Iceland South Coast – Part I

After a long travel day, the first part of our Iceland trip was along the south coast. I will always remember these first couple of days as possibly the busiest stretch of time of my life. Fond memories, of course, but also a little hectic.

Our travel day consisted of:

• Step 1. Tuesday morning – take kids to daycare so we can pack. Because life happened and packing the day of our flight was where we landed. It worked out; the only thing I forgot was my own swimsuit. [Note: taking the kids to school was actually a genius idea. We were able to pack uninterrupted and the kids got to stay in their regular routine for a few extra hours. And we didn’t have to worry about feeding them breakfast or lunch either!]
• Step 2. Pick up kids before nap time so that they can nap in the car on the way to the airport. (Haaaaaa)
• Step 3. Arrive to airport on time. Very, very much on time and we get to hang out waiting for our flight. (Start drinking wine.)
• Step 4. Uneventful flight #1.
• Step 5. Very short layover in Newark where we have to feed more snacks (“dinner”) and change kids into pajamas.
• Step 6. Miraculously the flight to KEF was not full and the kids could spread out on separate rows to sleep. (HALLELUJAH and celebratory wine!) Kids slept and parents got a bit of sleep too.
• Step 7. Iceland! Yay!

Day 1

Once we made it to Iceland and were situated in our rental car, we headed toward Vik along the south coast for our first couple nights of the trip. We made a pit stop in Selfoss for lunch and groceries, and Scott was the hero of the day, making the whole drive himself! The scenery along way was mesmerizing and as we got closer to Vik, we caught glimpses of the famous waterfalls Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, which made us even more excited for when we planned to visit them in a couple days. Arriving into Vik was gorgeous. The town was so picturesque, with the landmark red roof church and sea in the distance. We went straight to our Airbnb, checked in and regrouped before heading back out to explore the beautiful coastal landscape we had been eyeing from our drive.

Dyrholey Arch Formation

Our first destination was the Dyrholey arch formation. We navigated the twists and turns to get to the overlook at the top of the coast. And then things got real. The wind can be notoriously strong at this location, and while I don’t think it was anything near the strongest this area has seen, we were completely caught off guard with the strength of the wind (the gusts were so strong at times that you had to lean into the wind to make any headway).  We managed to take in the view for a bit before trekking back to the car so we could head to our next stop.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Pulling into the parking lot at Reynisfjara, I could see why this is considered the most visited location in Iceland. We snagged a spot and made our way down to the black sand beach.

This is where our kids came alive! They were so excited to see such different sand than we are used to (and probably very happy that the wind was normal here). We ran around and took lots of pictures of the beach and the amazing basalt columns, making sure to keep a safe distance from the water because of the sneaker waves. Even though it was a dreary late afternoon, the beach was still full of people, making pictures somewhat difficult.

The day was starting to take its toll so after everyone appeased my paparazzi tendencies for a while (I just loved how the kids’ bright colored coats popped against the black sand!), we decided to call it a day and went back to the house for dinner. . Grilled cheeses for the kids (with supplies from our grocery store stop), and Scott picked up takeout soups from a local restaurant for us (hot lava soup and lamb stew, yummm). Couldn’t have asked for a better dinner! Everyone was happy and dinner was surprisingly relaxing. It was such a good decision to eat at the house instead of asking the kids to behave through another restaurant meal. And we were able to multitask unpacking and prep for the next day along with dinner.

Day 2

Oh man, waking up for the next day was rouuugh. Nobody was recovered from travel on the previous day, but we had BIG PLANS so we needed to get a move on. Our major goal for the day was to drive to Jökulsárlón Lagoon for a boat tour at 12:30pm. The estimated drive from Vik was about 3 hours. Fortunately we padded some time into our drive because we left the house late and then had longer pit stops than we expected, including a really fun stop to look at the Eldhraun lava fields. The lava fields went on and on for miles, their rolling green landscape was so much more impressive than I had imagined.

Jökulsárlón Lagoon

By the time we made it to Jökulsárlón, it was steadily raining but thankfully we had some time to situate ourselves before the lagoon tour. We tried to bundle up as best as we could under a waterproof outer layer, and made sure to slip my phone into a waterproof case with a necklace lanyard – taking no chances on losing the phone while still getting pictures. Even from the parking lot, the lagoon was gorgeous. You could see the icy blue water and the big icebergs floating around. We couldn’t wait to get a closer look!

