Visiting Iceland: What to Do if You have Just Two Days!

October 23, 2017

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This post contains affiliate links. See disclosure policy for more info.

Day 1 Part 2

To read about our first few hours in Iceland click HERE. From Blue Lagoon to the city is about a 50 minute ride drive first through moss covered lava rocks and then open space and along the coast. I found a great little studio apartment at VRBO.com on Baronsstigur Street, which is in the Laugavegur area. This was a great area to stay in because we could walk to many of the sites. Booking.com also has some great listings for apartment rentals in Reykjavik.

The bus from Blue Lagoon makes a stop at #10 which is called Hlemmur. Most of the excusions will pick you up at a bus stop if you are staying in the part of Reykjavik that does not allow buses because of the narrow streets. Here is a site that lists the bus stops in downtown Reykjavik. These are really helpful when booking excursions because you will have to list where you will be picked up, if it is not a hotel.

Staying in this great location allowed us to walk to a lot of major sites, including Hallgrimskirkja (church). For about $9 USD you can take an elevator to the top.

We loved the vibrant colors of rooftops!

We also walked along the ocean and saw the Solfar (Sun Voyager) Sculpture. If we had walked further we would have ran into the Wild Reindeer of Iceland and the Concert Hall. These are all listed as top places to visit on TripAdvisor.

Laugavegur (area with shopping, restaurants)

Other nearby places we did not visit are Mount Esja, the Sundholl Public Geothermal Swimming Pool, Einar Jonsson Museum, and the National Museum of Iceland. We just plain ran out of time.

It was great fun just walking the narrow cobblestone streets and window shopping. There is a grocery store near Hlemmur ( bus stop 10) and another on the same road not far. It was nice to buy some yogurt, bananas, coffee and snacks. They say that Iceland is expensive and boy is that right! We ate out just one night at a restaurant. A small burger, fries and soda cost each of us $20. To keep our trip budget friendly it was nice to find these grocery stores. It was also a good place to buy souvineirs like candy and chocolates to bring back home.

Excursions

We had booked a Northern Lights Jeep Tour for 9pm that night. There was a mix up in pick up location and we ended up waiting for 1 1/2 hours in the rain and instead of getting picked up by a big Jeep, the owner had to come pick us up and bring us to meet the rest of the group. We were surprised the excursion was not cancelled because of rain, but what they do is drive out of the city to find places with clear skies. When there was a break in the clouds, we still unfortunately did not see anything. We tried two different areas on either side of the city. One was just out side of the President’s house! We were told he did not mind as long as we did not wake up his kids!

Based on my experience, recommendations I would give for taking a Northern Lights Tour:

Recommendations:

1. The best price will be a large tour bus, then a mini bus and most expensive is a private tour. My opinion is that this is not really necessary to have a private tour because the price difference is so large and really everyone goes to the same places to see the lights anyways, based on where they are showing up. This is a nice site that lists many excursions from different tour companies.

2. Find out if there is a guarantee policy. Some companies will let you go a second night if you don’t see them the first night. Some will give you your money back. Because of the mix-up we were offered our money back. We would have gone the next night but there was no room left for us to join.

3. I recommend getting the Aurora App on your phone. It will tell you your best chances of seeing the Northern Lights, how strong they are and take into consideration cloud cover. This is especially helpful if you have a car. You can get an idea what your chances of seeing them are if you can drive to clear sky.

4. Bring a good camera if you want a better chance to see the Northern Lights. When we were out it was clear for a bit and our guide told us if we had a good camera (other then a phone) we could take a picture of the sky and see them show up (green color) on the camera. That night we could not see them with the naked eye. Of course I had my camera with but pulled it out and the battery had died. Iceland is an amazing place to see the Northern Lights but you still have to be in the right place at the right time.