Day 1: Reykjavik & Volcano Tour

For our trip to Iceland we wanted to see as much as we possibly could in 10 days, so for us- renting a car and staying in Air BnBs is what we felt would maximize our time to get around the entire exterior of the country (although I myself would have loved to camp more often). We're starting here in Reykjavik for two days and then we'll be heading out on the "Ring Road" going counter-clockwise for the remainder of our trip! I'm going to try to include a map on almost every post so people can keep up with exactly where we decided to sleep each night/where we were each day and how we split up our trip.

My sister Caroline, my Dad and I arrived at the Keflavik airport at 5am (Icelandic time) after a 4-hour red eye flight out of Halifax and took a shuttle from the airport to Enterprise to pick up our rent-a-car for our 10 day Ring Road tour. We decided to pay the $12 a day (came to around ~130 CAD) for an Icelandic GPS which we DEFINITELY recommend especially if you're going to be spending any amount of time in Reykjavik (we almost got our money's worth out of it today alone). We'll keep you updated on how useful it becomes outside of the city once we get there!

The drive into the city was only 40 minutes from Enterprise but we had time to kill as our first Air BnB had a check in time of 1pm. We decided to go to a cafe that was recommended in a guide book for having amazing homemade waffles (Mokka Kaffi- located on one of the two main shopping streets, Laugavegur) and it did NOT disappoint. We spent the rest of the morning exploring downtown Reykjavik, the old harbour, and the Hallgrimskirkja church before heading out to a guided "Inside the Volcano" tour that we booked through Extreme Iceland a few days prior to our departure.

I cannot express HOW worth it this tour was- the hike up the Thrihnukagigur volcano was incredible, the guides were amazing and the inside of the volcano was unlike any experience I've ever had- although I got great photos they still don't do it justice. You definitely need a sturdy pair of hiking shoes or sneakers with grip though because of the loose/slippery rocks once inside the volcano. Since we drove ourselves instead of being picked up by a tour bus, we were able to do the whole excursion in about 3 hours because we

didn't have to wait for the whole group (which worked out great for us as we are pretty efficient hikers).

We made our way back into Reykjavik and decided to go to the Public House Gastropub (on that same main street as Mokka Kaffi) that we had walked by earlier in the day. This meal was one of the BEST we've ever had (my Dad never raves about food and he could not stop talking about his food) and it wasn't nearly as expensive as some other restaurants around (the first one we sat down in wanted $35 for a Caesar salad LOL).

After dinner we came back to our beautiful Air BnB apartment located at Vesturgata 54 (only a short 5 minute drive from the main downtown area). The apartment is perfect for us- has one bedroom with a queen bed for my sister and I, a very comfortable pull out couch for my Dad, full kitchen, bathroom with nice shower, free parking and wifi, etc. If you decide to use Air BnBs I 100% recommend this place- the host was extremely accommodating and answered texts in no time when we had questions. I'll post a link to the exact place below!

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11478480

We decided to stay in tonight to catch up on much needed sleep after being awake for over 30 hours. So that being said I am off to bed as we have the Blue Lagoon hot spring booked for 8am tomorrow morning!