Iceland - November 2022 - 4 day Itinerary
Back in November, I took a short break to get away and enjoy myself with some friends after a very busy year. Honestly, it was so good to get away, drive around and enjoy doing some proper travelling again. Below you can find some things to think about if you are thinking of going to Iceland, my itinerary, a packing list and photos and travel vlogs.
Things to bear in mind.
What time of year are you going? I went in November which I believe is going into winter. There wasn’t snow when I went but it was still very cold due to the wind. There were only 5/6 hours of daylight. Which is something to bare in mind when planning your trip.
If you are thinking about driving around Iceland, here are two websites that you need to bookmark road.is and safetravel.is. These websites can alert you to road closures, weather alerts, and driving conditions.
I hired a Toyota Serento from Europcar from the Keflavik Airport. It was roughly £500 for the 4 days including the full insurance. The boot was large enough for 4 large suitcases which were ideal for us as a group of 4.
Iceland itinerary
Day One
We land at Keflavik Airport at 10:30 am. If you plan to drink alcohol in your hotel rooms I recommend picking some up at the airport as it’s cheaper and easier than finding it elsewhere. Picked up our Toyota Sorento from Europcar.
20-minute drive to Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon was a great first spot to go when arriving in Iceland. With it being so close to the airport and out of the way of anything else on my itinerary it made sense to go straight from the airport. The Blue Lagoon itself was pretty cool, once you got over the eggy sulfur smell. It was relaxing and chilled having a drink in the water, the steam room was the perfect way to warm up from the wind chill. But as expected it was very busy. I have spoken to others recently and they recommend going to the Sky Lagoon or a natural off-the-road hot spring (Just be careful where you go). The silica mud mask wasn’t the best and dried out our faces quite a bit so I recommend going for the other option.
We drove 1 hour to Reykjavik. Checked in to our Air bnb accommodation right in the city. It was a perfect location to walk around and explore for the evening. We checked out The church that stands guard over Reykjavik called Hallgrímskirkja. And then walked through the town and down to the harbour. We went to the supermarket to grab some supplies from the car over the next few days. And finished the night by having a few drinks with dinner before going back to play some card games before driving in the morning.
Day 2
8:00 am Wake up, get the car ready and check out.
9:00 am Set off, It was still dark at this time, so bare this in mind.
1hr drive to Kerid Crater
10:00 am Kerid Crater (Spend 45 mins max)
Parking for Kerid Crater couldn’t be any closer. There is a small donation to the site for entry. (£9.44 for 4 people) I recommended walking the crater Anti Clockwise just for a more enjoyable experience of walking up. It was a lovely view from the top and a nice start to all the Icelandic landscapes to come.
10:45 am 1hr 5 min drive to Seljalandsfoss
11:50 am Seljalandsfoss (spend 1 hr in the area, walk anti-clockwise)
The car park was very busy and you have to pay to park. It was around £4 depending on conversions. There are toilets and food available on site. It’s just a short walk from the car park til you get to the waterfall. I recommend doing the loop anti-clockwise. We walked it clockwise and climbing down some wet rock faces wasn’t the safest, climbing up would be easier. I’d also recommend a raincoat as the spray gets you soaked quickly.
Seljalandsfoss was one of those wow moments in Iceland. Such a picturesque view. It’s rare you can walk behind a waterfall so it was a cool exprience.
12:50 am 25-minute drive to Skógafoss
1:15 am Skógafoss Waterfall (1 hr in the area)
The light was amazing when we got to Skogafoss. Parking was a short walk away and free. It was super busy (I know my photo makes it looks empty, it’s photoshop’d ). We decided to walk up the stairs to see the lookout first. It’s not the hardest climb however I stopped a few times, and you have to walk around a lot of people stopping for breaks. There was a section which shook quite a lot. Once up at the lookout, it was a cool few. Due to time and potentially losing light, we decided not to explore the top much as it didn’t look as if there wasn’t much we could already see. After the descent, we went down to the base of Skogafoss waterfall.
2:15 pm 30 mins drive to Reynisfjara Beach
2:45 pm Reynisfjara Beach hour or more watch the sunset.
During the drive over the weather took a turn for the worst. It went from clear skies to clouds and rain. Throughout the trip, the weather was forever changing so I’d suggest being prepared for it to change. Parking for the beach near the cafe was £4.95 (depending on conversion). The sea was really choppy. And a lot of people stayed off the beach because of it. However, there were a few of us who decided to keep an eye on the sea and slowly walk along the coast. If you watch the video below you’ll see the big wave come over and us running away. We then drove back to our accommodation for the night.
