Before I left for Iceland, I took my planned itinerary and made a blog post about it. If you remember it, then you probably remember that it was a little over-zealous and included a lot of activities!

Here is the updated version of my Ultimate Iceland Ring Road Adventure!

SUGGESTIONS:

In order to see the entire ring road, I would recommend no less than 10 to 12 days. We did the entire ring road, but it involved a TON of driving. We had to cut some stuff out so that we could make it to our next destination before midnight.

Þórsmörk is absolutely breathtaking! You could easily spend 3 to 4 days in this area hiking, snowmobiling on a glacier, or taking a Superjeep Tour (See my post here about our Superjeep adventure with Southcoast Adventures.)

While our Cozy Campers campervan was amazing, I highly recommend splitting up the trip and spending a couple nights in a hotel just to stretch out your legs. While I’m mentioning the campervan, it takes a while to get organized and head out from the campground in the morning. We would wake up, make breakfast, clean our dishes, then shower and get dressed. Depending on the campsite, the showering is sometimes more difficult than at other places.

Do yourself a favor and skip the DC plane - it is a 4 mile walk round trip and there is absolutely nothing to look at during the walk - OR you can pay 2500 kr to take a shuttle bus. It was the biggest tourist trap. I felt like they just placed this plane out in the middle of nowhere and were like these stupid tourists are going to walk all this way to see this - insert evil laugh here.

Hot Springs:

• The Blue Lagoon: Like Disney World for adults (If you go, I would recommend staying at Silfra so that you have your own private hot spring.) Also, VERY IMPORTANT, do not get your hair in the water at the Blue Lagoon unless you have a ton of conditioner in it or your hair will be dry for weeks!

• Grettislaug Pool: There is a campground here! I would recommend camping here overnight so that you can enjoy this amazing hot spring!

• Secret Lagoon: While touristy, this was one was by far my favorite. The bottom is rocky instead of slimy like others and the water does not have a ton of floating algae in it.

Snaefellsnes Peninsula - If you remember back to my full itinerary post, then you will see that this is at the end of our trip. We were exhausted by this time due to all the driving that was involved during our last few days. We had planned to start the next day with the Glymur Waterfall hike but there was a monsoon the night before and morning of so we weren’t able to do it.

These are just a few of my suggestions to changes that I would make to the itinerary that I blogged about a few weeks ago! Updated itinerary Iceland post coming soon!

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You might also like:

ULTIMATE ICELAND RING ROAD ADVENTURE

ÞÓRSMÖRK HIKING AND SUPERJEEP ADVENTURE WITH SOUTHCOAST ADVENTURE ICELAND

ESSENTIAL ICELAND: CAMPERVAN PACKING GUIDE

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ABOUT ME:

I was born in Mississippi but raised a Tennessee girl! I attended undergrad at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where I received my degree in Biochemistry. I then proceeded to go to pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center with my last 3 years in Knoxville. (Go VOLS!) 6 years ago I followed my sweetheart to Dallas, Texas, where I have been ever since!

I am currently a practicing Inpatient Pharmacist with a love for traveling. I love to get off the beaten path and go places/do things that are not the normal “tourist” thing to do. I love hiking and adventure travel!

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Follow me: @thatblondetravels

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For our Ultimate Ring Road Adventure, we rented a campervan from Cozy Campers. I have NEVER been camping before (not tent, not campervan, not motorhome), so I knew that this was definitely going to be an experience that I would never forget.

Just before we go into this packing guide, I want to talk about how disastrously we packed for this trip. First off, due to no fault of ours, the airline lost my husband’s bag and we didn’t get it for 5 days. This was even with taking a direct flight from DFW to Reykjavik. We couldn’t believe it! Just a heads up, if the airline loses your bag, make 100 percent sure that you grab some underwear and socks before you leave Reykjavik otherwise you will be SOL. Seriously, we did not find underwear for him until night four, when we finally found some at a local grocery store in the small town of Höfn. This sucks, especially if you’re planning on doing a lot of daily hiking and you’re staying in a campervan at campsites that either don’t have washers/dryers or they’re not working. (This is the problem that we ran into. The campsites would have washers but no dryers or they just were not working at all. -sigh)

We packed two HUGE suitcases! I’m talking, I brought my Away medium suitcase and my husband brought a large duffel that had rolling wheels. Not only did we have two large suitcases, but we had also rented a grill. We rented the Cozy 5, which looks huge online, so I thought that we would have a ton of room -WRONG! Along with the suitcases and grill, we also brought a duffel that was filled with food, as well as 2 backpacks. Bear in mind, when you’re getting ready for bed, you have to move all of this stuff to pull out the bed and to have room to move. Every night before we went to bed, we had to move all of this stuff. Mostly, it went into the front of the van to then again be pulled out in the am, but some had to stay in the back due to space limitations.

