Travel Iceland & you won’t be disappointed, I promise. But did you know that Iceland is smaller in size compared to Ohio?! Yea, I thought that was a crazy statistic too. Even in just this small area, God put so much beauty on this land and it was truly incredible to witness this amazing scenery. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

I’ll soon be sharing my journey through Iceland in just four short days and all the we did and saw while we were there. It all started out with my long time, high school friend, Zirwa called me and said, “hey, I just bought my ticket to Iceland round-trip & nonstop for $250, wanna go with me?” To which I obviously couldn’t turn down the offer. 😉 We flew with WOW Airlines and they really weren’t as bad as I was expecting for a budget airline – I was actually pleasantly surprised. We all only took a backpack with a couple outfits (we had a washer & dryer at our AirBnb) & I only took two lenses & one camera body. We didn’t pick our seats beforehand (this would have been like $8 extra), but we arrived to the counter to see if all four of us could get a row together and the attendant happily gave us a row. On the way back, we just sat wherever they put us, and I think we all got window seats with no one sitting next to us – everyone was pretty spread out on the way home!

If you are planning a short, but longer than 4 days trip to Iceland, but don’t have time to see everything, I’d recommend trying to make it up to the West Fjords or staying further East instead of going to the Golden Circle, only because I thought the Golden Circle was way too touristy and the further out you get from the city, the less people there are in your photos. We also stayed at one AirBnb in Reykjavik, so we couldn’t get super far out. I was however, very impressed we made it to 5 of the 8 regions, here’s what we did & what we saw:

Day 1

• 4:45am arrive in Reykjavik & get rental car
• Head to city for breakfast: Braud & Co. – cinnamon rolls: the best you’ll ever have.
• Coffee at Reykjavik Roasters
• Walk to waterfront for a sunrise view
• Hraunfossar (Lava Waterfalls) (1.5 NE of Reykjavik)
• Check in at AirBnb
• Dinner in city at Icelandic Street Food
• Northern Lights!!! < this only happens from Sept. – April I believe and you have to have clear skies. We were so blessed to have seen them with it being mid-Setember! We saw them just outside the city, by the water.

Day 2

• Golden Circle, Strokkur, Gullfoss (1.5hrs away)
• Efsti Dalur – ice cream – we didn’t make it here, but a friend said it was amazing.
• Dinner at Icelandic Fish & Chips in Reykjavik

Day 3

• Drive to Vik (2 hr drive)
• Seljalandfoss Waterfall
• Hot dog lunch at the falls: ask for everything – it’ll be the best hot dog you’ve ever had!
• Skógafoss Waterfall
• Svartifoss Waterfall
• Reynisfjara (Black Sand Beach)
• Jokulsarlon (Glacier Lagoon) & Diamond Beach (2.5 more hours east)
• Dinner at Systrakaffi- it was the only place still open on our way back, but it was so good!

Day 4

• Blue Lagoon
• Explore the lush, green land: seriously, walk around and sit on the moss stuff, I want a bed made out of it!
• 3:00pm Leave for airport
• 9:20pm arrive home

These were some other food recommendations from friends, but sadly we didn’t make it to them:

• The Three Frenchmen
• Grillmarkadurinn
• Restaurant Sudur (Vik)

I hope enjoyed these Iceland travel tips & you consider going to Iceland, even it it’s for a short time because it was so worth it. However, I plan to be back someday and hopefully soon!