Iceland Uncovered: Your Ultimate Trip Guide

When planning your trip, Iceland has something to offer everyone with many ways to experience the country. Whether you’re looking to get off the grid in a camper van and complete the Ring Road journey, or if you’re just looking to do day trips from Reykjavik, we hope to provide insight to help you plan your next adventure. Check out our Iceland Trip Overview for a more in-depth review of our trip with photos.

When To Go?

Iceland is dramatically different depending on the time of year you visit. We opted for the summer months (early July) to maximize our outdoor exploring in a more pleasant temperature. Summer can be rainy but we lucked out with mostly dry weather and temperatures in the 50s and 60s (Fahrenheit). The only downside to a summer visit is that there is zero chance to see the northern lights due to the midnight sun.

Where To Stay?

Much to our surprise there are not a lot of accommodations once you get outside of Reykjavik. Each town only has a few small hotels which fill up fast. This is also why you see many people taking day trips from the capital or renting a camper van. We planned our trip early enough that we were able to book small Airbnb cabins along the way. You will notice near main towns there are quite a few locals who offer a handful of small cabins on their properties.

How Many Days?

We did 8 full days in Iceland, check out our itinerary below as a sample trip to use when planning. For us, this was a perfect length of time to explore the main areas, do plenty of hiking, and not feel rushed.

Shortening The Trip

If you are looking to do a shorter trip, here are some options that we’d recommend:

• Two areas we would cut from our itinerary
  • Snæfellsnes Peninsula: Though this was a beautiful start to our trip and is home to the famous Kirkjufell Mountain, we would prioritize time on the South Coast instead.
  • The City of Höfn: While it’s a good stop for food and supplies, the city itself doesn’t have a ton to explore. We chose to stay here to be closer to our glacier exploring plans and for some additional hiking, but you could easily cut out any extended time in the region.
• Quicker stops in the Golden Circle
  • You can easily condense your time and see the main stops in less than a full day. Many people choose to stay in Reykjavik and do bus tours through this area. There area also bus tours available through the South Coast area if you’re looking for an easy option that doesn’t require a vehicle rental.
• Options near Reykjavik
  • If you stay close to KEF airport (or if you only have an extended layover) spend some time relaxing in the famous Blue Lagoon (just 20 minutes from the airport) or getting up close and personal with the fresh volcanic terrain in the surrounding Fagradalsfjall area.
• Shorten your hikes
  • We prioritized hiking time for our trip but most of the main attractions of Iceland are easily accessible without much hiking. We added in extra time hikes at these attractions and also planned a full day hike at the glaciers. If this isn’t something that interests you or if you are looking to save time, you can cut back on the amount of extra hiking that you do.

Lengthening The Trip

When planning your trip, f you’re looking to spend more time in Iceland compared to our 8 day itinerary, here are a few options we’d consider:

• Complete the entire Ring Road.
• Extended hiking trips. We met travelers who were doing multi-day hiking adventures. One of the more popular areas is with the Skógafoss waterfall trail that begins at the top of the falls.
• Add in extra time to relax. We tend to go-go-go which caught up to us a bit with all of our extra hiking. We ended up taking a day off to relax in Vik and we wouldn’t have minded having a bit more time allocated to relaxing and recovering along the way.

Our Itinerary

• Day 1
  • Morning flight arrival at KEF & rental car pickup
  • Drive to Snæfellsnes Peninsula (approximately 2.5 hour drive)
  • Explore Peninsula region and stay there for the night
• Day 2
  • Finish any exploring of Snæfellsnes Peninsula
  • Drive to Golden Circle area (approximately 3 hour drive)
  • Explore Golden Circle stops and stay in the area for the night
• Day 3
  • Finish any Golden Circle exploring
  • Drive to the South Coast region and begin exploring attractions along the way
  • Stay in Vik for the night (approximately 2 hour drive from Golden Circle)
• Day 4
  • Recovery day enjoying the sights around Vik
  • Explore any additional South Coast attractions nearby
  • Stay in Vik for the night
• Day 5
  • Continue up the coast for a day of glacier exploring
    • Vatnajökull National Park approximately 1.75 hour drive from Vik
    • Glacier Lagoon area approximately 1 hour drive from Vatnajökull National Park
  • Stay near Höfn for the night (approximately 1 hour drive from Glacier Lagoon area)
• Day 6
  • Explore additional attractions around the Höfn area
  • Stay near Höfn for the night
• Day 7
  • Drive to Reykjavik (approximately 5.75 hour drive from Höfn)
  • Explore Reykjavik and stay in the city for the night
• Day 8
  • Blue Lagoon in the morning
  • Explore Fagradalsfjall area
  • Back to Reykjavik to finish exploring and stay in the city for the night
• Day 9
  • Flight home

Bonus Iceland Trip Planning

As with all of our European trip planning we always start with Rick Steves! Check out Rick’s Iceland overview here.

For more travel inspiration, check out our additional blog posts on international travel.!