My partner and I just spent 10 days in Iceland from November 16-26 and learned so much about traveling there in wintertime. We drove the entire Ring Road and then some (1,800 miles total) and saw so many wonderful sights. Hopefully my experience will help you with your trip planning. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. Going to Iceland once for just 10 days does not make me an expert, but I’m happy to share my experiences.

Note: All of the photos in this article were taken by me – please don’t copy and paste them elsewhere without my OK. It was really hard to choose which photos to include! For more, friend me on FB or check out my IG page. Links in the sidebar.

About Us

We are an active, adventurous late-30’s / early 40’s couple from Seattle, WA. We like independence when we travel, and we dislike big crowds of people or overly structured activities. We don’t mind driving long distances and we love being outdoors. We are regular walkers and hikers and not very picky eaters. Our Iceland experience reflects who we are, so I offer the disclaimer that my suggestions may not match up with who you are.

General Things to Know about Iceland

1. Hot dogs are NOT the national food of Iceland. A few people told us this before we went, and our Lonely Planet guide mentioned it too, but we hardly saw a hot dog the entire trip. So if you’re a hot dog lover headed to Iceland, you might be disappointed.
2. You don’t need to speak Icelandic. Everyone everywhere tourists go also speaks English. Schoolchildren learn it from a young age and virtually all Icelandic people are quite fluent. That said, it is really handy to know that many of the names of places consist of the words that describe the place, and those are consistent across the various names. For example foss is waterfall so Gullfoss, Svartifoss, and Dettifoss are all waterfalls. Vik is a port, kirka is a church, fjord is a fjord (duh), and jökull is glacier. The letter that looks like a “p” is pronounced like a “th,” e.g. Þór is the Norse god we know as Thor and

   

   Þórsmörk is Thor’s forest. When you see two “ll” in a row, there is a hidden “t” sound in the pronunciation, so jökull is pronounced like jo-kutl. Not so hard, is it? You’ll be pronouncing Eyjafjallajökull in no time!

3. Food is really expensive in Iceland. A basic lunch at a restaurant runs at least 20,000 IKR (about $18 USD), so finding a grocery story like Bonus or one of the other chains can save you some funds. Restaurant food is really good, though. See below for my food suggestions.
4. Do lots of research before you go. The Lonely Planet guide to Iceland book is a great reference, especially if you take time to read it in detail before your trip. Trip Advisor was also a great resource regarding restaurants and other activities. We booked our lodging exclusively through AirBnB and overall had a good experience with it. Winter is off-season so you can book your lodging just a day or two in advance in most places. Just be sure to read reviews and all of the details about potential lodging to minimize surprises when you arrive, and always message your host to give them your ETA and make sure they’re expecting you.
5. If you’re planning to drive in Iceland in the winter, make sure you have a driver who is confident and experienced at driving in strong wind, on slippery ice, gravel roads, and blowing snow. The roads there are no joke in the winter and you’ll often be driving in the middle of nowhere so safety is very important. The number

   

   one cause of tourist injuries and fatalities in Iceland are vehicle accidents, followed by slip and falls at waterfalls. Road.is is a wonderful resource for minute by minute road conditions. Check it often and be prepared to adjust your plans if the weather changes. We rented a 4WD diesel Dacine Duster with studded snow tires from Blue Car Rental and had a great experience. It was about $100/day for unlimited mileage.

6. There is very little daylight in Iceland in the winter. In mid-November, the sun rose around 10am and set around 4pm so planning the day carefully was really important. We also chose not to drive any really icy or windy roads in complete darkness, which limited how far we could go in one day.
7. Make sure you have cell coverage in Iceland. Being able to navigate, check road conditions, find places to eat, and book a last minute place to stay is essential to having a successful trip to Iceland in the winter. My T-Mobile coverage was exceptional the entire trip, with unlimited data and texting capabilities.
8. Iceland is a pretty safe country, especially once you’re out of Reykjavik. We had to leave all our luggage in our rental car a few times, and felt pretty safe doing so. Car prowls and break ins are virtually nonexistent, so don’t stress too much about your belongings.
9. Dress warmly! Wool under layers, down jacket, hat, and gloves are essential in the wintertime in Iceland.It stays around 0 degrees Celsius most of the winter in Iceland, and it’s almost always super windy too, so you’ve got to dress warmly. I wore Smartwool pants and top under jeans, my comfy Baffin snow boots, and my down jacket and a warm hat, scarf and gloves too and I was pretty comfortable most of the time. It’s good to have snow pants and a waterproof jacket too, in case of rain or really deep snow.
10. Be polite to the locals. Tourism has grown exponentially in the last five years in Iceland, ever since Iceland did well at a hockey match of some sort and the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted and made international headlines. So remember to tip your tour guide, drive politely, and be a respectful visitor to this beautiful place.

