seize your 4×4 rental automobile instantly, that is non-negotiable in winter, don’t even take into account a typical automobile — and make the 45-minute drive into Reykjavik.
Spend your first afternoon and night exploring the town. It’s compact, walkable, and filled with character. The principle landmark is Hallgrímskirkja, the enduring church that towers over the town and offers you sweeping views over the rooftops from the highest. Stroll Laugavegur Avenue for espresso, meals, and a really feel for the town.
Eat someplace native. Reykjavik punches effectively above its weight for meals.
Reykjavík → Hvolsvöllur (90 minutes)
Right here’s the choice that modified our whole journey: as an alternative of staying in Reykjavik, we drove 90 minutes east to Hvolsvöllur for the night time.
The rationale? Mild air pollution. Reykjavik’s glow kills your Northern Lights possibilities. Hvolsvöllur is deep within the South Iceland countryside, darkish skies, privateness, and dramatically higher odds of catching the aurora.
It paid off instantly.
Inside minutes of checking into our Airbnb, I glanced exterior and seen the sky wanting a bit extra colourful than traditional. I walked out. The Northern Lights had been instantly above us, inexperienced ribbons shifting throughout the complete sky, on night time one inside an hour of arriving.
We spent 45 minutes exterior. Simply standing there, staring, filming, not saying a lot. A type of moments the place you perceive instantly that you just’ll keep in mind it for the remainder of your life.
For those who’re chasing the Northern Lights, and need to get probably the most out of this Iceland winter itinerary, get out of Reykjavik at night time.
Day 2: The South Coast – Waterfalls, Black Sand & Basalt
The South Coast is Iceland’s biggest hits. Give your self a full day and don’t rush any of it.
Seljalandsfoss
Your first waterfall, and what a method to begin.
Seljalandsfoss drops 60 meters off a cliff face and, uniquely, you may stroll behind it by a slender passage carved into the rock. Standing behind a waterfall whereas it crashes in entrance of you is a genuinely surreal expertise. The mountains flanking it on each side make the backdrop much more dramatic.
Put on your waterproof gear right here. You’re going to get moist. That’s not a warning, it’s a promise.
Reynisfjara Black Sand Seashore – Close to Vík (R.I.P.)
We had been fortunate sufficient to be a few of the final guests to expertise Reynisfjara earlier than a bit of the cliff collapsed, completely altering the seashore.
Even earlier than that, this place was not like something I’d ever seen. Black volcanic sand so far as you may see, monumental basalt columns stacked like organ pipes alongside the cliff face, and waves arriving with completely zero warning.
The wind right here was brutal. My dad had forgotten his waterproof pants and inside minutes he was fully soaked. I used to be effective. Put on your waterproof gear. All of it.
The rogue waves at Reynisfjara are genuinely harmful, individuals have been swept away right here. Keep effectively again from the waterline irrespective of how calm it seems.
Lunch at Ströndin Pub – Vík
After Reynisfjara, cease in Vík for lunch at Ströndin Pub. I had top-of-the-line burgers I’ve eaten wherever. Heat, unpretentious, and precisely what you want after getting sandblasted on a black sand seashore.
Skógafoss
Finish the day at Skógafoss and save vitality for it as a result of this waterfall deserves your full consideration.
In contrast to Seljalandsfoss the place you stroll behind the water, at Skógafoss you stroll instantly beneath it. The size is big, 60 meters of water crashing down so shut you are feeling the complete pressure of the mist in your face. Don’t be scared to get shut. The pictures are value it.
Climb the steps to the viewing platform on the high for a totally completely different perspective over the South Coast.
Day 3: Ice Caves, Glaciers & The Greatest Pizza in Vík
Yoda Cave
Begin the morning at Yoda Cave, a lava tube formation whose jagged entrance seems virtually precisely just like the Star Wars character. I didn’t understand it till we acquired there after which couldn’t unsee it.
The very best half? We had been fully alone. No different guests, no tour teams, simply us strolling right into a cave on a black sand seashore feeling like real explorers. Popping out alive was a bonus. (Simply kidding. Principally.)
The adjoining black sand seashore offers the entire spot an otherworldly backdrop that made it some of the photogenic stops of the complete journey.
Glacier & Ice Cave Tour with KatlaTrack – The Expertise of a Lifetime
Clear your afternoon. This tour runs about 3 hours and it’s with out query, some of the unforgettable experiences of my life.
The information hundreds you into what can solely be described as a war-ready 4×4 and takes you off-road throughout a glacier. It looks like driving on one other planet. Once we reached the ice caves, the scene was straight out of Interstellar, icy mountains on each aspect, electrical blue partitions of compressed glacial ice, full silence apart from the crunch of shoes on historical ice.
We spent the following hour or two trekking out and in of the caves. Each flip revealed one thing extra extraordinary than the final.
Put on each layer you introduced. It’s chilly, it’s moist, and it’s value each second of discomfort.
Ebook KatlaTrack prematurely, this tour sells out. Don’t depart it to probability.
Dinner at Black Crust Pizzeria – Vík
Again in Vík for dinner. There’s actually just one pizza place on the town Black Crust Pizzeria, and actually, that’s effective. It’s glorious. After a day on a glacier, it’s precisely what you want.
Day 4: The Golden Circle – Craters, Geysers & Iceland’s Bluest Waterfall
The Golden Circle is Iceland’s most well-known vacationer route for motive. However we did it with just a few detours that almost all guests by no means discover, and people ended up being the most effective moments of the day.
