Ever since I took Max on our summer trip to Seattle last year, Lilia had been haranguing me to take her on a trip just the two of us. With Max in Legoland for his fifth birthday with Grandma and Grandpa, and Lisa focused on getting ready for this year’s harvest, Lilia and I took the opportunity to try WOW Air’s new nonstop route from San Francisco to Keflavík.
We’d traveled on budget carriers before, but WOW is about as budget as I’ve ever seen: you buy a seat (a very lightly padded seat) on the plane for the trip and that’s it. No food, no entertainment (no screens on the plane), no wifi, no blankets, no pillows… Not even complimentary water. We were prepared, so it wasn’t really a bother, but some of the other passengers weren’t up to speed and were not super pumped on just how budget they’d gone. It was actually the most legroom I can ever remember having on an economy seat, plane was new and clean, and the staff were super friendly… Good experience, definitely can’t sniff at circa $500 for a nonstop return flight to Iceland! Other than the two turkeys in front of us that switched seats every 15 minutes for two hours in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the northern lights whilst we were trying to sleep, the flight was pretty smooth. Awesome to wake up just as we were flying over Greenland, the endless sheet of snow and ice and the glaciers emptying into the ocean below were amazing to see.
We landed, picked up our car and had some time to kill before we could check in to our apartment in Reykjavik, so we stopped off for some R&R at the famous Blue Lagoon on the way into Iceland’s capital. I was of two minds whether to make the detour: it is very expensive as far as Icelandic hot springs go, and has more of a theme park atmosphere than a relaxing spa-like feel, but eventually decided that there’s probably not going to be too many other opportunities to visit a naturally blue, silica saturated thermal spring the size of a football field. It was a lot of fun, very well organized with poolside bars and silica mud mask stations, Lilia absolutely loved it. And it was a very welcome way to spend the afternoon after each of us only had roughly three hours of sleep! The mineral rich water and its effects on our bodies was amazing: I noticed that a good-sized cut in my hand from two days prior pretty much healed during the three-or-so hours we were in the water. The water also turned Lilia’s hair into a straw mat. I had to wash and condition it three times to be able to get a brush through it!
Our apartment in the capital was a quaint, third floor loft a short walk from the old town section of Reykjavik. We dropped our bags and then cruised some of the sights, the Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral was very impressive and we both enjoyed strolling the waterfront to check out all the huge ships in the harbor. We even found one named after Lilia (with Scandinavian-style spelling…). We had trouble keeping ourselves awake through the afternoon (I fell asleep at the dinner table at the pub) but eventually forced ourselves onto Iceland time and had a solid kip for our first night. Lilia slept for 13 hours without moving.
Before heading out of Reykjavik we had breakfast at the famous Braud & Co, it certainly deserves its reputation. Without a doubt some of the best baked goods I’ve ever come across, and I have sampled a few good bakeries in my time… The flavors were absolutely amazing, even their simple croissants were phenomenal.
We headed inland on a section of the Golden Circle to Þingvellir, it was pretty cool to see the crack in the earth and walk from one contient to another across two tectonic plates. Not only that, but the scenery and Oxararfoss waterfall were also quite breathtaking. The burgeoning Icelandic tourist industry wasn’t all that evident in Reykjavik, but once we arrived at Þingvellir and saw the throngs of tour buses we were quickly thrust into the thick of it. We hiked the length of Þingvellir and then made a beeline for our booking at Laugarvatn Fontana…
Unlike the mayhem at the Blue Lagoon, Laugarvatn Fontana makes and effort to maintain the tranquil environment one would typically associate with a relaxing thermal spa. It’s quite small and a little off the beaten path, guest numbers are limited and it cost us about a third of what it cost to visit the Blue Lagoon. Really wonderful spot, the setting on the edge of Laugarvatn was beautiful and the way the spa is arranged with pools of varying temperature allowed us to hop from one to another, cooling down as we overheated after too long in the pool that was fed directly from the springs below. It was also quite fun to take a dip in the cool waters of Laugarvatn (Lilia went in up to her waist) and then quickly hop back in the 40C/104F pools inside the spa. I think Lilia would have stayed there all day if she could.
