DAY 1

• Day 1 Map Link
• Distance driven: 299km
• Pingvellir & Oxararfoss 8:45~9:30am
• Bruarfoss  10:30am-noon
• Geysir
• Gullfoss 1:15~1:45pm
• Groceries at Krónan in Selfoss 4pm
• Bathrooms stop in Garõabær, Pingvellir, Laugarvatn & Hella
• Camping at Gljúfrafoss arrive at 6pm, in bed at 8pm.
• Camera battery #1 exhausted at sunset shooting Seljalandsfoss

We arrived at 5:05am Iceland time.  It was quite foggy (we couldn’t see anything out of the window then all of a sudden there was the ground and we were landing!).  We got off the plane and through customs/immigration easily.  The usual/basic questions of how long and where will you be staying.  STAMP STAMP, Welcome, in we go!  You’re forced to go through the duty free shop to get to the baggage claim and out of the airport.  We’d been told ahead of time to get any beer/wine/alcohol there so we picked up a 6 pack of beer and a bottle of wine.  A suggestion for you though, DO NOT pick your Icelandic beer by the picture on the can!!!  I went with a rad looking set of can’s with a bearded viking with sun glasses on…  Turned out it was a berry infused beer…  Whoops!

We had about 10 minutes to kill in the duty free shops before our flight’s bags hit baggage claim (you can see that area from inside the duty free shop).  We grabbed our bag and headed out the door to the main entrance to the airport.  We exchanged some American cash for Icelandic Krona at the counter before leaving the airport.  Our camper rental was through rent.is.  The HUGE appeal to rent.is is that they’re based at the airport and open 24 hours.  They’re a newer company though so there aren’t any signs for them.  Luckily a friend had heard about our plans and went to Iceland a month before us using them.  He’d told me to look for “Go Iceland Rental Cars”.  We asked at information and they pointed us in the right direction.  We headed out the main exit and across two parking lots past the airport hotel and their office is about 100 yards beyond that.  You’ll see the rent.is campers sitting there in front of the building so it’s pretty easy to spot, even in the fog!

Once there we checked in with the counter and wrapped up the paperwork.  We’d been UPGRADED!!!  Apparently they’d ran out of the campers the size we’d rented (Renault Traffic 3) so we were given a Renault Master 5!  The downside is inevitably that we used more fuel but the bonus is this meant I had headroom to stand up fully (and I’m 6’4″!) as well as a sink which made things a lot easier (brushing teeth and contacts could easily be done in the camper).  We had a very quick tutorial on all the systems in the camper and were set free!  Here’s the map of our first days driving:

We headed out of the airport and into the fog!!!  Max speed limits in Iceland are 90km/hr which is 56mph.  In the fog on the first highway we’d got onto in a van I’d never driven before this seemed INSANELY fast!  Depending on how thick the fog was we drove between 60 and 90kmh for the first bit.  First stop was to get some breakfast.  Word to the wise, make sure you’re good at using rotaries before leaving the airport…  You’re thrown into them pretty quick as you go towards town and this is of course the most populated section in Iceland so expect company on the roads!  We were lucky enough to be headed out early in the morning on a Saturday so traffic was very light.  To get through Reykjavik we went though 10~15 rotaries!  We stopped at N1 in Garõabær as it was the first place we saw with easy access.  Two “Americano” coffees and 3 donuts later (one tiny, one normal and one filled with jelly) we’d had “breakfast”.  We had fog all through town and couldn’t see much past the buildings immediately on the side of the road.

Our first stop for the day was Pingvellir & Oxararfoss.  This is where the continents are separating at between 1mm and 20mm a year!  It’s a national park and one of three stops on the “golden circle”.  I figured we needed to see the three most popular places in Iceland (where all the tourists from Reykjavik go via bus tours) in order to give context to everything else we’d see on our trip.  You have to pay 500kr to park here (it’s similar to how the US charges to go to our National Parks) via a kiosk and put a receipt on your dash.  The park opens at 9am and we’d arrived at 8:30 so we probably didn’t need to pay but we did anyway.  The bathrooms here also cost 200kr to use but Nikki reported them to be “VERY NICE!!!”…  Both the toilets and parking kiosk worked with credit/debit cards so paying was easy but the bathrooms were NOT open until 9am.  If I were to go back I’d make sure I was here and GONE before 9am or I’d come back late night.  It’s a very interesting place with great natural features (how often do you get to see where two tectonic plates are separating?) and Icelandic history but once 9am rolls around (especially on the first Saturday of the “summer” season with record highs) the place is PACKED with tour busses.  At exactly 9am about 10 busses rolled in dropping off ~40 people per bus.  We’d made it onto the trail before them but it still took away from the feeling of it a bit.  We had a nice hike/walk down to Oxararfoss which is probably a 1.5km hike each way from the center.  I’d suggest parking at the parking lot further north closer to the falls.  The busses actually drop the people off at the main center and let their passengers walk downhill to the further north lot saving them the return trip.