Stay near Vik
So we stayed at Black Beach Suites. Honestly, the room was amazing. Large back window for sky watching for the northern lights. Comfy beds, even the pull-out was comfier than the actual bed. Large bathroom, with a rain shower. It was a very nice place to stay for the night. We headed into Vik to Black Crust Pizzeria for dinner. Famous for its black-crust pizza. It was tasty and they had a few toppings that you don’t see at your Dominoes, Sweet dates being one of them. After dinner we headed back, Played card games and had a few drinks. We kept popping out to see if we could see the northern lights. My camera was picking it up in the distance but sadly we didn’t see them overhead. Annoyingly they were over Reykjavik that night. We looked online and set a few alarms in the night to check out if they did come, but sadly not.
Day 3
9:00 am Leave
20-minute drive to Hjörleifshöfði
9:20 am Hjörleifshöfði Yoda Cave
So our first spot of the day was a spot that wasn’t as touristy as the other main spots. It’s off the track and believe we only found it through Instagram or Tiktok. You drive off a main road onto a gravel road for a while. It doesn’t look like it leads to much. We pulled over at this point and decided to get a few driving drone shots of the car of the Vlog. The flat dark landscape contrasted well with the cloudy sky. The Sunrise was around 10:00 am. We check out the cave, the best view is from inside looking out giving the Yoda/Grogu-shaped hole. It’s definitely one for Star Wars lovers.
10:30 am 36-minute drive to Solheimasandur plane crash (40 minute at location)
Solheimasandur plane crash has bee on my bucketlist of places to take photos for a while. There is a car park marked on google maps which is very easy to find. Parking cost around £4.42 (Depending on conversion). So there is a few different options here on what you could do here. From the car park, it is around 5km to the crash site. This would take around 1 hour to walk each way. And tbh it’s just a flat landscape and there really isn’t anything to see on the way. However, there is a shuttle from the car park that happens every 30 minutes (I think). Now it isn’t cheap. It’s was £17 each. But when you think about the time you will save from not walking, and if you only have a few hours of sunlight a day it’s worth it. and with how the weather kept changing that day, it was great to stay dry. One minute it was sunshine, the next it was hail. gotta love Icelands weather.
The plane wreck is what is left of a US Navy Douglas Super DC-3 which crash landed here in 1973, whilst operating a supply mission between Hofn Hornafjördur Airport and Stokksnes, Iceland. Once at the site it can be very busy. Trying to get a shot of the plane without many people in it is very hard. Thank god for photoshop. You can go inside the pane, and on the right side, you can climb up onto the roof if you want to. This is the plane that features in Justin Biebers music video I’ll Show You. While we were there we had to take cover in the plane from the hail until the shuttle came back. And we even saw a double rainbow.
12:30 pm 1hr 55min drive
2:25 pm Gullfoss ( 30 mins max)
During the drive, we stopped off at a petrol garage got some snacks and made our way to Gullfoss. Gullfoss was one of the busiest spots of our trip. This is because of all the coaches running Golden circle tours. Gullfoss is the largest of the waterfalls that we saw on this trip. and we timed it just right so that we were there during golden hour, so the light was hitting the waterfall beautifully. Theres a few viewing points to check out while you’re here and a big gift shop if you wanted to grab some gifts.
2:55 pm 9-minute drive
3:05 pm Strokkur Geyser, (30 mins max)
Strokkur Geyser was only a short drive from Gullfoss. There are a few gysers to see, smaller ones that erupt more frequently. with the largest that erupts every hour. The water is over 100C and the only thing stopping you from touching it is a small rope, so use common sense.
3:35pm 1hr 20 drive to Reykjavik 4:15pm Sunset
After the Strokkur Geyser, we drove back to Reykjavik through National Park. It’s a really nice drive. We pulled over a few times in the lay by to take some photos. by the time we got to Reykjavik, it was dark. We checked into our Air bnb which was only a few roads away from our first one on day one. This Airbnb was great, it had so many rooms and a large open living space. Again it was only a short walk to the bars and restaurants. We got on scooters and decide to check out the lighthouse on the coast to see if we could see the northern lights as this was the spot people mentioned seeing it the night before. however, we didn’t see it, unfortunately. We went to bastards bar for some food and drinks and played some darts for the evening.
Stay at Reykjavik
Day 4
We got up, checked out our air bnb and drove the hours to the airport. Dropped out the car off outside the airport to the right. It’s only a short walk. then flew home to Heathrow Airport.
I hope you enjoyed the itinerary. Below you can see my Packing list, Photos of the trip and the 2 part Vlog.