A quick stop for lunch at Sindri Bakari Cafe in Flúðir (NB: great soup), a visit to the Secret Lagoon (which really isn’t much of a secret…) and we made our way across southwest Iceland for a stop at majestic Seljalandsfoss before hopping on the ferry to Vestmannaeyjar. Seljalandsfoss was well worth the stop: the volume of water wasn’t extreme like some of the torrents we get during snowmelt season in the Sierras, but the landscape and the fact that we could walk into the cave behind the falls was amazing. Lilia was a little wary of going behind the falls at first, but once we’d done it she asked to do it again, ha!
In an attempt to get a little off the main tourist route, we spent a night in Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands). The ferry ride from Landeyjahöfn was quite an eye opener as we traversed the most northerly of the islands and wound our way into the harbor on Heimaey, the most populated island of the chain. Heimaey is very popular with hikers and backpackers, I found us some very cutesy little huts at a campground just outside of town for the night, was a great spot.
Vestmannaeyjar is a little like Iceland’s Quebec: the small island of Heimaey is home to roughly 4,000 of Iceland’s 300,000 people but it controls the majority of the country’s extremely lucrative fishing industry. The locals have mumbled about the way they subsidize the rest of the nation for years… But as with all other Icelanders we met during our travels, the residents of Heimaey were extremely welcoming and all spoke English like it was their native language. Lilia and I stopped in at The Brothers Brewery in central Heimaey before dinner – where a glass of beer will set you back $10 and their double IPA a cool $15 a glass – for a fun chat with some of the local fishermen. We chatted to the town drunk for a while – who has a Brothers Brewery beer named after him – who was a wealth of knowledge on the island, its history and is a third generation Vestmannaeyjar fisherman. I could have chatted to the guy all night if not for our dinner reservation… In addition to the striking scenery of Vestmannaeyjar, one of the draws of Heimaey is the fact that it’s home to one of Iceland’s most lauded restaurants: Slippurinn. I’d made the booking as soon as I booked our flights to Iceland months ago, and even then I could only manage an 8:30PM table. It was well worth it, the food was phenomenal and – as suggested by the gents at The Brothers Brewery – the lobster soup is to die for. Lilia was also very impressed with the locally caught fish and chips.
For our full day on Heimaey, we started out with what ended up being quite an ambitious climb to the highest peak in the Westman Islands: Heimaklettur – Home Mountain in English – is the towering peak the overlooks the main town on Heimaey, the top is 279 meters/915 feet above the ocean below. The locals at the brewery the evening before noted that it’s somewhat of a rite of passage for local children to tackle the climb when they turn seven, so Lilia earned some Icelandic street cred. The first portion of the climb involved scaling a number of ladders bolted into the massif’s cliff faces, and then traversed the ridges of the mountain across the grassy slopes to the top. It took us about two hours round trip, Lilia was pretty gung ho the whole time but I was a little nervous during some of the hiking sections as the cliffs drop off hundreds of feet either side of the trail. As if the hike/climb itself wasn’t exhilarating enough by itself, the thousands of puffins flying out of their nests as we hiked past was also very cool to see. The view from the top was phenomenal, we were very lucky with the weather as there was almost no wind and the surrounding ocean was almost mirror still. Lilia made sure to make an entry denoting her age in the guestbook at the peak.
After a well earned bakery lunch, we stopped off at the puffin rescue and aquarium in the center of Heimaey. The aquarium was interesting, but we were really there to see the puffins up close. Every year when the puffins leave Iceland to hunt they confuse street lights for the moon and end up stranded on land. Last year the locals of Vestmannaeyjar rescued over 4,000 of the cute little birds, nursing them back to health and feeding them until they’re ready to return to the wild. Each year a handful of puffins end up injured or for some other reason cannot return to the wild, so they make their home at the puffin rescue center. The two we were lucky enough to meet were very tame, the older one was quite intrigued by Lilia and hopped right on over to make friends. Awesome experience.
