The hardest part of any vacation is saying goodbye to the new places you have called home. In the Icelandic language the name of their country is very simply “island” which speaks to the insulated nature of their society. The events beyond the sea are not of much concern here which was a very refreshing…

Today marked our final full day in Iceland. Our trip seemed to fly by (as any good trip does) yet we feel like we have had gotten a great flavor of all that Iceland has to offer. Our timing has been impeccable – due to fast dropping temperatures and brewing storms in the north, many…

This morning we set off on the longest driving day of our trip as we made our way down the entirety of the Eastern Seaboard. By the end of the day we covered about 340 miles of primarily winding roads along some of Iceland’s largest fjords. Due to this circuitous route along the coastline the…

On our short 3.5 hour drive today we ventured through incredibly diverse terrain – moving from lakebeds to lunar rockery to small forests to steep mountains to fjords. After another hearty breakfast with Fálki, we started our drive east through moon/mars-like landscape. The scenery appeared right out of the movie The Martian. Lining the highway…

Unlike our previous driving adventures which led us from one point to another, our trip today looped us back to our cottage along the shores of Lake Myvatn. There are numerous towns and natural wonders in the North of Iceland which allowed us to maintain a home base. In addition to other guests we share…

After starting our day with a great breakfast thanks to some eggs from the chickens at the farmhouse at which we spent the night, we continued our journey east across northern Iceland. On our way to our first stop in the town of Akureyri, we drove through striking landscapes complete with farms, green mountainsides, and…

Rural Iceland has been notable for its breathtaking natural beauty and sparsely populated landscapes. There have been multiple times over the past two days when we traveled long stretches of highway without any sign of human activity. Consequently, the options for meals (restaurants and grocery stores) are limited. Jay was thankful that our previous evening’s…

Today we experienced a gorgeous-weather day (60 degrees, sunny, and almost no wind) as we traveled up the west coast of Iceland to the southern portion of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula – we are pronouncing it Snuffle-uf-agus – often named “Little Iceland” because its diverse landscape is representative of the entire country. Dominant today was rolling…

After catching up on some much needed sleep we ventured out in search of a café and coffee (for Stephanie) and breakfast (for Jay) before exploring the capital of Iceland. We ended up at a cozy spot which was split 50/50 in terms of locals and tourists which made for fun people watching. Our self…

After a 7 hour overnight flight, we landed in Iceland at 9:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. Pacific Time). Standing outside waiting for our rental car shuttle, we were immediately thankful we all updated our wardrobes to arctic gear – there is a constant, strong wind here, even in early September. Although a stunningly beautiful…

Welcome back to our blog, this time for our road trip around Iceland! We look forward to sharing yet another great adventure with all of you.