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Iceland, 2023

Iceland March 2023, 

5 Nights trip with a rental car

Driving via highway 1 to East Iceland

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The trip was in March 2023 which is not high season and hotel and flight prices were decent.

We flew with Icelandair from Helsinki. We rented a car immediately from the airport.

The car rental company was Blue Rental Car.

The first night we spend in Reykjavik city center. We mostly did sightseeing and enjoyed dinner. In the morning we were planning to start our journey early. 

During 6 days trip we drove a total of 900km, so the good quality car is not the wrong choice.

Our hotel for the first night was Hotel Leifur Eiriksson. The hotel was perfectly located to explore the city center by walking.

The weather was feeling freezing even though it was +5 degrees, so be smart and pack enough clothes

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The second day in Iceland started with a 1.5-hour drive to Öxarárfoss (Tectonic waterfall). The area is between tectonic plates and visitors can walk inside the crack.

We continued our journey to Geysir (Iceland's most known geothermal area). There was one bigger spring active and giving tourist show every three minutes. Another side of Geysir has a restaurant and souvenir shop for visitors who are interested to do some shopping.

We also visited Gullfoss Falls (The Golden Waterfall), but unfortunately, we don't have a good photo of it to post here.

Later in the afternoon, it was time to check in to Farmhotel Efstidalur.

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On the evening of day 2, we decided to go relax Laugarvatn Fontana (Spa on the Golden Circle). Laugarvatn is a geothermal spa with a very nice atmosphere and not too expensive entrance. 

After the spa, we got lucky and saw the first northern lights during our trip. March is a good month to travel because in Iceland, there are 12 hours of daylight but at night there is a high chance to see northern lights.

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On day 3, we woke up early and continued our journey towards the east via Highway 1.

Our stops during day 3 were Seljalandsfoss, Gljufrabui (A waterfall cave)
Skógafoss (One of Iceland's biggest waterfalls) and Reynisfjara Black Beach (Black Sand Beach).

After a few waterfalls, we learned that foss means waterfall in Icelandic.

On day 3, it was very beautiful and sunny weather. The weather feel warmest in this day.

We spend our night at Hótel Dyrhólaey. The hotel was the cheapest one on our trip, but it was located outside of the village. With a car that was not a problem.

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On day 4, we had to check out at 7 am because our ice cave tour activity was booked for 9.30 am and there was over 2 hours drive ahead. During morning hours traffic was very slow and we didn't see many other cars.

We booked our tour from Ice Explores because it is not safe to go explore ice caves without a guide and equipment.

After the tour and lunch, we continued our journey. Next stop wasHeinabergslón Glacier. Glacier needs a 6k m drive from the main road so an SUV or similar might be necessary. We were only visitors to Glacier and got nice photos and enjoyed the peace and quiet. 

We stayed the night at Fosshótel Vatnajökull which was located near Höfn village where were a few amazing restaurants.

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On day 5, we started our 450 kilometers drive back to the west coast. We booked an airport hotel and arrived there at 10 pm, after 8-hour drive. During the drive, we stopped at viewpoints and other interesting places.

In Iceland, the weather can change fast. In some areas it snowing and 20 kilometres later it sunshine, In Finland we are used to snow but some tourist we not that confident driving in changing weather conditions

 

 

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When driving back to Reykjavik are, Fjadrargljufur was one the most interesting places where we stopped. There was 20cm of fresh snow after a night of snowing. It would be interesting to see how views would change in summer.

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Iceland is quite expensive country in general. We always booked a room with breakfast and ate a heavy breakfast. Luch was bought from the supermarket and evening we spend our money on dinner. Even restaurants we quite expensive, we recommend giving it try because we didn't get any bad quality food during our trip

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