It seems like everyone went to Iceland in 2016. Instagram was littered with photos of the Blue Lagoon and the Northern Lights. Facebook and travel magazines touted the cheap airfares to Iceland and relatively short travel time. At least one person you know went to Iceland in 2016 (hell, even the Kardashians went!), and we were no exception. In early 2016, after returning from our New Year 2016 trip from Paris, I decided that we would spend New Years 2017 in Reykjavik, and I went into full research and planning mode.
Iceland is just as beautiful and otherworldly as it looks on Instagram; but, there were also some things about Iceland that surprised us. Things that no magazine, blog post, or Facebook or Instagram post on Iceland ever mentioned. It is for this reason that I plan to do a series of posts about Iceland, because I want you to get inspired to go, meet the friendly people, eat the delicious food (but not the Mike Whale and Puffin), and see the amazing sights; but I also want you to be prepared so you can maximize your time and your dollar and really enjoy your vacation. In this post, I will tell you about our five-day trip to Reykjavik.
Day 1:
Not being one to waste time, I had a tour planned for the day we got into town. Sure our flight got in at 4:30 a.m. and when we got to the hotel our room wasn’t anywhere close to being ready. And, yes, there were unexpected blizzard-like conditions (new to this South Florida girl), but that was NOT about to stop me. We had been invited to go on the Reykjavik Food Walk (which, I am sure you guessed, was a walking food tour), and I was really looking forward to this tour because, not only was it a tasting tour, it was also sight seeing tour of downtown Reykjavik! So at 12:30 p.m, we gathered at the Harpa Concert Hall to meet our guide and small group and embark on our culinary adventure through the streets of Reykjavik.
The first thing you should know about the Reykjavik Food Walk team is that they are uber (as in, “super,” not the car service!) friendly, responsive, and accommodating. They respond to emails and are happy to give you suggestions and recommendations both before and during your stay. They will even help you secure dinner reservations (which, you will find out in my next post, are crucial if you want to actually eat anywhere in Reykjavik). I found them an absolute pleasure to work with and would recommend this tour to anyone (actually, I insist that you take it). It really is a great way to orient yourself to the city, while eating some great local favorites.
Second, the tours are lead by young locals who know a lot about their city. Our guide, Kjartan, was also an author. He gave us tons of information about the city (including things we would have never noticed had he not pointed them out) and their Christmas traditions. For example, did you know that in Iceland, they don’t have Santa Claus? (No Santa Claus?!?!) Instead, they have Yule Lads, and Christmas lasts 13 days — from December 23 to January 6 (it’s like a longer Hanukkah for gentiles!). During this time, Icelandic children are visited by 13 Yule Lads. Each Yule Lad is mischievous and has his own vice. For example, Spoon Licker comes to your house and licks all your spoons. Meat Eater eats all your meat. You get the idea. Here is an image of a Yule Lad, indicative of those projected on buildings all over the city as a reminder to children that the Yule Lads are watching (kinda like the mall Santa):
Each of the 13 nights, children place a shoe in their bedroom window. If they were good all year, they will find a treat in their shoe the next morning. If they were bad, they will find a rotting potato. Also, if Icelandic children don’t receive and wear a new article of clothing on Christmas Day, the Christmas Cat will come and eat them! The Yule Lads are descendants from Gryla, an ogress who lives in the Icelandic mountains. She also eats bad children! I think this is why Icelanders are so nice! Growing up, all they hear is about how they are going to get eaten if they are bad. Anyway, if you are interested in these folk tales, you can learn more about them here.
Also, the people in Iceland created their own version of Pokemon Go. Someone has pasted tons of small action figures on top of the city’s street signs. Locals go around finding them, and then they snap pictures of them and post them to social media. If one goes missing, a new one appears in its place the next day. According to our guide, nobody knows who is responsible for them, and honestly, had someone not pointed this out, we would have completely missed it.
During the four-hour tour, you will also taste 13 traditional dishes, including Icelandic lamb soup, Iceland’s famous hot dog, homemade rye bread ice cream (which sounds gross, but was so delicious), seasonal meats and cheeses (which, unfortunately, includes Icelandic horse which I did NOT eat), lobster soup, and an amazing dessert! Along the way, our guide pointed out great local bars, breweries, bakeries, and restaurants. By the way, the man bun and beard game in Iceland is so strong.