Highlights of Our Trip

Reykjavik Area & Golden Circle

We started out with two nights in Reykjavik (“smoky port,” because of the thermal activity seen by the first visitors) and then worked our way around the island counterclockwise. Wandering the streets in Reykjavik is a great day to spend your first jet-lagged day in Iceland. There are great coffee shops, stores, and art to see. It’s a very walkable city and there’s lots to do. Don’t miss the Sun Voyager sculpture by the water – it’s stunningly beautiful. Café Loki has wonderful food (try the plokkfiskur – potato and fish gratin – and rye bread ice cream for dessert) and coffee and a view of the stunning Hallgrímskirkja church.

From Reykjavik, we drove up to the Golden Circle to do some self-tour sightseeing. It was a particularly stormy, windy, snowy day and some of the roads were on the verge of closure but we made it all the way out to Gullfoss , (“gold falls”) thankfully. This self-drive tour of the Golden Circle is fantastic, and even has a Google Map with pins showing various points of interest: http://www.iheartreykjavik.net/2014/12/drive-it-yourself-the-golden-circle/

 

If the weather is conducive, plan to walk around Þingvellir National Park for at least an hour, then head up to Geysir and Gullfoss.  We ended our Golden Circle day with a sunset hot pool soak in the oldest baths in Iceland – Gamla Laugin (“secret lagoon”) in Flúðir (the “d” with the cross on top of it is also pronounced like a “th”).

Southeast Coast

After the Golden Circle, we headed east. Day one was a ride into Þórsmörk(“Thor’s woods”) in a super Jeep (not actually a Jeep) with Midgard Adventure. Our funny, gorgeous Icelandic tour guide Begga drove us across several small to medium sized rivers and took us right up to the edge of Gígjökull, an outlet glacier from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. We also got to go on a little hike into Þórsmörk, enjoy a tasty lunch at Volcano Huts in the park, and end the day with a visit to the stunning Seljalandsfoss waterfall. The tour group was nice and small – just six of us total – and we had a great time. We stayed the night at Hrifunes Guesthouse where we enjoyed a home-cooked meal at a shared table full of international travelers like ourselves. What a treat! I can’t recommend staying there enough. Don’t miss it if you have the chance.

Our next couple of days on the southeast coast included several of the destinations suggested in Drive it Yourself: A South Coast Adventure, a wonderful web site with Google map pins showing suggested destinations. We made it to many of the points suggested, but not all of them. Among all of the incredible sights we saw were Dyrhólaey, Skógafoss (be sure to go up the 378 stairs to the top, then go over the fence to hike along the Skoga river and see several more foss), Reynisdrangar sea stacks (believed to be trolls who got caught in the sunlight), Svartifoss (black columnar basalt waterfall in Skaftafell National Park that was one of my favorite foss), and beautiful blue chunks of glacier on their way out to sea at the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. It was

incredible and heartbreaking to see how climate change is shaping Iceland every day as the glaciers recede, melt, and break off to drift into the Atlantic.

We ended this portion of the trip with one of the best meals we had the entire trip in Höfn, the town where most of the Icelandic langoustine comes in, at a restaurant called Humarhöfnin. I had lobster bisque and my partner had lobster baguette. Both were exceptionally delicious, with generous portions.

The rest of our Iceland adventure included an unplanned stay in Fáskrúðsfjörður because the roads were too bad to make it to our intended destination that night. We also got to see the east fjords, explore Akureyri, and we ended our trip with a day trip to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Borgarnes was our one and only AirBnB fail the entire trip because our host mixed up the date of our arrival and was out of town when we arrived.