DAY 4 & 5: ICELAND ROAD TRIP

DVERGHAMRAR: From there, we drove down the street to Dverghamrar, The “Dwarf Cliffs.” These are basalt columns that native Icelandic people believe to have mystical powers. Again, we were the only people here and walking down to the cliffs was so peaceful. It’s a great spot to snap a bunch of photos because you can nail incredible shots of Iceland’s vast fields of green.

 

SKAFTAFELL: Next up was Skaftafell, an incredible, massive park next to a picturesque glacier. Phil and I decided to do a 2.5 hour hike up to the top of a mountain that looked out at the glacier. It was my favorite hike of our entire trip and it was the perfect distance. This park provides tons of hikes but if you’re looking for one that will give you an incredible view without taking up the whole day, this is the hike to do. There’s a cute little food truck at the base of the mountain in case you get hungry but vegetarians beware, everything offered (at least the day that we were there) was for carnivores! Make sure to pack plenty of healthy snacks.

 

JOKULSARLON: From Skaftafell, we drove to Jokulsarlon, a beautiful glacier lagoon we had been dreaming about for months. This place was absolutely incredible and I only wish we could have had a chance to see it during winter.  The water is bright turquoise and beautiful pieces of ice are floating around in it. During the winter, I hear the black sand beach is coated in ice. We saw beautiful remnants of this even in summer but we’ll definitely have to go back!

Jokulsarlon was actually the first place we had seen in days that was full of people but it’s so massive, you still feel like it’s all yours. Jokulsarlon offers boat tours but we decided to take in the beauty by taking a hike around the coastline instead. It was very cold the day we were there and this walk was perfect for our purposes.

 

DINNER: For dinner, we drove into Djúpivogur, a cute little town less than fifteen minutes away.  This was the largest town we had seen since our time in Reykjavik.

DAY 5: We drove for much of the day around Iceland’s beautiful fjords (winding coastline). We stopped in a bunch of tiny towns along the way:  Breiddalsvik, Stoovarfjorour, Faskrudsfjordur and Reydarfjordur. When I say tiny, I mean extremely tiny.  Some of these towns looked more like small neighborhoods but locals were really friendly and seemed quite used to travelers coming through.

HOTEL: At night, we stayed in Guesthouse Egilsstadir-Lake Hotel. We can’t recommend this hotel enough! It was a historic Icelandic building nestled against one of the most peaceful bodies of water I’ve ever seen. The hotel’s restaurant is farm to table and it’s phenomenal. It’s also located in walking distance of a tiny little town that has a nice big gas station (with a few groceries) so you can restock up on snacks.