This past spring three friends and I traveled to Iceland for a 10 day road trip adventure. We rented a car from Keflavík airport outside Reykjavik, and set off with camping gear in tow. We had minimal plans mapped out but high hopes of driving the perimeter of the Island, which we successfully accomplished. Though after only a few days of camping a wind storm near Hof—a modest farming community on the Southeast corner of the island—brought gusts literally capable of blowing our car off the road, so we scrapped the tents and opted for a few affordable Airbnbs instead.
One of our favorite days included seeing some of the most beautiful waterfalls we’d ever laid eyes on, followed by a soak in a secluded mountainside “hot-tub” fed by natural hot springs. We camped that night and the next morning awoke to views of waterfalls in the distance. The complete Icelandic dream.
The weather seemed to change every five minutes, along with the landscape. One minute it was sunny, the next we were in the middle of a blizzard. Over the course of our trip we saw and experienced snow squalls, wild reindeer, waterfalls accompanied by double rainbows, abandoned homesteads, gale force winds, Icelandic horses, hot springs and more hot springs, geysers, craters, volcanos, glaciers, $8 coffees (oops), icebergs, and the cutest baby sheep. You know you’ve been in the car too long with your travel mates when you start referring to each other as “cute lil bebe sheep.” That last quirk aside, it was the trip of a lifetime.
