Do's & Don'ts: Traveling in Iceland

Intro

We learned a lot of lessons while traveling around Iceland. I am someone who likes to hold tightly to my plans while traveling (and also my life plans in general), but Iceland taught us that flexibility is key to enjoy the journey. Here are some helpful tips we wanted to pass along to anyone visiting Iceland to help them have the best experience possible by having realistic expectations.

Do’s & Don’ts

Do pick the time of year based on what you want to see and do

Iceland is a drastically different place in winter compared to the summer. Winter has shorter hours of daylight, lots of snow, and smaller crowds, while summer has ample daylight, lots of green surroundings, and larger crowds. If you want a chance to see the Northern Lights, explore an ice cave, enjoy winter sports, and experience less people, winter is the best time of year. If you’ve been dreaming of the fields of green and want to see every waterfall possible, summer will be the perfect time for you to visit. While the summer months are glorious, the green landscape will cost you a little extra green (money) to an already very expensive country to visit.

Don’t EXPECT one person’s experiences or pictures to be your own

When we decided to go to Iceland during my Spring Break holiday in March, I remember reading blogs, looking through beautiful pictures, and making a list of everything we wanted to see in Iceland. Being from Texas, I forgot that March still has actual winter weather in a lot of places and snow can impact what you are able to do. When I started to research about traveling in March through Iceland, I saw varying experiences from year to year. Some people said that no one should attempt to complete the whole Ring Ring due to snow storms and the potential to get stuck long enough to miss your flight home. I read about some travelers getting caught in a white out during March and having to pull off to the side road and wait out the storm. Others boasted of great experiences and very little difficulties. I knew certain roads to waterfalls may still be closed depending on the snowfall. While we were able to visit Háifoss because the road was open, we were unable to see Dettifoss due to closed roads. We also drove to get a picture in front of the Instagram-famous Vestrahorn Mountain, but the day we went, the weather was terrible and the mountain was covered in clouds. While the misses were disappointing, the hits made everything worthwhile.

Do be flexible with your itinerary

If you’ve read our Iceland Travel Guide, you’ll know that our plans had to change when all the roads on the southern coast of Iceland were closed due to severe wind. We had to sleep at a different campsite than originally planned and reschedule our glacier hike and ice cave tour. Luckily, I had left some wiggle room in our itinerary and these changes did not disrupt our whole trip. You can still have an incredible experience even if it’s a different one than you were expecting. (At least that’s what my Type A personality repeats to myself over and over.)

Don’t assume you’ll be the only person trying to get that INSTAGRAM shot

Tourism has been on the rise in Iceland over the past 10 years. In 2000, the country had just over half a million visitors. Eighteen years later in 2018, the country had over 2 million visitors! This number didn’t really mean anything to me before we left. I thought we were just being cool, brave girls camping around Iceland during the off-season. Maybe we would be some of the only people in some of the places we were going?! (Face palm). Especially on the southern coast locations, you might be sharing a waterfall or black sand beach with 15 other campervans and 4 charter buses pulling up beside you. (Were we sure March was off-season?) Northern locations had fewer people at each place, but there were still at least a hand full of people had each place we started. Especially at the busy locations, you’re going to have to be patient (and fast) to get that perfect picture. Sometimes you may be able to wait for the people to get back on the bus for the spot to clear, and other times you’re just going to have to take the pictures you can. If there is a picture you really want at a certain location, I would wake up early to try to beat the crowds (or be very good at photo-shopping out people.)

Do stay up-to-date on the weather and road conditions

I cannot emphasize enough to keep track of weather and road conditions in Iceland because they can change hourly. Roads could be all clear when you go to bed that evening and closed the next day due to an overnight storm. Beautiful weather in the morning can change to a stormy afternoon. Knowing the weather and the road conditions of the day will help you plan your day accordingly.

