19 Tips I Wish I Knew Before Visiting Iceland

✅ Here’s the exact list I share with friends visiting Iceland (my free guide): https://bit.ly/Iceland-Guide-Camden

These 19 tips to know before visiting Iceland are what I wish I knew before my trip to Reykjavik, Iceland. Hopefully these travel tips will help you from making some of my mistakes when traveling through Iceland and driving the Golden Circle!

☕️ Every Tuesday, I share a travel tip you’ll actually use — like advice from a friend who travels nonstop — https://bit.ly/TheTuesdayTravelTip

DiscoverCars (the site where I found cheap the rental car) — https://bit.ly/DiscoverCars-CamdenDavid

Universal adapter I used in Iceland — https://amzn.to/3N0YzAg

The eSIM I used in Iceland to keep my phone connected — https://airalo.pxf.io/CamdenDavid — You can get 15% off as a new user by using code: CAMDEN15

DISCLAIMER: I only express my opinion based on my experience. Your experience may be different. Links above may include affiliate commission or referrals. I’m part of an affiliate network and I receive compensation from partnering websites. This video is accurate as of the posting date but may not be accurate in the future.

I just got back from Iceland and there are a few things I wish I had known ahead of time couple mistakes that I made that man I just wish I could have had back so I’m going to warn you about all those tell you what I wish I could have done a little bit different so stick with me you’ll be well prepared on your trip but I do want to warn you if you’re coming here for Blue Lagoon information unfortunately I don’t have any tips for you there because well this happened yeah we couldn’t go to the Blue Lagoon because this volcano was erupting they shut down the Blue Lagoon cuz it was unsafe to get there really cool seeing the volcano though but don’t worry I got tons of extra tips for you so first thing that I kind of wish I had known was we made the mistake of buying into the hype that ruic is kind of overrated and that you should just focus on the nature and while the nature in Iceland is obviously incredible we’ll get there in a minute ruic was much cooler than we anticipated we wish that we had spent a little bit more time in the city we found it to just be really artsy really Charming kind of cute it’s right up against the water and thought there was a lot to do as well so one of those things that we don’t think that you should Miss is the big church you probably have already heard about that and it is completely free it is well worth your visit it’s just an absolutely stunning Church no reason to miss it and if you’re looking for like a traditional Icelandic meal there is this restaurant called skull it is on the Michelin guide so it’s a little bit pricey we paid under $100 US for two people and the food was phenomenal it’s in this cute little food haul and I’d highly recommend it definitely a fun atmosphere but if you’re looking for a different dinner recommendation this one also was just under $100 for two people and it’s called fetta Baron we had a great meal there definitely recommend them but probably my biggest food recommendation is there’s this place called bruan Co which is this little pastry shop and we were told that they have great cinnamon rolls and my wife loves cinnamon rolls so we went to check it out guys I don’t know what they’re doing to these cinnamon rolls but I do not say this lightly they are the best cinnamon rolls we’ve tried anywhere on planet Earth and we move to a new country every single month so we’ve tried quite a few you got to go and check that place out and the last ruic recommendation is there’s like the prominade if you wake up early You’ kind of got that prominade to yourself at h like right up against the water it is just a lovely place for a walk and lovely place to enjoy that Simon roll so take full advantage of that but let’s talk about what most of you are probably here for and it’s the nature and the Golden Circle if you’re not familiar the Golden Circle is the typical tourist route that people like to do when they’ve only got a couple days maybe even just one day in Iceland so I’m going to tell you a few different things I really wish I had known about this ahead of time the first is that I do think it is well worth renting a car yes you can do like tour operated things where they’re going to take care of Transportation but Iceland is just really spread out and if you’re doing one of those tours you’re just not going to have the flexibility so depending how many people are in your party it might save you some money to rent a car that’s what we did and we felt like it was well worth the opportunity to do that now if you are going to rent a car make sure not to make the mistake of renting from the domestic airport there are two airports and they’re really close by KF is the airport code of the main International Airport that’s likely where you’ll be flying into if you make the mistake of renting from rkv you’re probably going to land at the other airport and then have to pay for Transit all the way over to that other airport and you’re going to be out some money so don’t make that mistake and if you do want to know where I rented from I rented through a place called discover cars.com they’re a super budget carrier and it’s just this website I’ve used them in a lot of places around Europe and have always had a good experience they didn’t