Iceland Packing list (With amazon links to help)
Power bank - https://amzn.to/3h3OR2G
Car adapter (if the car doesn’t have CarPlay) - https://amzn.to/3uvlRUB
Car phone holder - https://amzn.to/3HfWmhV
Rain coat - https://amzn.to/3F4gIbb
Rain trousers/snow trousers - https://amzn.to/3F4gIbb
Crampons (shoe spikes) - https://amzn.to/3UDCmJ5
Quick dry towel - https://amzn.to/3Hl52DL
Sunglasses - Polarised preferred
Merino Wool Thermals/ Base layers - https://amzn.to/3Y67WSv
Snood - https://amzn.to/3P7uDBF
Gloves - https://amzn.to/3VFxAvS
Beanie
Water bottle
Walking boots
Moisturiser
Lip balm
Camera
Tripod
Torch
Travel: OZ Blog Ep: 8 - Week 6 Noosa
What’s up everyone!
The next stop on our trip was Noosa. A nice coastal town with nice beaches. We spent a few days here before our Fraser Island trip. We stayed at Nomad’s, as they are who we booked out Fraser trip with. awesome hostel, clean rooms, has a pool area, the bar food was really good and the bar was always lively and the place to be in Noosa. Other than our usual chilling in the day and drinking and partying at night, we managed to get out after hearing about some cool places on the coastal walk. Strangely we found some old junior school friends at our hostel, small world ay. I would highly recommend doing the coastal walk. lovely views, not challenging walk at all. And it’s just a nice way to spend sunset. One of the spots which I would highly recommend is the Fairy Pools. It’s not the easiest to find if you stick to the path but if you’re lucky you can see a few people going there. Its a couple of big rocks raised up from the sea level that fills up with water for the bigger waves, creating a natural swimming pool. It’s a pretty cool spot to chill and jump into as its quite deep when filled. We walked all the way up to a spot called hell’s gate, which we heard about from watching a video of cliff jumpers jumping from that spot, looking at it in person. I wouldn’t dare.
Only being here for a few days we didn’t explore the area too much. But we did see Marvel Avengers: End Game part one at the time in the cinema, which was a must for us Marvel nerds.
If you haven’t already checked out part one of my Aus travel videos, you can see a few clips from the Noosa coastal walk at the end. And also the pictures below which I took while in Noosa.
Next Stop Fraser Island!
Travel: OZ Blog Ep: 7 - Week 6 Australia Zoo
Hey Everyone! Now I don’t know about you but I spent a lot of my childhood watching The Crocodile Hunter, loved watching Steve Irwin with all the animals. And I was gutted to find out about his death on the news. I had to go to his zoo that I used to watch all them years ago. It was cool to see lots of animals I hadn’t seen before. Escpaiclly my new favourite Australian animal the Echidna. Basically like a hedgehog with a moles face which waddles about, pretty cool right! I would highly recommend visiting if you enjoy learning and looking at animals. Here are a few shots I took below.
Also Check out my Australia Travel Video Part 1, which you can see some of the animals in.
Next Stop Noosa
Philippines 2019 Part 2 - Coron & Boracay
So after a few days, a few boat tours and many red horse beers we decided to move to our next stop, Coron. Getting the ferry from El Nido port to Coron. Touching the port on Coron we were met by a swarm of trike drivers trying to get you to use them. Fact! Don’t pay more than 150 max. They massively up the price. So again we were out of luck booking the hostel we wanted. Getting a trike to the top of the hill to Hop to try and check-in, unfortunately, they were booked up, and they don’t have a sexy house. We managed to get a hostel just out of town slightly called Fat Monkey. Lovely hostel if you want peace and quiet, has a great hammock area, but you need to be with good people to have any form of a good time. Luckily for us, we managed to make a great group on the first day. Shout out the Fat Monkey crew.
We got up to many things while in Coron, we went to the hot springs, Hired a boat with some friends to a few more island destinations like Baracuda Lake. If you get offered a spring roll looking thing with rice and banana inside, buy loads. They are one of the tastiest things I’ve eaten on my travels. We went on a trip in the night to kayak a lake to see fireflies and plankton, which honestly is probably one of the most magical things I’ve ever witnessed. Do take note of how the moon is though, we did it on a full moon and the visibility is worse for the plankton and you have to go under trees to be able to see them.
In regards to nightlife. Hop Hostel holds events on the rooftop, which are pretty good. And in town, there is a bar called No Name Bar, which is the best out of limited options. When trying to leave Coron it became difficult with our original plan. Originally we were going to get a ferry somewhere to then eventually get to Boracay. However, due to the ferry schedule was different from what it was originally online. Weighing up the cost and losing days we decided to fly from Francisco B. Reyes Airport, formerly Busuanga Airport.
