Hi everyone
@ASunnyWeekend , hope you’re having a fab trip!
As everybody was so kind, I thought I’d pop my thoughts from our trip here in case they help anyone else.
As per my pp, we loved the walk recommended by Puffinshop.
We stayed at a fairly new hotel, Grandi by Center which was near the harbour and lots of restaurants. The hotel was nice, staff amazing, good breakfast, gym and small spa area with 2 hot pools and a sauna for certain classes of room. This was great after long days.
The Into the Glacier trip was amazing! What was so brilliant was learning all about the different layers within the glacier, seeing the natural crevasses and understanding how they are formed. Highly, highly recommend, even my sceptic husband was impressed ( the journey there and back was also fab!!)
Hammasvik hot springs were brilliant, such an amazing setting, we swam in the 2 degree fjord and loved every second of the experience. Driving all the way around the fjord was just stunning. I’d definitely recommend.
the golden circle was great, sadly we had torrential rain at Thingvellir, and probably because of this it was our least favourite spot but still great. Loved the geysers, the waterfalls ( saw a rainbow!) and stopped at some amazing little hot springs where we basked in sunshine! Our final stop of the day was Kerid crater , we got there for sunset and it was magical!!
the next day we drove down to Vik via Seljalandfoss ( loved walking behind the falls), Skogafoss and we walked up to the glacier mouth at Solheimajokull which was fab. I had originally wanted to go to glacier lagoon but it was too far. We did see pieces of the glacier in the water so next best thing!! We then went to Reynisfjara and finally Reynisdrangur before driving back in the rain!
on our last day we wandered around Reykjavík , went to the lava tunnel and the bridge between continents which was fab to see.
Food wise, we found it as expensive as we’d been told. We took itsu noodles with us for lunch along with loads of snacks- not only did this save us money but there were very few places to eat and those we found were chocca full of bus trips, so it saved time too.
in the evenings we had soup one eve ( lobster, it was delicious!), went to Reykjavík Kitchen which was disappointing, went to the Grandi Matholl food market which was great. On our last night my husband had booked an amazing Michelin tasting menu at Matur Og Drykkur for our birthdays- highly recommended for a special meal and Icelandic food with a twist.
We were lucky with the weather in that there was no snow or wind disruption, we were able to drive around easily. It was still bitterly cold and windy and v wet at times but we had the right clothes and it didn’t spoil anything.
We had the most amazing time, didn’t spend as much as we had budgeted as we drove ourselves around and didn’t do the ‘big’ hot springs but we loved the fact that those we did were quieter. Iceland is stunning, so much natural beauty and it was super educational. Thank you all for your help and happy trip planning to anyone considering going, I highly recommend it.