Im not a great photographer but i thought this was a cute pic! Haha

somewhere on the north

Hi I’m thinking on visiting next month for 4 nights. Any recommendations for hot springs to visit, or any resorts/spa to stay there? Would like to see northern lights also thank you

The view from Reykjanes tonight towards the Western horizon, around 23:00, October 13th 2026.

Shot on Sony A7V, Sigma 14mm F1.4 - 8s at ISO3200

We (2 adults, 1 x 13year old) have a full day in Reykjavik on Sunday (19th) and was wondering if it's worth doing the Perlan, the aurora museum and the lava show. Or if it would be overkill?

Also, is it generally more cost effective to book online, or do the same admission prices apply on the door?

Thanks

Hi! I'm planning my first solo trip to Iceland from Dec 28–Jan 6, with a 7-day guided tour covering the major attractions.

The total cost, including the tour, accommodation, and flights, comes to around CAD $6k. I'm excited about the Northern Lights and ice caves, but concerned about winter storms, limited daylight and potential tour cancellations.

For those who've visited Iceland in winter, how was your experience? Would you recommend it for a first-time solo traveller, or do you think summer would be a better choice? I'd really appreciate your thoughts!

Would love some honest opinions! 😊

A friend and I booked a pretty spontaneous trip and we’re flying to Iceland right now. We’re two guys in our late 20s with an AWD rental for the whole trip and probably more new pro hiking and rain gear than we needed. Here’s our rough plan:

Oct 15: pick up car 10:30 am. Golden Circle, stay in Flúðir
Oct 16: South Coast waterfalls and black sand beaches, stay near Vík
Oct 17: Fjaðrárgljúfur, stay in Skaftafell
Oct 18: Glacier/ice cave tour, Jökulsárlón and Diamond Beach, stay in Höfn
Oct 19: Eastfjords, stay in Egilsstaðir
Oct 20: Mývatn
Oct 21: Blönduós
Oct 22: Reykjavík
Oct 23: Fly home

Google Maps showed about 26 hours of driving, which sounded manageable, but reading more has me questioning how much time that leaves for stops, sights, and hikes with October daylight and weather.

We’re into hiking and the outdoors, and mostly want to see amazing places and do fun, adventurous stuff. Happy with busy days and some driving, but don’t want to keep leaving places we’re enjoying just to reach the next hotel.

We’re open to completely reworking the route, including the first few days. Would you keep the full loop, focus on the south, or do south + Snæfellsnes? What would you cut or spend more time on given our dates and interests?

You can have a full, fun day in Reykjavík, which is MUCH more than "Rainbow street."

Grab a city card.

"Reykjavík City Card gives you entry to 17 museums and attractions, 8 public swimming pools, unlimited use of city buses, and a ferry ride. Plus discounts on tours, attractions, and services. Plus, children under 18 get free museum entry with any adult card."

Food:

Ice cream, yes ice cream in shitty cold wet weather is a pretty Icelandic way to spend some time. Often suggested in this subreddit:

Valdís also down here by Grandí food hall.

Gæta Gelato also in a food hall here. The food hall is Hlemmur.

Skúbb which is close to a good pool. Can someone tell us if the pool is still under renovations? IMO only worth going to if all the tubs are open, has the only salt water tub in Reykjavík as far as I know and it's awesome.

Harpa has some daily events, the volcano show was cool IMO. There is a jazz concert too.

Grapevine event calendar.

Grapevine's "Best of" lists. Shopping, books, dining, other activities.

Live music ever night here, covers mostly, stuff can get weird around 22:00 / 10 pm when everyone's drunk, like 80 people singing Queen or ABBA weird. So, fun ;)

Handy list of happy hours.

Catholic church if you want to go to mass (18:00 / 6 pm) or pray for Pope Leo? IDK spitballin' here.

Swimming pools which hit extra nice in crap weather.

Dineout.is to look for restaurants, choose "capital area."

Meander local chain stores - Bónus, Krónan, Nettó (food stores, lots of fun snacks to be found), Elko (electronics store), Hagkaup (sort of like a Target)

My personal recs:

Harpa! You can go and just wander around. There's a really nice gift shop. There are some daily events to check out.

Maritime Museum

Settlement Exhibition (underground museum built around an excavated viking long house.)

The National Museum

All three included in the city pass.

Pools - Any, really. Sundhöllin, Arbæjarlaug, and Ásgarðslaug in Garðabær are my current favorites.

Iða Zimsen cafe + bookstore, honestly I just like the vibe. It's cozy. There is better coffee elsewhere though... 🙈

Cafe Babalú... go to the restroom if you go...

Cocoa at Reykjavík Röst, sit in the window and watch the storm.

Mama Reykjavík for incredibly cozy Nordic vibes and great curries. Skál for inventive Icelandic cuisine.

