We are spending two days in Reykjavik and then two days in the South in June that will include the beaches, waterfalls and Vestmannaeyjar Islands.
We will have six full more days before we must return to Reykjavik to fly out.
Question: should we keep traveling southeast to see Diamond Beach and Glacier Lagoon and then commit to the Ring Road for the remainder of the trip?
OR
Should we drive west to do the loop around the Golden Circle and then head north to the Snefellsnes Peninsula and perhaps on to the Westfjords? Thinking of doing a kayak/horseback riding around there.
I want to see it all but I also want to savor the sights and not feel rushed. Thank you in advance for your comments!
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2168 posts
With 10 days you can do the ring road, but you don’t have time for the Westfjords. To do the ring road you would need to rework your days. Also, you are very late to planning as must lodgings in Iceland book out 9-12 months in advance. If you can find a camper van and are willing to go that route, you would have better luck.
If you stick to your original plan then no, the ring road would not be good. Way too rushed and you would be seething Iceland through the windshield.
There are numerous places to ride horses and kayak all around the country, not just the Westfjords. If you want to go that area, you would want the full 6 days up there. We had 10 days in the Westfjords on one trip, to give you an idea.
Think about what sounds better to you and post back and I can help more after that😊
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks for the quick response, which confirmed my feeling that we should NOT do the Ring Road on this trip.
We are spending two nights in Reykjavik, three nights on the South Coast and three more nights on the Snafellsnes Peninsula and leaving the last two nights open to further perusal. Fortunately, I was able to get all the first choice accommodations I wanted.
I see there is a ferry from the Snafellsnes to the Westfjords, but I think that is probably too ambitious to get there, drive a bit and return to the capital. Three weeks must have been awesome! Did you camp during your trip?
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2168 posts
With those extra two days, you can do a very quick trip into the Westfjords. I would only go up to Isafjordur and back. That would get you to Dynjandi, and you could soak at Hellulaug, which is just a couple of minutes from where you get off the ferry in the Westfjords. There is also a really cute little cafe almost across the road from the ferry terminal, called Gamli baerinn kaffihussi. It is on a farm, and you can often buy some local foods there, and they have a small area of hand knit items for sale.
We did camp for 10 days last summer, and it was really nice! We had a regular vehicle for the rest of the trip, but we plan on doing a camper for another trip there as we loved that so much. The flexibility was great, but we also love to camp here at home, although in tents. I can do a camper, but would never want anything more than that with showers etc.