When visiting Iceland there are a few things that are must see/must do. Iceland is not known for their nightlife or even gastronomy for that matter. It is known however for some beautiful scenery, lagoons, glaciers, and waterfalls. Whether you visit in the summer or the colder months there’s cool experiences to be had in each season.
My personal bucket list included the traditional Golden Circle, Chasing waterfalls, a stop in Vik, and a Glacier hike. It wasn’t until doing my research on this country that I found other cool adventures such as snorkeling in two degree glacier water and an active volcano hike. Unfortunately, the volcano was no longer erupting and after getting more information from locals (Thank you Instagram) paying for a hike tour was a waste of money as we would have not enjoy seeing the hot red bubbling lava. Definitely something I would have loved to experienced in the land of Fire & Ice but I guess the timing was bad. I’ll have to keep an ear open for the next eruption and now that I know how easy it is to get there maybe I can go again for a weekend and compete my checklist 😊. Hopefully that occurs in the summer months where I can also check off the midnight Sun ☀️.
Now don’t get me wrong, Iceland does have certain foods that they are known for such as fermented shark, skyr -an Icelandic yogurt, dark rye bread from a hot spring, a few lamb dishes, their famous hot dot dog and so on. They even have food tours in ReykjavÃk that seemed to be very promising, however for us it wasn’t the main attraction for this short trip. Maybe next time.
Silfra Snorkeling: this five star rated tour was voted top ten excursion in the world on Tripadvisor. The Silfra Fissure is the only place in the world where you can snorkel between two continents. It’s located in the Thingviller National Park between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plate which was caused by an earthquake in 1789. Don’t expect to see fishes here, it is known more the rock formation, algae, and its amazing colors.
Fun Facts:
•This water maintains a temperature of 2 degree Celsius year round due to its underground travels.
•It takes a century for the water to filter through the porous lava fields
•Silfra gets it’s filtered water from the nearby Langjokull Glacier 60 kilometers north.
•It has the best underwater visibility in the world, over 100 meters visibility
•The water is drinkable! Yes I drank some 😊
•It has been voted one of the top five spot to snorkel in the world.
There are many companies that you can book this tour with great reviews. We used Troll Expeditions and had a great time! We even showed up late, well not late late but also not early enough to get set up for our departure time. Thankfully they had other groups and we were put on with the following group. We were instructed to wear thermal suits and thick socks and they provided everything else, another thick layer of thermal suit, the dry suit, fins, snorkel mask, go pro pics, a chocolate bar and hot chocolate at the end. We drove about 50 minutes outside of ReykjavÃk to meet the tour guides/group. They kept our belongings secured while we were away snorkeling.
Personally, I was worried that it would feel too cold underwater and that I wouldn’t float because they didn’t provide life vests 😆. You don’t need life vest. Upon entering the water the pressure makes your dry suit stick to your body and the air goes up to your shoulders allowing you to stay afloat at all times. As long as you wear your personal thermal layer and thick socks your body does stay pretty warm. If I recall I felt cold for about 10 seconds after entering the water. Water does get inside your gloves though. They tell you not to squeeze it out because it’ll warm up to your body temp and it’ll become tolerable. They also told us to keep our hands on our back while we were in the water and to not use it for swimming as the movement will make your hands feel colder. Honestly, there is no need to use your hands. There’s a slight current that takes you down stream and at the end of the fissure you swim agains it for a few minutes (less than 5) to turn into the Bay Area where you technically end the tour. I used my hands a few times to swim faster and be close to the guide or if I felt that I was staying behind. Other than that it was a gentle floating almost all the way down.
Overall I give this experience a 5/5. Cold hands for a few hours after was worth the once in a lifetime experience 😜.