pay me to say that but I do have an affiliate link down below so if you want to check them out and if it fits your budget feel free to use that link it does support this channel let’s talk about what you should actually plan for on the Golden Circle route what’s important to note is that most of the folks who are not going to have rental cars they’re going to be in those tour operator groups and there’s going to be swarms of people they typically do the national park first then the guys are in the waterfall and I know that probably sounds confusing I’ll get there but to avoid the crowds just do it opposite which is what we did so follow my route and you’ll avoid the crowds alt together and you’ll see a couple extra places so all of this was easily drivable in a day and that’s what we did our first stop was this hot springs and I did make a mistake here but I do think it’s worth checking out because it’s just right on your way it’s hardly get detour at all and the hot springs are beautiful but my mistake here was not budgeting enough time for it we probably didn’t get up early enough in the morning I’d probably recommend starting your drive by like 8:00 a.m. because if you do want to go up to those hot springs you do need to hike about an hour once you park your car to get to where the actual Hot Springs are so we went and we just kind of like admired the landscape and it was beautiful but we didn’t actually get to take a dip there but I do have more coming up later so don’t worry one of the other things that I totally screwed up was I didn’t completely know what to anticipate weatherwise I saw like mid 50 so I was like oh this is going to be pretty warm n there was a lot of wind it was really cold we were pretty cold the whole entire time so yes bring your swimsuits but also make sure that you have stuff that’s going to break the wind and it’s going to keep you warm cuz even in the summer months expect things to be a bit chilly but the next place that is easy and on this route is this crater and a lot of people say that the crater is kind of overrated from our perspective it was great uh actually better than anticipated really cheap to get in I think it was like $3 and there was hardly a detour all and it was really beautiful so I definitely check out that crater if you get the opportunity the next stop would end up being the secret Lagoon which is hot springs and it is beautiful it’s not so secret everybody seems to know about it but it wasn’t overly packed especially because you’d end up getting there kind of in the earlyish to midm morning area so you’re not going to deal with a ton of tourists at that point beautiful area it’s kind of exactly what you’d probably be looking for in a hot springs Adventure so highly highly recommend them now after the secret Lagoon you’re a pretty easy drive to the gfos waterfall which is the first spot that you might run into some tourists but it wasn’t super packed when we were there there were definitely crows but it was still well well worth it completely free again definitely something you should not miss the thing that you could miss if you wanted to is next up and that is the main geyser it is again a super short drive from the Gulf for waterfall and it’s kind of on your way back to rivic so you will be driving by it but just temper expectations and note that there going to be a lot of tourists there’s not a lot around that area so it does get pretty packed and most of the time is spent just kind of waiting for the geyser to erupt and it is really cool but if there’s one thing that we probably would have skipped it would probably be that but not saying that you should just keep that in mind if that’s important to you now the next thing from there is you’re going to drive into the National Park which is absolutely gorgeous I would recommend filling up on gas at that point before you head into the national park because you’ll get through a stretch where there’s not many gas stations around so keep that in mind National Park is beautiful but this next thing was probably my biggest mistake on the trip so after you hit the national park there’s this place called the HMI hammi HMI I do not speak icelantic Kik vamik Kik VMI bom MC Hot Springs these things are just absolutely incredible you could see all the people like sitting in the hot springs overlooking a lake you’ve got these like just Majestic like Cliffs like hanging on the other side like when you think of just out in nature like the most peaceful thing that you can think of this is where my mind goes it was absolutely incredible but the biggest mistake we didn’t get to go on the hot springs because we didn’t make a reservation and they were fully booked they do have a restaurant there as well so you could plan a meal there but the big tip is just make sure you have a reservation so you don’t drive all the way there and then get turned away way like us but it wasn’t a total loss because we really do feel like that area driving back from there over to rubic was just the most scenic and just beautiful place to driveth through so even if you’re not going to do the hot springs themselves I’d highly recommend if you have time to just set some time aside to make that drive cuz it is just absolutely stunning but I hope all this was helpful I hope it makes sense if you have any questions leave them in the comment section down below and we’ll catch you guys next time