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Itinerary Help

Posted by (San Francisco Bay Area) on

I will be traveling to Iceland for the first time in a few weeks, May 21-26, for 5 days. Generaly following Rick's guidebook itinerary, however he does not include traveling further up the South Coast to see the Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach, as well as Skaftafell Nat'l Park and waterfall hike. Nor does he include the Snaelfelsjokul or Reykjaves Peninsula. Here is my current itinerary, any comments and suggestions are welcome:

Day 1 - arrive 10:30 am, pick up rental car, Blue Lagoon, drive to South Coast. Hotel near Vik.
Day 2 - Westman Islands OR drive to Glacier Lagoon/Skatafell Park. Drive back to S. Coast hotel near Vik.
Day 3 - Explore S. Coast, drive back to Reykjavik.

Day 4 - Golden Circle.
Day 5 - Explore Reykjavik... OR drive to Snaefelsjokul Peninsula or Reykjaves Penisula?
Day 6 - depart 3 pm.

Also, any recommendations on clothing, shoes, packing items?
Thanks, Chris

Posted by
15 posts

Chris,

The itinerary looks solid. We enjoyed the Blue Lagoon, spent about four hours there. I have not been to the Westman Islands but that looks like a worthwhile trip for sure!. We looked at the glacial lagoon, (Jokulsarlon) and that was pretty neat seeing the blue glacial ice float out to the open sea.

The area around Vik is nice and one place I would suggest is to hike out to the crashed Super DC-3 on Solheimasandur Beach. To get there it's between the Skogafoss waterfall (put that on your list) and Vik. Just look for a parking area on the right side of the road, (beach side) fencing and a gate, (it's not marked at all). The parking area holds about 40-50 cars. The pancake flat hike out at a normal walking pace takes about 45 minutes or so.

The Golden Circle is a great day trip and also include the Kerid crater, pretty cool and colorful crater to look at and hike around and easy access just off the road. I would explore Reykjavik, really neat city to walk around and explore, from the downtown, the wharf and the path along the coast, truly awesome, eclectic and interesting street art.

Last time we were there it was August and we wore different layers depending on the breeze and when the sun was out. In general I wore pants either jeans or hiking type pants, light hiker boots, long sleeve shirt, vest and light windbreaker. On the two week trip the warmest day was about 64 degrees and the median was about 55 degrees, so a mixture of clothing items to layer is the best.

Have fun!

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