You know what else I learned on this tour? If you ever you planned to go to jail, make sure you go to jail in Iceland. First of the 300,000 people in Iceland, only 89 are in jail. Also, until recently, the jail was located in this quaint little building in downtown (no bars, just views for days!):
You get a room with a view! Also, if you have a job and have to support a family, no problem! You can just check yourself out of jail and go to work and home for dinner as long as you check yourself back in at a reasonable hour! (Who is the arbiter of reasonable? I don’t know, and they don’t either!) But, you know what the BEST part is about jail in Iceland? On Sundays, they take the prisoners out for ice cream!!!! Not a bad deal, right?
The tour also walks you through the old harbor, stops for pictures at the famous Hallgrims church, and also gives you a taste of Reykjavik’s amazing street art scene. After the tour, we were pretty full, but that didn’t stop us from keeping our first reservation in Reykjavik at the Grill Market, or, as the locals call it, Grillmarkadurinn. 
Day 2:
So, today was the day we were set to go on an adventure! Chad was going to snorkel in between two continental tectonic plates, we were going to go into an ice cave, visit Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, and hike a glacier. It was going to be epic! Except, remember that blizzard from day one? Well, she stuck around for day two, and all adventure tours were cancelled. Bummer! But, that’s okay. This is a common occurrence in Reykjavik during this time of year, and we were ready with Plan B — a tour of the South Coast! I am glad we did this tour because we got to see some amazing waterfalls, we walked on a glacier, and we visited the famous black sand beach!
We started the tour at the amazing Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which is famous because you can walk behind it!
For some reason, these people were there in traditional viking garb, but we didn’t mind because they made for great photos!
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We then made our way to a glacier on which we were able to take a short hike and enjoy the views!
Up next was the amazing Reynisfjara beach, better known as the black beach. But, this is no ordinary beach. You CANNOT swim here. The wind is wicked strong and the waves are the most insane waves I have ever seen in my life. Like ever. In fact, tourists are warned to not stand too close to the shore, because more than one has been swept away by the swell and drowned. 
When BAE matches the beach: 
Seriously, these waves though… 
Our final stop was to the Skógafoss waterfall. 
Day 3:
By day three, we were ready for some R&R, and there is no better place to do that in Iceland than at the Blue Lagoon, one of the 25 modern wonders of the world! I’ll save the logistics of the Blue Lagoon for a later post, but I will say here: make advance reservations (well, you have no choice on this one) and try to go at the earliest available time if you want the lagoon (almost) to yourself! 
There is something surreal about being in your bathing suit in the snow and freezing cold. 
Our day didn’t end with the Blue Lagoon. After a short nap, it was time to eat dinner at what is considered Reykjavik’s best restaurant and hardest reservation to score, Dill. 
Dill serves classic Icelandic fare with a modern twist. It is a small place that offers two tasting menus. We had to do the shorter menu, because the weather had cleared up, and this was the first day since we arrived that the Northern Lights tours were operating!
The Northern Lights experience was the literal reason for this trip at this time of year, but there are some things I learned about the Northern Lights that I wish I knew before I went. This will, in part, be the subject of another post about things you need to know before you go to Iceland, but I will give you a hint: seeing the lights is the exception, not the rule; patience is a virtue when hunting for the lights; and I hope you came prepared with more than just your iPhone!
This is what the Northern Lights look like on your cell phone camera (pretty amazing, right?):
And here is what you get with a professional camera, with the right lens, set to the correct settings, and resting on a tri-pod:
Day 4:
Today we explored the Golden Circle, but, as you will soon see, it was more winter wonderland than golden. We did this tour with Time Tours, who also took us on our Northern Lights Tour (and provided our airport transfers), and, in hindsight, I wish I booked all of our day-tours with them. They offer small group options, are very responsive, flexible, and very accommodating.
On the Golden Circle tour, you can explore the National Park of Thingvellir where you will find Silfra, the Mid Atlantic Ridge which is the divide between two continents (Europe and North America) and home to the Eurasia and North-America tectonic plates. You can actually snorkel and dive between the two continents here, which Chad was all signed up for, until the weather spoiled his plans!
You also visit Gullfoss Waterfall, one of Iceland’s most beautiful waterfalls.
And, you stop at the Great Geysir, which is Iceland’s version of Old Faithful and erupts every 6 to 10 minutes.
