Our family recently had a life changing vacation in Iceland – one of the most beautiful countries on the planet! We experienced everything from waterfalls to glaciers to puffins and it was magnificent! A ton of research went into our 9 day trip, and by popular request, I’m sharing our itinerary with all of you! Read on if you’re ready to plan the trip of a lifetime or you’re just curious what we were up to!
NOTE: While this post breaks down everything we did day by day, this is not a full description or history of everything we saw. Use this as a guide to help ensure you see the best of the best on your trip! You can also download a PDF of the itinerary at the bottom of the post!
Day 1
We landed at about 6:30am after only a 5 hour flight from Baltimore! We picked up our rental car directly from the airport and set out immediately to our first stop – The Blue Lagoon!
The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal body of water that looks blue because of the algae and silica in the water. It was an incredibly relaxing way to start off our trip! Next we drove into Reykjavik and settled into our house for the week. We are fortunate to have friends who own a house in the capital city so that was our home base for our entire vacation!
We grabbed our first dinner at Le Kock, which I cannot recommend enough! Their burgers and donuts are to die for! After dinner we did a quick stroll around old harbor and climbed to the top of Þúfa. This is a work of art from 2013 which consists of 4500 tons of gravel. On top of the hill is a traditional hut in which fish used to be dried. From the top you have a magnificent view of the old harbor.
Day 2
It wouldn’t be a proper Rural Legend vacation without a little thrifting right?! After catching up on our sleep, we started the morning with Kolaportio – The Reykjavik Flea Market! We also made sure to stop at the famous hot dog cart right behind the building where Bill Clinton once grabbed a hot dog and declared it the best hot dog he’d ever had! Make sure to order one (or two) with everything on it!
After we had our fill we walked around exploring Rainbow Road and the famous Hallgrimskirkja Church. From the top you get the most amazing views of the city! We also explored Harpa Concert Hall and saw a show that evening!
Day 3
After giving ourselves the flexibility to adjust to the time change for 2 days, our third day was the first time we scheduled tours including a Whale and Puffin Boat Tour!
I have never seen whales up close so seeing one humpback whale after another was incredible! We enjoyed lobster soup at Saegreifinn before making our way over to Perlan, a nature museum and café with amazing 360 views of city,
Day 4
We took our first day trip and drove north up the coast. It was a really foggy and rainy day, which is typical for Iceland making it a bit tricky to see the mountain’s we were there to see! But part of traveling around Iceland is being flexible with the weather. And even when it’s pouring, I promise the views are like nothing else you’ve ever seen!
We saw Kirkjufellsfoss mountain and the waterfalls beside it, Budir – a tiny black church along the seaside, and climbed the Gerouberg Cliffs before heading back into Reykjavik for Indian Food!
Day 5
Huge waterfalls are one of nature’s wonders that Iceland is known for and we made sure to see all of the key ones that can’t be missed. On our 5th day, we drove south with our first stop being Seljalandsfoss waterfall, where you can walk behind the falling water. I simply have no words for this experience!
After that, we moved on to Skogafoss waterfall where there are stairs you can climb to the very top of the mountain with breathtaking views of the waterwall and the surrounding area.
By then it had started to rain hard and the fog rolled in, but we found ourselves at the top of the Dyrholaey cliffs to see the lighthouse and puffins!! Puffins make their nests in burrows on the cliffs and you can get within feet of them to gaze at their adorable beauty!
We ended our day at Reynisfjara Beach, the black sand beach with iconic basalt cliffs before enjoying dinner at The Soup Company in Vik. This was our first night away from homebase and our stay at Arctic Exclusive Ranch was amazing!
Day 6
The following was our PLANNED events for the day; however, the weather was so nasty that we only ended up keeping our Glacier Lagoon Tour and exploring Diamond Beach. You can see the other magical things we had planned on our full itinerary at the bottom of the post!
Although it was incredibly foggy, once we were out on the lagoon in our amphibian boat, the icebergs in Glacier Lagoon were breathtaking and VISIBLE! The lagoon is made up of meltwater from Iceland’s largest glacier and the experience was just incredible even though we were soaked by the end of the day!
We also walked along Diamond Beach, which is where the lagoon enters the Atlantic Ocean. “Small” pieces of ice wash up on the black sand beaches and look like diamonds sparkling in the sunlight (when there’s actually sun!) We checked into Hotel Jokulsarlon – Glacier Lagoon that evening and slept soundly!
Day 7
By the end of day 6, we were about 5 hours from our home base, so it was time to turn around and head back down the coast. NOTE: you can drive the entire circle around the country, but we just thought that was too much for our first trip.
We booked an Ice Cave Tour leaving out of Vik, and while it was our most favorite thing about this trip, it was WAY more than we expected! I thought we were going to be driving up to the glacier, hopping out and walking into a cave…NOPE! We drove 30 minutes to the glacier on an incredibly rough “road,” were given helmets and spikes for our shoes and HIKED on the glacier to the cave!
I am so incredibly proud of our family! The hike was a bit challenging as we were obviously walking on steep inclines of ice with no railings, but it was an experience I will never ever forget for the rest of my life!
After our life changing tour, we grabbed food in Vik and made the 2 hour drive back to our home base in Reykjavik.
Day 8
Our last full day! We drove the classic and very touristy “Golden Circle,” which was beautiful but filled with tons of people! The Golden Circle includes Thingvellir National Park where you hike between the tectonic plates, Strokkur Geysir, and Gullfoss Waterfall – the largest waterfall we saw.
After another long day of beautiful sights, we started to pack up for our trip home the next day!
Day 9
Our flight home wasn’t until the afternoon, so because it was a Saturday we popped back over the the flea market and walked around a few areas of Reykjavik we hadn’t explored before.
We grabbed lunch at Icelandic Street Food, which was an awesome way to wrap up our unforgettable experience in the land of fire and ice!
What To Wear In Iceland
For all of our picks on what to wear during a summer trip in Iceland, CLICK HERE!
Have you traveled to Iceland before? If you have never experienced the Land of Ice and Fire before, please, please add it to your bucket list! You will not regret it!
xoxo, Lindsey
Click HERE to download The Rural Legend 9 Day Iceland Itinerary
