Iceland (part 2)

Iceland highlights (part 2)

Skógafoss waterfall
Kerið crater
Strokkur geyser
Gullfoss waterfall
Þingvellir National Park
Reykjavik
The Blue Lagoon

Why visit Iceland?

For its easily accessible beautiful and unique natural features.

Getting there and around

See here for how we got to and around Iceland

After visiting the east and south coast in Part 1 of our Iceland trip, we then explored the south west of Iceland and Reykjavik for Part 2.

Accommodation

Gullfoss Hotel

We had booked two adjacent rooms but the hotel only had rooms far apart from each other which wasn’t ideal. The rooms were small and basic, but clean and comfortable. There were no special touches, amenities or added facilities at the hotel. The restaurant was very expensive and we opted to eat elsewhere. The main attraction of this hotel is the location - just 2 minutes from Gullfoss and 10 minutes from Geysir.
Our star rating: 2
Our cost rating: 2

Hotel Gullfoss

Reykjavik Residence

Skógafoss waterfall

After spending the night in Vik on the south coast we drove to the ‘golden circle’ area which is a collection of popular sights close together in the south west of Iceland.

On the way we stopped at this 60m waterfall. This was our favourite waterfall of the ones we saw in Iceland. It’s setting is beautiful and it makes mini rainbows as it flows into the river. You can walk right up to it and get soaking wet from the spray! Parking was free. The toilets were clean, with a requested £2 payment via an honesty box.

Selfoss

We stopped for lunch in this town and ate at Kaffi Krús. The food was pretty good and they had kids’ menus. Once again it was expensive (£75 for main courses, 4 soft drinks and a slice of cake). We realised that the closer to Reykjavik and the ‘golden circle’ the more we would be paying tourist prices.

Kerið crater

The first of the ‘golden circle’ sights that we visited, this 3,000 year old extinct volcano crater contains an ethereal turquoise lake. There was a £4 entry fee for adults, children were free. There were no toilets. It was a quick and easy walk on well maintained paths. We learnt a bit about the crater from the handy free leaflet and information boards.

Strokkur Geyser

Next on our tour of the ‘golden circle’ was Geyser. Parking was free and there was a visitor centre with free toilets and a gift shop. Geyser is an area of geothermal activity, with well maintained paths and anything dangerous roped off.

The most active of the geysers is Strokkur which shoots water 20m into the sky. As we arrived, Strokkur erupted and continued to do so every 10 minutes or so.

The kids loved the suspense of waiting for an eruption and trying to position themselves so they got wet when the water shot into the air! They were fascinated by the boiling water, the steam and the sulphuric smell.

This was one of our favourite activities in Iceland and having never seen geysers before we felt it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.

Gullfoss waterfall

We then continued on to Gullfoss which is located in the Hvítá river canyon. The waterfall cascades down in stages. It was impressive but was one of the more crowded sights that we saw. After Gullfoss we decided we’d seen enough waterfalls for the day and skipped Bruarfoss and headed to our hotel.

Þingvellir

Reykjavik

Mal and the kids spent the following morning relaxing in the apartment and Harriet went for a walk to explore Reykjavik.

The Harpa opera house building on the sea front is the city’s most architecturally impressive. It’s structure of tinted glass is eye catching and inside it contrasts strikingly with dark walls and stairways.

As the capital city, Reykjavik has its fair share of administrative and governance buildings. The Town Hall is set among pretty gardens.

There were a couple of pretty shopping streets with good independent shops and cafes near our apartment which led to the city centre. Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur, which has a good view of the Hallgrimskirkja church.

Nearby was the excellent Brauð & Co bakery which had delicious pastries.

Blue Lagoon

On our last day in Iceland we visited the Blue Lagoon to the south west of Reykjavik. We opted for the basic ‘comfort’ package which included a free drink and facial mask. Towels were provided. Adult tickets cost £75 and children were free.

It’s a surreal experience really, getting into a hot milky blue bath with lots of strangers, but it was also relaxing and we enjoyed it a lot.

Final Thoughts

Reflecting on our time in Iceland, we agreed that our favourite experiences were those not easily replicated elsewhere.

Swimming in outdoor pools heated by geothermal energy, touching icebergs on a black sand beach, walking between tectonic plates, and watching geysers erupt - these felt like unique and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

We would recommend visiting Iceland with kids, particularly for families who love exploring outdoors and nature. It was easy to get around, and every village had a playground, and a swimming pool. We were lucky with great sunny weather, and visiting in summer also meant that we had long daylight hours and could pack lots in.

We had 6 days in Iceland and that was a good amount of time to see the southern half of the country. To do the full ring road we would have liked 14 days at least. We’d like to return in future when the kids are older, maybe in winter, to see the north of the country, go into some ice caves, and perhaps even glimpse the northern lights!

Iceland Practical Notes

We paid for everything in Iceland by booking online in advance or by using Mastercard debit or credit cards. By using our Starling and Halifax Clarity cards we didn’t pay foreign exchange fees. Contactless payments were available almost everywhere. Our Iceland trip was entirely cashless.

We tried to book accommodation with laundry self-serve facilities but not many hotels had these. More common was expensive laundry services which we didn’t use, opting to wash clothes by hand instead.

Our hire car was a hybrid and petrol costs were about the same or a little higher than in the UK. Petrol cost £2 per litre (it cost us £120 for a full tank). All of the petrol stations we used were pay at the pump. The card machines for these were temperamental and didn’t always accept our UK bank cards first time. City centre parking in Reykjavik was £15 a day.

Speeds and distances are in kilometres. Driving is on the right. The Ring Road (highway 1) was very well maintained and smooth to drive. Other roads were also well maintained but sometimes unsealed / gravel with rough surfaces. Public transport was not comprehensively available outside of Reykjavik.

Eating out and groceries were more expensive than in the UK. A simple one course lunch with soft drinks for 4 people cost around £75 - £80. One cup of tea cost about £4. We don’t often drink alcohol but a bottle of wine would have set us back £25 minimum.