So I was asked to write blog entries about our recent trip to Iceland. My mother was confused as to why I would choose this destination. Honestly even though we had talked about it several times I think my husband was confused as well. I typically don’t like the cold. In fact I have long believed that I would die if asked to live through a winter up north. I’ve been known to say on more than one occasion that I would prefer to remove another layer in the heat here in Texas because there would not be enough layers for me to survive in the cold. Maybe I learned a little something about myself on this trip but we’ll get to that later.
So Iceland has been on my list for a while. I knew that Iceland Air offered these great stop overs that make it enticing to visit two countries with one airfare. I started with this in mind. My problem became that both destinations I would choose had a lot to do and to adequately justify either destination I felt that I needed more time than I had to take off from work. So I moved on to other ideas. I was picking places all over the globe and trying to figure out how to make a trip work with when and how much time we could take from our jobs. Iceland kept creeping back in as a destination. But I would set it aside for any variety of reasons. While airfare was reasonable I knew it was an expensive place to visit. Then I decided it was overdone. Everyone had been there. Or too many tourists would be there. But the more I researched the more I didn’t care about any of that. I wanted to see it. I wanted to explore my Viking DNA. Could we make it happen? As usual I wanted to cover more ground than we probably should in such a short time frame but let’s do it!
After renting a car last year to tour Scotland my husband and I felt comfortable with the idea of driving again this time. We did our research and felt this was the best choice for us. For our trip to Scotland I found a company called Secret Scotland that would help put together a personalized self drive itinerary. We loved this and felt it helped us to find some off the beaten path destinations as well as some of the must see areas that we had wanted to visit. We sometimes strayed from the itinerary if a local told us a place to visit or something looked interesting to us but this worked out great for us.
As I started planning our itinerary in Iceland I immediately felt overwhelmed. The fact that I could not even begin to pronounce names of locations made this task immediately more difficult. I would look at the name of a location I thought I wanted to visit then look at the map and the words all ran together. Then there was biggest question of how far was one destination from another? Just because it looked doable to get one from one waterfall to the next I really had no idea how long to plan at each stop or what the roads would be like to know if 90km/ hour would really equate to that. So thinking about Secret Scotland I started looking for something similar and was happy to find When in Iceland. I was able to email and give my wish list of what I wanted to see and how long we would be there. I was given realistic expectations of what we could fit in. One example was our desire to drive the ring road and make it to the west fjords in 9 days. We will have to take a second trip to see the westfjords. One activity we wanted to do was suggested as being very expensive and not necessarily recommended in our time frame but if we really wanted to do it they would find a way to change our itinerary to accommodate it. Once we had our starting point established we received a fantastic itinerary with links to tours and accommodations and even restaurant recommendations along the way. Any questions I had were readily answered and options were given. Any requests I had to add things to the itinerary were done as well. Shortly before our trip I reached out to ask if a canyon I was looking forward to seeing had been opened. Anna researched our itinerary and gave us updates on any trails that might be closed or concerns along our route.
Along with our itinerary from When in Iceland my husband and I also joined the Facebook group Iceland tips for travelers . I also purchased two guidebooks and a map. So we were as prepared as we could be.
After a great deal of research I surprised myself and booked us on Delta instead of Iceland Air. The price was about the same and it included our meals and was a better travel time for us.
From the time we booked our airline tickets it seemed that our lives turned upside down and there was no way our trip was going to happen. But miraculously it did and what a time we had! I look forward to sharing our experiences with you.
So what I share today is this – DO IT! Iceland is not overrated. It is unlike any other place on this planet. We would like to go back in other seasons and to chase the Northern Lights. I highly recommend the Iceland Tips for travelers Facebook group. I also recommend When in Iceland (https://www.facebook.com/wiiceland/) and Guide to Iceland (https://www.facebook.com/guidetoiceland.is/) These are great resources to get you excited to visit the country. They will give you realistic expectations of travel there and will help you in planning a self guided or a guided trip.
Be patient with me but I will start sharing our trip soon. My mother has been waiting for this!
