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Advice for a 5 day side-trip from Iceland

Posted by on

Hello everyone!

I am a late-20's female who will be solo-traveling in Iceland and potentially mainland Europe in mid-July. I will be heading to Iceland to run a race called the Laugavegur Ultramarathon (where you run the entire 55km Laugavegur trail in one day.....yeah I know...I am crazy). I will be be arriving in Iceland early in the morning on the July 11th, running the race on the 13th, and returning home on July 21st. I will absolutely be resting and having a very low-key day in Reykjavik on Sunday the 14th, but I was thinking about whether or not it would be worth it to do a side-trip to another European city/region for 4-5 days (from the 15th to the 19th or 20th). I would love to do some very low-key hiking as active recovery from the race. For this trip, I am not interested in any overnight hikes or camping (I would like to have a "home base" like a hostel or Airbnb to come back to every evening). Some cities/regions I am interested in are Vienna, Munich/Salzburg, and Geneva/Chamonix.

However, I have the following question for more seasoned Europe summer travelers: Is it worth it to fly down to mainland Europe from Iceland in July if it is only for 4-5 days. As much as I would love to explore the rest of Europe, I know there is also a lot to see in Iceland (as well as plenty more scenic hikes in addition to Laugavegur). Additionally, if any of you think a 4-5 day side-trip to mainland Europe is not a bad idea, where would you recommend going for some hikes (and potentially lower crowds....though I know there will always be some crowds at this type of the year).

Finally, another reason I've been thinking of a 4-5 day side-trip is because I have a goal of trying to go to at least 1 new country this year. I have already been to Iceland (and have actually run the race before), but I have seen nowhere close to all of the island (the only area outside of the Reykjavik region I've seen is the Laugavegur trail). In mainland Europe, these are the major cities I've been to: Copenhagen (studied/lived there for a semester in college), Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø (went in late fall...have not seen it in the summer), Stockholm, Berlin, Poznań (not a major city...it was a day trip to Poland from Berlin), Prague, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Milan.

Any advice/tips would be much appreciated! I am so excited for this trip! :)

Posted by
1565 posts

Flights from Reykjavik to Zurich are fairly cheap and regular, and that's a good time to be in the Alps. Why not fly there and spend some time in the mountains?

Posted by
2712 posts

I don’t think you are crazy at all. Our son does extreme trail runs like this one as well. I would not try to stay in Iceland for the extra time though, as much as I love it there. The reason is it is really late for finding any lodging except camping. So heading over to mainland Europe will offer more options.
We are headed to Norway in late August, so a month after you. I too have been there in the late fall, but we wanted to do some hiking and this fit the bill.

Posted by
2770 posts

You can do a flight search in Google Flights for Reykjavik to "anywhere" for your date ranges and it will show you a map of locations and prices. Icelandair has service to the Faroe Islands, that might be fun. Or Scotland? Finland? Depending on how far you go it could be a 4 hour flight each way, so you would be eating up about a day of your 4-5 "extra" days with travel time. I would think at this stage you might need to focus on where you could find reasonable accommodations for the time of year - summer is quite busy in many places.

Posted by
8009 posts

I have a good friend who’s competed in ultramarathons for years. She’s one of the least crazy people I know, and has both run in, and also coached/supported others in the Leadville 100 multiple times.

Although you’ve listed some tremendous areas for a 4-5 day consideration, my first thought for a destination for you that can offer low-key hiking (and also much more challenging, if that’s what one is looking for) is Ireland. It’s physically closer to Iceland, and by switching just one letter in the English name, it’s closer in spelling, too ;-)

With a hostel, Airbnb, or actual Irish B&B near one of the national parks, or possibly the amazing Gougane Barra area we discovered last year (there’s even a Gougane Barra Hotel), it’s another island worth a visit. Trad Irish music is a bonus.

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