After Oxararfoss we headed towards Brúarfoss.  This drive is amazing!  It winds through the rest of the Pingvellir National Park.  Once out of the park we stopped at another N1 station in Laugarvatn for some snacks and a bathroom break.  Brúarfoss is a short drive and was incredible.  I’d read a lot about this location as it’s not one that’s really marked or easily found.  It’s tucked in behind a small neighborhood that probably doesn’t love all the people coming through their neighborhood to find this location.  Interestingly this fall is on the cover of some of the touristy maps and guides that are available at gas stations.  I’m not going to tell you how to get there (just google it).  Once you’ve found it on a map (including mine) just zoom all the way in on the satellite images and you’ll see the roads.  The trick is navigating those roads using an electronic map or print out while driving a large van!  I’d purchased the forever light e-book on Iceland before going and their description was spot on.  Once we’d made a couple of wrong turns and managed to turn ourselves around we found a parking spot with a path leading in the correct direction.  As we were getting ready another couple pulled up in their van and it turned out they were photo guides (here’s their instagram) there on their own time!  The hike in to Brúarfoss is pretty straight forward.  Once you get to the stream there’s a wooden bridge that crosses it overlooking the amazing turquoise water.  We spend at least a half an hour here walking around all the different places to get images of the falls.  The rocks here are volcanic with lots of tubes and interesting structure for the water to go through.  The water also has this interesting bubbly characteristic to it.  It truly is mesmerizing.  One note on this area.  Flies!  You’ll be surrounded as soon as you get out of the van.  They do NOT bite but they can test your patience.  We noticed the less crowded the area the more flies you’d have around you!

From Brúarfoss we headed off to Geysir.  The drive from Brúarfoss to Geysir is short.  Geysir is another stop on the tour bus golden circle tour and was SWARMED with people.  There’s a cute but touristy restaurant there with a gift shop but we only walked through to use the bathrooms and get a soft serve ice cream!… We headed out to the geysir basin and waiting just long enough to see it erupt.  But to be completely honest we were very underwhelmed here.  Too many people and having lived in MT not as nice as old faithful?  I hate to say that but we just weren’t that interested to stand shoulder to shoulder with thousands of tourists.  If we were to go back I’d make sure to be there at an off peak time (early morning or late night) Brúarfoss is so amazing and worth doing and so close to Geysir that it’s worth seeing but just make sure you go when there won’t be so many people.  The hike is VERY short, it’s probably about 100 yards off the side of the road to the first geysir (with options to walk a lot further and get a nice overview).

After Geysir it was off to Gullfoss to complete the trio of Golden Circle sights.  Once again, packed with people and tour busses but it was expected.  This is a massive waterfall/foss and quite impressive.  There are two parking areas, as you approach the falls by van the first entrance is the lower parking lot.  We did not go in here but it’s where I’d recommend parking.  The second/upper lot is where the visitor center is with bathrooms and food but it’s also where all the busses park and deposit their guests.  You walk out on boardwalks to both the upper and lower viewing areas.  You’ll get wet on the lower walk but it’s worth it for a very impressive view!
After completing the golden circle attractions (and Brúarfoss which was by FAR the highlight of the day!) we headed off to Selfoss for groceries.  At this point we’d been up for a long time and were pretty beat.  Krónan in Selfoss was a lot of fun to be honest.  Everything is in a foreign language and it’s not the same items you’d buy in the states obviously so it’s fun to find things you hope you’ll like.  We got sandwich supplies as well as breakfast food (fruit and yogurt).  From there we headed out towards our campsite for the night at Hamragardar.  The campsite here is amazing.  It’s at the base of Gljúfrafoss with Seljalandsfoss a quick 5 minute hike down a beautiful trail.  There are also showers available which is something we both appreciated.

We made ourselves a quick dinner (Ham and cheese sandwiches on some great bread!) and walked into Gljúfrafoss for some quick photos.  Gljúfrafoss is an awesome little slot in the side of the mountain.  It doesn’t even look like you should/could go in there as it’s maybe 8′ across where you go in.  But there’s rocks in shallow water along the entrance so you can get in w/o getting your feet wet.  Once in you’re greeted by the wind from the downdraft of the falls which of course brings with it some amazing spray (good luck keeping lenses dry for shots w/o water droplets in them).  There’s one massive rock in close to the falls with epic light on it that everyone basically queues up for their turn taking a picture on it!

After Gljúfrafoss we had a shower and then went to bed.  Of course this was before sunset so it was tricky getting to sleep.  We ended up hanging extra blankets from the upper bunk to give ourselves a quiet and dark space to sleep in.  We slept until about 10:30 when I woke up to check out sunset and walk down to Seljalandsfoss while Nikki slept.  I was treated to the best sunset of the trip and stayed out for almost two hours before coming back to bed for the night.

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