In the month of July, I had the pleasure to visit Iceland. Seeing the country through Phoenix Photography eyes was truly amazing. There were a lot of lessons learned, but the main aspect of my journey was discovering exactly how beautiful this earth really is. I was there for 5 days, and each day just got better and better. This blog will be a two part post, I hope you enjoy it.

Upon arriving, I noticed the lack of traffic. This was fantastic to see, as I left with my rental car, 4×4 to be exact, I felt as though I could trek through anything, and I did! During the summer, Iceland doesn’t have nights, so to sleep, you must have black out curtains, and an eye mask is encouraged. At 1 in the morning, I drove out to the middle of nowhere, and found a waterfall after a 30-minute hike to get to it. It was absolutely breathtaking. Trollafoss to be exact.

On the second day, I went to Blue Lagoon, which is a very popular spa, with natural hot springs. While in the water, you can get two masks put on, afterwards, I got a 30 minute massage followed by a glass of champagne at the walk up bar. After spending 3.5 hours here, it was time to head back to my airbnb and see what waterfall was next on my to see list.

On the third day, I did the Golden Circle. It is basically a 1 day adventure to see and hit multiple sites. And man, it was worth it. My first stop was snorkeling between the European and North American continental plates. The location was the Silfra Springs. The water was so clear, you could see as far as you could under water, it was majestic. The water itself takes 30 years to travel from the mountain and is purified through the lava rock, so by the time it arrives, you can just drink it, no big deal. After the snorkeling experience, I continued onto the Waterfall nearby, then the geyser. To finish the day, I ended up at a Crater, which was magnificent.

On the fourth day, I woke up at 7am, by 730 am I had contacted Hella Horse Tours and booked my seat for the 10am ride. When I arrived, amazing staff greeted me, followed by the most beautiful horses you have ever seen, followed by a tour that would make your jaw drop. The tour took you through streams, flower fields, and lava rock. After the tour, I continued driving and pulled over here and there checking out waterfalls and scenic places as I found them.

On the 5th day, I just enjoyed the time I had left, freestyle, and checked out what I could. One thing to note is, while the flights are cheap to get here, the cost of food is 3-4 times more expensive to what you’re used to. I am not exaggerating, plan accordingly to bring your own food, cook your own meals, etc, because you will go broke eating out. Each meal was about $35-50 each time. After the second meal, I bought my own groceries which is still expensive, and cooked for myself.

Some pro tips would be this, go into Iceland with a plan, but don’t have a plan. Get a rental car and make sure it’s a 4×4. Don’t stay in one place, hotel or airbnb as you travel throughout the island. I regret not seeing more because I could only drive out so far before I had to turn back and get home. Make your own meals. Make sure you bring warm clothes that are waterproof and water resistant, it rains a lot and it’s cold. Make sure you document your trip with a high-end DSLR camera and Gopro if you can, the experiences you have will blow your mind. Iceland has even more to offer than what I saw. There are whale site seeing tours, ice caves, glacier hiking, the list goes on. In next month’s blog post, I will be doing a complete recap of my European tour. But Iceland was perhaps the best outdoor experience I wanted to share first.

 

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