Iceland (5-Nov to 12th Nov) - Part 1 - The Plan

This was a trip I'd been looking forward to for a long time. I'd always heard amazing things about Iceland, but it was always too far and too expensive to consider a trip from Australia (to be honest, when we were in Australia, a trip to Sydney seemed too expensive and too far...)

We decided to give ourselves a full week - arriving about 4pm on Saturday and leaving at 2pm the next Saturday. While the main sights in Iceland were located in the Golden Circle, which could easily be done in a day or two, we decided we wanted to be more adventurous and see as much as we could. I put together a rough plan and we decided to see how we did - it took us all over the country.

Regions of Iceland

Most of the tourist areas and main population in Iceland is in the southwest, centering on Reykjavik and the Golden Circle.  The south coast (Suðurland) had a mass of waterfalls, a black sand beach and the glacial mountains, including Eyjafjallajökull the volcano that erupted a few years ago and disrupted air traffic in Europe.

Heading into the west part of the country (Austurland and Norðurland Eystra), the land was much more rugged and unpopulated, this was the area used for filming the beyond the wall scenes in Game of Thrones and consisted of many long roads between settlements.  This area housed Europe's most powerful waterfall - Detifoss, as well as some awesome thermal hotspots.

The northwest of the country is the westfjords (Vestfjörðir) area and is fairly elevated with lots of difficult roads.  It is also home to one of the country's best waterfalls - Fjallfoss.

The central part of the country is mostly mountainous, with glaciers that are impassable without a four-wheel drive.

Our plan was to hire a standard car, base ourselves in Reykjavik and to push as hard as we could to see as much as we could.

Our plan:

Day 1 (Saturday 5th Nov) - Arrival:
- Arrive
- Get our house in Reykjavik
- Get some groceries
- Go to the Blue Lagoon


Day 2 (Sunday 6th Nov) - South:
- Lanmannalauguar Lava Field, (2.25hrs drive)
- Myrdaksjokull Glacier, (co-located)
- Reynisfjara Beach, (10 minute drive)
- Skogafoss Waterfall, (30 minute drive)
- Eyjafjallajökull, (Inaccessible - view from on drive)
- Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, (30 minutes drive)
- Back to Reykjavik. (1.5hr drive)


Day 3 (Monday 7th Nov) - Southeast:
- Skaftafell National Park, (4hr drive)
- Svartifoss Waterfall, (co-located)
- Vatnajokull Glacier, (co-located)
- Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon, (45 minutes)
- Drive to temporary accommodation at Mývatn (5.5hrs)


Day 4 (Tuesday 8th Nov) - Northeast:
- Lake Mývatn,
- Hverarond Geothermal Area (15 minute drive)
- Krafla Lavafields (10 minute drive)
- Detifoss Waterfall (45 minute drive)
- Return to Reykjavik (6.5hr drive)


Day 5 (Wednesday 9th Nov) - Southwest:
- Hallgrimskirkja, (10 minutes drive),
- Maelifell Volcano (30 minutes drive),
- Geysir and Strokkur Geysers (45 minute drive),
- Gullfoss Waterfall (10 minute drive),
- Back to Reykjavik (1.5hr drive)


Day 6 (Thursday 10th Nov) - Northwest:
- Kirkjufell Mountain (2.25hr drive),
- Dynjandi / Fjallfoss Waterfall (4.5 hr drive),
- Back to Reykjavik (5hr drive).


Day 7 (Friday 10th Nov) - West:
- Þingvellir National Park (45 minutes drive),
- Silfra Tectonic split (co-located)

Day 8 (Saturday 11 Nov) - Park and fly home

As you can see, it was a pretty ambitious plan with a massive amount of driving.  This was made worse by the fact that it was edging into winter and sunrise was at 9:30am and sunset at 4:30pm, so we had a small window to sight-see in.

The next 8 posts will cover our days in Iceland, what we managed to do and some of the 1400 photos we took.