But, perhaps my favorite part was an impromptu stop to meet the friendly Icelandic horses, a breed of horse developed in Iceland. Unlike regular horses, Icelandic horses have five different gaits. They are the only horses in the world that have five gaits. Another rare (and beautiful) trait possessed by these magnificent horses is that they grow long furry hair in the Summer and Fall (which they shed in the Spring); this coat allows them to brave the extreme cold without need for shelter during the Winter. Because they have few diseases, Icelandic law prevents horses from being imported into the country and once exported, an Icelandic horse is never allowed to return.
They are so friendly and cute, so please do not eat them!
We also made a couple of stops just to enjoy scenery and a beautiful sunset! By the way, during this time of year, it is only daylight from about 11:00 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m. That’s right a whopping 4.5 hours of daylight, so use your precious daylight hours wisely!
This was the perfect way to spend the last day in 2016! But, we had a whole evening of celebration ahead of us, which began with arguably our favorite restaurant in Iceland – Apotek. We came here first on the last stop of our food tour to enjoy a delicious dessert made by their pastry chef, who is so talented that he is the official pastry chef to the government of Iceland. Honestly, I understand why they chose him. We came back for NYE dinner, where we enjoyed a delicious pre fixe 5-course dinner with champagne for under $200 USD for a couple. On NYE. This, by the way, was one of the cheapest meals we had in Iceland. That’s not a joke. 
At midnight, we took to the streets to see the epic fireworks show that happens all around the city. There is no official fireworks show that is put on by the city. These fireworks are courtesy of the locals. Apparently, fireworks are illegal in Iceland, except on New Years, when locals can buy industrial strength fireworks and proceed to set them off (sometimes in an impaired state) all over the city! The nice thing is that the proceeds from the sale of the fireworks goes to The Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue. It is their biggest annual fundraiser! I think the best place to see the show is at the Hallgrims church.
And, of course, no NYE celebration is complete without a late night snack from Iceland’s most famous hot-dog stand! Bill Clinton (and the Kardashians) ate hot-dogs here. 
Day 5:
On our last full day in Iceland (and in keeping with our 2017 New Years resolution to try new things and have more adventure), we decided to take to the open seas in search of whales! Now, if you have a sensitive stomach, this may be more of an adventure than you bargained for because, on this day, the seas were ROUGH! But, we would not be deterred because Elding Adventures had invited us on an adventure, and we are not ones to turn down an adventure. Also, they support animal conservation through education and eco-tourism, so win-win.
Booking the tour was super easy. The Elding team is very responsive to emails and very accommodating to its passengers. We made our way to the harbor and easily found Elding’s office for check-in. Just down the road from their office is the dock where you can find their boats. If you are worried about getting sea sick, they have a bowl full of Dramamine (both in the office and on-board), and you are free to help yourself!
Once on board, you are issued a jumpsuit which doubles as a life suit and an extra layer of warmth because it was freezing out! Check out this sexy #OOTD:
The boats are triple deckers, with the first deck being the internal cabin which is equipped with restrooms, a snack, bar, and barf bag stations! The second and third floors are exterior. The boat has a guide and spotters who do the work of finding dolphins and whales for you. As I mentioned, the day we went, the seas were very very rough, but the staff was very attentive and helpful to passengers that were not feeling well.
The tour lasts for about four hours, and while we did not get to see any whales, we did see white-beaked dolphins! Also, if you go on a tour and don’t see whales, you could redeem your ticket for one more voyage in hopes of catching a whale sighting!
Since we didn’t get to see whales on our tour, I was curious about what the tours that do get whale sightings get to see, and Elding was kind enough to provide me with photos taken from some of their other tours where whales were spotted, including humpback whales, Minke whales, and killer whales. It is magnificent, so this activity goes back on the list! Must.See.Whales.
In addition to whale watching tours, Eldin also offers fishing tours, northern lights tours, and, when in season, tours out to puffin island to see puffins birds, which are SO stinking cute (so PLEASE do not eat them)!
For the remainder of the afternoon, we walked the city streets to admire the street art and to visit the inside of the Hallgrims church, including a climb to the top of the clock tower to get some amazing views of the city!
Thus ended our five-day adventure in Iceland. We had such a beautiful time. I hope this post inspires you to plan your own trip to this (mostly) unspoiled nature lover’s paradise. Be sure to check out my future posts on Iceland to help you get ready for your trip. And, as always, I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email or leave a comment if you have any questions about this trip or Iceland in general.
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