FIVE DAYS ICELAND TRAVEL GUIDE
Iceland is becoming one of the hottest travel places to visit in the world for travelers with outdoor adventure on their mind. And it is definitely not going out of style anytime soon.
Imagine yourself absorbing the crisp cold wind on your face while watching the thundering waterfall plunging into a gorge of foaming water. Here’s our essential Iceland travel guide.
Visiting Iceland has always been one of our top bucket list to-dos. If you are traveling in a group and you want to experience different places outside of Reykjavik, then traveling by car is the perfect choice for you. Driving around Iceland is a great way to experience all the wonders at your own pace. We highly recommend renting a car so you can drive off into hidden paths and explore secret gems. You can also book an Iceland travel guide in a small group.
No matter what means of transportation you opt for, you are in for a scenic journey as you make your way from one beautiful spot to another.
As much as we wanted to do the Iceland full circle, also known as the Ring road, we had five days to explore. The full circle needs at least 12-14 days. But you can do five days and still see a great many places like the Golden circle, the South coast, all the way to Höfn. You can truly fit so much in five days in this country. One thing’s for sure, we will definitely be back!
This Iceland itinerary is for a self-drive road trip. We’re going to break down our five days Iceland itinerary. We concentrated our efforts in the south-eastern part of Iceland and we hope this will help you plan your trip. Allow us to steal you away from your current environment to transport you momentarily to your desired environment.
FIVE DAYS IN ICELAND TRAVEL GUIDE
DAY 1: LAND IN REYKJAVIK
We landed in Reykjavik at 2 pm and picked up our prebooked van at the airport. We stayed in a lovely AirBnb so we directly headed over there to drop our bags. The hosts were very welcoming, helpful and nice. Highly recommended!
The sun was already setting so we walked down the harbor in Reykjavik and visited the largest church in Iceland, the Hallgrímskirkja Church.
We hung out in the pubs at Leugaveugur street. It was the perfect way to chill as it wasn’t too crowded!
DAY 2 : THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
The 300 km golden circle is the most famous route in Iceland. It consists of three major sites looping from Reykjavik into southern Iceland and back forming the shape of a circle, hence the name.
The first stop is Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. Known for its unusual volcanic environment, this park holds great historic and geographic values. The Vikings settlers chose it as the meeting place of Althing, the world’s oldest parliament in the 10th century. It’s so beautiful. Also, keep those layers at hand. The wind can be very strong.
Next, we drove off and headed to the highly active Geysir hot spring area. The lively and powerful Strokkur hot spring erupts every few minutes and spouts boiling water 30 meters up into the air. It’s simply breathtaking.
The last major stop on the Golden Circle trip is the astonishing Gulfoss waterfall. A well-marked narrow path gives you close up views of this massive waterfall. Simply breathtaking! Before ending the day, we headed to The Secret Lagoon at Hveraholmi. We were so excited to visit because we knew that it’s a natural pool unlike the man-made Secret Lagoon. It’s so unique and the warm water coming directly from the geothermal spots in the surroundings give this relaxing sensation.
We stayed in our guest house in the Southern Iceland town of Selfoss. Oh, and if you haven’t yet, here’s our code for 10% off your next stay! Very clean and tidy place, we highly recommend it.
DAY 3
We woke up bright and early to drive out of Reykjavik and headed for less than 2 hours’ drive to Seljalandsfoss waterfall. It’s an incredible 60-meter-high waterfall that you can actually walk behind it. You can also climb up to get a great view of the waterfall. Make sure to look after your camera and have waterproof shoes and clothing. We don’t recommend Jeans; they get wet very easily.
(You might like: What to pack on a trip to Iceland)
Iceland has so much to see and do so we packed it in because we really wanted to see the most of it. So know that this itinerary is jam packed.
Next, we hit the South Coast to Skógafoss.
It is a truly dramatic waterfall that didn’t fail to amaze us. Be prepared to be drenched. You can hike the many steps up to the top and have another stunning view of the place. On sunny days, you can expect the rays of sun to form a beautiful rainbow stretching across the sky. The perfect backdrop for the Gram and, honestly, it’s probably the dreamiest place we’ve ever seen.
