Iceland 4: South Coast

Top Tips:

- The Icelandair Hotel Klauster was unanimously our favourite hotel of the whole week. I would definitely stay in an Icelandair Hotel again.

- Dyrhólaey was my favourite attraction of the entire trip. What was planned to be a brief visit turned into a 3 hour sojourn and we could have easily stayed longer exploring this area.
- The scenic attractions seen today are too good for words, and these pictures don't come close to capturing their glory.

Lighthouse at Dyrhólaey

Tuesday, September 3

We checked out of the Grimsborgir Hotel after breakfast and made our way towards the next hotel, stopping at several attractions along the way.

Seljalandsfoss

Our first stop, about an hour away, was the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. You can take a circuit to walk directly behind this elegant waterfall, making it a popular tourist destination. There’s another path reaching to the left from the waterfall, heading out to see a few smaller falls in the area. It leads to another waterfall that you can climb to the top of – the track is wet, slippery and has some chains set up for stability of those that wish to walk it, but it warns that it’s not suited to everyone.

It began raining yet again, so we missed climbing to the top of this waterfall. There is a food truck at the Seljalandsfoss parking lot, selling soup and sandwiches – at around $7 a sandwich, it’s about as cheap as we can find in Iceland so not a bad option, but we didn’t eat here.

Skógafoss

Moving 20 minutes east on the ring road, we arrived at Skógafoss waterfall. Not to be outdone by Seljalandsfoss, the Skógafoss is a breathtakingly powerful waterfall. There is a stair trail to the top of the waterfall, and at the top you can continue to walk in the plateau fields alongside the river.

The fields at the top of Skógafoss

We ate lunch at the cafeteria restaurant next to the falls – it was $10 for the soup of the day and bread, and you serve yourself as many refills as you like. It was pretty decent, and the bread was freshly warm from the oven which was welcome in the always ominous weather.

Dyrhólaey

After another 20 minutes drive we reached the next stop. Dyrhólaey is definitely one of my favorite sites from this entire trip. If you’re not sure what to see in Iceland or about coming to this area, you absolutely must put this on your list. I really think this would be worth a round trip drive from Reykjavik.

We spent about 3 hours there without realizing the time was passing, and I could have easily spent more time there. This place is stunning. Most famous for its rock formations protruding from the ocean, Dyrhólaey has so much more beauty to offer. We climbed the peaks overlooking these marvelous structures, and descended to the black sand beaches to watch the fierce ocean waves crash against the jagged cliff face.

On the way out from the main parking lot, there is a left turn to an unpaved road that goes up a hill. Be sure to take that, it will lead to the tallest peak in the area, with stunning views of the lighthouse and the black beach extending for miles into the distance.

While driving back to the main ring road, we saw some people had parked beside a marshy area (just in front of the road bridge), and crossed close to the cliff base to walk along the black beach that is seen from the lighthouse – a great idea if you have the time and energy.

Accommodation & Dinner

It took almost an hour to reach the Icelandair Hotel Klauster from here. This hotel impressed us, and I would absolutely stay at an Icelandair hotel again. The rooms were basic as usual, but comfortable and the beds were soft and cozy. The reception staff offered to call us at night if the Aurora showed, which unfortunately it didn’t.

We ate at the hotel’s restaurant. Being the country’s specialty, I ordered the lamb, which didn’t disappoint. My favorite, after trying bits from everyone’s plates, was the Fire and Ice dessert – presented in a glass cone balancing on top of a pool of Blue Curacao and ice (representing the lake), it featured a fresh strawberry topped with vanilla icecream (representing the glacier), with freshly poured warm rhubarb soup (representing lava). It was a masterpiece. The prices here (about CA$45 for a main) were definitely justified by the quality of the food – and this was unanimously the favorite meal of the whole week.

Previous: Landmannalaugar   Next: Skaftafell National Park

Iceland 2: Þingvellir, Geysir & Gulfoss

Top Tips:

-       It’s difficult to find useful detailed maps of the whole country, but there are good maps made for specific regions.

-       Our GPS couldn’t recognize the majority of the attractions we visited. You can find GPS coordinates to help it direct you at this website. Most attractions can be found with a tourist map and following signs, but the GPS still helped relieve the stress of searching for directions.

-       Þingvellir National Park only takes 1-3 hours to see.