Because of the kids’ ages, we couldn’t do the popular zodiac tours, so we had opted for the next best thing – an amphibian boat tour. We started out on land and then the boat/bus crawled right into the water. To be honest, the rain and cold made the first half of the tour pretty uncomfortable but then the rain started to let up. The kids were troopers, having a blast with being on a boat and waving to the zodiac boat that was trailing us. They loved getting a taste of glacier ice when the tour guide broke up a big chunk of glacier for everyone. Thousand year old ice can make everyone smile apparently! The views of the icebergs around the lagoon were unreal. I’m so glad we did the tour and got out on the water, but the duration was more than enough for us. The kids were getting frustrated with the life jackets, gloves and mittens were soaked, and I think the cold was a bit of a jolt for them. After all, we did fly out from 90 degree (F) weather back home less than 48 hours before.

Diamond Beach

Since the rain had let up, we tried to take advantage and hustle over to Diamond Beach. We could already see from the car that the beach would be stunning. The contrast of the gleaming ice against the black sand beach was a sight to behold. We let the kids run right out to the beach and we all enjoyed the views… for approximately two minutes. The rain was starting back up and the kids were fed up with being cold and wet (and each one had stumbled onto the sand and gotten it all over their hands with no way of getting it off).  At one point J just started walking back to the car by himself; I guess when he is done, he is done. Thinking back, we should have done some car snacks and let the kids thaw out in a warm car before heading to the beach. But, you know, hindsight is 20/20. We had hoped to spend a good chunk of time exploring this beach, but this was one of those times we had to roll with the punches and consider everyone’s comfort.

Svinafellsjokull Overlook

Once back in the car, A quickly fell into a deep nap as we made our way toward the next destination – a overlook for the Svinafellsjokull glacier. There is a marker on the ring road for the glacier, so we made the turn off and immediately were thankful to have a four wheel drive vehicle. Sometimes distances can be deceiving once you get off the ring road. Between the gravel and potholes, we were bumping along very slowly. J had a blast, laughing like it was an amusement park ride, and A continued sleeping through the whole thing. As soon as we parked, we made a (now ludicrous-seeming) attempt to transfer sleeping A into a backpack carrier. Haha! Her eyes popped right open, and she was ready to go – on her own two feet of course.

It was a short hike from the parking area to an overlook of another glacier lagoon, Fjallsárlón. This lagoon is landlocked so the water isn’t as icy blue colors of Jökulsárlón but still stunning. If we had time to walk around the lagoon, we would have had a dramatic viewpoint of the lagoon with the glacier immediately behind. Since we knew the kids’ patience was on thin ice, we finished the short hike to the glacier overlook. Amazing! It was so cool to be this close to the glacier and see the striking nuances of the ice. The path continued on from where we stopped and probably led to even better views, but we didn’t want to push it and turned around. Notice a theme here?

Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon

Now it was decision time. Our original plans included one more stop, the Fjaðrárgljúfur river canyon, but we knew the kids were D-O-N-E. As we drove back toward Vik, we waffled on whether to push another stop or not, and decided not to do it. Buuuut as we approached the turn off, we decided to just drive to the parking area and see if it might be manageable. The canyon is a short hike from the parking area but we could see the winding trail, saw that it wasn’t exactly a quick jaunt and knew the kids would be a nightmare to coerce on another hike. However, we were RIGHT THERE, we couldn’t drive away without any pay off. I headed down the trail by myself while the kids played in the car with Scott. The hike took about 10 min to get to the first views of the canyon, and WOW. It was WORTH. IT. One of the most gorgeous views of the entire trip. I walked around to a couple different viewpoints and then grudgingly hustled back to the car. When I left, Scott had said that he wasn’t interested in hiking down himself, but I opened the car door and said “GO!” Dinner could wait another half hour, and he should definitely see Fjaðrárgljúfur with his own two eyes.

After an appreciative Scott made it back, we headed straight back to Vik, high-fiving ourselves the whole way for turning around the day and still getting to the highlights we had originally planned. Promises of pizza and fries for dinner placated the over-tired, over-stimulated troopers in the back seat, and we all enjoyed our first dining-out experience of the trip. A short walk from our Airbnb, the Halldorskaffi restaurant was perfect, delivering the kids what we promised along with a much enjoyed beer and wine for mom and dad.

Overall, it was an incredible, exhausting day, but I don’t think I would have changed any of our plans. These were all once in a lifetime sights! If anything, better weather would have helped (too bad we can’t control that part) and maybe spacing this day out from our travel day since we were pretty tired off the bat. Nonetheless, it was a successful day and we all went to bed looking forward to more adventures in the morning!