My boyfriend Cormac and I decided to go to Iceland this summer; scratch that, Cormac decided that we go to Iceland this summer. At first, I hesitated and thought why Iceland? Then, thought Why Not?

My first thought was; won’t it be cold??

THEN, I remembered why my sun holidays away to Spain etc are never as adventurous as they seem and I normally end up lying on the beach all day eating and drinking, by the end of it I could easily be mistaken for a whale that somehow drifted ashore.

ANYWAY, I am not a whale  and I didn’t go to Spain (which is a lovely amazing country), I WENT TO ICELAND. Because it’s a country I was clueless about which meant trying something new.

Cormac educated me on the country and the icelandics way of living, and within a minute it was decided, we were going to Iceland!!

I won’t bore all of you with the details of the two months I spent googling pictures of Iceland, stalking Icelandic instagram pictures and researching bus timetables and what to do. It’s embarrassing the amount of times I googled ‘what to wear in Iceland during Summer’, hoping a list would appear that said shorts, dresses, tank tops and bikinis; and so I had an excuse to go shopping and put my summer clothes to good use.

Unfortunately, that is not what Google told me. Don’t fret, I will fill you all in on what to wear, what to do, where to book and how to get around in Iceland.

What To Pack 

No matter where you are going, this is always a tricky decision. If it weren’t for Cormac’s realistic attitude, my suitcase wouldn’t have made it as far as the plane. Despite the fact Iceland doesn’t have snow or Ice during summer (weird), it can still be chilly. When we were there the weather was dry the entire time (except for one short shower that caused Cormac to impulsively buy a 20 euro umbrella). It’s bright in Iceland 24/7 over summer despite an hour of kinda darkness. It was around 13 degrees when we were there, the sun was out and the air was cool. Even though it looked lovely out some days, I still wore my jacket (which is one I wouldn’t wear during Summer in Ireland). Yet, I also packed a pair of shorts that I did wear on a short walk to the shop with a massive jumper and cormacs Jacket; which made me look insane. SO, bring warm clothes. It gets chilly. But maybe a few tank tops incase it gets warm during the day. If you are going to any thermal spas then bring a bikini 🙂

Money

The money in Iceland will make you believe you are rich. DON’T BELIEVE IT, THIS IS A TRICK. YOU ARE NOT RICH BECAUSE YOU HAVE 1000 ISK IN YOUR POCKET. (IT’S ONLY WORTH 7 EURO). We asked about getting ISK into the Irish banks before travelling to Iceland, but there was none in the banks. The best way to go about money in Iceland is taking money out of the ATMs/ using your bank card when paying. There is also some currency exchange places at the airports that are quite helpful. We found using the ATMs the handiest form of payment.

Transfer

Organising how to get from one location to the next can be quite daunting when going on a holiday, especially when neither of you can drive. Getting around Iceland was way easier than we originally thought. I had looked up bus times from Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik city centre prior to our flight and found FlyBus. These buses leave every half hour/hour i.e. quite regularly from the airport to Reykjavik airport (vica versa). I planned on searching for the buses prior to our landing as I didn’t want to book online incase it worked out more expensive. There was no need to worry at all, they were selling FlyBus tickets on the airplane! We managed to book our return tickets from Keflavik to BSI Reykjavik without a bother.

When going on day trips we booked everything at the BSI terminal on our first day. They promote and sell all tickets for tourist attractions there as the buses leave from the bus terminal. This made life quite easy over the five days as we could relax having everything booked and organised on the first day knowing all we had to do was walk to the bus terminal.

Accomodation

Originally we planned to see at a fancy hotel. Having compared prices, we found the cheapest one that was in anyway decent for the five nights to be roughly 900 euro (not including a double bed or any extras). We decided to look elsewhere. We had heard of Air bnb and desbite being a small bit skeptical, decided to give it a go. I would highly recomend Air b&b to anybody. We found the nicest, cutest and cosiest apartment in Reykjavik with the loveliest owners. It was a seperate guest house attached to the main house. It was far bigger than any hotel room and cosier. 300 euro cheaper also;It was beyond perfect! The apartment was located a fifteen minute walk to the BSI bus terminal and a twenty five/ half hour walk to the city centre. It was across the road from the biggest shopping centre in Reykjavik and in a neighbourhood we couldn’t and still can’t pronounce. We learnt that Reykjavik is quite spread out and it took us a long time to figure out where the city centre was as many main tourist attractions are spread out around the city. After our first day, Reykjavik felt like a second home. We became brave taking different routes home looking for new places and adventures each day. When our legs got tired (near the end this was an often occurence), we would get a taxi home. The taxis were quite expensive but we couldn’t figure out the bus timetable for the life of us! So it was handier and worth it for the convenience and ease of worry.

Food

As a woman told us on a tour guide “WE LOVE SHEEP IN ICELAND. WE EAT AND USE ANY PART OF SHEEP. IN ALL OUR CLOTHES AND I EAT THE BRAIN OF THE SHEEP”. Despite this lovely appealing talk, I never ate sheep in Iceland. I found the retaurants and cafés served food similar to home that suited my preferences wonderfully. Let me give you a low down on all the places we ate.

Chuck Norris Grill 

A lovely burger joint in the centre of Reykjavik where we had burgers and pints of Icelandic Beer called ‘The Viking’. This drink soon became a regular for us.

A fancy over priced retaurant I don’t know the name of

This restaurant was in the centre of Reykjavik. We ate here after a long day where we had an early rise and walked a lot. I was exhausted and fancied going home. Cormac insisted we go to this restaurant he believed had a deal that included pasta. We soon learnt the lunch menus were a lot cheaper than the dinner menus the hard way… We made a reservation in this fancy restaurant for nine o’clock and soon learnt my meal of beef and potatoes (which was so delicious) price was the equivilant of around fifty euros. But, we also learnt that every meal in Iceland is expensive and no place would be as cheap as at home. Learn the currency value before you leave!