-       Geysir and Gulfoss are must-see attractions in a day trip from Reykjavik.

Þingvellir

Sunday, September 1

Today turned out to be a bit of an ordeal. Not the greatest welcome to the country, thanks to some fateful weather, but just a bit dramatic.

We woke early and had breakfast at the Fosshotel Baron. Breakfast was pretty standard, offering breads, a waffle iron, meat platter, croissants, fresh fruit, cereal, sausages and omelette. We ate so much for breakfast that we lasted until dinner time without feeling hungry.

Þingvellir National Park

Our first stop was Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. We hit our first obstacle – the GPS did not recognize this popular tourist attraction, nor the names of the towns nearby. Stopping at a gas station, the tourists maps available didn’t offer much better assistance, being very basic poorly scaled maps of the entire island, and there were no detailed maps available for purchase. The station staff were very friendly and helpful, giving us detailed instructions to travel to the park’s visitors centre. When we reached the Þingvellir information centre about 40 minutes later, there were a few maps available for purchase – the choice was of regional detailed maps, costing $20 per region, and not practical for our whole island trip – or $20 for a general map of the island which was no better than the tourist maps available for free. We didn’t bother to buy any of these maps.

Þingvellir National Park

From here we were directed to the Þingvellir Visitor’s centre (yes, a different place), about 4-5 minutes drive away. From the visitors centre you can walk down to see the historic buildings and waterfalls. You can walk further into the park along several different trails towards Skógarkot, which is an old Viking farm. We chose to do this walk, taking the Gönguvegur trail to Skógarkot, and returning via the Skógarkotsvegur trail. 

The first 500-700 metres of the Gönguvegur trail was breathtaking, with glistening mossy mounds leading far out towards the mountains in the distance. The trail leads to a rivine that you climb down to cross – this area was spectacular.

The rivine on the Gönguvegur trail

From here on, the scenery becomes more mundane, and there’s still about 1.5 km to go to reach the Viking farm. Also, the Gönguvegur trail got muddier, narrower, and more irregular. This is clearly an old trail, which makes it more interesting to walk, but more irritating to walk in the rain and mud. Skógarkot farm is so non-descript and anti-climactic, that when we asked hikers along the way how far it was to this destination, no one knew because they didn’t notice it!

The Gönguvegur trail

Well, it started to rain, but we pushed further along the trail eager to see the Skógarkot Viking farm, thinking it must be good because all trails lead to it. The rain pushed harder too, saturating our outerwear and dampening my clothes through my Gortex jacket, rainpants and shoes (I really should have been as waterproof as you can get!). We finally reached Skógarkot, which truly is barely noticeable. The farm consists of some crumbled rock fences. That is all. There’s no distinguishing Viking appearance to the farm, it looks more like a run down English-style farmland. Unless you’re looking for it, you’ll probably walk right past it.

Skógarkot

From here, the Skógarkotsvegur trail was easy to find, and a much easier paved walk back to the Þingvellir Visitor’s centre. Had we not been soaked through by this point, we’d have visited the waterfall. But everyone was sopping wet and we really needed to find our hotel and get changed.

The Gönguvegur trail

The Car Drama

In the heavy rain, it was just perfect timing for the driver’s window to get stuck open. Don’t ask why it was opened, but you can be sure it wasn’t capable of closing. We had to call the rental company, who arranged to meet us at the hotel to exchange for a car with windows that could open AND close. The transaction went smoothly and the owner was easy going about the whole thing and came out right away (an hours drive for him) to bring us the replacement car. The new car was no better than the old one – yes the windows worked, but it was an older model car with squeakier windshield wipers (this improved with time), and we realized later there was no rearview mirror, but Mike liked that this one was a manual.

For the price of this car rental, this is a major deal for us – we’ve rented a new, diesel efficient 4WD in Switzerland (which is generally a pretty expensive country) for the same price as this dated gas-guzzling 4WD. For the price difference between this and other rental companies we saw in Iceland, I really can’t complain. It’s just another example of the difference in price : quality ratio to expect in Iceland. The nice thing about this rental is that the owner ran the business, and this issue was dealt with immediately and in person.

