So the joys of standby travel mean that you have to be flexible. This was my first big international standby trip, and a few days before we were supposed to head out, the flights filled up. We're talking 40 people trying to get one of the five available seats. So we knew we weren't going to make the flight and actually bought one-way tickets instead for $350 each. We had a layover in Toronto and ended up arriving around the same time in Iceland than we originally were going to. When we arrived at 9:30am on a Tuesday we pulled out some cash from an ATM at the airport, then got in a shuttle to our rental car place! We used Green Motion.
We took a number at the rental car place and it took us roughly 45 minutes to get our car. The place has free wifi which was nice, and luckily we weren't on a strict schedule. I paid $91 to rent our car for two days (mini car category, manual) and we also paid an additional $86 for the rental car insurance...so big heads up for that little hidden fee. You do have the option of putting down a large deposit instead and getting your money back if the car comes back undamaged, but they freaked us out with their stories of sandstorms and stuff and how we could lose all the money if we chose that option haha. Side note, it was like $75 cheaper to get a manual than an automatic, so if you can drive a stick shift, do it! Saved us a bunch.
Okay now on to the travel part!
Day One
We started our day around 11:30am on Tuesday and headed straight for the Golden Circle loop! The Golden Circle is a loop you can take and hit a few different stops. It takes like seven hours or so to complete, depending on how long you take at each stop, and whether or not you take side trips! Our first stop was Þingvellir National Park, and we parked in a small unofficial gravel parking lot. This stop has a really nice looping path you can take, so we walked down maybe a third of the way, and took a few short side walks. We were scared of getting a parking ticket, so we didn't want to stay too long, but it was a great first stop! There was a fee to park (which we didn't pay...oops) and also a fee to use the bathroom. The photos below are all from the same stop.
Then it was back on the road! This time we had a shorter drive to the Gullfoss waterfall. This stop was pretty incredible, Gullfoss is this huge (as in wide, not tall) network of waterfalls, and you can walk right down to them!! Incredibly wet and cold but so cool. And free parking!
From there we had a very short drive to Geysir, more free parking! This stop has a bunch of geothermal attractions such as hot springs and geysers. The biggest draw is a geyser that goes off every ten minutes or so, the largest pool in the center, can't miss it. Of all our stops this was probably the most underwhelming, but still a great little stop. They also have a restaurant/gift shop/restrooms on site. We got lunch here, two chicken sandwiches, a coffee, a hot chocolate, and we split a berry cake thing for roughly $50.
An on we go! We decided to add on a stop to our Golden Circle adventure and stopped at Kerið, a volcanic crater lake. The road to get there from Geysir was this pot-holed backcountry road, at times covered in gravel, and our poor little car was not a fan. But bumpy road aside, we pulled over and got to see some BEAUTIFUL Icelandic ponies!!!!
Parking at the crater was free, but it cost us each a few dollars to enter the park. There's a nice walking path that leads around the edge overlooking the lake, as well as around the water itself. This was one of our favorite stops! And there were FAR fewer tourists here which is an added bonus.
After this we drove to the Blue Lagoon, a perfect last stop!! Parking again is free, but the cost of the Blue Lagoon was something like $80/person. We went at 8pm which is a little cheaper. At Blue Lagoon you go into locker rooms by gender, have to shower without a swimsuit on, then change into your swimsuit and head into the lagoon! You get a plastic wristband to wear at all times, and a free towel. The lagoon itself is HUGE, much larger than I thought! There are tons of connecting pools, so even with all the tourists it's not so bad. They have multiple pool bars (one free drink is included with the basic ticket) and also some mask bars (free mud masks as well!). We got one juice and one strawberry rose wine, both were great. The mud masks were nice as well! You also have an option to buy different types of masks. When you get out of the lagoon you will feel very salty stiff, and personally it took me two showers and three hair washes to get everything out of my hair! I know some people do Blue Lagoon before a flight but I would DEFINITELY not want to do that. You do you though. If you're wondering whether or not bring a GoPro or waterproof camera in...TONS of people did. Mostly they had phones in waterproof cases, but there were a few GoPros out there aside from mine.
Then it was back to Reykjavik where we stayed at KEX, a hostel made from a converted biscuit factory! Awesome hostel, would highly recommend. We got done around 11pm, but sun doesn't set until midnight in June, so it was still light out. Also note that the showers were communal, so no shower curtains or stalls separating them.
Day Two
In the morning we paid to do breakfast in our hostel which was a buffet-style meal. This included fresh bread, a bunch of different spreads, meats, fruit, yogurt, juice, oatmeal, that kind of stuff. We left around 9:30am and went straight to Jökulsárlón, a glacier lake in Southwest Iceland. It was a four hour drive, and we did make one pit stop at a grocery store to get lunch stuff and snacks. Long drive, but beautiful. The glacier lake was AMAZING, definitely a highlight. We even saw some seals!
Seal swimming!
After the lake we headed back up the coast. We stopped at the Reynisfjara black sand beach overlook and walked around there for a bit. We were going to drive up to another overlook, but the fogged rolled in extremely thick, so we skipped that. The weather here changes in a heartbeat!
After this stop we decided to stop and take photos in the lupine fields! They are EVERYWHERE and were begging for a photoshoot ;)
Final stop on our way back was Skógafoss waterfall! This waterfall you can walk up to the top, but we decided to just check out the bottom. There is also an onsite restaurant here, so we got food before heading back to our hostel! I got Icelandic meat soup with a side of french fries. It was really cold here, ok?
We got back in time to checkout the sunset (at midnight) and it was beautiful. Then I showered, we got to bed, and that was that! The next morning we checked out, returned our rental car, and got to the airport.
Here's our standby adventures portion of the blog: we non-revved from Iceland to Dallas and made it there just fine, we got to sit together in exit rows. From Dallas there was NO flights home that we were going to make, so we ended up diverting through another city (but both got first class!!) and got in at like 6am. I believe my flight was like $45 as the airline employee? My friend paid $300 for her flights home. Fast forward one seven hour nap, and our vacation was done! SUPER packed, but we had a fantastic time. If I were to do Iceland again, I don't think I would change a thing! I loved our little itinerary we made. Of course I would add more if I had more time, but I thought we covered a lot in two days.
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