Iceland 2021

We departed Keflavik airport early Sunday May 30th for an uneventful flight to Seattle. Covid formalities were quick and painless. We showed our documents at the ticket counter and were soon on our way. . Kudos to Iceland Air Business Class, they are a refreshing change from the US airlines. We spent the night in […]

Saturday, May 29, 2021: This is our last full day and night in Iceland. We were planning to hike the Fagradalsfjall volcano today, but the trail was reported unsafe by the Icelandic government travel site due to severe weather (2 hour hike each way): From: SafeTravel.isSaturday May 29th at 08:00Storm, very strong wind gusts and […]

Friday, May 28, 2021 Reykjavik: Relaxing down day for us, stormy weather including high winds and rain. First priority today was our 9 am appointment to complete a PCR test before entering back into the USA (negative test results required within 3 days of departure). The site was well organized for high volume testing, the […]

Thursday May 27, 2021: Day 10, the last day of our drive around Iceland road-trip (excluding stay in Reyjavik). The weather this morning was cold and windy turning very warm and sunny as we moved West. We made a visit to the black sand beach of Reynisfjara, just outside of our hotel village of Vik, […]

May 26, 2021: Day 9 of our drive around Iceland road-trip (excluding stay in Reyjavik). The weather this morning was cold and clear. We made a quick trip to the harbor area to take a couple of photos then we were off. We made our way along road 1 with several glaciers looming in the […]

May 25, 2021: Day 8 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. The weather this morning was cold and cloudy. Breakfast was served late today so we left Egilsstaðir at 8;45am. After a quick stop at the local bakery, we set out to visit Borgarfjörður eystri, the home of the Elf Queen. This trip took […]

May 24, 2021: Day 7 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. The weather this morning was cold and cloudy with light snow flurries. After our 7:30 breakfast we set out for the coastal town of Húsavík (we looked for Lars and Sigrit , but they were nowhere to be found). Since today was a […]

May 23, 2021: Day 6 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. The weather this morning was cold and raining. After a nice European breakfast at our hotel, we went in search of a bakery to pick up something for lunch on the road…no luck. All the shops were closed at 8AM on Sunday in […]

Saturday, May 22, 2021: Day 5 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. The weather today was cloudy and cool with a prediction of snow in the afternoon. We departed Laugarbakki around 9AM and headed East on Iceland’s ring road (road 1) towards the town of Akureyri (unofficialcapital of North Iceland”). Along the way we […]

May 21, 2021: Day 4 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. This morning saw us leaving the village of Ísafjörður to make the scenic drive to Laugarbakki. Today’s 225 mile adventure began with us hugging the coastal inlets of the West Fjords were we watched whales spout in the crystal clear water. The weather […]

We mentioned the last post that the streets around Ísafjörður were strangely deserted, well now we know why. Tonight Iceland was performing on the EuroVision Song Contest! It is hard to overstate the popularity of this contest in Europe! It was being broadcast on EVERY channel on our hotel room TV. It has been going […]

May 20, 2021: Day 3 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. Today we left the village of Patreksfjörður and made the drive to Ísafjörður. Although it was only 117 miles, it took over 6 hours to cover the distance. We passed through the tiny remote villages of Tálknafjörður and Bildudalur before making our way […]

May 19, 2021: Day 2 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. Today we explored the village of Stykkishólmur while we waited for the car ferry to to Brjanslaekur in Iceland’s Westfjords. “Exploration” of this tiny village consisted of getting fuel at the AO station, morning coffee at the local bakery, picking up lunch at […]

Tuesday,May 18, 2021, Day 1 of 12 of drive all of the way around Iceland. This should be our longest driving day as we drove 300 miles from Reykjavik (10+ hours), through the Snæfellsjökull National Park, to end our day in the village of Stykkishólmur. Such a beautiful country. We drove through lava fields, hot […]

We took a nice 7 mile walk around Reykjavik. Many of the stores and attractions are still closed and maybe a handful or two of tourists. Highlights of our walk today included the Braud & Co Bakery (delicious croissants), the Hallgrimskirkja Chapel (closed), the Old Town Harbor area including the dry docks which Dan loved, […]

After leaving the Blue Lagoon, we traveled along the road to explore some of the local landmarks on the way to Reykjavik. Our 1st stop was at Reykjanesviti Lighthouse (Dan love’s lighthouses!) for a quick photo op as it was closed to visitors. We then moved down the gravel road to the beach to visit […]

Every travel book, article, blog, or guide says that you can’t go to Iceland without a visit to the Blue Lagoon Spa. It was “along the way” on the drive from our quarantine hotel in Keflavik to our hotel in Reykjavik so we decided it was a good time to plan a visit. We book […]

We worked with Iceland Tours to book our Hotels and to put together a loose itinerary of things to see and do during our stay in Iceland. This will be a self driving tour completing a circumnavigation around the country in just over 12 days. The idea is to see as much as we can […]

We landed at the empty Keflavik airport at roughly 6AM local time on 5/15/2021. We were here! It’s kind of surreal to realize that after all the isolation, life pauses, canceled plans, and hic ups that we’ve actually made it. Now we just need to see if they will let us in! Covid-19 testing on […]

We are finally off to Iceland. We flew from Oakland to Seattle on 5/13/2021 were we spent the night. The Seattle airport was a culture shock to say the lease. We have been social distancing / isolating for over a year and boarding in OAK was quiet and a bit sedate. When we exited into […]