An Italian Retaurant I also don’t know the name of 

We went here the first night we landed then did a runner after waiting to be seated cause we seen the price and thought it was expensive. We learnt by the end of the week this place was actually so cheap for the quality of food compared to other places and it was such a reasonable price! I had pizza and cormac had pasta. We shared a bottle of wine. This was my favorite place, we went here two nights in a row because we loved it so much!

The Cutest Café Ever

We ate in a lot of cafés but this café was AMAZING! It had cosy couches, an upstairs outdoor area you could enjoy the view of Reykjavik from. There were plugs inside, music and board games. Christmas decorations and random objects on display. It was so quirky and vintage I loved it. It also had orange and pink mugs&tables!! There was a chalkboard where we signed our names and even in the toilet people left loads of notes and comments that you could read on the table when you were bored on the loo. There was a lovely quote I read:
“We do not travel to seek new shores, but to see the same shores with new eyes”

It really made me think about how travelling makes people see the world differently and appreciate different sights and shores.

Even though we ate out for dinner each night, we made breakfast at home each day. We had bacon, eggs, bread and cheese in our fridge and thats what we made in the mornings with coffee. We had an espresso machine and an electric hob in our apartment making all of this possible!

What To Do 

 

Despite the fact we stayed across from the biggest shopping centre in Reykjavik (which we ate in and had a look around loads), nothing was bought there. You would be paying double the price of clothes in Iceland as you would at home. (I had to look in Topshop and compare). There were all of the similar big brand shops but they were too expensive to buy anything from.

Despite browsing around shops, streets and cafés, we went on typical tourist trips that are a necessity when visiting Iceland!

Whale Watching

No this wasn’t at the blue lagoon where I decided to wear a bikini… It was at sea!! We went whale watching on our first day. After watching the documentary Black Fish, we decided the only place to ever see whales is in a sea where they are freely swimming in their natural habitat. Despite the lack of whales spotted and the cold weather, this was a fun experience like no other. A free pass to the whale Museum was included in our ticket where we read about different types of whales and how they are very intact with their emotions even more so than humans!

We then went on our ship with Reykjavik Sailors. A small both with a small crew of us. We listened to the leader speak of the industry in Iceland, whales, the population and interesting facts. After the presentation, we readied ourselves for whale watching. We stood on top near the front of the boat to look afar incase a whale was spotted; we soon found out that we would be running from one side of the boat to the other as someone shouts ‘whale 3 O’Clock and everyone would run to the right then back again on the lookout for a whale. This was great fun and despite having my camera at the ready, I never captured a picture of either of the whales I spotted that dived out of the water. We did see them though and it was a wonderful experience. I would recomoned it.

The Blue Lagoon

We visited the Blue Lagoon on our second day. We left the BSI at 7 in the morning, despite the early rise we were the first into the Blue Lagoon at 8 o’clock. This was lovely having the place to a small quiet group of us. It was paradise. There’s a bar in the ice blue water that is so hot and refreshing. We got free face masks and lay in this paradise for hours. It was definitely a stress reliever and helps relax, I felt wonderful afterwards. It was one of my favorite days I’ve ever had and one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been to. We had drinks, smoothies, salads, in-water massages and the most incredible experience. YOU HAVE TO GO THERE!

The Golden Circle

As we went to the south of Iceland along the Golden Circle drive, I began to see Iceland in a new way. The beautiful scenery of green hills, glistening blue lakes and watching people going for mountain strolls on horseback was breath taking. We stopped off at a tomato farm ‘Fridheimer’ which got it’s energy and heat for the greenhouses from the natural geothermal water. We also had the nicest tomato soup ever!

We then visited the Geysir, where we witnessed a Geysir shooting up in the air and got a bit soaked by the warm water that we watched kids run away from. The water flowing along the ground was boiling hot so don’t touch it!! It was magnificent, here are our before and after pictures.. (I really needed to go to the loo when I was waiting for the geysir in my picture, so this is my pretending to be happy but really need to find a bathroom face)

We stopped by the Gulfoss Waterfall which was a totally new experience, like something out of this world.. It was breath taking how wonderful it was. The massive waterfall made me feel so tiny; but the sound of the water lapping was so soothing. It was really lovely. We also made sure to get five different pictures with the waterfall at five different angles for proof we were actually there… Pffft joke mostly because Cormac wasn’t satisfied with any of the pictures randomers took for us. We had to stop so many and do a fake smile pretending the picture was so good.

 Lastly, we stopped at a fault line ‘Thingvellir’,in a beautiful spot by a lovely lake. Where we made a wish with a coin and enjoyed the magnificent scenery. The journey and all of the stops were incredible. Even the bus drive had beautiful surroundings with an interesting tour guide.

Small Tourist Shops

It’s a necessity to roam freely around Reykjavik and visit cute  tourist shops that will make you never want to see a puffin or a wooly jumper again. It’s necessary to find hidden cafés, exciting places and tourist monuments yourself as you walk along the shore of Reykjavik and alongside the colourful buildings. Explore and Enjoy!

What I would Do Differently if I Went Again

I have no regrets at all in my holiday, it was perfect. I loved Iceland and it was amazing during the summer despite people praising it in the winter. If I was to go back I would love to see it in the winter so I could see the Northern Lights and experience the Blue Lagoon in Winter Time. I would also love to visit green land whilst out there, as planes fly from Reykjavik Airport. I would visit more of the South as I really loved the Golden Circle scenery. I will go back to Iceland and highly recommend it to anyone and everyone

Over and Out,

Saoirse.