What We Did - Our Route Around Iceland's Ring Road

We spent allot of time trying to figure our what we wanted to do with our trip to Iceland -  it has so many interesting natural attraction. We don't really work well with schedules so a tour group was out of the question.  We ended up building a 12 day tour around the ring road - Highway 1.  This allowed us to see almost everything we wanted to see except the western fjords (a huge reason to go back another time).  We had long days, taking full advantage of the fact that it never really got dark, we would often still be out hiking at midnight and because of this we were able to take the time to explore off the beaten track.  We'll share the detailed stories and pictures in future posts. Here is the outline of our12 day plan:

Day 1 - Getting to Iceland and touring Reykjavik - We flew direct from Toronto to Keflavik on Icelandic Air, it was a great flight the only issue was that we lost a night, we left Toronto at 9:55pm and arrived in Iceland at 7 in the morning.  Day one ended up being a really long day (it should actually be day one and two as the first night was spend in the air).   We had a great chance to explore the city of Reykjavik and get ready for the trek around the island on the ring road.

Hallgrimskirkja

Day 2 - Saudarkrokur - About a 3 1/2 hour drive from Reykjavik and we had the chance to explore the northern coast of Iceland, hunting for seals and playing in ancient forts.  We stayed in the town of Saudarkrokur at the Hotel Tindastoll (the oldest inn in Iceland) and watched the sun skim across the horizon from a natural hotpot on the coast.

Glerhallavik Beach

Day 3 - Akureyri - Only a 90 minute drive to the northern capital of Iceland allowed us to explore old churches, take lots of pictures of sheep and drive through an incredible mountain pass.  We stayed at the Hotel Ibudir, in the tourist hub of the city, which allowed us to get some additional shopping in and was the start of Sharleen's knitting project. Have we mentioned that there are many more sheep than people!!

Hraundrangi (the peak in the centre of the picture)

Day 4 - Reykjahlid (Myvatn region) - Another 90 min direct drive to the Myvatn region that we turned into a day trip hunting down off the beaten path waterfalls, playing in the pseudo creator fields and birding in the whaling town of Husavik.  We finally settled into the Myvatn region at the Hotel Reykjahlid.

The Roaming Gnome at Aldeyjarfoss

Day 5 - Myvatn Region - We spent the day climbing old volcanoes, exploring recent lava fields and  doing some hard core birding.  Definitely an out of the world landscape where we could have spend another week and still not fully see everything.

The Church at Dimmuborgir

Day 6 - Seydisfjordar - We started the day viewing three of Icelands big waterfalls, then made the journey through another mountain range.  The drive into Seydisfjordar took us from sea level to the clouds and back down again in about 20 mins - it was by far the scariest drive on a paved road (and yes this means we had a scarier one later in the trip).  We stayed at one of the nicest hotels of our trip here - the Hotel Aldan - and late into the night had our most magical experience when we discover the dwarf-stone.

Sharleen saves the day at Selfoss

Day 7 - Hofn (which was explained to us, by a local, that is it pronounced similar to the sound of a hiccup) - It was a long drive but a beautiful one through the eastern fjords where we visited the most incredible rock collection of a little old lady.

                                    Attack of the Arctic Terns at Skalanes

Day 8 - Hof Farm - We spent the day on a birding expedition out onto the sand flats and started to explore the glacier.  This ended up being a day where we took it easy exhausted from the 18 hours days of the past week.

It was a cold windy day

Day 9 - Exploring the Glacier - Iceland is home to the largest glacier in the world other than in the arctics.  We spend the day exploring its various glacial heels and collecting some glacier ice, from the beach, for our cooler. The highlight of the day was Jokulsarlon - the iceberg lake.

Jakulsaron

Day 10 - Vik - We rushed off to Vik so we would have a chance to explore the area impacted by the volcano (including an accidental cross over a closed bridge) and seeing some interesting waterfalls.  The day ended in Vik exploring the sea cliffs which include the scariest drive we have ever done thanks to "our guide" the chef at the Hotel Lundi. We seriously thought that this might be the end to our trip!!

A Puffin at Vik

Day 11 - Reykjavik - Our speed tourist day where we tried to check off the top site-seeing spots of icelands with visits to Gullfoss, Geyser and the continental rift at Pingveiller (an awe inspiring highlight).  We finished the night off in Reykjavik at the Radisson Blu 1919 Hotel.

Geyser

Day 12 - Our flight home - the driect flight back to Toronto wasn't until the evening which allowed us to take the last day to recharge at the Blue Lagoon including an in-water massage.  A perfect way to end the trip.

Someone said this was good for your skin...

Many more stories and pictures to come.