Now there’s only really one reason why you got to Boracay. To party. Putting the cameras down for a few days was nice. We stayed at Mad Monkeys hostel, known for the party vibe. And it was just that. From the moment we go there we partied in the hostel, Woke up to go onto a boat party with Mad Monkeys all day to then go to the hostel bar and then to a Club to continue till the early hours of the morning. A few days are enough otherwise your liver may hate you. Amazing staff and family vibe to Mad Monkeys. Just don’t get caught with a drink in your left hand otherwise you will hear ‘HUGO!’ and have to neck your drink through a funnel. And if you are patriotic about your country and wanting to be the best. Help your country be on the top of the leader board for Boracay Bombs shots. Obviously if partying isn’t your thing you wouldn’t need to go to Boracay. After the partied filled few days we flew to Cebu to go to our next destination Moal Boal.
Check out the pictures below of Coron and Part 2 of my Philippines Travel Video.
Travel: OZ Blog Ep: 5 - Week 5/6 Brisbane
Hey Everyone! I know I’m terrible at getting around to blogging all the spots I went to. And I’ve even finished all the videos for Australia finally!
So Brisbane. Still, on the route of making our way up the east coast, Mark and I were lucky enough to stay at my family friends apartment for a week in Fortitude Valley. Was really nice to have some space, chill in a lounge in an evening watching TV and catching up on a bit of life admin.
Our first proper day we met our hometown friend Jack, who was going to be joining us on our trip after Brisbane. We hopped into Jack’s Subaru Forrester and went to check out Mt Coot-tha look out over the city. After a brief wander around that area, we went to check out South Bank for some food and a see touristy things like the Brisbane sign.
The nightlife was pretty awesome in Brisbane. So much to choose from in Fortitude Valley and it gets pretty busy. a few of the places we checked out were Rick’s. It caught my attention as there was a band playing in the front room and after everyone disappeared. it wasn’t till I went to the toilet I found a whole outdoor area packed with people dancing. It was good from what I can remember haha. Another place I checked out was The Brightside. now if your a post-emo kid like myself you will love it. A converted church looking building, live music and after alternative rock Dj’s playing everything from My Chemical Romance to Paramore. Reminding me of District and Face Down nights with have in the UK. So if that’s your thing definitely check it out.
Another thing I would recommend going to is the Wet n Wild waterpark. It’s a good day out with friends. and some of the slides are unreal. it was a bonus that Billabong had a shop there and it had a massive sale on too.
Next stop Surfers Paradise
Travel: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
So it’s been a while since I’ve done a blog post. This year has honestly been mental, which you will find out in the coming posts. Luckily it being December I have a little downtime to get round to writing these.
So let’s go! Flashback to March 2018. I was away in Kuala Lumpur. While there I managed to get a little time to go explore the more touristy parts. So the first few images are at the Batu Caves. Anyone going there now wouldn’t see the same thing as they just revamped it with the new rainbow stairs and I’m sure they have finished the construction now that I saw with the temples inside. What can I say really, I was jet-lagged, it was so humid, and what else would I choose to do other than walk up a staircase of hundreds of steps. Great idea Charlie. Anyways back to me not moaning. One of the main reasons for me going there was I wanted to just take some nice portraits of the monkeys. It’s quite funny watching the monkeys open peoples backpacks and stealing their water and food. One man was walking up the steps feeding them Pringles, highly nutritious! And apparently he does it every day. Was quite nice to shoot for just the fun of it.
The second set of photos you see are from the city. Went out with a few friends to go grab a drink after a long day and to go see the famous Petronius Towers. Not going to lie they were pretty cool. Better to see from a distance unless you want neck ache. Luckily my friend knew of a sky bar, which had open windows to look out across to the towers. That’s where the last image is shot. Having to ask a group of drunken men if it was okay to take a picture from the VIP table was a laugh. From here I then got on a plane to Australia to start my amazing 4-month adventure, which I miss massively. Enjoy the images below!
- Charlie Bluck
Travel: Doha, Qatar
So as a part of a company I freelance for I get to travel the world. And on this occasion I was sent to Doha in Qatar. It was my first time being in the middle east, and what a experience it was. Going to a place that I would describe as a desert of fridges. Outside very hot and inside very cold. Im not gonna lie when I went out there I did miss certain foods, but you have got to experience the culture and there food too.
I visited a few places while in West Bay, my favourite being the museum of Islamic Art, probably the only place I found the building more interesting than the contents. You get an amazing view of West Bay too (as seen below). If you follow the walk way around the waterfront you come to a great little cafe with comfy loungers.
Another place I briefly visited was the Soouk. Traditional buildings, full of culture, and great food. A cool little place to wonder around for a new person in Qatar. I didn't explore too much on this time round but I'm back out there in January 2018 so expect some more shots then, Enjoy the shots below from this trip.
- Charlie Bluck
