Iceland 2017 — Fat Chicken Meal

On one hand, I had always wanted to go to Iceland, on the other hand, I never felt it was urgent to do it right away so it was never on top of my list. However, with our baby being born in less than 4 months, we realized we should better do it now.

What has drawn us to Iceland are mainly the spectacular landscapes. Both Simona and I like photography and with the new drone arriving a few weeks ago, this really was the perfect destination. You can see some of our best drone shots in the video below:

Arrival & Reykjavik

Getting to Iceland was quite a long journey for us from Singapore. First we had to take a 13 hrs flight to London, where we connected to a 3 hrs flight to Iceland. We arrived at Keflavik Airport where we picked up our rental car and moved on to Reykjavik which is about a 30 min drive from the airport. Reykjavik is a small town of approximately 120,000 people which offers some interesting modern architecture as well as nice bars, cafes and restaurants. Unfortunately all this comes with extremely steep prices.

The Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik is the biggest church in Iceland and a well known landmark

Golden circle
On our second day in Iceland we left the capital to travel the golden circle, which is a group of destinations around the capital. You can visit all of them within more or less a day. That makes it very popular with tourists who come to Iceland on a stopover between US and Europe. First, we went to Thingvellir National Park which lies in a rift valley, where tectonic plates are slowly splitting apart from each other which creates a deep fissure. We walked around for about two hours. The park is nice but nothing overly impressive, so we were excited to move on to the geysers at Haukadalur. The highlights are Strokkur geyser and Geysir. Strokkur is quite impressive as it erupts every 6-10 minutes at a height of 15-20 meters, which makes it very tourist friendly. More impressive at 70m height is Geysir but we didn't get to see it as it only erupts infrequently. For me the geysers are the highlight of the golden circle.

Next, we continued to Gulfoss waterfall. An impressive double waterfall that can easily be accessed via staircases and boardwalks.

Gulfoss waterfall. One of the highlights of the golden circle.

Beyond the golden circle:
Frankly, the biggest highlights are not found in the golden circle. below is an overview of our favorite Iceland spots.

Skogarfoss waterfall
The Skógafoss is one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland with a width of 25 meters and a drop of 60 meters. There's a path next to the waterfall which takes you all the way to the tope which allows for spectacular views. Luckily we brought the drone so we didn't have to walk up there. I know it's cheating but flying the drone is so much fun.

View from the air on Skogarfoss waterfall. On the right you can see people climbing up to the top of the waterfall.

Nameless waterfalls
On the way to Höfn we came across these stunning waterfalls. Unfortunately I have no idea what their name is. We just stopped for 10 minutes and took these shots:

This one could be Seljalandsfoss but we are not sure.

Not the faintest idea what this waterfall is called but it was super beautiful. you can see more in the drone video above.

Skaftafellsjökull & Svinafellsjökull glaciers
It was the first time for us seeing a glacier up close so we were both very excited and I must say we were not disappointed at all.
We arrived at Skaftafellsjoekull quite late and we were worried that we would not reach in time to still have enough daylight to take pictures. Luckily the walk from the car park to the glacier takes less than 30 minutes so we still had enough time to enjoy the sunset. This was a very special experience that both of us won't forget for a long time.

Skaftafellsjökull was absolutely magnificent. We arrived at the golden hour and hat beautiful light for our photos and drone shots.

The next day we headed to the neighbouring glacier - Svinafellsjökull. The glacier is equally impressive. It was very windy that day and the Mavic was struggling but it kept really steady and delivered some great shots. Unfortunately this time no sunset pictures.

Jökulsárlón (Iceberg lagoon) & Diamond beach
Diamond beach is a black beach that is covered in small ice fragments from the iceberg lagoon near by. Simona clearly had a lot of fun.

Simona proudly showing off this huge 'diamond' that she found on diamond beach.

The iceberg lagoon is just next to the diamond beach. It is a small lagoon floating with icebergs of various sizes. I was amazed by how blue the ice is, even though you can't see it in the photo.

Höfn & Hofellsjökull Glacier
Next we moved on to Höfn. Höfn is a nice little town in the southeast of Iceland. We stayed there before moving further on on the ring road.

This is the picturasque harbour of Höfn.

The sunset was absolutely amazing - again.

Close to Höfn is another beautiful glacier called Hofellsjökull Glacier. It is a bit difficult to find and I would defiantly recommend to take a 4x4 if you want to go there. On the upside, we were the only people there and the glacier was very impressive.

Hofellsjökull Glacier is famous for its blue ice. It's much more blue in real life.

Dyrhólaeyjarviti view point & Reynisfjara beach
Among our last stops were these two rough black beaches. I love Iceland's black beaches because they build such a stong contrast to the snowy landscape surrounding them.

Final words and recommendations
First of all, I can't believe it took me this long to go to Iceland. It is only a few hours flight from Europe and its landscapes are absolutely mind blowingly beautiful. So if you live in Europe, your next trip should definitely be Iceland.

Secondly, the most impressive landscapes are beyond the golden circle. If you only see the golden circle, you are not doing Iceland justice. So if you go to Iceland on a stopover, please make sure you spend more than one night there and see some glaciers, the diamond beach and a few other highlights.

Unfortunately I must also say that Iceland is really really expensive. However, I feel that it is definitely worth it,

I am very happy that Simona and I came to Iceland on our baby moon trip. A trip that I will always remember.