Hi Friends,
I hope you had a nice weekend! I just got back from a few days in Iceland with my friend, Tara! We went to check things off my 40 by 40 bucket list and what a beautiful trip it was!
Why Go to Iceland?
1. It’s a great price! For us to go for 3 nights, 4 days (including the airfare, hotel with breakfast each day, an excursion to the Blue Lagoon, and to see the northern lights on an evening boat ride), cost only $1,050 each.
2. It’s an easy flight from upstate NY! We left from Boston so it was little over a 4 hour flight to get there. Easy peasy. No connecting flights at all!
3. There was so much to do! I thought we may run out of things to do, but we really could have stayed twice as long. Great excursions, farms, and amazing local food and shopping.
4. You don’t need a car! It’s a really walkable city and you can get the package we bought which included all the bus transportation we needed to and from from the airport and excursions.
5. Reykjavik is definitely a place to go if you’re a foodie. They have so many amazing restaurants and food you probably have never tried before.
I get no credit for planning the trip. Tara did all the leg work, and I’m SO thankful for that! My friend, Aubrey, had already been to Iceland so she gave me some great tips, too!
We stayed at the Alda Hotel in Reykjavik and we LOVED it! The rooms were adorable, super clean, and the breakfast was DELICIOUS. We also really loved the location of this hotel. It’s close to so many things, but in the quieter section of the city. We could walk to a coffee shop, dinner spot, shopping, bus stops, and ocean in minutes. I’d stay here again for sure!
Restaurants
We started the trip with a walking food tour!
I always love starting any trip with a food walking tour because the guide usually has good tips for other things to do while we are there, and we learn about the restaurants we may want to go back to during our stay.
We loved every minute!!! You can book the same tour here. These are some of the stops we made on that tour:
Forréttarbarinn
Address: Nýlendugata 14
Íslenski Barinn
Address: Ingólfsstræti 1a
Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur 🌭
Address: Tryggvagata 1
Fjallkonan
Address: Hafnarstræti 1-3
Hressingarskálinn
Address: Austurstræti 20
My favorite food experience was going to the Dill which is a Michelin Star restaurant. We had an 8 course meal with drink pairings, and it was not just a meal; it was an almost 3 hour dinner experience.
The menu changes out seasonally, and you have to get reservations well in advanced. We tried, but it was completely booked so we went on the waiting list. The first night we were there, we stopped even though we didn’t get called, and they had someone no show for their reservation so we were able to get a table. We were so excited and shocked! We were also completely underdressed and wet from walking all day in the rain. Thankful, they didn’t mind one bit. :)
If you stay at the Alda hotel, be sure to make time to stop by Braud & Co for fresh cinnamon rolls and stop by the coffee shop just past it on the same side of the road for the best cappuccino and hot chocolate we tried in Reykjavik!
I tried so many different foods for the first time on this trip, from puffin to whale and almost everything in between. Reykjavik is definitely a place to go if you’re a foodie.
Shopping
The whole street by the Alda Hotel was full of cute shops, but you should also go to Rainbow Street in downtown (actually named Skolavordustigur street), it had some of our favorite shops.
They were having a celebration for the 3rd birthday of opening their storefront the day we stopped by. They let us in even though they were closed, and we were able to meet Inga, the artist who owns the business and makes all the pottery, and her son. Such a cool memory! I bought one of these cups.
This was a hidden gem, and my favorite spot. It’s in the 3rd oldest building in Reykjavik and you can make your own perfume, buy tea or candles, and incense, etc. It’s a family run business and the guy who talked to us was so kind.
There’s a shop in Harpa with locally sourced items and we really enjoyed walking through it as we waiting for our Food Walking Tour to start. The architecture of this building is also phenomenal. Walk around and check it out while you’re there.
They hand make these adorable wool hats, and we were able to meet the owner. She helped us find just the right fit and style!
We booked this bus trip to the golden circle! It was a 9 hour day, but we loved that we didn’t have to rent a car, could take cat naps between stops, and see so much all in one day. We saw geysers, waterfalls, farms, and the beautiful countryside.
Thingvellir National Park & Oxararfoss
Geysir
Fridheimar
This tomato farm is greenhouses full of hydroponically grown tomatoes. They make over 2,000 pounds of tomatoes a day which is 40% of the tomatoes sold in Iceland daily. The also have a restaurant with chairs and tables in the greenhouses where the tomatoes are growing. The experience and process was fascinating to me!
Kerid Crater
Our favorite part of the trip was the excursion to the Blue Lagoon! I’ve never experiences anything like it. I felt like I was on another planet. The water is bright blue and you can’t see your hand once you put it in the water. The blue, hot water meets up with lava rock all around you. Some of the lava rock has moss growing on it, too. The bright blue water against the dark lava with pops of green was stunning. The temperature of the water is always between 94-105 degrees so even when the outside is freezing cold, it’s warm as can be! We floated around, put on a face mask, enjoyed a drink, and completely relaxed. So good for the soul!
We also checked out the Hallgrímskirkja church which is stunning as well.
Random Tips
The local shops are open short hours (most are between 11-6) so if you have day trips to go on that are only a couple of hours, try to plan those before or after the time the shops are open on a couple of days.
It’s pricey to buy anything, and a little complicated to figure out the conversion rate so use this website to calculate it.
It doesn’t seem like cars yield to walking pedestrians so wait for the traffic to stop before crossing.
On the street, we felt like we kept bumping into people. It seems like no one is really sensitive moving to the side on the narrow streets which took getting use to.
Don’t wear your glasses in the Blue Lagoon; it can damage the lenses. Also, remember to pack a brush and makeup to the spa if you’re going out from there for the rest of the day. I didn’t think about that and went makeup and hair brush free the rest of the day.
Fine dining is a better price than normal restaurants. The price for a normal dinner can be $40-$60 (just for the entree) and a soft drink ($7) or beer ($17) which is much higher than here in NY, but the high end multiple course meals run around $100 which around here would be between $200-400. So we ended up getting breakfast at the hotel (free) and then enjoying 1 full, high end mail at night. It gave us the full experience of trying all the unique food and it was more than enough. I didn’t feel hungry at all!
Tara and I had such a fun time together! We felt like we had a good mix of amazing food, local shopping, beautiful natural wonders, and time to rest. Reykjavik runs on a slower pace.
If you end up visiting Iceland and find other spots you like, drop the in the comments for other readers to see and enjoy!
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Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)
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Reykjavík is a gem of a city with so much to offer. My top recommendations include taking a dip in the Secret Lagoon, hiking to the Reykjadalur Hot Springs, and trying some traditional Icelandic skyr.