Mr. Strange and I have been talking about going to Iceland for as long as I remember. So we decided it would be perfect to celebrate our fifth anniversary and first trip alone since LS was born. However, our anniversary is in March, and we didn’t want to be driving in snow, so we decided to plan our trip for later in the year in September.

September is the beginning of the shoulder season in Iceland. The number of tourists are decreased from the high season in June and July, the weather starts to get a little colder, the days are starting to get shorter, and the probability of seeing the northern lights (something on both of our bucket lists!) starts to increase.

I began to research all the different sites in Iceland, knowing that we wanted to spend roughly a week there, as I did not think I could be away from LS any longer than that for our first time apart. I decided upon a roadtrip along the southern coast, as there are a lot of popular and beautiful areas to see, and trying to do the entire Ring Road would be awfully rushed in our timeframe.

Day 0 – Travel

Coming from the US, the flight to Iceland is overnight, so our first day is spent entirely in airports and planes.

Day 1 – Monday, September 5 – Airport to Golden Circle

• Pick up rental car at airport
• Blue Lagoon
• Þorufoss – Skipped due to plane being delayed and being exhausted.
• Þingvellir
• Gullfoss
• Stay near Geysir

Day 2 – Tuesday, September 6 – Golden Circle to Vik – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

• Strokkur/Geysir
• Faxi – Skipped because we were seeing much bigger waterfalls and wanted to make sure we had some extra time for them.
• Kerid Crater
• Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi
• Skogafoss and Kvernufoss
• Dyrhólaey
• Reynisfjara Beach
• Stay in Vik

Day 3 – Wednesday, September 7 – Vik to Vatnajökull – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

• Katla ice cave tour
• Eldhraun Lava Fields
• Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
• Dverghamrar – This was on my possible stop list so we checked it out since we were making good time.
• Fjallsarlon
• Jökulsárlón and diamond beach
• Stay near glacier lagoons

Day 4 – Thursday, September 8 – Vatnajökull – Part 1 | Part 2

• Jökulsárlón glacier boat tour
• Svínafellsjökull
• Svartifoss hike
• Stay at Panorama Glass Lodge – this was the first thing I booked that I based our entire itinerary around because there was only one available date

Day 5 – Friday, September 9 – Westman Islands

Due to a flat tire from the day before that we spent the morning getting fixed, plans for this day changed. We probably still could have made it to Heimaey, but it was pouring rain there (not ideal for a ferry ride) and our boat tour was canceled, so we opted to head on to Reykjavik.

• Ferry to Heimaey
• Westman Islands boat tour
• Lava field walk from Stafkirkjan
• Eldfell volcano hike
• Eldheimar museum
• Ferry back to mainland
• Caves of Hella
• Explore Reykjavik
• Stay in Reykjavik

Day 6 – Saturday, September 10 – Reykjavik – Part 1 | Part 2

• Þríhnúkagígur volcano tour
• Explore Reykjavik
• Sky Lagoon
• Northern Lights tour – Since we had yet to see the Northern lights, we made a last minute decision while driving to Sky Lagoon to book a tour as a last ditch effort to see them, knowing it was going to be too overcast and bright in the city.
• Stay in Reykjavik

Day 7 – Sunday, September 11 – Travel

• Return rental car at airport
• Fly home