Bookstore. There are many to choose from but any Penninn Eymundsson should have something for everyone.

I am partial to Gæta gelato, either location is great.

Ok that's enough for now, please contribute, especially suggestions for local stores.

We just had the most incredible Iceland experience (Sep 30 to Oct 8), and given how useful I found trip reports in the lead up, I thought I would jot down a few notes of my own from the perspective of an Aussie first time visitor. For reference, we travelled as a couple, are in our early 30s, and are relatively fit and active with ample hiking experience.

We self drove hiring from Blue Car Rental (Dacia Duster 4x4 Manual) with full insurance, which cost us around 140,000 ISK or $1500 AUD at the time of booking - not cheap, but as anyone looking at Iceland would know, nor is anything. I cannot understate how important the peace of mind of full coverage was for our first experience driving on the "wrong side" of the road in challenging conditions. More on driving later - but our itinerary was:

Day 1 - Arrival

Arrived Reykjavik in the afternoon, picked up our hire car, and drove into the city. Explored on foot for the evening. Driving rain and windy - welcome to Iceland!

Day 2 - Reykjavik to Laugarvatn via Routes 36, 37 and 365.

Classic Golden Circle experience with Þingvellir National Park, Bruarfoss, Strokkur Geyser and Gullfoss. We stayed in a lovely little cabin between Laugarvatn and Borg. Intermittent, moody drizzle and breezy.

Day 3 - Laugarvatn to Kirkjubæjarklaustur via Routes 35 and 1

Kerið crater on our way out of the Golden Circle area, Urriðafoss, Ægissiðufoss, Seljalandsfoss and Gljufrabui, Skogafoss (8 waterfall walk), Reynisfjara Beach and Vik township. Relatively clear skies.

Day 4 - Kirkjubæjarklaustur to Hofn via Route 1

Fjaðargljufur, Svartifoss and Skaftafell Glacier, Fjallsjokull, Diamond Beach. Heavy continuous rain - the only day we got pretty cold by the end.

Day 5 - Hofn to Egilsstaðir via Route 1

Vestrahorn, Skutafoss, Hvalnes Lighthouse, Lækjavik, Nykurhylsfoss. Bluebird day of clear skies.

Day 6 - Egilsstaðir to Akureyri via Route 1

Rjukandi Waterfall, Stuðlagil Canyon, Hverir, Grjotagja, Goðafoss. Heavy snow breaking up to clear skies.

Day 7 - Akureyri to Olafsvik (Snæfellsnes Peninsula) via Routes 1, 54, 56 and 574

Kolugljufur Canyon, Selvallafoss, Grundarfoss, Kirkjufellsfoss. Clear skies.

Day 8 - Olafsvik to Reykjavik via Routes 574, 54, 47 and 1

Bæjarfoss, Svoðufoss, Skarðsvik Beach, Saxholl Crater, Holaholar, Djupalonssandur Beach, Londrangar, Hellnar, Arnarstapi, Buðakirkja, Hvammsvik Hot Springs. Intermittent rain, otherwise clear.

We flew out early Day 9.

All in all a busy itinerary - but we never felt rushed or like we weren't seeing anything. The scenery when driving was just incredible, so with the exception of maybe 2 hours between Akureyri and Olafsvik, the driving felt more like an experience than a chore. The driving times also weren't a problem - our biggest road day was Akureyri to Olafsvik (6hrs) and with stops thrown in, it felt easy and was absolutely spectacular at both the start and end scenery wise.

A couple of notes below that I feel are relevant:

1) Driving

Reading other reports and horror stories had put the fear of God into me regarding driving in Iceland. All in all, it was so much easier than expected. The road surface on Route 1 was excellent everywhere, signage was good, and traffic levels were much lower than what I am used to. Road rules were conventional for me, roundabouts were easy because there was never much traffic anyway, and there are generally long clear sections of road for overtaking when needed. It is worth noting that while it seemed most hire car traffic was speeding everywhere, there are speed cameras and we did see police cars even away from towns.

I will say that you would want to be a confident driver to self drive here - despite the road being good, it is narrow in places, very windy, and subject to pretty serious weather. We drove through heavy rain, a solid snow storm out of Egilsstaðir that completely obscured road line markings, and sheets of black ice out of Akureyri on a -6 degree morning. We definitely saw people whose driving skills or confidence were not up to the task - and these tended to be the drivers travelling dangerously slowly, manouvrering unpredictably, or driving out of their lane and almost getting hit. We also saw people stopping in the middle of the road to photograph birds, waterfalls, rock formations etc. Please do not do this - there are scenic pull off spots very frequently to do this without causing an accident.

I also strongly recommend renting at least a small 4x4 for Iceland, even if you are only doing the Golden Circle and South Coast. Access roads to attractions were in surprisingly bad shape in places and had potholes and puddles too deep for hatch backs to navigate. A few cars had to park well short of attractions as a result. We also encountered seriously slippery roads with snow and ice, and the poor Toyota Aygo/Yaris drivers were doing it tough!

