Guest post by kjakubczak
Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.
Day 1
- Hvalfjörður
- Hraunfossar
- Húsafell
We booked a tour through Golden Circle Taxi that took us from the airport to all these stops and then to Reykjavik. It was a lot of driving, especially after an overnight flight, but we wanted to make the most of our time and it was worth it. Hraunfossar ended up being our favorite waterfall of the whole trip.
Good, quick meal at Icelandic Fish and Chips, perfect after a long day.
We stayed at the Butterfly Guesthouse in Reykjavik all 4 nights. The location was good, not luxurious by any means but good value for Iceland.
Day 2: Snaefellsness Tour
- Ytri Tunga
- Búðakirkja
- Arnarstapi
- Hellnar
- Londrangar
- Djúpalónssandur
- Ólafsvík
- Kirkjufellsfoss
Booked a 12-hour tour through Troll Expeditions for the Snaefellsness Peninsula. This day seemed kind of like a letdown, a lot of driving for not so much of a payoff in comparison to everything else we saw. Every stop was beautiful, but when looking back at the trip as a whole it didn’t hold up to the other spots. I really enjoyed the walk along the Arnarstapi coast, definitely the highlight. Kirkjufell is the iconic picture of the waterfall with the cone mountain and that was great, too. Lots of people there, though.
Day 3: Golden Circle Tour
- Thingvellir National Park
- Geysir
- Gullfoss
- Faxi
- Kerid Crater
- Hallgrimskirkja
- Lækjarbrekka
Booked a 9-hour Golden Circle tour through Arctic Adventures and really loved this day, highly recommend the Golden Circle tour. Faxi waterfall was my favorite stop, followed by Thingvellir. Really neat to to see the divide. Kerid Crater was just ok, could have skipped that.
In the evening we walked around Reykjavik and went to Hallgrimskirkja – such a unique building. Great dinner at Laekjarbrekka – super cute building, great food, kinda expensive even for Icelandic standards.
Day 4: South Coast Tour
- Seljalandsfoss
- Skógafoss
- Vik
- Reynisfjara
- Jökulsárlón
- Diamond Beach
This was the longest tour, 14 hours through Back to Iceland Travel, but was the best day of the trip. Lots of variety – waterfalls, black sand beaches, and glaciers. Really neat pictures behind Seljalandsfoss. Every visit to Iceland needs to include Diamond Beach and the Glacier Lagoon, Jokulsarlon.
Day 5: Puffin Tour
- Sun Voyager
- Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre
- Mr. Puffin – Bird Watching Reykjavík
We saw a couple more places around Reykjavik and had a puffin tour booked through Arctic Adventures again. Mr. Puffin was the actual company, and it was awesome. We saw puffins and everyone should do a puffin tour.
Had our ride to the airport booked through Golden Circle Taxi.
This was close to a perfect trip: the weather was great and the landscape overall was just stunning, like nothing we’ve ever seen before. I’d rank the tour groups as follows, according to friendliness of the tour guides:
- Arctic Adventures
- Troll Expeditions
- Back to Iceland
Traveled in May 2019
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