Embracing the Elements: Our Icelandic Honeymoon Adventure

Day 1: Monday, March 18th, 2024

Chad and I got married on Saturday, March 16th, 2024. We found out that Sundhnúkagígar carter row had erupted outside of Grindavík that same day! (That had to be some form of good luck for weddings, right?!) However, we did not let this eruption discourage us. Eileen kept communication with our guides in Iceland and assured us that the country was still safe and we were good to go! Monday was a travel day. We flew out from DFW to Boston (3.5 hours), and then went from Boston to Reykjavik (7 hours).

Day 2: Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

Our flights landed in Reykjavik around 7:00am Tuesday morning. The travel exhaustion was creeping in, but Eileen had prepared Fly Bus vouchers for us that made traveling from the airport to the city very easy. We arrived at our hotel, The Alda Hotel, later that morning. Thankfully, Alda Hotel offered us early check-in, so we were able to get right to our room for a power nap.

Tuesday, our activity that day, besides resting from the trip, was a Northern Lights Tour. However, on our first day in Iceland, this tour got canceled due to a cloudy forecast. This cancellation bummed me out, but I was not too stressed about it as we were able to reschedule it for later in our stay.

Instead of the Northern Lights Tour, Chad and I ventured out into the city for dinner. We went to Reykjavik Kitchen for dinner. After dinner we went for drinks at an ice sculpture bar, Magic Ice, and got a quick dessert of greek donuts from Loo.Koo.Mas.

Day 3: Wednesday, March 20th, 2024

Wednesday we were scheduled to go to the Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik Food Lovers Tour, and our Northern Lights Tour reschedule. I woke up Wednesday morning super excited for the Blue Lagoon! Chad and I arrived at our bus stop on-time and waited.. And waited.. And waited.. About 30 minutes went by when I finally checked my phone and saw that our Blue Lagoon tour had been canceled. The volcano that had erupted on our wedding day was still flowing lava which was located near the Blue Lagoon. This news devastated me, but Chad assured me it was all going to work out.

Before we knew it, our Food Lovers Tour was next. We walked 10 minutes down to the heart of Reykjavik through wind and rain. I was so worried this tour was going to get canceled too. However, I was very pleased to finally meet up with our tour guide, Your Friend in Reykjavik. (I cannot remember his name, but that was what the company called him.) Our tour guide was amazing! He said as long as we were okay with walking through the strong wind and rain, then he was okay to continue the tour! We stopped at various different restaurants trying traditional Icelandic dishes. I definitely went out of my comfort zone here, but several of the dishes were surprisingly good. We tried: Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur Lamb/Beef Hot Dog, Fiskisupa (Fish Soup) & Fermented Herring, Kjötsúpa (Lamb Soup), Fresh Cod, Skyr Cake, and the dreaded fermented shark. Throughout the tour, our guide told us stories of his family, we talked about different Icelandic music, and truly had a blast!

Our Northern Lights tour ended up getting canceled Wednesday due to the same rain storm, but we again rescheduled and figured out plans for our evening. Wednesday afternoon we walked to the Perlan museum. The Perlan museum featured a virtual planetarium show of the northern lights, which we thought would be funny since our northern lights tour kept getting canceled! Overall it was another relaxing and successful day.

Day 4: Thursday, March 21st, 2024

Thursday was the day I was most excited for. It was finally the day we would be able to leave the city! Day 4 we had booked the Golden Circle and Snowmobiling Tour. We headed out that morning with Reykjavik Excursions. The tour was larger than I had expected. We loaded up on tour buses with probably 50 other tourists. The Golden Circle was amazing! We finally had some good weather and were able to stop at each spot for about 20-30 minutes. We visited Thingvellir National Park where the tectonic plates are moving, the Geysir Geothermal Area, and the Gullfoss waterfall!

After the Golden Circle, the same group left the Gullfoss waterfall to head up the Langjökull glacier for snowmobiling. And of course, then the weather came back! We were greeted on the glacier with a snow storm! We had almost no visibility and were surrounded by just pure white. This sure did make snowmobiling kind of scary. But, Day 4 was still one of my favorites!

And yet again, the Northern Lights Tour was canceled due to the snow storm. 

Day 5: Friday, March 22nd, 2024

Now we come to Friday. Day 5 of this trip absolutely MADE this trip for me and it was not at all in our itinerary! As we reached the last full day in Iceland, in all honesty, I was filled with a million emotions. Along our trip in Iceland, the majority of our excursions were getting canceled due to the active volcano & bad weather conditions. These tours included the Blue Lagoon, Northern Lights, & Ice Cave Hiking. I was getting very bummed out because we spent the first half of our week in the city fighting the rain & wind yet still finding stuff to do! Our one tour that actually stayed was the snowmobiling, which resulted in a snow storm/white out! We got to our last full day of our trip & we felt like we hadn’t truly SEEN the beauty of Iceland.

