On our way back from a trip to Europe in October 2018 we took advantage of Iceland Air’s stopover. The stopover means that on your way to or from Europe you can stop for up to 7 days without additional airfare and I highly recommend it! Iceland has always been on my bucket list so we were really excited to make the stop. It was totally worth it and is an amazing country to visit. I can’t wait to return for a dedicated holiday in Iceland to explore more of it. It was a five hour flight from Paris to Keflavik airport, which is 45 minutes from Reykjavik, our home base for the short trip.

Day 1 – Arrival

Our trip started out a little rocky. I found myself sitting on my suitcase in tears, behind a strip of car rentals to get out of the biting wind, waiting for my husband to return with the rental car. I have a horrible habit of losing emails and papers and on this occasion I could not find the car rental reservation, and had no idea who I had reserved it from. I simply remembered it was a local dealer and had Iceland in the name. Or was it Reykjavik? Was it Cars Iceland? Icelandia Car? Iceland Car Rental? Reykjavik Cars? Reykjavik Auto? Reykjavik Rental Cars? I’m sure you see the issue here. To this day I have no idea which place it was.

At the airport there is a shuttle bus taking you to one of 3 stops for car rentals. We got off on the 1st stop because I thought I recognized the name. Nope not it. We were tired, hungry and eager to get to our Airbnb before dark and my husband was not in a good mood about the situation. I suggested he walk to the different offices that have either Iceland or Reykjavik in the name and find it that way. He flat refused. Mind you it was so close you could see each stop and no farther than walking across a Wal-Mart parking lot, but instead we called each place until we finally found the correct company. He set off on foot to pick up the car, at stop 3 of course, while I huddled in self pity with our luggage waiting for his return. He eventually he arrived in a much better mood, we loaded up our luggage and were finally on our way!

The first day we made it to our Airbnb by sunset in time to catch the beautiful view in the downtown area and headed to dinner. We found a nice restaurant in walking distance and had a lovely seafood meal I wish I had taken a picture of. We then stopped at a little shop and picked up some breakfast and lunch items for the next days adventure and discovered that people were not exaggerating that Iceland was expensive. At the airport the duty free section is a full on grocery and liquor store. The next time we visit we will plan to start our visit with a good duty free shopping trip.

Day 2 – The Golden Circle

What is the Golden Circle? It is a 190 mile driving loop route that starts and ends in Reykjavik. It takes you to some of the top tourist sites that can be done in a day trip. I suggest you give yourself at least a half day, but allow for a full day if possible to really explore the area. It can be done as a self guided tour with a car as we did, or you can take an organized tour with transportation. I loved having a rental car so that we could explore on our own schedule. We made the big 3 stops Þingvellir national park, Geyser and Gulfoss.

Þingvellir National Park

My husband, the scientist, chose only one activity he really wanted to do in Iceland, snorkel Sifra. So on our first full day we headed to Þingvellir National Park about 28 miles from Reykjavik . We had a planned snorkel tour with Iceland Adventure Tours, who I highly recommend. We drove ourselves to the park, but they have tours where you can be picked up also. When we arrived we downloaded an app, paid for parking and set off to find our tour group. The park itself does not have a fee. There were several tour groups preparing for their turn. When we found ours, we were given dry suits to put on. There is little privacy and I recommend for modesty and warmth to wear some warm leggings and thermal top to wear under the dry suit. It was chilly, but not freezing, just my hands and head were cold. It was 32 degrees! What interested my husband the most is the snorkel route is between a continental divide between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. It would not be something I would do more than once, but was an interesting activity for sure! Scuba diving is also an option. When we finished we were served a snack of cookies and hot chocolate. The guides took pictures that were uploaded after the tour.

If you want to stay dry, Þingvellir, a UNESCO World Heritage site is beautiful and well worth spending time there. Also, for Game of Thrones fans some of the show is filmed there. I really want to return in the summer and spend more time exploring.

Geyser

Strokkur geyser was interesting, and a nice stop on our day trip. There is not a lot else to see there, but it is frequent enough we could see it a few times before we moved on. The geyser erupts every 10-15 minutes and is an easy walk from parking and shops. It is free to visit the geyser. There are some nice shops and a restaurant across from the geyser and a great spot for some souvenirs. I didn’t prepare myself for the chilly weather of Iceland despite being an Alaskan. I was damp from our snorkel, Iceland is windy, and there were some early October snow flurries. I found a scarf and some nice gloves for myself at the shops which I was super glad I had for our next stop Gullfoss.

Gullfoss Waterfall

Gullfloss waterfall, is also called Golden Falls, and is probably the reason the drive has the name the Golden Circle. It is one of the must see falls of Iceland and the only one we went to. Again I would love to return in the summer and spend more time here. It is on the Canyon of the Hvita River and 104 feet high, in 2 drops. Gullfoss is 72 miles from Reykjavík and just a 10 minute drive from Geyser. We parked in the visitor parking and took the boardwalk to an overlook of the falls. It is free to visit.

The beautiful iconic Icelandic horses are easily found in fields along the roadside. The ancestors to these horses were likely brought by the Vikings around 900 AD and they are a breed unique to Iceland. They are the only breed of horse in the country and no other horses are allowed to be imported into the country to protect them from diseases. There are opportunities to go horseback riding, but we did not do this. Sheep also dot the landscape along the roads. The views are like being in another world.

We completed our tour and Golden Circle drive and even with some snow flurries we made it back to Reykjavik before dark and in time for a nice dinner near our lodging. The roads are easy to navigate and well maintained. We did have a AWD SUV and the rental had snow chains which we didn’t need. In the summer any vehicle would be fine, but in winter you will need to be prepared to drive in the snow. It was well worth getting out of Reykjavik to see the amazing Icelandic countryside.

Part 2 of our 3 day stopover will cover the remainder of our awesome Iceland visit and our day spent sightseeing in Reykjavik and visiting the Blue Lagoon