Ultimate 10 days Iceland
Road Trip Itinerary
By Two World Backpackers
Iceland was on our bucketlist for a very long time and we could finally go on February 2019 just before Covid-19!
We were super excited (I mean… who can’t, it’s Iceland!) because we wanted to see the northern lights again, visit this gorgeous country full of wonderful nature and also because we were going with another couple of friends from Spain.
So. if you are planning to visit Iceland or is still in your bucketlist and don’t know the must visit places, keep reading! In this post we will tell you all about our 10 days road trip itinerary in Iceland.
Table of Contents
Day One: Arrival to Reykjavik
First day we didn’t do much to be honest. We arrived at Keflavik airport (Reykjavik) at 7pm. There we were picked up by our friends who arrived at noon from Spain and went to pick up the car we rented.
From there we went directly to the hotel to leave the things, a little tour of Reykjavik and back to the hotel to have some dinner and sleep.
Day Two: The Golden Circle
Our first official day in Iceland, we got up super early from the desire we had to see everything and we went to see The Golden Circle.
Every day on the way we saw wonderful sunrises at 9 am.
Our first stop was the Pingvellir Park which is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2004. There are several routes that you can do. We visited the Öxarárfoss Waterfall and the First Worldwide Democratic Parliament which was established by the Vikings and it is where the representatives of the clans met once a year to settle the affairs of the country without any kings.
Nearby there is a place where you can even dive through the Silfra fissure, right between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. We did not dive due to the cold weather but we did visit the place although it must be exciting to dive in that area!
After that we visited the Geysir which won’t lie, it’s incredible! However the hot water in Iceland smells like rotten eggs.
Nearby it’s located the famous Gullfoss Waterfall. ¡It’s the most amazing thing we have ever seen! And it was so cold that we freeze over there!
This waterfall falls in two jumps of 11 and 21 meters in a crack of 32 meters deep. It caught out attention to know that it was rented indirectly to foreign investors by its owners. It had different owners until it was sold to the Icelandic state and now is protected.
Our last stop of the day was at Kerid. It’s one of the multiple volcanic crater lakes in the area and it has the most intact and visually identifiable caldera. The ticket entrance costs 400 ISK (2,90€)
That night we went to look for the northern lights near the hostel in Hella but, although the sky was clear and away from any artificial light, we were not lucky.
Day Three: From Hella to Vík í Mýrdal
The first stop of our second day on the island was at Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. Next to it but a little bit hidden it’s located the Gljúfrabui waterfall which, the majority of the time, plenty of people pass by without noticing it.
Nearby it’s located the famous Skógafoss Waterfall, which is one of the biggest waterfalls in the country with 25 meters wide and 60 meters high. The views from the top are breathtaking!
Further, according to the legend, the first Viking settler buried a treasure in a cave behind the waterfall. Years later, a local boy found the chest but was only able to grab the washer on the side of the chest before it disappeared.
From there, we went to the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, where we got off the trail a bit to get right in front of the glacier’s tongue, and it was freezing cold!
Our next stop was Sólheimassandur to see the famous abandoned military plane that crashed there in 1973. No one is sure why the plane crashed, and there are various theories about it. However, the most impressive thing in the story is that it was a forced landing in which no one was injured.
To get there you can walk from the entrance, hour and a half walk each way, or you can take a bus that leaves you next door for 11 GBP round trip.
Our last stop of the day was at Dyrhólaey and the black sand beaches of Reynisdrangar and Reynisfjara, where the legend says that the rock formations found there, are the remains of two-night trolls who were petrified when they were trying to drag a three-masted ship out of the sea. The dawn caught them and made them turn into stone.
That night we went to sleep in a hostel at Vík í Mýrdal.
Day Four: From Vík í Mýrdal to Höfn
Here we decided to get up at 5.30am and try our luck to see if we saw any northern lights before starting our day’s route but nothing, there was no luck either.
Our first stop was at the Vatnajökull Glacier, where we wanted to see the Skaftafell National Park with its beautiful Svartifoss waterfall. But we were unable to do so as we were not wearing boot spikes, and the ground was too slippery. However, they allowed us to make only one route, to see one of the tongues of the glacier, since it was a flat terrain.
It is a huge park where you can easily spend all day doing hiking paths. We are 100% sure that we will come back when it is spring/summer to be able to see it and explore it all!
