Part I: Introduction
Part II: Snaefellsness Peninsula
Part III: Into the Westfjords and Dynjandi
Part IV: Djupavik and the most remote swimming pool in the world
Part V: Hvitserkur and a lot of driving
Part VI: Aldeyjarfoss and some friendly Dutch people
Finale: The Touristy Southern Coast

It’s time.  Let’s talk about my Iceland trip.

I seriously cannot wait to show you some of the amazing landscapes and tell you some great stories about my 8 days in one of the most unique places I’ve ever been.

First, though, let me tell you why I almost didn’t go.

Things are better when shared

I’ve seen quite a lot of the world for someone my age (you can see a few of the places on my Trip Reports page, which is in desperate need of an upgrade I know), but I’ve seen most of it alone.  I’ve told myself that traveling alone will never prevent me from taking a trip but I’ve softened that stance over the years.  It’s just more fun when you get to go with friends or significant others.  I mean yeah it’s not always sunshine and rainbows traveling with people but I’m finally tired of traveling alone.

I originally booked this trip for 9 days with a buddy of mine but he encountered a computer glitch when going to book his ticket and his held reservation was lost.  When he went back to buy the ticket the price had tripled from what I paid.  So he could no longer go.  I was super bummed.

So I faced a decision: do I go alone?  Most of my solo travel tends to be absurdly quick, like Hong Kong over the weekend kind of quick.  But this was 9 days.  I don’t like traveling alone for that long.

So why did I decide to go?  Honestly it was the Mavic 2 Pro coming out.  I love being one of the first to get reviews of hot new tech out (particularly because I don’t have the following to get stuff in advance) and reviews that take place in exotic locations tend to do better than ones I do around Dallas.  But really I think the drone review gave me a why for the trip.  And I hope you’ll agree after watching my little drone film I put together during the trip:

Ok let’s talk logistics

Iceland is not cheap.  Even compared with places which aren’t cheap Iceland isn’t cheap.  Getting there can be, though.

I flew nonstop from DFW-KEF on a $400 roundtrip ticket with American that I purchased back in January (shortly after they surprisingly announced the route).  That was the only cheap part of the trip.

I didn’t want to stay in Reykjavik for very long, since I had heard varying opinions about it, so I decided to only spend my last night there.  This would mean I needed to rent a car.  I strongly suggest renting a car, public transport isn’t really a thing, Uber/Lyft aren’t in Iceland, and destinations are quite a ways apart.  There are tons of rental car agencies which charge the same version of expensive, and that’s before the optional coverages.  Of note you’ll see every agency offers gravel and ash insurance, for good reason: most roads in Iceland outside of Reykjavik and off the Ring Road are gravel.  They’re pockmarked with potholes and if you’re following someone it’s super easy to catch a huge rock in the windshield and have to pay for it.

I rented a hilariously awful VW up from Reykjavik Rent-a-Car for $270 for 8 days.  Their rates were cheap and I had full primary coverage of my rental through my Chase Sapphire Reserve so I declined all insurance in order for their insurance to kick in.  Of course, something happened which made this the most expensive part of my trip but I’ll get to that later.

My budget for hotels was $150 a night and I got pretty close.  I stayed at some unique places and used Booking.com for all of my reservations (not an affiliate link, just the website).

Food was very expensive.  Every meal at a restaurant was no cheaper than $30USD and often quite more.  I could’ve made this cheaper by doing some grocery shopping but for some stupid reason I decided not to.  The good thing was that most of the B&Bs I stayed at had a complimentary breakfast which wasn’t much but it was sufficient.

Are you ready?

I have quite a bit of content to share with you so be sure to stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss a post!  Also, you can follow along on my Instagram feed for up-to-the-minute posts during many of my trips.  Stay tuned and get ready!