I first fell into travelust with Iceland when I started looking at destinations for my bachelor party a few years ago. The idea of renting a campervan, and setting out on the open road to discover mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, hot springs and everything else that Iceland has to offer was beyond intriguing. Though, it wasn’t a practical trip in the end for my bachelor party, I kept it on my radar, and when Debbie and I put together our wish list of countries to visit, Iceland quickly rose to the top for me. Debbie was not as keen, to leave the snowy and rainy winter in Canada for crappy weather in another destination, so we agreed we would slot it in on the way back home if time permitted.
So it was a bit unexpected, that as we sat in Tel Aviv planning out our next few countries that we decided to visit Iceland in May (yes this blog post is a bit late). Just by the nature of the timing of our trip, we visited Africa, Israel and Italy during the shoulder season for tourism – not the busy season, not the off season, but that month or two between. Everywhere we went, all of the locals commented that we picked the perfect time to visit; a time with nice weather sans the massive crowds. So we decided to continue the streak and visit Iceland in May rather than July as originally planned, which would have coincided with the peak season. Visiting Iceland in May, meant we were able to easily find last minute accomodations, enjoy empty roads and save a bit of money.
We also decided, that since neither of us knew how to drive a standard vehicle, which ruled out most of the best motorhomes, that we would rent a small economy car and stay at Airbnb’s along the way instead. This actually proved to be a more economical way to travel Iceland. Renting a motorhome in Iceland is very expensive, around $300 CAD per day, and fuel prices are insane. To fill the tank of our very small economy car, was around $100 CAD, so I can’t imagine the heart attack you’d have at the pump filling up a motorhome.
Creating an itinerary for Iceland took some time, because there is a lot to see, and there’s no way to cram it all in a week. Originally, I wanted to drive the entire ring road, but after getting some great advice from our friends Paul and Sam who had done a similar trip, we shortened the journey to the southern half of Iceland from Snæfellsnes peninsula in the west to Reynivellir in the East. This proved to be more than enough driving for a week and covered many of the best sights in the country. Other travellers who drove the full ring road, told us that the Northern half ot the country is not quite as exciting. If you’re interested in visiting Iceland, we relied heavily on this amazing blog for ideas and suggestions.
In terms of our experience, it’s difficult to put into words how amazing this tiny country is. I saw more mountains and waterfalls in seven days driving through Iceland, than I’ve probably seen in the rest of my life. Every turn of the two lane ring road, revealed a new treasure more magnificent than the last. And unlike other countries, where all the most impressive sites can be found on a top 10 list on tripadvisor, in Iceland, some of the greatest sites we saw were just random waterfalls, craters, mountains or animals that we happened upon driving along the highway. When we saw something we liked, we’d just pull the car over and go exploring, which happens to be my favourite pastime. We climbed through a field to get up close with a waterfall, took pictures in a moss-covered lava field, and army crawled up to a herd of reindeer outside of our Airbnb. We stayed on a farm where we held a two-day old baby lamb and fed Icelandic horses, spent the night in a remote cabin with ocean in front of us and mountains behind us, and spent two nights in a trailer beneath a waterfall and a mere 10 minute drive from a massive glacier. We drove through the craziest weather that went from sunshine, to snow, to rain, to hail, back to sunshine only to repeat the cycle three more times during the day. And we cooked a lot – it’s true what they say, eating out in Iceland is very expensive.
All in all, this was one of the top countries that we’ve been to on our trip. Even Debbie ranks it as one of her favourite places, despite her lack of enthusiasm at the start. Though I said Iceland can’t be summarized in a top 10 list, here are 10 of my favourite things about the country.
10. Picture perfect sites, that can’t be captured on camera
9. The waterfalls
8. The gravel road mountain pass on Snæfellsnes peninsula where I thought we may go over the edge
7. Feeling like you’ve left earth and visited another world
6. The remoteness
5. The technicolour moss
4. 16 hours of sunlight to go exploring
3. The freshest drinking water you’ve ever tasted
2. The cleanliness of the society…especially the washrooms
1 The little scrubbing brushes that Icelanders use to clean their dishes instead of sponges…genius!
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Amazing story and pictures. Thank you for sharing I’m not likely to take a trip to Iceland but I’ve learned lots from your blog.
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