Don’t worry about getting lost

The Ring Road, Route 1, is the only road that runs all the way around Iceland and connects most of the major cities and towns. Most of the attractions are directly off or not far off this main highway which makes navigating Iceland very easy. Unless you read Icelandic, the road signs will probably not be super helpful. We still used Google Maps on our phone since we had 4G WiFi and it was helpful when we were navigating roads off of Route 1. All that to stay, if you are direction-ly challenged, Iceland is the place for you!

Do fill up with gas frequently

At home, I am the type of person that will push my gas gauge to the limit and drive past a perfectly good gas station looking for a cheaper price. Iceland is not the place to do that. Fill up when you see a gas station because there might not be another one for 100 miles. The lowest we ever let our car get was half a tank which was filling up every other day.

Don’t forget to set up a credit card pin before you leave

To use your credit card at the gas pump, your card requires a pin. We set this up easily with our credit card company before we left on the trip and didn’t have any problems.

Do stock up on food at grocery stores to save money

If people used a word to describe Iceland, after saying the word “beautiful,” the second word would probably be “expensive.” While we did eat out a few times, the majority of what we ate came from the grocery store. Bonus is the grocery store most people recommend and where we bought all of our groceries at different stores around the island. The selections were good and the prices were reasonable. While we normally make trying new restaurants a fun part of our trips, we decided that saving money and cooking our own food would also make for an enjoyable experience.

Don’t buy bottled water

Iceland boasts to have the purest water in the world and I have been told they use tap water to fill the bottled waters. Things are already expensive—don’t pay extra for water.

Do be careful when you open your car door

You don’t know strong wind until you get to Iceland. When the wind is strong, park against the wind and close your doors immediately. Doors caught in a strong wind can come off the hinge and that would certainly ruin a vacation.

Don’t speed

Real Talk: I love to speed. In Texas, when you’re on an open highway in the middle of nowhere, I believe it’s a law you have to go at least 10 above the speed limit. (Can someone fact check me on that?)

In Iceland, don’t even try it. The speed limit on main highways is 90 km/h which translates to 56 mph. For a Texan, that’s basically a school zone. (Another joke.) There are cameras and police officers that will absolutely catch you and give you a ticket. The police officer will let you pay the fine directly with a credit card which is at least convenient. With a $200 price tag (at least) for a ticket, it’s better to play it safe and keep within the speed limit. The waterfalls will still be there even if you have to drive slowly.

Do be careful with your phone in the Blue Lagoon

I read dozens of blogs about Blue Lagoon tips and tricks. I thought we were absolutely prepared and I could have patted myself on the back for remembering our waterproof phone pouch so we could bring our phone with us in the water. It wasn’t until we were back in the car and I was trying to pull up Google Maps that I realized there was a problem. The screen wasn’t responding to touch and the camera wasn’t working either. After turning it off for about 5 hours, it finally began to show signs of life. A day later it was working with 90% accuracy, but some of the features and keys on the keyboard weren’t working. We ended up having to return the phone for a new one which was not ideal. It may have been due to the steam or warm temperature of the water, but I guess we will never know. All that to say, be careful how long you let your phone stay in the water if it’s in a waterproof pouch.

Don’t get your hair wet in the Blue Lagoon

If you would like to avoid “Blue Lagoon hair,” don’t get your hair wet in the blue water unless you take precautionary measures like getting it wet before and leaving in a ton of conditioner before entering the lagoon. While the high levels of silica are not harmful to your hair (you won’t go bald), it has been known to make women’s hair stiff and difficult to manage afterwards. Unless you want to wash your hair an extra 6 times after you return home, save yourself the shampoo and take the precautions to keep your hair safe.

That’s It!

We learned a lot from Iceland and hope you benefit from our experiences. We had a really smooth trip (minus a few things outside of our control, like the weather) and much of that was thanks to the research we did beforehand. We hope this list saves you some time preparing and makes this trip one of your best yet.

Questions? Comments? Tips to add? Post Below!

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