Bottom-line: If you’re renting a campervan, don’t be like us! Pack light and be intentional with your packing! If you can fit everything into a carry-on, then I highly recommend this, but if not, then I would recommend some soft-sided luggage that is easily malleable to fit the confined space.

TIP: If I had one piece of advice for you, then it would be to get organized before heading out on the road.

Spacing issues aside, Cozy Campers was awesome! I was very nervous about this experience since I’ve never been camping or even glamping before. The first two nights were pretty rough to be honest just due to getting used to the van and getting organized. If I had to give you one piece of advice, then it would be to get organized before heading out on the road. Once you get on the road, it will be non-stop sightseeing and you will not want to waste time re-organizing all of your things on a daily basis. Around night three of our trip, however, the campervan began to feel very comfortable and homey and I really enjoyed sleeping in it (and cooking in it, and dressing in it, etc. -HAHA).

Some more food for thought as far as the campervan goes, I would recommend getting the 4x4 so that you can hit up the F-roads! This is where all the remote spots are located for some great hiking, views, and possibly a secret hot spring.

The packing list below are the necessities for a trip to Iceland. The weather is unpredictable in Iceland and changes daily, if not hourly, so I recommend to pack in layers to be most comfortable.

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bags

• Duffel Bag or Travel Backpack

  • This carry-on bag from Lo & Sons is very nice and can fit so much!

• Day Pack

• Packing cubes

• Reusable bags - For grocery shopping (you have to pay for all plastic bags in Iceland) or carrying your wet clothes after exploring a hot spring.

• Reusable plastic Zip-lock bags

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clothing

• Thermals (Base layer) - I like Thermotech or Hot Chilly’s

• Waterproof Jacket and Pants (I like this Northface Gor-Tex but Frogtoggs are the cheapest, most economical option.)

• Mid-layers

  • Fleece Pullover

  • Hot Chilly’s Half-Zip Pullover

• Outer-layers

  • Warm Vest

  • Jacket

  • Hat (Preferably fleece-lined) and gloves

• Hiking Pants (I like these Columbia ones or these Eddie Bauer ones)

• Hiking Socks (My absolute favorite! They are double-layered to prevent blisters.)

• Hiking shoes (Great resource for hiking boot reviews here)

  • Timberland Women’s Mt Maddsen Mid Leather Waterproof Hiking Boot

  • Merrell Moab 2 WP Low Hiking Shoes - These are my personal favorites, although, they are very heavy.

• 2 x swimsuits - There are a TON of hot springs so I would bring 2, so while one is drying you have a dry one available.

• 1 x Jeans (These Agolde ones are my favorite!)

• Sunglasses

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toiletries

• Hanging Toiletry Bag

• Micro-fiber towels

• Refillable Water Bottle - This one is nice because it has a clip to clip to your bag and also it compresses so packs down easily.

• Flip-flops for the shower (Old Navy has some great ones for super cheap!)

• European Blow Dryer

• Biodegradable wet wipes

• Coola Sunscreen - My fav!

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other ESSENTIALS:

• Portable battery charger

• USB car adapter

• Waterproof phone case

• Headlamp

• For ultimate comfort: Your own pillow

• Extra pillowcases

• Camera

• Go-Pro

• DJI Mavic Pro

• Extra SD Cards

• Instant coffee

• Thermapen

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What do you think about my packing list? Anything that I left out or you feel is an essential? Let me know in the comments below!

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ABOUT ME:

I was born in Mississippi but raised a Tennessee girl! I attended undergrad at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where I received my degree in Biochemistry. I then proceeded to go to pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center with my last 3 years in Knoxville. (Go VOLS!) 6 years ago I followed my sweetheart to Dallas, Texas, where I have been ever since!

I am currently a practicing Inpatient Pharmacist with a love for traveling. I love to get off the beaten path and go places/do things that are not the normal “tourist” thing to do. I love hiking and adventure travel!

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Follow me: @thatblondetravels

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Disclaimer: This Iceland Packing List contains Affiliate Links for services and products I’m using on my travels – therefore I can highly recommend using them. By using these links you won’t pay any additional fees but support me to keep this site running!

Written by: Lauren Bailey

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www.thatblondetravels.com

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ICELAND - the land of FIRE and ICE. We spent a wonderful and adventurous 9 days in Iceland over Labor Day (You can find the blog post here.)

Our time was filled with numerous hikes, beautiful sunsets, and breathtaking views. One of our most memorable experiences was our day with Southcoast Adventures!

