Iceland: The land of waterfalls, rainbows, and sheep.

September marked one year since my boyfriend and I went to Iceland. It was amazing!! Facebook made sure to remind me of every day of the trip this year and it reminded me that I wanted to blog all about it! It was a trip I would recommend to anyone, especially someone who loves the outdoors and hiking. Since we stayed for 2 weeks and learned so much in that time I am going to write several blogs about the trip. This one is more of an overview and how it all began….

How it began…

I remember when I first met my now boyfriend. We were hanging out chatting in his car one night. You know, one of those I am gonna take you home cuz it’s late but then the conversation gets good so you just sit there and keep talking instead of going inside situations. In the midst of this conversation, he looks at me and says “Let’s go to Iceland… let’s go tomorrow!” Now, I have known this guy for 2 weeks or so at this point. Uh…. What? 

First of all. Ok, we aren’t going tomorrow, which he clearly knew, and second why Iceland?? This opens up an explanation about Iceland, and how he has wanted to go for many years and then pulls his phone out to show me some photos on google of it. I kind of nod and acknowledge the fact that it does seem kind of cool. But, really, who actually goes to Iceland? As time went on Iceland became a bit more a buzzword for me. 

Fast forward a couple of years later. An article pops up on my Facebook feed, Something about how all photographers need to go to Iceland. Hey! I am a photographer! Maybe I need to give this Iceland thing another thought. Then shortly after a friend of mine pops up on Facebook, they are in Iceland! Ok, Ok. I get it people do go to Iceland, and people love it. I was now sold and on a mission. Telling my boyfriend this gets him through the roof excited. We were going to find a way to get to the place he had been wanting to go for so many years.

With the help of the friends that went so graciously sharing the itinerary they had used and, of course, google and Pinterest I set out making this trip a reality. We didn’t want this dream to become one of those things people talk about and never actually do. So we set off to figure out how to make it all happen.

Making It Happen

Fortunately for us, a couple of friends of ours had gone the year prior. They were kind enough to give us the itinerary that they had slaved over for many months. Their itinerary was quite exhaustive of all of the places we wanted to see (and then some!). They stayed for the same amount of time too. What luck! This didn’t mean it wasn’t a process to plan though. I mapped out all the places in maps (MyMaps is a godsend!). Due to the fact we were going at a different time of year, we choose to go on their route in reverse, so it took some time to fit in the activities and where to stay. There was also a few things we added to the list. Don’t worry, I am going to share this itinerary!

Planning

We chose to go in September, this is the shoulder of peak season. This made the things a lot cheaper, rental cars and airfare are significantly less expensive when it’s not peak season. It’s also less crowded. There is a good amount of daylight still. There is a chance of seeing the northern lights, just a chance though, they usually don’t start until October. Overall this seemed like the best option for us

Our friends had recommended hostels for saving money accommodations, but they had also traveled with a larger group. When we looked into these options compared to Airbnb. For the two of us, Airbnb was a cheaper option. We were happy with this option because many of the options were guest houses owned by the locals or staying with them in their houses. This let us see the island from a less tourist view and get some really neat insights. We booked all of the AirBNB’s in advance, there were two days that we did end up staying in a hostel when there wasn’t a better BNB option.

I knew I could (and should!) book the couple of activities that we wanted to do in advance. We booked our Blue Lagoon appointment, the zodiac tour in Jökulsárlón, and our Northern Lights tour. These all fill up fast so it’s good to get those tickets in advance.

Now We Wait…

So that was it! Itinerary planned. Plane tickets booked. It was just a matter of waiting and preparing what we needed to pack.

This was such an amazing trip! Check out how our Iceland Ring Road Trip went!