Friday morning our final excursion was canceled due to over 70 mph winds. I was able to find one tour company that was still running that day, East West. I called them at 8:15am asking to go on any tour that day & they told me they had one South Coast tour available that left at 8:30am! Chad & I never got ready so fast, skipped breakfast, & made it to the pickup location with 2 minutes to spare.

When I say this tour made my whole trip, our tour guide took us to places that weren’t on the itinerary to avoid the strong winds AND other tourists!! We went to 6 different locations that were so surreal & spent up to an hour hiking around each of them vs the standard “you have 20 minutes” at the other touring companies.

Lastly, it’s very rare you get to see an active volcano! Our final stop of the night, we went to the evacuation line of Sundhnúkagígar Carter Row outside of Grindavík. This is the active volcano that has been flowing throughout our stay.

I could not thank East West (and Simone) enough for accepting us at the last minute & showing us everything that Iceland has to offer! God’s timing is amazing. He canceled one tour & opened another door to something a million times more incredible. Extremely grateful & blessed to have had the trip of a lifetime with my husband.

Conclusion:

With all that being said, our trip to Iceland was definitely not as it was planned. We had several excursions get canceled, but every day had an even better outcome. The Blue Lagoon may have gotten canceled, but I honestly probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I thought with how many tourists visit Iceland (and the smell of hot springs stink!!). The Ice Cave may have gotten canceled, but we got to go on another tour that was a MILLION times better than just going to a glacier again. Plus, we can go inside an Ice Cave and watch the Northern Lights somewhere else in the world. What we did get to do on our trip to Iceland is something we will never get to see anywhere else! Through this trip, I have learned so much about traveling to Iceland and can give the following advice.

Excursions / Tour Groups:

Most of our trips were booked with Reykjavik Excursions. As they were labeled as a “small group”, they were truly not. When booking tours, I would suggest really figuring out what that company considers small group. Our last tour with East West had about 13 people on the tour which was the perfect amount! This allows more time for additional adventure and not having limited time at each location your visit. A smaller group also allows you to connect more with the people in your group which makes the tour overall more fun!

In addition, there are so many more tourists than I expected! And also to my surprise, many were not American! Thankfully, English is the common language between all countries, but the amount of people around the bus stops, restaurants, city, and more was very shocking to me.

Bus Stops / Transportation:

Before coming to Iceland, the bus / transportation system made me nervous because I did not know how difficult it would be. However, the bus transportation was a breeze! The bus drivers actually have a list of names for who they need to pick up, so they are sure to not leave you behind. The hardest part is just fighting the crowd of other tourists when your company’s bus arrives. For some reason, a lot of the tourists will just swarm the bus drivers even though they call peoples names out. Just hangout, be patient, as the buses are not always on time!

The other side of transportation is rental cars, which is very common. We personally did not rent a car and I don't think I ever would if I was to go back. On our last day, the winds were so strong that we saw several rental cars flipped over on the side of the highway simply because tourists do not know how to drive in Iceland’s weather. The locals don't love tourists driving either which is for sure! The saying in Iceland is, “If you don't like the weather, just wait, it'll change in 15 minutes.” Which is very true when driving as well. One second you are cruising on a nice open road, then you're crossing a glacier through snow, or scaling a windy mountain with strong winds. If you plan to drive a rental car, just be prepared for harsh weather, and stay safe on the changing road conditions!

Cost:

Another surprise I was not prepared for is the cost of things when you are in Iceland! Each meal or dessert easily cost us around $100 U.S. dollars for two people. We spent over $1,000 easily just on food throughout our trip. The same went for gift shops, etc. Easily $70 for a sweatshirt and $40 for a t-shirt for example. I would suggest getting any generic souvenirs, like the famous salt, mugs, hats, etc, from the airport gift shop. The airport is much cheaper than stores in the city.

Weather / Clothes:

Throughout our trip, weather was the biggest challenge we faced. We had volcanoes, snow, rain, and wind. It is very true that the weather in Iceland is constantly changing, but one thing that definitely stuck around was the wind!

I would suggest bringing waterproof pants/jackets that are also windproof. I ended up having to buy windproof puffy pants while we were there, because my ski pants were not doing the trick. In addition, wear layers! My staple outfit every day that kept me perfectly warm were my thermals, a pullover on top, a Sitka down jacket, the puffy pants I bought, a neck gaiter (a must have that most forget!), gloves, and a beanie. Wearing layers made acclimating to changing weather conditions very easy.

Hotels:

I could not suggest the Alda Hotel more. The hotel was very nice, and offered free breakfast (which was so good and saved us a lot of money), and it had an excellent location. From our hotel, most restaurants and our bus stop was about a five to 10 minute walk into the city. This allowed for the area outside our hotel to be very quiet and relaxing, but we still had easy access to the city life in the heart of Reykjavik.

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