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Timing: While I think both of us would probably say that mid-late May was actually the perfect time to take our trip, if for no other reason than for the very small number of other people we encountered, there were things that made it a little more difficult. A lot of the Camping Card sites actually opened for the season the day we got there, but there were even more of them that hadn’t opened yet. That meant that there were some days that we had no other option than to go

I’ve gotten into the strange habit of doing my best to ride a horse in every country I go to, and after being lectured to specifically in class about how unique the Icelandic ponies are, there wasn’t really a question that I add another country to my list of places I’ve ridden while we were in Iceland. We left the campsite early to make the slightly longer than an hour drive to Eld-Hestar. We chose the ‘Meadows and Mountains’ tour – a 2.5-3 hour ride that starts

We started our last full day in Iceland by driving 2.5 hours to Kirkjufellsfoss, what is often considered the most photographed place in the entire country – a beautiful waterfall with a vibrant green mountain looming behind it. Unfortunately for us, this was also the worst weather we had the entire trip, and it was rainy/foggy enough that majority of the mountain was obscured. It was still worth going to, and the pictures are actually still quite nice, just not the way we

We drove an hour and 15 minutes to Dynjandi waterfall. Once you get there, there’s a short hike up to the main waterfall, along which you pass several smaller waterfalls. The main waterfall is widely considered to look like a bridal veil, and you don’t really appreciate the size of it until you’re staring up at it. The water drops almost 300 feet, and as it goes down doubles in width. From Dynjandi, it was a 2 hour drive along the fjords to Bjargtangar. It was another

We spent the morning and afternoon whale watching out of Husavík, something I had never done before. I would have considered it a success if we had seen just one whale, but during our 2.5 hours on the water, we saw several humpback whales and an entire pod of orcas, which had a calf with them as well. We booked our tour through Gentle Giants, and opted to go with the ‘Big Whale Safari and Puffins’ tour – two and a half hours on a guided speedboat that took us ou

After a few very busy days in a row, we were able to sleep in a little longer than we had been, which we both appreciated. A little more than 2.5 hours later, we arrived at Ásbyrgi Canyon, a large horse-shoe shaped canyon that legend says was formed by one of the hooves of Odin’s 8-legged horse. We hiked up and along what would be considered to be the frog of the hoof, and then walked along the bottom of the canyon. It was a nice hike, and a beautiful area, but in all hone

We packed quite a bit into Day 6, and although I don’t have it written down anywhere, I think we got a pretty early start. First up was the 45 minute drive to Dettifoss and Selfoss, which are essentially right next to each other. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the parking lot to Selfoss. There’s a path that leads almost all the way to the waterfall, and at the end of it you can kind of walk through the river to get better views. It was one of the more interesting things

We woke up the next day feeling much better (and frankly glad to be alive) and completely surprised by the cutsie little fjord-side town of Seyðisfjörður. We didn’t have much planned for the day, so asked the campsite manager if there were any short hikes nearby. He directed us to a little parking lot about 10 minutes down the road with the start of a “short little waterfall hike” across the street (look for a sign that says Vestdalsfossar). His “short little waterfall hik

We got an early start on Day 4 as well, since it was an hour’s drive to the beautiful – and unpronounceable – Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, and we wanted to be able to hike before it got busy. It turns out that was a very good idea, as there was fairly limited parking at the trailhead. There’s a trail that leads up along the right side of the canyon (if you’re looking into it) that offers incredible views from the top of the canyon walls and ends at a little viewing platform that

We started our third day with a drive to Kerid Crater (50 minutes). Originally, this was part of our plans for day two, but since we got a late start and ran out of time then, and had plenty of time on the next day, we bumped it back. There is a small entrance fee at Kerid crater, but it’s worth the cost. You can walk entirely around the top of the crater and look down into the lake inside, and you can hike down to the lake and view it from inside. Next, we drove to Se

It’s ironic that we got a bit of a late start on our first full day in Iceland, since my original itinerary actually says “start early” on it for day 2. I think we were just very tired from traveling (or from not sleeping since we hadn’t figured out the heater in our van yet), and couldn’t bring ourselves to get a terribly early start. Our first stop of the day was Thingvellir National Park (50 minute drive from the campground), home to a rift valley, large lake,

Day 1 of our Iceland trip was spent exploring Reykjavik and visiting the Blue Lagoon.

An introduction to the 11-day trip Ashley and Stacy took to Iceland back in 2017.