A rock garden on the drive in to Þingvellir

Accommodation

We arrived for early check-in at our next hotel – Hotel Grimsborgir. Now, this hotel was beautiful and quaint, and undoubtedly the best hotel in the region. It’s also probably the most expensive – renting at $360/night. By North American standards, for this price I expect an above standard room in a 5-star hotel in most cities. Here, you receive a beautiful 24 sq. ft room with heated tile floors (loved this), cable TV that actually works, free WiFi on a 3G network – limited to checking email and browsing only, one of the nicest bathrooms we experienced here, individual patios, access to the hot tubs outside, and a European breakfast. The whole place was incredibly clean. For such a premium price, several things were missing that would be assumed in North America - like shampoo, tissues, other related bathroom products, and turndown services. On request they will clean the room, but they did not make the bed or tidy anything, must have just cleaned the floor up a bit. This really highlights the disconnect between Iceland and North American service standards.

After a quick dip in the hot tub and cleaning up into some dry clothes, I found a way to make good use of the GPS. Since it was unable to recognize even the most obvious of tourist attractions, like Þingvellir or Geysir, I found a website to locate the GPS coordinates of these destinations. I used this website and Google Maps to note the coordinates of most of the destinations for our trip. 

Geysir

We tested this process out for Geysir and Gulfoss, since we had already seen some signs to these places from Þingvellir. These attractions are about 10 minutes from each other, and an hour from our hotel.
From the Geysir carpark, you cross the road and walk towards the steam emenating from the ground.
You’ll walk past bubbling hot-pot rockpools before reaching the Little Geysir, followed by The Geysir.

Even knowing what to expect, the Geysir was more awesome than imagined. The sound of the blowhole is impressive, and the anticipation as it bubbled made the explosion of water even more exciting. It erupts every 10 minutes, but after the first eruption there is a secondary one about a minute later, so stick around.

Gulfoss

From here we made the quick trip to Gulfoss. Sadly it was too cold, we were too soaked from rain (again), and the wind was too infernal for us to spend long at this natural wonder. It’s hard to take photos from the main viewing platform because waterfall spray floods this area. There are a few trails to lead to different viewpoints for this majestic large waterfall. I dare say, this waterfall could be more beautiful than Niagara Falls. It is worth a drive out from Reyjavik just to see this waterfall, and then with Geysir nearby there really are no excuses not to come out here even for a day trip.

Dinner

We returned to the Hotel Grimsborgir for a Sunday buffet dinner. This hotel has reputably the best restaurant in the area. I can’t comment too much on comparisons because we ate here for breakfast and dinner, and practically missed lunch for both days we stayed here. The buffet dinner involved a lot of seafood, which my family isn’t big on. I tried a couple of salmon dishes that were incredibly fresh and not at all fishy. For the most part I kept to the roast dinner items. I tried the roast lamb – an Icelandic masterpiece – like no other lamb I have ever tasted anywhere. The meat was smooth, rich in flavor and soft in texture. I can see why Iceland locals complain that they can’t find proper lamb anywhere else in the world – this lamb was spectacular. The $65/pp for a buffet meal felt a bit exorbitant, and as I've mentioned before, we are not generally enthusiastic about buffets, but we were all satisfied with our meal. We returned the next day for dinner again though and were very disappointed with the food.

Previous: Reykjavik & the Southern Peninsula   Next: Landmannalaugar

Iceland 1: Reykjavik & Southern Peninsula

It's been a while since I've posted, but that happens when you're travelling. There's always that week before you go away where things just get hectic, then of course there's the travelling which is worth all of the extra craziness, and then the time to sadly settle back into the work routine after you get home. So here I am settling back into my blog routine as well. With some fresh material from my recent travels.

I've gotta say, you can prepare all you like, but you can never truly know what to expect when you touch down in a place. Even with all of my information gathering for the journey to Iceland, we still hit many surprises along the way - some good and some not. I'll do my best to highlight these points along the way.

9 Day Iceland Itinerary 

Top Tips

- Rumor has it that since the global financial crisis Iceland has become much cheaper for tourists. I'm not sure how true this is, but don't be fooled into thinking Iceland will be inexpensive. At it’s best, supermarket items cost on par with Canada and America. In some areas, food will cost 2-3 times what you’d expect to pay elsewhere, and more than you’d even expect to pay elsewhere in Europe.
- Fuel currently sits at $2.50/L. Keep this in mind when deciding on which car to rent.
- The Blue Lagoon is close to Keflavik airport, if you’re renting a car you may want to go straight there after your flight to relax before arriving in Reykjavik.
- Most accommodations in Iceland feel very basic compared to their price.
- If you’re mainly following the ring road around Iceland you can easily get away with a regular car. A 4WD is only necessary if you plan to take F-roads, although it could make some dirt roads more comfortable.
- Bring a windproof/waterproof coat. It may be summer, but it’s still cold. Waterproof pants are worth having for all of the waterfalls you will visit.


