Being a traveller, i keep on looking for new destinations and Iceland kept on popping up almost every time. I generally prefer beaches or plains and avoid colder places, so Iceland always remained in back burner till i read about Ice caves. Beauty of Ice Caves and the fact that you can visit them only in Winters between November and March brought together a plan to Visit Iceland in December and i am so glad i went in Winter :)… Iceland is amazing place !!
I decided to visit Iceland around Christmas and booked a 3 day tour. I am a foot soldier and never really book tours as i rely on public transport to visit places but in Iceland there is not much of public transport, you have 2 options either to go on a self drive trip or to book a tour. In winter time, go for a self drive only if you have experience of driving in colder regions as you will have to deal with blizzards…snow.
It was a 7 day trip and i started with exploring Reykjavik. Its a small city but its beautiful, i enjoyed walking around Reykjavik. As you walk around Reykjavik, it makes you feel very peaceful as its not very crowded, people are very friendly and its very much walkable. Also want to add that its the most expensive city which i have visited, alcohol is heavily taxed and most of food is imported which pushes the cost.
Most of the supermarkets in Reykjavik close quite early, so ensure you get the stuff you need in time but if you miss out then subway opens till 9pm i believe but on weekends its a different world subway opens till 5am !! Weekends are the time to get flavour of Reykjavik nightlife, its different from other places. There are lots of small pubs which remove tables/chairs past midnight and the party begins, people keep hopping to different pubs and streets remain alive till early morning.
Before i move further, see the below picture and Icelandic people will always ask you to avoid buying bottled water as tap water is more pure than bottled water!!
A major attraction of Iceland is Blue Lagoon and i felt it was worth visiting. I visited during night time as i couldn’t slot earlier but i would advise to visit in morning time to actually see the blue colour. So it was like freezing temperature outside and around 35 degree centigrade inside the pool and its quite an experience…i loved it. Many said its equivalent to visiting a hot pool which are spread across Iceland but still Blue Lagoon has a different feel all together.
Having spent some time in Reykjavik, i started my Iceland tour which turned out to be magical. Every time i clicked a picture thinking this was an amazing view..the next view tuned out to be even more stunning. I will let the pictures and videos speak for themselves.
Geysir is Hot water spring and it has beauty of its own. On one side you find Hot water spring while on the other side of road there are huge open spaces leading to mountains and all covered with snow … giving some stunning views.
And then came Gullfoss waterfall, it looked gigantic and sooooo beautiful.
Iceland is full of Volcanoes and is an earthquake prone area. All buildings are constructed are earthquake resistant. Our next stop was a Lava crater and it was snowing when we reached there which was backed up wind, it was freezing cold. There is a lift at this lava crater which takes you to bottom of crater but it was closed as it was Christmas holiday.
As the first day of tour came to an end, we headed to Selfoss for Hotel stay but it had already started snowing and by the time we reached our destination, everything was covered in a white layer…a thick one. I realised it was Christmas eve and it was white Xmas :))) …. it was a fairytale christmas and there were smiles all around…..