The open area of my face also felt cold for a while when first getting in the water. Honestly the first few minutes in I didn’t think I was going to make it for the next 30-45 minutes hahaha. But I got used to it. My hair did end up getting wet, there was no avoiding that even with the head covering. But it was mainly on my neck area. I didn’t feel cold there though. My only complain was my hands. Boy were they cold. They told us not to take off our gloves until we reached the starting point, where our belongings were, as the cold air would make it worse and I’m so glad I listened. My hands were cold for hours after changing back into my regular clothes. Another tip I didn’t read on anywhere was to pee before getting in the dry suit. Common sense I know but it didn’t even crossed my mind until I was getting ready. Just because you’ll be in the water doesn’t mean you want to pee in it. Remember you’ll have several layers and you’ll only be wet inside the suit if you do 🤣. They had us use the bathroom prior of getting dress and that’s how that talk went down lol.
Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon
Crystal Blue Ice Cave & Glacier Hike
This tour we also booked with Trolls Expeditions. It required us to drive 2 hours past Vik to Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon to the meeting point because of where this ice cave is located. I had made reservations in this cute place that I was looking forward to a beautiful photo shoot 😜. Unfortunately we never made it to it because of bad weather and road closures. Instead we drove as far as we could, about an hour past Vik and we made last minute reservations at Fosshotel Nupar. The roads opened back up at some point over night and we woke up early, ate breakfast and drove the hour and fifteen minutes to the lagoon. Weather was still not the greatest and some parts of the roads were icy but thankfully we made it save and sound.
Why the fuss on this particular glacier? This glacier is Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull, and it has the bluest ice in the country. If it’s an adventure of a lifetime, sign me right up!
Vatnajokull Glacier covers 10% of Iceland with a surface area of over 3,000 miles. It reached its peaked in 1930 and since then it has decreased its size in thickness about 3 feet a year for the past 15 years. Beneath this glacier sits the tallest mountain in Iceland and several active volcanoes that according to some geologist, some eruptions are way overdue. Established in June of 2008, Vatnajokull National Park is the second largest national park in Europe. It is said that with the increased of global warming, this glacier could see its end by the end of the next century leaving only a white tip top over the mountain 🥺.
We met our group at Jokulsarlon Lagoon parking lot and we took about a 20-30 minutes bumpy monster jeep drive to our starting point where we hiked about another 30 minutes to get to the entrance of the ice cave. The hike was not extraneous at all. Very doable. We even stopped for a drink of water at a stream coming from the glacier 😆. Y’all, I swear Iceland has the best tasting water in the world! Be it in a hotel room faucet, a restaurant self serve station, or a hidden stream underneath snow.
Our tour guide was awesome and very knowledgeable. He gave us a lot of interesting information and he was funny. Entering the ice cave and walking around inside admiring its ice formation and color was everything I had hoped it would be. Every year the ice caves change so there’s no two alike, each visit is a new experience. They provided us with helmets and crampons. Although there were many groups rotating in and out of the cave it didn’t feel rushed at all. We probably spend a total of one hour inside the cave learning about it, admiring it, talking pictures, etc.
At the end we hiked back to the hero and drive back to the parking lot. Again, another amazing, must do, once in a lifetime experience. Don’t think about it. Just do it! There are other glaciers closer to ReykjavÃk and in Vik that are an option as well. There’s also the option to hike on top of the glacier for 3 hours. That would have been pretty cool too but timing didn’t allowed for it.
Tip: there’s no place to eat nearby. There were several food trucks in the parking lot which were closed due to the snowstorm the day before. So make sure that if you plan on doing this tour it drive all w the way here you have a plan for accommodation and food as you will not find anything to it for miles.
Diamond Beach
After the tour we drive across the street to the Diamond beach. I was not impressed. At all. Not what I was expecting so I have to admit that I was disappointed. I’m not sure if it was due to the time of year or the snow or maybe we drive to the wrong part of the beach… 🤔. Either way I don’t have much to say but we’ve been there 😆.
We started our 5 hours drive back to ReykjavÃk only to get caught in a middle of a storm. It was scary y’all. Husband was a trooper getting through it. I guess it paid off that he’s a driver in real life. We saw many accidents. Winds were insane. Cars and big vans flipped over and into ditches. Two hours later we stopped at a gas station to fill up and grab snacks and realized that the road was closed and we were just stuck in the middle of the storm. What an experience!
