ICELAND HIGHLIGHTS

Scenic Drive Highlights from The Ring Road

 

I had 11-Days to complete the entire country of Iceland via "Route 1" also known as "The Ring Road". My son kept wanting me to turnaround but I continued until we found ourselves in the Eastfjords. The weather was on our side and I wouldn't do anyting to risk my family.

We used the road.is website to check for road conditions and it was recommended that we have at least 14-days to do the full Route 1 drive. We only had our first two nights of hotels booked and we would use the weather to decide if we go to the North and the unpredictable East Coast. April is not "high season" so found a room for four fairly easily, but, I would not recommend this plan in the summer when the majority of travelers visit "The Land of Fire & Ice". It had only been a few days since a massive snow storm caused evacuations in the town of Elglisstadir while we were visiting The Westfjords area, yet, we stopped in Elglisstadir for dinner, only three days later. I have to commend the Icelandic road crews because they keep Route 1 exceptionally clear.

Day 1: Reykjavic:

(A chilly and breezy night in Reykjavic on March 29, 2023. Not unexpected.)

We landed at Keflavik airport and walked over to Blue Car Rental instead of waiting for the shuttle since it is a quick walk. We picked up our all-wheel drive Toyota "Rav4" and drove about 45-minutes to Reykjavic where we parked at our guesthouse for the evening. "The Blue House" hosts greeted us with fresh baked sourdough bread, blueberry/chocolate chip cake and beverages. It was a cute little house with the keyword being "little". The rooms are very small so we left our one large bag in our vehicle. We kept it in a positioin where we could quickly unzip the bag and get out anything we may need when necessary. We had only booked our first two nights stay so our carry-ons had the essentials like phone chargers and toiletries. I typically use Expedia for travel bookings since they have always been open to travel voucher credits when a hotel or flight was not up to par and I appreciate that. I've also used AirBnB quite successfully. We booked "The Blue House" through AirBnB. Once we had a snack and we were settled in, we headed into town for a proper meal. We used the famous Hallgrimskirkja Church as our landmark.

After a few pictures of the church, we walked across the street to discover "Cafe Loki" which ended up being the perfect spot for a great meal with a view of the Lutheran Church. Loki is the nordic god of mischief which makes him my kinda guy!

After a short walk and drive to the marina, we headed back to sleep so we could be refreshed for our drive north to West Iceland.

Day 2: Borgarnes:

(The Kirkjufell Mountain aka "Arrowhead Mountain" on the TV show "Game of Thrones" appears smaller when snow covered).

We drove from Reykjavic to Borgarnes on our way to drive the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We stopped for pizza at the quaint: La Colina Pizzeria. Very thin crust pizza and the only time I've been ordered to take two pizzas! "One is not enough for four of you". LOL. The owner was very nice and gave us a map of the peninsula and circled sites to see.

(Luke and I enjoying a decent slice of pizza. It was good but not like the "rave" reviews some on TripAdvisor were claiming. Of course, food is subjective but Argentina has much better pizza.)