5 Day Iceland Itinerary - South Coast
My mom and I visited Iceland in April and was blown away by the natural beauty of this country. I could have easily explored for weeks here. The footage doesn’t do it justice. If you have a chance to explore this country, do it. We only had 5 days and stuck to sightseeing on the southern coast of the island.
There was LOTS of driving and if you plan to stick to this itinerary, you need to be up early and you will be getting checking into a hotel by dark. If you don’t want to be stuck in the car all day, don’t stop every time you see a picturesque moment…..though….that’s why you’re there right?! haha. My mom and I are both photographers and we both had our drones, so we were making a lot of stops along the way.
My favourite day by far was day 3 in Vik. As you can see in the video, we did a lot that day. Waterfalls, plane crash, black sand beach and the glaciers. Hofn was beautiful too if I were to do it again, I would stay two nights in Vik instead of Hofn. There wasn’t much to do in Hofn other then see the wild horses and go to that beach with the jagged mountains. Since we stayed two nights in Hofn, I was able to use this day to catch up on work & rest.
MY NUMBER TIP FOR ICELAND - bring pre-packaged food. You will hear people say this a lot. I did too but it didn’t really hit me until I paid $35 canadian for a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce (not meat) in Reykjavik & this was a cheap dish! A lot of the hotels don’t have kitchens either, just kettle & microwaves. So pack lots of snacks, instant noodles, etc. These small towns that you visit don’t have many restaurants either so it’s very limiting. My mom and I did a grocery run at the beginning of the trip because it was our only option really.
MY NUMBER 2 TIP FOR ICELAND - Do NOT, I repeat do NOT fly WOW Air. The prices may be tempting but they will ultimately screw you over. I met my mom at the Toronto airport and we were scheduled to fly together from there to Iceland. They denied my Mom along with about 15 other passengers from boarding the plane because she didn’t have her middle name on her ticket. Yes her first & last name were on her boarding ticket but since her middle name wasn’t they wouldn’t let her on. I didn’t have mine either but they were able to adjust my ticket and about 20 other peoples tickets prior to the flight. It was shitty because my Mom was at the airport 6 hours before the flight (she was first in line) and they were able to adjust it for many other people but not hers. The airline had zero sympathy. I ended up boarding the flight solo and my mom had to purchase a brand new $600 tickets with Iceland Air. It was horrific. What you don’t see in the video is us visiting Wow Air headquarters trying to talk with somebody. They kept directing us to their call centre in India.
TIP #3 - I purchased a pair of black ankle hunter rainboots before I left and very glad I made the investment! I rarely wore my running shoes on this trip because you’re walking through a lot of wet terrain.
5 Day Iceland Itinerary
Day 1 | Reykjavik | Hotel Link
Fly into Reykjavik. If you can, catch a red eye & book a window seat because if you’re lucky like me, you’ll get a front row seat to the Northern Lights on your way in from the plane.
Blue Lagoon. We visited the Blue Lagoon just look around and take photos, we didn’t go in. It’s really expensive and my mom and I would rather be out flying our drones then go in a giant hot tub lol.
We checked into our hotel in the afternoon and had a nap. We were pretty exhausted from dealing with all the airlines.
We went to WOW air HQ to try and talk with somebody. After no success and some pretty rude employees, we went out downtown Reykjavik to explore then met some friends who’s overlapped ours by a day for food & drinks.
Went searching for Northern Lights but had no success due to clouds.
Day 2 | Gulfoss, Seljalandsfoss & Vik | Hotel Link
Before we left the city we stocked up on groceries at at Bonus
Drove to Gulfoss. We made a TONNE of stops along the way. The landscape when you leave the city is overwhelming
Strokkur Geysir to see the explosion of water in the hot springs.
After this, we headed to Vik and stopped at Seljalandsfoss waterfall on the way into town
Our hotel just outside of Vik in Sólheimahjáleiga. We stayed at a cute guesthouse that had lots of farm animals. There was also a kitchen in the common area.
Day 3 | Skogafoss Waterfall, Plane Crash, Black Sand Beach & Glacier | Hotel Link
As mentioned above, this was my favourite day!!! It was action packed with a variety of scenery.
Skogafoss Waterfall. Make sure you hike up to the top and walk along the trail for a bit. The view of the mountain range from top is unreal.
Hike to Sólheimasandur Plane Crash. This was longer then I expected. Go prepared and bring rainproof gear with you. You’re walking on what feels like Mars and the wind can get very cold!
Black Sand Beach - cute cafe here too to warm up with a coffee/hot chocolate after
I saw there were ATV tours in Vik which my mom and I would have loved to do, but there was no time! After black sand beach we had to start heading to Hofn which was a couple hour drive. We always tried to be at our hotel before dark because there’s no lights on the roads and it can get sketchy at times.
We Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon JUST as the sun set!
Day 4 | Wild horses & Vestrahorn | Hotel Link
Though I felt Hofn to be underwhelming compared to Vik in terms of activities, the hotel here was DREAMY though.. It was modern, big & the views were off the hook.
This day we used to sleep in and I caught up on work before we went out and explored that day. We were pooped from going non-stop up until here.
We drove around and stumbled on Wild Horses
Visited Vestrahorn, which is those jagged mountains you see when captioned “Hofn” in the video
Day 5 | Wild horses & Vestrahorn | Hotel Link
Day 5 we had a lot of driving to do (roughly 6 hours), so we were up early and on the road to head back to the city for our flight.
Managed to squeeze in Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon. It was pouring by the time we got to the Canyon, still beautiful nonetheless! To all my fellow Bieber fans out there (lol), this is one of the spots he filmed his music video “I’ll Show You.”.
That’s it! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below or DM me on Instagram @Bolandia_. ,
