With the rise of lifestyle blogs, VSCO filters, and inexpensive airline tickets, Iceland quickly became the cool new place to visit. I’ll admit, I was intrigued. Every photo I saw looked like a Windows XP Wallpaper, a country full of lush untouched terrain dotted with incredibly photogenic horses.

My boyfriend wanted to visit Iceland for years. In fact, before we were dating, he was planning on a solo trip there. Luckily for me, he didn’t make it to Iceland before I came into the picture, because we traveled together to Iceland this May!

For him, Iceland was an idyllic place for adventure, beauty, and most importantly, puffins. And for me? I had no fantasy Iceland. My thoughts consisted of:

1) Wow, it looks nice! Fjords, mountains, glaciers…they have it all!

and

2) It’s probably cold there.

What I’m saying is, I didn’t go in with any expectations.

So, for everyone out there who is interested in visiting Iceland, I’m here to answer the hard-hitting questions…. is Iceland still a Hipster’s Paradise? Can you take a photo without 100 other people in it? And what about those hand-knit sweaters? I’ll going to break this down for you as I recap our Icelandic Adventure!

The Run Down:

Time Spent in Iceland: 3 Days – we booked a stopover through Icelandair

“The Plan” AKA What We Did: The Golden Circle, Reykjavik, Blue Lagoon, and Anything Else That Came Across Our Path

As an island of fire and ice, Iceland offers a little bit of everything in the natural world. You have crowd-pleasing waterfalls (seriously, I don’t think I’ve met a single person who doesn’t like waterfalls), and for the more adventurous, snorkling adventures between tectonic plates. Our transportation and accommodation was a sleeper van from Go Campers. I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of camping (let’s be for real – I enjoy modern conveniences), but in the end, I’m glad we decided to do this in lieu of booking hotels or AirBnbs. We could choose the pace of our trip and had no reservations or itineraries to stick to. For three days, our lives consisted of driving, exploring, camping, and waking up to beautiful scenery. What more could you ask for? Well…plumbing, I guess.

It’s hard to summarize my Icelandic experiences in one post, so I’ll begin with the greatest hits, or what I like to call:

Iceland: The Sights That Wowed Me and Sites That Underwhelmed Me

Favorite Waterfall:
Yes, I saw enough waterfalls to give them their own category. There were massive falls that scared the crap out of me (Gulfoss), and smaller falls that I approached with more confidence. My absolute favorite waterfall was Skógafoss. This waterfall wasn’t on our radar. In fact, we drove by it on our way to the black sand beach and went “Hey, we should stop there.” We decided to check it out on our way to Reykjavik, and I’m glad we did because it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip! There were no signs or ropes – you could walk right up to and underneath the falls. Skógafoss is not a secret since you can see it from the highway, but, this didn’t take away from the beauty or the experience!

Best Way To Spend An Entire Day: Þingvellir National Park.

History, nature, UNESCO Heritage site status. A National Park since 1930, Þingvellir is one of the most popular spots to visit in the Golden Circle. For those of you concerned about fighting hordes of people for the best view, put those fears to rest. There is a lot to see here, but everything is spread out, so I didn’t feel like I was at a “tourist attraction.”

Do you like waterfalls? Þingvellir has waterfalls. Like standing where the Vikings stood? The Viking Parliament met here. Plan on spending a few hours here because there’s a lot to see. I’m disappointed we didn’t snorkel in Silfra, a clear ravine nestled between two tectonic plates, but we didn’t have the time (or money) to do this. Also, an FYI for those who get hangry, I didn’t see any restaurants or shops (other than one place that sold souvenirs), so make sure you bring food.

Thoughts On The Blue Lagoon:
The Blue Lagoon is a contentious topic. Yeah, it’s touristy, you’re allocated one hour to experience it, but I didn’t hate it. Go to The Blue Lagoon knowing it is a natural thing that was transformed into a touristy salt pool.

The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa. Basically, you sit in warm water with a ton of people, but, they have a bar! Wade across and scan your wristband for a drink. Put on a silica mask and to tighten your pores. If you don’t like this vibe, Iceland has other natural hot springs that feel more authentic. Our campsite recommended the “Secret Lagoon.” In spite of it not being that secret, there were fewer people there and it was much more peaceful.

Biggest Disappointment:
Ok, I’m going to sound like a hater, but I was not impressed by Strokkur Geysir. A quick history lesson: this is the geyser that named all geyers. It sounded important. We put a little star next to it in our travel book, indicating this was a MUST SEE. With this in mind, I expected a something more impressive than a blowhole that went off every 7-10 minutes. It was across the street from a hotel and souvenir shop. If you’re on a tight timeline or have seen a geological feat like this before, I’d skip it.

It’s hard to narrow down my favorite sights in Iceland. The pictures don’t lie – everything was incredibly beautiful. There were vast stretches of road with nothing, then, BOOM, mountains rising up.

Three days just covered a fraction of the island. Along with the sites listed above, we spent time in Reykjavik (I loved it!), saw a glacier, and trekked out to the black sand beach on a painfully windy day.

However, we missed out on a lot of things as well. This boiled down to the amount of time we had – the Golden Circle is doable in three days, but exploring the entire island? It isn’t feasible in this time frame.

Although I’m disappointed we didn’t see fjords, puffins, and some of the other things you’re supposed to see in Iceland, this may have helped my wallet, because I’ll be honest, everything was expensive. Those hand-knit sweaters I mentioned at the beginning of this post? They were a few hundred dollars. A hat would set you back $70 or so.

This leads me to my next post about Iceland, titled  “How I spent $100 USD on two bottles of beer (or how NOT to budget in Iceland).”