I'm finally documenting our Iceland trip and I'm so excited to share it all! I have to start out by saying that Iceland is hands down the best trip we've ever taken and we would recommend it to anyone! I'm so grateful we were able to make this trip happen. I did so much planning for this trip because I didn't want to miss anything and there's still so much more we could have seen. I literally have a 12 page itinerary haha. We will definitely go back and I cannot wait for that day!
I should also note that if you talk to Kenneth or I about Iceland, we will both talk for days about how amazing it is. But Iceland is also a dream location for us because of a few things. The main things to do in Iceland are to hike, see waterfalls, soak in hot springs and enjoy the beach. Those are our favorite things to see and do anywhere! If we're in Georgia and there's a waterfall, we've seen it. If we're in Utah and there's a hot spring, we've been there. An ideal vacation for some people might be sitting at an all inclusive resort and never leaving the hotel. And there's nothing wrong with that! We're all about that too! But if we had the choice between the two, we would definitely pick the more adventurous one, which is why Iceland was so incredible.
We flew up to Washington DC and spent half a day with my sister before flying to Iceland. We flew WOW airlines which is known to have super cheap flights to Iceland. I heard horror stories about the airline and so I had low expectations and prepared to have our flight delayed. But we had a pretty good experience! Our flight was only delayed by 30 minutes and we made sure to bring snacks and water on the plane so we were good to go. We took a red eye out of DC and arrived to Iceland around 5am, so sleep deprived and exhausted from traveling but I don't think we've ever been so hyped up on adrenaline & excitement.
We got a rental car from Cars Iceland and had a great experience with them. I had a photoshoot planned that morning so we immediately drove over to Seljalandsfoss. Imagine our amazement when we drove up to this waterfall. We were the first ones there and it was unreal! Pictures don't do this waterfall justice, it was breathtaking.
So many happy memories from this morning. We were laughing the entire time and so giddy. The ground was almost all frozen over so we were sliding all over the place. You can hike up & behind the waterfall but we decided to wait since we didn't want to get wet. We still had an entire day ahead of us and we planned to come back so we skipped it for now.
Kenneth voted that this was his favorite waterfall from the trip so if you're heading to Iceland, you can't miss it!
I should note that in Icelandic, foss means waterfall, so anytime something ends in foss, you know it's a waterfall. After the photoshoot we headed off to see Urridafoss (pictured below). The thing about Iceland is that some of these places look just okay in pictures, but in person they were spectacular. I almost left this place off of our itinerary because it didn't seem too special from pictures and there's so much to see. But it really was so grand and gorgeous in person and I'm glad we didn't miss it!
I heard that the GPS systems that come with the rental cars are not very good and they were right. I wrote down the GPS coordinates for all of the locations we wanted to visit and the GPS couldn't even direct us to those coordinates. Because of this, we had to adjust our plans since we couldn't get to our next location. So if you're reading this and using this to plan your own trip, email me and I'll send you my actual itinerary because I wouldn't necessarily do this day in this order. But we were flexible and it ended up being great still. We just switched a few things around from day 1 & day 7.
So our next stop ended up being Hrunalaug Hot Spring. Part of the fun and adventure of Iceland is not being entirely sure where everything is and exploring on your own. We were on these rocky dirt roads and eventually ended up at this sign. You can't see the hot springs from where you park, but if you see this sign then you'll know you're in the right spot haha. There was one other car there which helped us to know.
As we were walking to this hot spring I completely slipped and fell in the mud. And it's all on film haha. It's pretty funny because I was carrying my camera and you hear me fall and then the first thing you hear is me freaking out about my camera. Luckily it was all good, just a little mud on the lens followed by some good laughs.
When we arrived to the hot springs there were a few people already there, but they left right as we arrived so we had this place all to ourselves for a little while which was amazing!
You can't tell in the photo, but it was snowing and the sun was shining and it was one of those, this world is amazing moments. Plus it felt so nice to relax after traveling all day and night.
This hot spring ended up being our 2nd favorite out of all the ones we visited! It's so magical & the water temperature was perfect!
^ The only bad part about hot springs in Iceland... the moments before and after when you're running around in your swimsuit in the freezing cold haha
Everywhere was so gorgeous! It was tough to not pull over every minute. But the times we did pull over were always worth it. Look at that beautiful blue color!
Then we went to Gullfoss, also known as the pie shaped waterfall.
We loved seeing the gorgeous horses along our drives. We pulled over to snap some pictures and the owner had an area where we could buy food and feed it to his horses.
^ The horse on the left got jealous that Kenneth had his arm around the horse on the right and so he nudged his way into Kenneth's arms haha
I was feeding this horse and then it chomped down on my pinky finger!! It would not let go and I had to yank it out. Kenneth caught a picture of me right as the horse bit down and I laugh so hard looking at it!
Our last stop for the day was Strokkur Geysir
^ Me thinking about how awful it smells but how it's also warm and feels good since I'm cold lol
It supposedly erupts every 8-10 minutes but I would say sometimes it would erupt sooner and sometimes longer, it just depends. I wasn't patient enough to sit around and get a video of it erupting but I was able to catch this one photo of it erupting. It goes up extremely high and it was pretty cool to see!
Afterwards we headed to the grocery store to grab some food and then checked in to our hotel. We were way exhausted from a long day & jet lag, but it was one of the best days ever!
xo, Lo
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