2) Accessibility

Even in heavily trafficked tourist areas, the quality of access roads, carparks and walking paths varied wildly between attractions. Even on the Golden Circle, gravel access roads to waterfalls were rough in places with deep potholes and large amounts of standing water. Car parks were often very uneven with deep puddles and very soft mud.

We actually loved this about Iceland - since many attractions are on private land, they are largely unmodified from their natural state, which enhances the experience. I understand, however, that for visitors with young children or mobility issues this may be a challenge.

I would highly recommend sorting reviews by "Most Recent" when looking at possible stops, as access conditions evolve constantly and this is likely to give you the best idea of whether or not the stop is doable. This is also the best way to check how long walks are - with limited signage at some sites, there is really no other way to know if a stop is 5mins or 2hrs!

If members of the group have mobility concerns or you are travelling with kids, it is also worth consulting reviews for photos of the area as some waterfalls and canyons have no guardrails or formed paths - and if they are not in a National Park there is no consistent and central database to see what facilities are there.

3) Planning

We had planned alot of our stops in advance, but were surprised by a few things such as grocery store opening hours. It is not uncommon to find shops that open as late as 9/10am, which for us was very late compared to what we are used to. This is in larger towns too - not just remote locations. We often needed to shop the night before for the following lunch etc, which without a fridge in alot of hotels meant some pretty uninspiring meals!

Hot food, drinks and toilets are of course very common on the Golden Circle and South Coast routes, so you can expect facilities basically anywhere you stop. Once we had travelled past Egilsstaðir however, this totally changed and there were very few facilities even on Route 1. We did need to plan out toilet stops to make sure we didn't drive past our only opportunity. Just something to be aware of if you base your expectations on the much busier South Coast.

It is said everywhere so I won't go into details but the official Iceland roads app is essential for checking where you are going on a given day as conditions change rapidly. We drove two sections that were "Dark Blue" designation - i.e Very slippery, and they needed caution but were very manageable in our little Dacia. Luckily we didn't encounter any yellow or orange alerts, but if our drive from Egilsstaðir with 12m/s wind and heavy snow wasn't even a Yellow, I'd suggest that the alerts are pretty spicy and shouldn't be taken lightly.

4) What wowed us and what didn't

Honestly everything was amazing, but we enjoyed the more "remote" North and East far more than the Golden Circle and South Coast. Our best experiences were at waterfalls where we were pretty much the only people there.

Diamond beach was actually amazing too; we expected a bit of an overrated tourist trap but had a great time there. We parked on the "North" carpark before crossing the bridge (travelling from Reykjavik) and there were barely any people and plenty of seals. The other carpark was bursting at the seams.

The Vik black sand beaches were not that interesting to us, in comparison with the coast near Hofn. The Vestrahorn and the beaches at Lækjavik blew us away and were pretty quiet early in the day.

We visited two Geothermal Lagoons - Forest Lagoon (Akureyri) and Hvammsvik (Route 47 near Reykjavik). We loved both but Hvammsvik was particularly special, watching the sun set over snow capped mountains and using the 5 degree North Atlantic as a cold plunge pool.

5) Hunting the Aurora

We were very lucky to catch an incredible aurora in Akureyri, despite a pretty grim forecast for our whole trip. We also saw one in Olafsvik with a "KP" index of only 2. Basically don't only look at the KP index - Iceland is far enough north that you don't need a high KP to be under the aurora band. We used the app "Hello Aurora" which provides up to date data on aurora strength and updates constantly. We had 4-5 oktas of cloud cover (50-60% coverage) and it just so happened that the whole aurora was where the clouds weren't - so don't despair if the forecast shows a fair bit of cloud cover. The aurora evolves rapidly too so its worth spending a bit of time outside even if it seems dim and quiet. We caught an amazing substorm that gave 30-40mins of awe inspiring viewing with reds, purples and greens easily visible to the eye on a night that was otherwise pretty quiet.

The weather app "Windy" was also at least as good as the official Iceland weather websites for forecasting cloud coverage over time.

All in all, a totally amazing trip that I would recommend to anyone. We got a bit lucky on weather and very lucky with the aurora, and feel very fortunate that given the time of year, we probably got the best possible conditions.

More than happy to answer specific questions!

Hi! We’re visiting soon, and I loved the Icelandic sweaters we saw last time we were there, but I’m allergic to wool/ lanolin. I know it’s unlikely, but do any shops with locally made sweaters offer options made from alpaca fiber?

