Iceland

November 2016, the four of us took a girls trip to Iceland! We wanted to do more than what the packaged tours were offering, meaning, leaving the main city of Reykjavik and brave the famous Ring Road, Highway 1. We also wanted our hotel and airfare costs to be around $1,000. Spoiler alert:  Mission Accomplished!

Day One

We left Los Angeles on Wow Air and arrived in Iceland at 6 am. The rental bus took us to Blue Car Rental, near the airport, however, too cold for us to drag our luggage and walk there.

Our rental car, a Kia Sorrento, affectionally named “Bertha”, was a smaller SUV that fit the four of us and our luggage comfortably. We left Keflavik airport and headed towards the city to pick up our mifi. It was still dark for a while, and nothing was open except for a neighborhood bakery we just happened to pass. We purchased a loaf of bread, among other baked goodies and also found an open grocery store where we got proteins to go with our bread.

Our first waterfall

Hidden Waterfall

Our first night, we stayed at the Icelandair Hotel in Vik. Just beneath the famous red church. We drove through the small town, don’t blink or you’ll miss it, and there was only two places to go for dinner.  We settled on a restaurant and grabbed some pizza.

Day Two

Underestimating jet lag, we got a late start this morning, and missed some sunlight.  During November, there was only about 6 hours of daylight.  Carrie happened to wake up first and saw a slither of light peak through the curtains and jumped out of bed. Her gasp startled me, and I was instantly awake.  We quickly packed up and headed out the door.

Do you know how to open the gas cover in a Kia Sorrento? You think it’s easy? The four of us took almost half an hour to figure this out. Note to self, add to list of questions to ask the rental company. The gas station was right across from the hotel, but didn’t have much breakfast options, except for coffee.