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ÞÓRSMÖRK SUPERJEEP ADVENTURE:
Spectacular hiking options and adventurous rides over various un-bridged glacial rivers.

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Southcoast Adventures Gljúfrabúi base is located down the road from the famous Seljalandsfoss waterfall. There is an amazing campground that is located at this base (Hamragarðar Campsite) that sits below the Gljúfrabúi waterfall. You can park your camper van here for the night while you spend a full day in þórsmörk hiking.

TIP: Spending the night camping at Hamragarðar Campsite allows you to beat the crowds at Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi waterfalls

Our Þórsmörk superjeep adventure started first thing in the morning with a 45 minute drive from Gljúfrabúi base to Þórsmörk, which is the sight of many trail heads.

The drive to Þórsmörk itself is quite entertaining! You’re fording rivers and going over large rocks down one of Iceland’s F-roads all while spotting glaciers and mountains in the distance.

We did several hikes during our time in Þórsmörk valley. The main one that we did was . This is the longest of the most popular ‘short hikes’ in the area (around 10km) usually starting in the canyon valley. We started in Húsadalur and made our way to a delicious lunch at Húsdalur at Volcano Huts cabin. Our guide was Darri and he kept us entertained all day with stories of Icelandic Trolls (The Christmas story was especially entertaining.) and normal day to day life in Iceland.

My husband’s bag was lost for the whole first five days of our trip so we had to cut our hiking day short. Just a heads up, there is no where to buy men’s underwear in Iceland - HaHa! (We finally found some at a local grocery store on night four!)

We had enough time to stop by a small canyon on the way back to Gljúfrabúi base, however. The canyon involves some jumping from rock to rock over a small creek/river. Once inside the canyon, you use this chain that has been bolted into the side of the canyon in order to pull yourself up over a small waterfall to see the much larger waterfall. It was gorgeous!

If I could do this trip all over again, I would spend a couple days in Þórsmörk taking in all the sights and doing multiple hiking trails. Everywhere you turn, the views are incredible and all so different. I would have to say this is probably the most favorite hike that I have ever done.

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ABOUT ME:

I was born in Mississippi but raised a Tennessee girl! I attended undergrad at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where I received my degree in Biochemistry. I then proceeded to go to pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center with my last 3 years in Knoxville. (Go VOLS!) 6 years ago I followed my sweetheart to Dallas, Texas, where I have been ever since!

I am currently a practicing Inpatient Pharmacist with a love for traveling. I love to get off the beaten path and go places/do things that are not the normal “tourist” thing to do. I love hiking and adventure travel!

—

Follow me: @thatblondetravels

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ICELAND - the land of FIRE and ICE. When I first starting looking into going to Iceland, I was entranced by it’s natural beauty and the idea of being in a remote area and having it all to myself.

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ICELAND ROAD TRIP ITINERARY:
DAY 1: Arrive into Reykjavik + Golden Circle
DAY 2: Fimmvörðuháls Hiking Trail
DAY 3: Seljalandsfoss + Skogafoss Waterfalls
DAY 4: Svartifoss + Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
DAY 5: Lake Mytvan
DAY 6: Dettifoss + Husavik + Godafoss
DAY 7: Kolugljúfur Canyon + Snaefellsnes Peninsula
DAY 8: Glymur Waterfall + Reykjavik + Blue Lagoon
DAY 9: Leave Iceland for home

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DAY 1:

Arrive into Reykjavik and head to pick up your camper van at Cozy Campers. Grocery shop at the local Bónus. Once you’re loaded up and comfortable, head out to begin your roadtrip!

TIP: It is recommended to get to know your camper van and rest before heading out on the Ring Road. We had limited time to explore so we headed out immediately.

Begin your week long Iceland adventure with the Golden Circle Drive. Along the way, you will check out Flosagjá fissure, Öxarárfoss Waterfall, Geysir - Geothermal area, Gullfoss Waterfall, and the Secret Lagoon (Gamla Laugin). This drive takes about 4 to 6 hours to complete.

End day one with the Reykjadalur hike - ~45 min to 1 hr hike that ends in a hot spring river!

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DAY 2:

This morning drive to Seljalandsfoss/Gljúfrabúi base for the Fimmvörðuháls Hiking Trail (25 km trail; 15.5 miles) if you’re feeling up to it with Southcoast Adventures. If hiking isn’t your thing, you can do one of their superjeep tours thru Þórsmörk.

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DAY 3:

Get up early this morning and beat the crowds to see Seljalandsfoss. While there, continue north to the waterfall Gljúfrabúi, which is found partially hidden behind a rock face. The rest of the morning is spent sightseeing - Seljavallalaugh Swimming Pool, Skogafoss, Solheimasandur Plane Crash, Loftsalahellir Cave, Dyrhólaey, and Reynisdrangar.