We had a good chunk of the afternoon to kill before out evening ferry left Vestmannaeyjar, so upon recommendation of a few locals we ventured to the town sports complex’s pool. Now, an outdoor pool in Iceland when it’s 4C/39F outside may not sounds too inviting, but keep in mind electricity is very cheap in Iceland given all the geothermal generation. And in many cases piping hot water comes right out of the ground and into water supplies. The pool complex in Heimaey was nothing short of brilliant. A huge soaking tub kept at 40C/104F for the parents is perched high above the rest of the complex so the kids can run around and explore all the play pool and three waterslides. The waterslides are activated by sensor, so as soon as someone enters the stairs to one the pumps turn on. The two larger slides were pretty serious, one in particular was an enclosed tube which launches the rider onto a wetted-down trampoline, which then bounces the rider into the plunge pool below. I ended up upside down more than once, and on Lilia’s first attempt she got absolutely slammed. I thought she was going to come up in tears but instead just ran up and did it again. And again… And again… We were there for almost three hours, probably the best public water park I’ve ever visited. In true Icelandic style there was also an ice tub right next to the hottest (42C/108F) soaking tub. The idea was to soak in the 2C/35F water up to your shoulders and then quickly move to the superheated soaking tub. Very exhilarating. The local grandmas were giving Lilia kudos in Icelandic as she popped back and forth between the cold and hot water. Great way to spend an afternoon…
We bid Vestmannaeyjar goodbye and took the evening ferry back to the mainland, where we stayed at a small horse farm on the south coast road between Reykjavik and Vik. This stretch of Iceland – which is home to some of the most famous waterfalls and glaciers in the country, as well as a collection of very picturesque beef and crop farms – is relatively free of development and doesn’t have too many options as far as accommodations and dining. We ate dinner at a little restaurant called Gamla Fjósið on a cattle farm near the famous Skógafoss waterfall, their steak and mushroom sandwich was absolutely exceptional if you ever find yourself in the area…
On day four we covered a lot of ground. The spots we wanted to hit on the south coast road required us to spend quite a bit of time in the car, but it was well worth it. The hike up the canyon to the unique Seljavallalaug swimming pool was a great way to start the day. Even though the warm water made for a lot of algae, and the ramshackle hut next to it was very grimy (think backpacker-ish), it was a one-of-a-kind experience. Skógafoss was amazing, such a powerful waterfall, just so much water flowing over the cascade. Reminded me of Nevada Falls in Yosemite just as the snow is in full melt.
The drive further southeast to Reynisfjara Beach – famous for its black sand and towers reminiscent of Australia’s 12 Apostles – was probably something I’d give a miss if we had our time again. The beach was very unique and the rock columns in its center were a sight to behold, but it was packed with tour buses and I don’t know if it was completely worth the drive… At least it gave Miss Lilia a good stretch for a midday nap! And it made it perfect timing for another stop at Gamla Fjósið on our way back west, this time for lunch. We both had their volcano soup, a hearty, spicy beef and vegetable soup with everything in it grown or raised on the farm. Is was exceptional. As in one of the best soups I’ve ever had. I went back for thirds.
Our last stop for the day was planned to be a hike to Valahnukur from the huts at Húsadalur, a short hike with 1500 feet of elevation gain, the views from the overlook at the end are supposed to be awe inspiring. Unfortunately, roughly halfway inland to Húsadalur the road turned to gravel, and then to rocks, and then at the first knee deep river crossing I realized the reason for all the insanely-lifted 4WD vehicles with 45 inch tires. Our little Hyundai I20 wasn’t up the task so we turned around and made our way back to the highway. Funny how these things work: on our way back I noticed one of those insanely-lifted 4WD vehicles parked in a gravel clearing off the side of the road, turned out we’d stumbled upon an unmarked trail up a picturesque, moss-covered canyon to Nauthusagill Waterfall. There actually wasn’t much of a trail, it ended up being a hike across rocks in the stream coming out of the falls, as well as some chain-assisted scampering around plunge pools. Lilia loved it, and the waterfall in the canyon at the end was absolutely beautiful. We both made it back to the car with only one wet foot each! Good thing Valahnukur wasn’t meant to be.
For our last night on the south coast we slept at the guesthouse attached to a famous Icelandic horse breeding farm called Ármót. The bloodlines maintained by the farm are sought after throughout Europe, the Denali diesel trucks all over the farm and rich mahogany (yep, straight out of Anchorman) inside the buildings were a good indication of the farm’s pedigree. A very friendly family runs the outfit, was quite interesting to tour the stables and meet some of the horses.