I’m arriving at KEF at 2:25 PM. What time would you recommend booking the Blue Lagoon for? I won’t need to pick up a rental car, as my sister will be waiting at the airport to pick me up and drive us there. I’d like to allow enough time to get through the airport and reach the Blue Lagoon without feeling rushed, but I also don’t want to wait around too long. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Please, please take the yellow weather warning seriously.
I cannot stress this enough: You are putting your own safety and the safety of others at risk if you ignore these warnings.

I have personally seen car windows being shattered by flying debris and people suffering head injuries from objects being blown around by the wind.

I’m currently staying at a campsite run by a former marine researcher who has spent his entire life traveling all around Iceland. Even he told me that he hasn’t seen low-pressure systems this severe in a very long time. And that’s coming from someone who knows Icelandic weather extremely well.

Wind gusts of up to 100 km/h are expected, along with snow and icy conditions.

The wind here is no joke. Conditions can become extremely dangerous within minutes, especially when combined with snow and ice.
Please don’t underestimate the situation just because it’s “only” a yellow warning. Icelandic weather is very different from what many tourists are used to.

This is not the time to drive around, chase waterfalls, hunt for northern lights, or try to stick to your travel itinerary.

No sightseeing stop is worth risking your life or putting others in danger, including the emergency services who may have to come rescue you.
Please stay put in a safe, sturdy shelter, avoid unnecessary travel, and follow the official weather warnings. If you’re camping in a tent, seek proper shelter.
Your itinerary can wait. Your life cannot.
Stay safe, everyone!

Hello everyone,

A few friends of mine have recently approached me about going to Iceland for a week in January to take advantage of cheap flight costs. They said they are renting a camper and traveling along the south coast.

Initially, this sounded like a great idea and an amazing experience (seeing the Northern Lights is a bucket list item of mine). After doing my own research, I am incredibly apprehensive (basically 80% out on the idea) due to the dangers and hardships that traveling in a camper in Iceland in the middle of January presents. Additionally, it did not take long to realize that in order to properly prepare for this trip, all costs mitigated by the cheap flight will be null. My friends have reassured me they plan to rent the safest 4x4 winter camper possible, and that staying in the South coast will mitigate some of the travel issues I am worried about. It feels as though my friends are overlooking how intense of an undertaking this is. Am I overthinking this? Should I reconsider? Thoughts/comments/concerns?

Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all! I am currently in Hofn í Hornafirði tonight, heading back to lagoon tomorrow for (hopefully) an ice cave and glacier hike. Our current plan is to head up to Egilssstaðir after to stay there tomorrow night (Thursday), drive to Ayekuri (stay Friday night), stay in Borgarnes Sat night, and fly out Sunday night. All the advisories are beginning to lift, but I’m still worried about all the potential bad winds I am seeing on Veður.is.

Is it safe to continue on that route, or should we just head back along the south to Reykjavík? All the websites seem to say something different and I don’t know how to best proceed in a safe manner.

thank you in advance!!

Yall Im scared Im like right in the middle of this on a campsite in our campervan rental….. its like open as heck too, we parked like vertically the same way that the wind will be coming but…. 😰 do I just stay in the van all morning and not risk opening the door…. Can my van flip???

Edit: meant to say tmr morning but we’ll be at this site overnight into the morning

Hi guys, I'm a bit embarrassed to post this, I'll explain why.

I've booked everything for Iceland and we're arriving next week.

I have a Mexican driving licence and a UK provisional licence, but I've just realised my Mexican licence expired two months ago. (I know I should have checked, but I didn't because we live in the UK.)

We've booked a car with Hertz. Is the UK provisional licence enough to pick up the car?

What's been your experience?

If there's any trouble, I'm planning to fly to Mexico to renew my licence straight away.

Thanks for any advice!

Hi, We're based for a while near Helgafell / Stykkishólmur. We have explored a lot toward the West and South, as most itineraries we found recommend sights there, in the Snaefellness peninsula or towards the South.

We are wondering what interesting sights might be towards the North / North-East from here, within a days drive (there and back). Any recommendations?

Hey everyone! I’m currently traveling and staying right near Hallgrímskirkja. I really want to dive into the real, authentic local food culture while I'm here.

1. Food: What are your absolute favorite restaurants within walking distance of the church, and what specific dishes should I order to experience true Icelandic flavors? I'm open to both classic comfort foods and modern takes.

2. Northern Lights: We have a rental car. If the forecast is clear tonight, where is the best dark spot to drive to within 30 minute? Crucially, we want somewhere with safe, fully paved roads and a proper parking lot where we can watch safely without pulling over on the side of a highway.

We are heading south to Vík later in our trip, so we know we will get darker skies there—but we want to try our luck around the capital if the clouds clear up!

Thanks in advance! 🇮🇸

Last year I did a last minute trip since IA flys direct from my city. I am considering flying to Copenhagen next month with a one day stopover just to go to a spa again. Has anyone done a stopover flying IA recently? I would like to know if it worked out okay. Thank you.