One of our favorite areas was undoubtedly the Jökulsárlón Glacier and Diamante Beach, named for the pieces of ice on the black sand beach. Of course, there was no better way to end that day’s route than that.
We slept in Höfn.
Day Five: From Höfn to Egilsstadir
From Höfn to Egilsstadir, it was 3h and 28min drive in theory that for us became much more since as we went further north, the weather did not help.
So today, it was a day on the road and then at the hotel during the storm. Of course, on the way, we could see the beautiful Icelandic horses. Can they be prettier?
Furthermore, since it was cloudy, we couldn’t go looking for the northern lights either.
Day Six: From Egilsstadir to Myvatn
According to the news, the following day, a huge snowstorm and hurricane-force winds were expected. The area we had to reach was in an orange alert, and in almost the rest of the country was red alert. So we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day we were having that day and see as much as we could of what we had planned for the next day.
We started the route with the Dark Fortress or Dimmuborgir, and on the way we pass through the Krafla volcanic caldera. It is an area of lava fields and rock formations with remnants of volcanic activity that are maybe memories of an old collapsed fortress.
From there, we went to see the cave that served as the inspiration for the love scene between John Snow and Ygritte in the Game of Thrones series. So we visited Grjótagjá, a small lava cave near Lake Myvatn that has a thermal bath inside.
We finished the day visiting the false craters of Skútustadagigar and on the way to the hotel in Myvatn we saw the geothermal areas of Námaskaro. That night we tried to search for the northern lights but unfortunately, we were not lucky either.
Day Seven: From Mývatn to Akureyri
Happy Valentines Day! It was an interesting day, since we were advised to leave very early to reach Akureyri before the storm arrived. We only had 1h and 20min of travel apparently.
So we got going but it was really difficult. Imagine, driving in the mountains with almost no visibility, guiding you with the GPS, and the reflectors of the road pointing the way… As a result, we were stuck in the snow after 2 and a half hours driving at 20 km/h, and almost 20 minutes from arriving to Akureyri! We had to call the tow truck to come and get us as there was absolutely zero visibility and the storm had already caught us.
Finally, they came looking for us and took us to Akureyri. Be careful: you have to go through a payment tunnel that you have to pay online 3 hours before or after crossing it, otherwise you will be fined.
The rest of the day was to rest and visit some thermal baths in the city.
Day Eight: Akureyri
We took advantage of the day to visit the city and buy some souvenirs.
That night we decided to do a tour to see the northern lights since we couldn’t see them and we had a few days left to travel. But guess what… we weren’t lucky either!
We did it with the company Saga Travel, and they offer a free second try in case the northern lights can’t be seen. So we decided to make the second try in Reykjavik on the 17th. The price with this company is 7,920 ISK = 44.53 GBP per person.
Day Nine: From Akureyri to Hvammur
Due to the storm here, we also decided to see everything we could today, go back to sleep in Hvammur, and the next day to go straight to Reykjavik.
The first stop was the tiny town of Reykholt. From there we went to see some waterfalls, the Hraunfossar waterfall and the Barnafoss waterfall also known as the children’s waterfall.
According to the legend, it has this name because two children from the Hraunsás house were supposed to stay home while the parents went to church for Christmas mass. However, when the parents returned, they realized that the children were not there and went out to look for them. They followed their tracks to the stone bridge that was in that waterfall where they disappeared. The mother concluded that the children had fallen into the river and drowned. So she destroyed the arch to make sure the same would never happen again.
Day Ten: From Hvammur to Reikjavik
On our last day in this beautiful country, we took the opportunity to see the Thorufoss waterfall on the way to Reykjavik, where another scene from Game of Thrones was filmed.
Do you remember when in an episode a boy comes out sitting on the top of a cliff while his sheep graze around him and suddenly one of the dragons of Daenerys appears? Yes, that place.
We visit Reykjavik city and then we just rest in the hotel because we were exhausted from the trip. That night, we did the second trial of the Northern Lights tour and guess what happened…
Hallelujah! We finally saw them! After so many days that we went to look for them with no luck. Practically we already had lost hope to see them and finally! That night we all slept like babies and super happy.
Day Eleven: On our way back home!
All the good things have an end and this day we did not do much because we had to return the car early and then we had the flight. It was absolutely an extraordinary trip to a wonderful country that we fell in love with, and we are sure that we will go back.
And you, have you ever been to Iceland? Is there any place you visited and it’s not in our itinerary? Did you do a different itinerary? Leave a comment; we would love to read you.