One necessary observe for winter: dawn on today was round 10:30am. We timed our first cease completely for the golden hour gentle. Plan your Golden Circle day across the dawn.
Ingólfsfjall – Dawn Overlook
On the way in which to Kerið, we noticed an exquisite overlook known as Ingólfsfjall and pulled over on intuition. The timing was excellent, it was proper at dawn, the sunshine was golden, and the views over the encompassing panorama had been extraordinary.
That is the type of cease that doesn’t make it into most itineraries. Pull over for it. The drone photographs right here had been a few of my favorites from the complete journey.
Kerið Crater
A volcanic crater lake that appears prefer it fell from one other dimension. Deep pink and black crater partitions encompass vivid teal water on the backside, the colour distinction is nearly synthetic wanting, particularly in winter gentle.
Stroll the complete rim and go right down to the water. The angle adjustments fully from each angle you view it from. Don’t simply look from the highest and depart.
The Secret Spot (Close to Kerið – You’ll Know It When You See It)
Only a quick distance from Kerið, we discovered a spot I’m intentionally not naming or mapping.
All the panorama was various shades of pink, orange, and black. So alien-looking that the one reference level I had was Mars. We had the entire place fully to ourselves. No different guests. Simply us, the drone, and a panorama that genuinely didn’t appear to be Earth.
We flew the drone throughout and hung out simply sitting with it, reflecting on how one nation can comprise ice caves that really feel like Interstellar AND a pink volcanic panorama that looks like Mars. Preserve your eyes open on the roads round Kerið. You’ll acknowledge it instantly once you see it.
Gullfoss
One among Iceland’s most iconic waterfalls, and one of many uncommon ones that truly lives as much as each picture you’ve ever seen of it.
Gullfoss is so extensive and encompassing that it made me really feel genuinely small, which nature has a humorous means of doing when it needs to place you in your house. Go to each viewpoint, each offers you a totally completely different expertise of the identical waterfall. My favourite was the decrease platform the place you may really feel the complete pressure of it, mist was blowing instantly into my face the complete time and I couldn’t have cared much less.
Geysir – Strokkur
My first geyser. It didn’t disappoint.
Strokkur erupts each 7-10 minutes, taking pictures boiling water 20-30 meters into the air. The problem is being prepared together with your digital camera each single time. Your arms will get drained holding the shot however the second it erupts is completely value it. You’ll watch it 4 or 5 occasions earlier than you’re prepared to go away.
There’s a customer heart proper subsequent to the geysir with a meals court docket and a present store if you want to seize one thing for whoever you left at house.
Brú Horse Farm
A fast cease that grew to become one of many warmest moments of the journey. Iceland’s native horses are a breed not like some other, small, thick-maned, and fully tired of you until you might have snacks.
Purchase the snacks. It’s the one method to get picture and actually the horses’ full mercenary perspective towards people is hilarious and endearing on the identical time.
Brúarfoss Waterfall My Favourite of the Complete Journey
Iceland’s bluest waterfall and probably the most undervisited cease on this whole itinerary.
The water here’s a vivid cobalt blue that doesn’t look actual. It’s fed by glacial meltwater filtering by historical lava rock, and the colour it produces is not like the rest in Iceland. With the mountains within the background it was probably the most purely picturesque waterfall of the entire journey, not the largest, not probably the most highly effective, however probably the most stunning.
Most Golden Circle guests skip this totally. Don’t be one in all them.
The waterfall is intimate and quiet in a means that Gullfoss and Skógafoss aren’t. I flew my drone up and over it for a few of the finest footage of the journey. After which I simply sat there for some time. Some locations make you need to cease shifting and simply exist in them for a minute. Brúarfoss is a type of locations.
Þingvellir Nationwide Park – Finish on a Excessive
The ultimate cease, and the fitting one to finish on.
Þingvellir is the place the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet above floor, making a dramatic rift valley you may stroll instantly by. It’s additionally the place Iceland’s first parliament was established in 930 AD, making it probably the most traditionally important place on the complete route.
For those who’re a Sport of Thrones fan, there’s a bit that may instantly remind you of the doorway to the Eyrie. You’ll acknowledge it the second you see it.
We arrived at sundown. Overlooking the huge lake in that gentle, with the rift valley stretching out in each route, it was the right method to shut out 4 days in Iceland.
One Final Reward – Northern Lights on the Airport
We ended the night time at Keflavik Airport ready for our flight house. And Iceland gave us one last send-off, the Northern Lights appeared instantly above the airport whereas we waited to board.
Twice in 4 days. Iceland doesn’t do issues midway.
FAQ
Ought to I hire a automobile for my journey to Iceland in winter?
4×4 is necessary in winter. Non-negotiable.
How lengthy is it day in Iceland?
Dawn ~10:30am, sundown ~4pm in January (Roughly 5 hours of daylight). Plan accordingly.
Ought to I rent a information or go alone?
We used Secret Spots Iceland for Days 2 and three, which gave us entry to spots and data we wouldn’t have discovered on our personal. Each cease on this itinerary is doable independently — however if you need a neighborhood skilled displaying you the less-obvious spots, they’re glorious.
What are the street situations in Iceland in winter?
Examine roads every day. Iceland’s situations change quick and F-roads shut in winter with out warning.
The place can I see the Northen Lights?
Get out of Reykjavik at night time. The farther from metropolis lights the higher. Obtain the Aurora app for real-time forecasts.
