As a huge football enthusiast I felt the urge to travel to Iceland after their huge achievement in the Euro 2016. I called my brother to ask if he wanted to come along, even though I knew he would be up for renting a camper van for a few days to explore the southern coastline of Iceland.
After arriving to Iceland we picked up our camper van that had everything we needed for a four day adventure in Iceland including Wi-Fi, a fridge, beds and a heating system that could be turned on at nights (the van even had two batteries to cope with the demands travelers have these days). As we arrived in the afternoon we decided to check out Reykjavik city which exceeded our expectations with the massive Hallgrímskirkja, the Viking ship called The Sun Voyager and a cozy city centre.
We finished the day with some awesome burgers from ‘Chuck Norris Grill’ that is located on Laugavegur, which is the big shopping street in Reykjavik.
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First thing we did on our 2nd day were to go see the geysir called Strokkur. Both of us always wanted to see a real geysir (who doesn’t). It was such a crazy experience. I’m not sure how many eruptions we stayed to watch but it was quite a few. The eruptions came with around 2-10 minutes intervals and every single one was well worth the wait ? To see a geysir while being in Iceland is a must!
After checking out Strokkur we decided to go see a truly massive waterfall called Gullfoss. It was a lot of tourists there so I would advise to go there either early in the morning or late in the evening to enjoy it even more!
We moved on to look for a hot spring called Hrunalaug that a friend of mine had recommended. We used the Wi-Fi we had in the car to try and Google the directions to Hrunalaug and thanks to that we actually managed to get there quite easily. We finished the day at another hot spring called ‘The Secret Lagoon’ that apparently is one of Iceland’s oldest pools (over 100 years old).
Day three we woke up at a camping right next to the waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. The price to park a car were quite good and the location couldn’t have been any better. Seljalandsfoss were quite remarkable with a small path that lead behind the waterfall.
After admiring the nature there for a while we moved on to another waterfall called Skógafoss and that might in my opinion have been the mightiest waterfall we went to. You can get really close to it so be sure to bring a rain jacket not to be soaked. You can also take the stairs to the top of Skógafoss where there is a little trail that you can walk.
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Dýrholaey was our next destination. It was a magical place with a strange feeling to it with an amazing view, strong winds and black beaches. After Dýrholaey we moved on to Skaftafell to experience a glacier. Once we got there we found out that you actually needed to go on a guided tour to be as safe as possible while accessing the glacier as people without experiences have gone missing while doing their own expeditions. It’s roughly a 2km walk to get to the glacier. Even though it was a great experience I think it would have been an even better experience to have gone on to the glacier together with a guide.
Our last day on Iceland and we started at the glacier lake called Jökulsárlón. It was really cold so bring warm clothes 😉 Fjallsárlón, another glacier lake, was up next and here you can actually go on guided tours on boats but we decided not to do it as we had a long drive back to the airport and we still had some thing we wanted to do, like try and find the old DC-3 that crashed on the Sólheimasandur black sand beach back in the 70’s. The location is pretty close to the city Vik (that has a great restaurant by the way). The land owner have shut down the road to access the plane by car but you can get there by walking. It took us around 35 minutes to walk to the plane and a few minutes longer to walk back. So if you want to see the plane you need to walk quite a bit. I believe it was so worth it. It was a very mysterious atmosphere that you need to experience.
The last stop on our camper van adventure were the famous Blue lagoon. We didn’t pre-book so we ended up waiting for several hours before we could get in. There is different kinds of spa treatments available and there is also a bar in the lagoon where you can buy drinks with the bracelet you’ll receive when entering the blue lagoon. When you know the date and time you want to go here I strongly suggest that you pre-book your tickets to ensure your spot.
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If you’re thinking of traveling Iceland and how to do so I would highly suggest renting your own camper van or maybe even a 4×4 that has beds as there are some F-roads which you should not attempt to drive with any other cars than 4×4’s. By having a camper van you always decide what and when you want to do things. For me the freedom of being able to decide those things yourself is a big part of traveling.
Iceland was one of the craziest places I have traveled to and due to lack of time we didn’t explore the northern parts, that’s good though as that just means I need to travel back and explore the rest of Iceland 🙂
Here are some bonus traveling tips for your trip to Iceland:
Bring your own towel as you will most likely go to some hot springs (they usually have towels to rent but they’re quite expensive).
Bring spare batteries to your camera (always bring your charger if you eat at a restaurant so you can recharge).
A rain jacket is very handy as the weather can change very fast in Iceland.
You will do fine without cash, I actually think my brother didn’t use cash at all as they accepted credit cards everywhere we went.
Happy Camping #CamperStories
Read more: Around Iceland in a Camper Van
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