Hi friends! Long time no talk! I was feeling particularly uninspired over the winter season and didn’t have much to post about. Today, however, is my last day in Iceland and have so much I want to share with you! Having just completed my trip, the things on my mind are the mistakes I made or almost made. Hopefully, by sharing these 5 Iceland mistakes with you, you’ll be able to avoid them on your trip!
Mistake #1: Gear
Iceland is notorious for it’s constantly shifting weather. During our week here, we encountered multiple rain storms, some hail, and high gusts of wind. Since the weather changes so often, many tours will run rain or shine. It’s crucial to bring waterproof gear so you aren’t miserably cold and wet.
I remembered my rain coat, but forgot my rain pants. Definitely, my biggest Iceland mistake. It was quite cold!! I also wish I would have had waterproof gloves and hiking boots. These items of mine got soaked multiple times throughout the trip. Luckily, the scenery was so magical and distracted me from my discomfort. For future trips, I’ll be purchasing waterproof hiking boots like these and waterproof gloves like these.
You also want to pack a lot of layers so you can add them on as it gets colder, and take them off if it ends up being warmer.
Mistake #2: Speeding
Mistake #2 is only relevant to those visitors renting or driving a car in Iceland. Once you hop in your rental car, and get out of Reykjavik, it’s easy to end up speeding. You’re in very rural places and there are hardly any other cars around. On our trip, we also only saw 2 police cars within the entire week. It turns out, however, there are a ton of cameras placed throughout the countryside looking for speeding drivers. Police will review those cameras and reach out to your rental agency to determine who to fine.
We only found this out on our second to last day. I am a little nervous that we may be receiving some tickets in the mail in a few weeks. Wish us luck!
Mistake #3: Gas Stations
If you’re renting a car, you’re most likely going to be taking a road trip throughout Iceland’s country side. These areas often provide self-serve gas stations. These are merely gas pumps, with no building to enter. Due to this, some of the self-serve pumps require you to use a card with a pin to pay for gas. We were unaware of this until we arrived. This meant I often had to use my debit card to pump gas. This made me a little nervous because I don’t like using my debit card in foreign places. Additionally, I ended up with foreign transaction fees using the debit card. I would have preferred to use my Capital One Venture card or my Amex card because they don’t charge those fees.
There are two ways you could avoid this. First, you could call your credit card company prior to leaving the country and ask if they offer a way for you to put a pin on your card. Second, the larger full service gas stations do sell prepaid cards.
Mistake #4: Popular Destinations
Visiting popular destinations itself isn’t a mistake. Visiting ONLY the popular destinations is when you’re making a mistake. Up until a few weeks before the trip, I only had the biggest tourist traps planned. Luckily, I saw a couple of blog posts advising me to consider visiting the less traveled, hidden gems of the country.
I made sure our itinerary (blog post coming soon) included the must sees like Skógafoss. But, I also made sure to include some hidden gems. For example, we were the only people at Þjófafoss. This made it all the more magical.
When you are visiting popular destinations, try to time it so you’re visiting early in the morning or late at night. We visited Reynisfjara Beach after 9:00 pm and were able to get the photos and videos we wanted without other tourists in the background. Had we visited in the afternoon, however, I’m not sure we would have been that lucky. Also, if you’re traveling in the summer when the sun is up almost all day, consider going to the bigger tourist destinations around 11:00 pm or later. Just double-check that the places you’re going are open all day long.
Mistake #4: Eating
The last Iceland mistake I would avoid, would be not thinking ahead for dinner and snacks. We did bring goldfish, pringles, a jar of peanut butter and Kind bars from our grocery store at home. This was particularly helpful when we hit the ground running on our first day. We already had snacks to enjoy and tide us over. This is also important because food is very expensive in Iceland. For example, one restaurant I was at had a $25 cheeseburger. This was by no means a fancy restaurant either.
In addition to bringing snacks, make sure you’re planning to stop for dinner or groceries if you’re going to make your own. Since the sun is up much later here (think 11:00 pm), we got distracted a couple of times. By the time we wanted to eat dinner, all the restaurants were closed. It led to some very grumpy travelers eating granola bars for dinner. Many of the popular tourist attractions do have food trucks serving sandwiches, coffee, soup, and more. You may consider grabbing something from those trucks if you won’t be making it back to a larger town before everything closes for the night.
Overall, my trip to Iceland was spectacular. If you’re like me and love the outdoors, Iceland needs to be on your bucket list! Stay tuned for further posts detailing my itinerary and discussing my experiences.
Happy Travels!
XOXO, Mackenzie
