When deciding what to buy my OH for his special birthday I knew it had to be a visit to the volcanic Island. I remember when we first met (and used to constantly text each other about unimportant nonsense), we discussed Iceland and how we'd both love to see the Northern Lights, visit the Blue Lagoon and sleep in a glass igloo as it was on our 'bucket list'. I started looking for the holiday a few months before booking it to check out the prices and boy it was coming up as expensive! I searched all over the net and decided to book through Expedia (which was a good decision).
I did a little research into Reykjavik itself, read trip advisor forums and low and behold I gathered it was an expensive place not only to fly and stay but also to eat and drink. Because I realised how expensive Reykjavik was, I decided on booking an apartment rather than a hotel so we could take snacks and at least eat cereal for breakfast and have a kitchen. I booked the Island Apartments which were fantastic. Yes they're small and cosy but did everything we needed it to do, it even had a little kitchen table which was nice (for eating the cereals). Kitchen had a cooker hob, fridge/freezer, kettle, sink, cutlery & bowls etc and fairy liquid & cloths to do the washing up! The bathroom was lovely also with a walk in power shower but the most important thing is that it was clean and the location was 10/10 for us. 5. minute walk to all the bars, shops, restaurants, marina and not far from the bus station. I'd 100% recommend the Island apartments to anyone!
We pre booked our excursions before we visited Reykjavik through the Travel Republic website and we thought they were pretty well priced. On our 1st day in Iceland we visited the Blue Lagoon which is about a 45minute drive from Reykjavik. It really was as amazing as how it looks. The weather absolutely freezing yet the Lagoon like a hot bath. We spent around 2.5hrs floating around the Lagoon, putting the mud mask on our faces, drinking beer and smoothies from the Lagoon bar and sitting under the waterfall. It was super relaxing and definitely a once in a life time experience!
After a few hours in the Lagoon, we showered and then visited the Lava restaurant. We pre booked our table reservation before our holiday but the restaurant was pretty empty anyway (probably because of the price). We had a two course lunch in the Lava restaurant with two drinks each which cost us the equivalent of £110. I must say though that the food really was out of this world and definitely was 'fine dining'. I had beef for main course an poached pear for desert.
That same evening, we went on the Northern Lights tour. Starting at 10:30pm, we were driven into the middle of nowhere to stand in the pitch black for over 2 hours to get a glimpse of the lights. I was absolutely freezing even though I was wrapped up with multiple thermal layers but we were lucky enough to see the lights which made it all worth while.
We also booked a whale watching day tour but due to a bad storm it was cancelled :( Instead we spent the day wandering around Reykjavik (whilst battling Gail force winds), taking pictures, finding a Christmas shop (which I was very excited about) and visiting the Hard Rock Cafe.
Here's the cute Christmas shop we found. I wanted to buy everything but at £35 a bauble I decided eating was more important 🙈
Hard Rock Cafe!
Again, lunch cost us the equivalent of £100 for two courses and two cocktails. The cocktails were an eye watering £17 each!
These nachos are everything!
Our final excursion of the holiday was the express Golden Circle. We got to see some of the most amazing views on this 6 hour tour and the GoPro definitely got some use. We visited the famous waterfall, Geysers (which we caught on the GoPro) and we also crossed where the US and Eurasian plates meet!
Here's some snaps of us being proper tourists!
The morning of our departure we woke up at 3.30am to knee deep snow! The snow had started falling the day before we were due to fly home but it was pretty wet so didn't think it would lay. Unbeknown to us, this snow would cause a horrendous and scary drive out of Reykjavik (with our coach sliding down hills) and delayed flights. Don't get me wrong, the snow was beautiful to see!
So after getting to the airport we were delayed by half an hour (big deal) which we weren't too bothered about. The annoying and frustrating thing was that when we actually got onto the plane (and I settled down for my sleep) we were actually sat there for over an hour. I woke up from my hours sleep to find that we were still sitting on the runway! No announcement and no one really knew what was going on. Our plane needed de icing a few times and by the time we landed back in the UK we were 2.5hrs late which was kind of unhelpful as I was back at work the next day!
Overall, Iceland was an amazing and interesting place to visit with lots of natural wonders. We had a fantastic time and would recommend it to anyone, just make sure you take plenty of cash!
Doll xoxo
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