For our last full day in Iceland I asked Lilia if there was anything she wanted to do again. All she asked was for me to find another hot spring or spa to visit, she’d been loving all the unique places to soak. This was music to my ears, because I’d wanted to hike to the Reykjadalur Valley and we just (just!) had enough time to do so before our afternoon booking to snowmobile on Langjökull. We enjoyed a fantastic breakfast buffet at Ármót before hightailing it west through Selfoss and to the base of the hiking trail to Reykjadalur. I knew it was a roughly 3.7 kilometer/2.3 mile hike to the thermal bathing area, but didn’t realize it also involves a roughly 210 meter/700 foot elevation increase, so was a bit of a climb. And it was raining (I wasn’t completely bummed about the rain as we got to use our raincoats, I hate packing stuff on trips that doesn’t get used!). As is the case pretty much everywhere in Iceland, the landscape on the way to the Reykjadalur Valley was quite striking: steam rising from the ground everywhere we looked, canyons filled with waterfalls, mountains made of lava towering towards the sky… There were also a few large pools of water quite close to the trail that were boiling ferociously, we scooted past those as quickly as we could!
The thermal river at the upper end of Reykjadalur Valley was well worth the hike, there’s a walkway constructed with some rudimentary changing areas that make accessing the bathing pools relatively straightforward. And given that Reykjadalur Valley is a hot spring the length of a river, there’s plenty of capacity, which is a good thing given the foot traffic it receives. We found a nice little area at the base of the valley to relax in the rain, the temperature was what one would dial in for a warm bath, with the occasional burst of hotter water from upstream. We’d arrived pretty early in the morning, as we were leaving there were some serious throngs of tourists making their way up the mountain, we were glad we’d hit it early.
We hotfooted it north to Gulfoss to meet our transport to Langjökull, making it with a few minutes to spare to check out the falls before hopping on one of our own lifted Icelandic monster trucks. We were part of a small group – winter is high season for glacial expeditions – with just one other family from the States, very cool to have the glacial expanse to ourselves for our adventures. The Icelanders don’t get too caught up on liability and safety, they’re more comfortable letting each other fend for oneself, which was very welcome of Langjökull as our guide really let us open up the snowmobiles on some of the open sections of the glacier. I only received one kick in the back of the leg from my copilot as we hit 60MPH on one of the smooth, high elevation bowls. It was awesome, scenery straight out of Game of Thrones.
For our last night in the country we were supposed to stay on a dairy near Gullfoss called Farmhotel Efstidalur, but as we were making our way to Gullfoss earlier in the day I received a call from the owner asking if we had our dates mixed up. I’d made a booking for the night before, and from my message about arrival time the owner figured out that I had my dates off by one day (very unlike me…). So we were without a place to stay on our last night in the peak of tourist season! Fortunately, the Icelanders are about the most helpful people on the planet, and the dairy owner found us a room at one of his friend’s guesthouses in the nearby town. And he nor the guesthouse owner charged us anything in addition to what we’d already paid for our no show the night before! We did end up visiting Farmhotel Efstidalur for dinner anyway, great burgers and somewhat famous homemade ice cream made on the premises exclusively from the dairy’s own milk. The ice cream parlor is separated from the milking barn by huge glass windows, so we sat and watched the cows while enjoying a cup of salted caramel (me) and blueberry (Lilia) ice cream goodness.
A quick spot of souvenir shopping on our last morning coupled with a revisit to Braud & Co for more baked goodness and we headed back to Keflavík for our flight home. What an awesome week, Iceland was such a unique experience. Waterfalls, volcanoes, islands, lava, glaciers and just so much natural beauty everywhere one looks. Our top three:
- Lilia: Laugarvatn Fontana, the canyon hike to Nauthusagill Waterfall and the water park in Heimaey
Sam: Vestmannaeyjar in general, Laugarvatn Fontana and snowmobiling across the glacial ice sheets of Langjökull
What a GLORIOUS father/daughter adventure! Beauty beyond compare,amazing hot springs plus delicious food. AWESOME! Love and hugs to you both!
Just visited you Icelandic journey as we are preparing for our cruise there in. July. Another fabulous post, Sam. What a treat to have traveled with Lilia, and so many memories to relive whenever!