Trip Style: Self directed
Transportation: 4WD rental
Average accommodation cost: CAD$270/night
Travel dates: August 31 - September 8, 2013


Saturday, August 31

Reykjavik

Today was a day of first impressions. We arrived in Iceland around 7am, and took a taxi to our car rental, which was less than 5 minutes drive away. The airport staff recommend that you ask the taxi driver for an estimate before getting in, because you will probably be surprised at the cost. Yep, almost $20 for a 3-4 minute drive. My parents who arrived a day before Mike and I, had taken a shuttle into Reykjavik instead, and this option was $20 each one way, with the shuttle ride taking about an hour – so unless you’re renting a car in Keflavik this is a much more cost effective option for getting into Reykjavik from the airport.


Something important to consider when deciding on a rental car, is that fuel costs twice as much as in Canada, currently sitting around $2.50/L.

Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavik 

We picked up our car – what seems a 90’s model Suzuki Grand Vitara. I’ll write a bit more on the rental later, it was quite a memorable experience.

Coming into Reykjavik we used the GPS to find our hotel to park, before browsing the streets of the city for the rest of the morning. The city centre is pretty small and for the most part can be seen in a day if you’re willing to walk a bit. There’s of course museums you can spend more time in, but most of the city’s tourism seems to involve day trips to nearby attractions.

Browsing Reykjavik city centre 

We browsed the boutique stores, eyeing the coats that looked glorious in the shocking cold change from our usual summer weather. This stroll lead us to the beautiful parliament house, and from here we returned to the hotel via the Hallgrímskirkja church.

Gardens at the Parliament House in Reykjavik

Blue Lagoon

In the afternoon we drove out to the Blue Lagoon, which is one of the most popular hot springs in the country. The place is a bit overpriced for what it is – costing €40 for admission, and more if you need to rent a towel. Mike and I spent about an hour in the pool, the temperature was just right. The lunch at the café was pretty well priced for a tourist attraction.









After visiting the spa, we headed past Grindavik on the 425 towards the tip of the peninsula. I can’t remember the exact name of the place but the GPS coordinates for this attraction is N 63 49.15, W 22 40.938. If you’re following the 425, you should see a sign directing to this attraction – it’s a geothermal active area, where hot sulphuric steam escapes from the ground.



There’s a few places like this in Iceland, but if you’re short on time and in Keflavik or Reykjavik area, this is an easy one to get to. We saw geothermic areas at Geysir and Lake Myvatn too that were nicer than this one on the southern peninsula.




When we got back to the hotel, we tried to get a recommendation for dinner. Well, it seems that restaurants in Reykjavik tend to book out, so if you have a particular one in mind you need to make a reservation at least more than a day in advance. The restaurant the concierge recommended was fully booked, so we ended up walking around looking for a place to eat. In the city centre, generally we found menu prices to be pretty expensive (are you noticing a theme yet?). Steaks were over $70, burgers were around $20, and eventually we settled on the Gamla Old Island café that served us traditional meat soup for $15 – this was almost the cheapest soup we had in the whole country (we ate soup almost every day for lunch –the cheapest was $10 but it also allowed for refills). The café also served some desserts – the best one was a cold pancake filled with jam and served with whipped cream.


Accommodation
We spent the night at the Fosshotel Baron. We got stuck by the elevator and that was a bit noisy. The accommodations were very basic, and for the price the hotel felt to lack in quality. My parents noticed that though the hotel advertises it has a TV, none of the channels work – we only had access to one religious channel. The hot water in the bathroom smells strongly of sulphur – much more so than the faint aroma we experienced in every other hotel. They had a squeegee in the bathroom because the shower had no boundaries, and you had to squeegee the water from the tiles into the drain after showering. Honestly, on our last night in Reykjavik we stayed at the Hotel Centrum (for cheaper than the Baron) and it was infinitely better than this hotel. The only thing lacking at the Centrum is parking, but free street parking is available on weekends.

Next: Þingvellir, Geysir & Gulfoss