We headed next to Reynisdrangar which are sea stacks made of basalt near Vík í Mýrdal, southern Iceland. We stopped and enjoyed the blue waters, icy waves and black sands…Simply breathtaking!
We drove for about three and half hours to Höfn to spend the night. We stayed in Guesthouse Hvammur. You’re probably thinking that this is a long drive. What we loved about Iceland is that the impressive scenery along the way made the driving so smooth. The earths power and beauty in this place brings so much excitement, you won’t know the feeling until you experience it for yourself, which we truly hope for each and every one of you to experience.
For dinner, we ventured down to the harbor. We had a good but not excellent seafood dinner at Pakkhus restaurant. The prices were quite decent for Iceland relatively speaking.
Don’t forget to click on this link to get 10% off your stays!
DAY 4
We started off our day to the place we’ve been SO wanting to visit : The Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. We still can’t get over the beauty of this place. Unlike what you might think, this lagoon is easily accessible. We parked in the parking lot nearby and walked through a few minutes and Voilà!
Its still, blue waters are dotted with icebergs formed naturally from melted glacial water. People were swimming but we stayed dressed up because the wind was pretty strong.
If you happen to have time, you can also go ice caving in the winter or, in the summer, book yourself a boat tour between April and October (You can check Zodiac Boat tours).
Next we drove to the diamond beach. To be honest, it’s hard to stick to the itinerary when you’re driving and everything looks incredible. We stopped so we could take pictures of Icelandic horses on the sides of the road. This was one of our favorite aspects of the drive, to stop and explore whenever we felt like it.
Mel is a horse lover and seeing horses always makes her heart melt. After playing with horses, we were headed to the diamond beach. For real, this time. Just like sparkling diamonds, dozens of icebergs in all shapes and sizes, escape the nearby lagoon ending up on the black sand beach. The giant waves crashing against those chunks of ice was just so mesmerizing.
We had one of the most anticipated activities next up on the schedule : The Glacier Hike. A tip is to book the hike ahead of time to secure places. We were absolutely fully equipped and SO excited experience it. Mel and I had hot dogs at the Gas station nearby, and MISSED it! WE MISSED THE GLACIER HIKE. The address we had was wrong and it was already too late.
At that point, we saw the best waterfalls in the country, the largest glaciers, explored black sand beaches, soaked in natural hot springs and enchanted by Icelandic horses. It was certainly not much of a big deal that we had missed the hike. So we drove instead to Skaftafell to see the Svartifoss Waterfall in the Vatnajökull National Park. The falls were so majestic and grand. They were surrounded by dark lava columns which gave it its name Black Fall.
We spent the night in Vik and stayed at our AirBnb which was close to the main road and an easy drive.
DAY 5 : LAST DAY AND BACK TO REYKJAVIK
On our last day we had to drive back to Reykjavik to catch our flight back to Dubai.
On our way and not so far away from Vik, we took the turn to see Dyrhólaey, the Arch with a whole. It’s another very famous sight in Iceland. You can only get there by car. Careful! It’s a bumpy and steep road.
Mother Nature decided to hand us bad weather on our last day. It was so rainy and windy. The chilly wind in Iceland is so frigid that it makes you feel like you’re getting pushed.
After we got completely drenched by the rain, we made our way to the Blue Lagoon as everyone told us to go here. The Blue Lagoon is justifiably Iceland’s most popular attraction. It is located 40 minutes away from the airport, so we recommend that you consider it either your first or your last before the airport. Make sure to book your tickets ahead online. It’s always busy, and can often get booked up.
To be honest, the Blue Lagoon felt a bit touristy compared to all the untouched sceneries that WOW-ed us during our stay. We weren’t that impressed. We know, we know, this is not a popular opinion. But to us, you can find way better hot springs than the Blue Lagoon.
Iceland is an incredible country full of history, beauty and culture. It felt so magical and unique being there and it has definitely become one of our top favorite countries we’ve explored. If you do have extra time in Iceland, we’d suggest heading up Northern Iceland to see Akureyri and Lake Mývatn. We’re convinced that Iceland is the master of waterfalls and we definitely will be back. We hope that this Iceland travel guide inspired you and will help you plan your trip.
Follow along!