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After all the beautiful sights, head into Vik to have a yummy lunch at Halldorskaffi.

Continue on from Vik, stopping at Laufskálavarða, Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon (3 km round trip hike), and Systrafoss.

End the day at Skaftafell campground, which is the perfect location to begin tomorrow’s adventure!

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DAY 4:

Today starts bright and early in Skaftafell National Park with a 3.4 km hike to Svartifoss (Black Falls) and Sjónarsker viewpoint.

TIP: If you have time to burn, then spend an entire day in Skaftafell National Park. There are tons of hikes in this area!

Svartifoss

After your hike, head to the town of Hof to get some groceries and then continue to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach.

Next is the town of Höfn for lunch at Pakkhús Restaurant and stop at Hoffell hot tubs if you have time.

After lunch, take Scenic Fjord Route 92 towards Egilsstaðir. Along the way, you will see, Djúpivogur (Lighthouse), Breiðdalsvík, and Litlanesfoss/Hengifoss (40 min detour for a 2.5 km hike).

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DAY 5

Starting off over half way around the Iceland Ring Road today! Head over to the Lake Mytvan area for today’s sights!

LAKE MYTVAN SIGHTS:
Leirhnjukur Lava Fields and Geothermal Area
Krafla/Viti Crater
Myvatn Nature Baths
Grjotagja Lava Cave and Geothermal Spring
Dommuborgir hike to Hverfjall Cinder Cone and Crater
Dimmuborgir Lava formations and “The Church”
Skutustadir Pseudocraters

DAY 6

This morning head to Dettifoss, which is said to be the most powerfull waterfall in Iceland.

Stretch your legs on a 5.5 mile hike to see Hafragilsfoss and Ásbyrgi Canyon both located in Jökulsárgljúfur Canyon or Vatnajökull National Park.

Stop in Husavik for lunch and a whale tour if you have time.

After lunch, head to Godafoss via scenic route I-85 (~40 min off the ring road).

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Once you leave Godafoss, you will head to the town of Akureyri where you can spend some time exploring Akureyrarkirkja church.

Last stop of the day is Sundlaugin á Hofsósi (Hot pool by the ocean) for some relaxation.

C/O SKAGAFJÖRÐUR

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DAY 7:

C/O ICELAND LAGOONS

Begin the morning with a short drive to Grettislaug Pool, then spend some time relaxing and enjoying your last day on the ring road!

Once you’re good and relaxed, head over to Kolugljúfur Canyon for some breathtaking views.

Snaefellsnes Peninsula is your next stop and where you will camp out tonight.

SNAEFELLSNES PENINSULA SIGHTS:
Gerðuberg Cliffs
Búðakirkja
Budhahraun
Arnarstapi
Snæfellsjökull
Londrangar
Djúpalónssandur beach
Saxhóll Crater
Kirkjufellsfoss
Kirkjufell
Berserkjahraun

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DAY 8:

Today is your last day in Iceland and we are going to make the most of it! Leaving the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, head towards Glymur Waterfall (~2 hour drive) for a short waterfall hike.

Grab lunch and head out to Reykjavik. If you have time, why not do a free walking tour of the city. If not make sure to check out these well-known sights: Sun Voyager Sculpture, Harpa Cultural Center, and Hallgrimskirkja Church.

TIP: Don't miss the hot dogs at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur! They are world famous!

Finally, drop off your trusty van and head out to the Blue Lagoon. Why not treat yourself after spending an entire week in a campervan? Tonight, we are having dinner at the Moss Restaurant, which was recently recommended by the 2019 Michelin Guide, followed by a stay at the Silica Hotel.

Your stay includes entrance into the Blue Lagoon as well as a mud mask. Treat yo-self!

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DAY 9:

Say your final goodbyes to Iceland and head to the airport for home today.

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This is the itinerary that I have planned for my husband and I’s trip to Iceland at the end of August. If you have any suggestions as to anything that we MUST see or do, please leave them in the comments below! I know that this is an over-zealous itinerary so I will let you know how it goes!

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ABOUT ME:

I was born in Mississippi but raised a Tennessee girl! I attended undergrad at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where I received my degree in Biochemistry. I then proceeded to go to pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center with my last 3 years in Knoxville. (Go VOLS!) 6 years ago I followed my sweetheart to Dallas, Texas, where I have been ever since!

I am currently a practicing Inpatient Pharmacist with a love for traveling. I love to get off the beaten path and go places/do things that are not the normal “tourist” thing to do. I love hiking and adventure travel!

—

Follow me: @thatblondetravels

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