Following my trip to Iceland, I’ve noticed that even though I had a great time, I also had things that I didn’t like about the beautiful island of Iceland. Here is the list of the highlights of my trip, and as well as the lows.
WHAT I LOVED ABOUT ICELAND
Natural beauty: Iceland is blessed with natural treasures, everywhere you look is picture perfect. From the lakes, to the fields- Iceland is mesmerising with its views, and the white snow only makes it look even more beautiful.
Marking seeing a Geyser off my bucket list: I’ve always wanted to see a Geyser and it has been on my bucket list for ages. In Iceland I finally got to see it and it was absolutely fascinating. We visited a site called the Great Geysir that had many Geysirs, one was very big and erupted every few minutes and the rest were smaller but with constant smoke coming out.
The Blue Lagoon: It was very relaxing to spend the day with my boyfriend swimming in the lagoon and feel like we have no worries in the world. Drinking a smoothie, swimming, taking pictures, getting mud on our faces- it was such a fun day.
That unfamiliar feeling: Don’t know about you but since some countries are so different than where I come from I get this unfamiliar feeling, which I love! Iceland is not the typical European country that I’m used to visit (such as Paris, London, etc), it has very different things to offer and therefore I felt a bit out of my comfort zone but in a good way. It was nothing like I’ve ever seen or experienced before.
Being there around Christmas time: Every single house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Being a Jew, I found it very interesting that every house invested so much in their lights and Christmas decorations. Especially, it gave our holiday a special festive vibe.
(See also: Attractions in Iceland)
WHAT I HATED ABOUT ICELAND
The Blue Lagoon will ruin your hair: I made the mistake of getting my hair wet. I had no idea that my hair (which is very long) will get simply RUINED by the water. It took about 10 washes and a lot of virgin coconut oil to repair my hair. I feel like there should have been some warning about this at the site. They did ask us to put the special conditioner on our hair HOWEVER it did not prevent my hair from becoming stiff as a board.
The northern lights tour: I know this is probably surprising for a lot of you, but I really did not like the Northern lights tour I went on. First of all, the main reason why I hated it is because I DID NOT GET TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. I understand that this is the reason why many people visit Iceland, but in order to see the northern light you need to be lucky, so if you ever go on one of these tours just consider that it is no guaranteed that you will actually get to see it. Naturally, I was very disappointed that we didn’t find the lights. On top of all, it was freezing that night, even on the bus which didn’t had a good heating system, and most of the time we were just standing outside in the snow hopelessly looking at the waiting to see something or waiting in a cafe with a bunch of other disappointed tourists. Now, we did see something eventually, a tiny little bit of green in the sky but it was nowhere close to the real deal. We were just cold, tired from the flight, hungry and disappointed.
It is slippery everywhere: You need to be extremely careful not to slip when you walk on the snow that turned into ice. Me and my boyfriend like to take walks so on the evenings we decided to explore Rejkrejvik by foot. Needless to say, just the simple act of walking was very challenging when you’re stepping on ice, rather than snow. We almost fell numerous time and had to hold on to each other. We had to walk very slow and be careful which made what would have been just a 5 minutes walk to a restaurant take at least 20 minutes, no exaggerating.
It is boring after dark: After dark there is not much to do in Rejkrejvik. As I mentioned earlier, in our evening walks the streets were completely empty and we couldn’t find much to do. Our hotel was not the most central to be fair but it was located where all the rest of the hotels are, just a bit outside the city center, so you would expect something to be happening don’t you?
Not enough hours of sunlight: When we woke up for breakfast at 10am it was still completely dark, which makes it harder to wake up because it feels quit “early”. But the worst part about it was rushing to see everything you wanted to see in the daylight before it gets dark again. If I recall it got dark around 15:30 (we were there mid December). Also, when we did the golden circle tour that was the reason why the tour was very rushed because they wanted us to be able to see all the sites while it’s daylight.
This is it about Iceland, if you got any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments below.
To stay updated:
From what I’ve heard, there are a lot of pros & cons to visiting Iceland in the summer such as this! It’s amazing that you were able to visit regardless. 🙂 I’m going in September.
weirdwonderfulwanderlust.blogspot.com
Are you? you’re going to have so much fun! I loved it regardless of all the cons of course, I just wanted to bring two sides in my posts so that people will decide for themseleves if it’s worth it 🙂
This should be renamed “What I loved and hated about Iceland in Winter”
Agreed!! I’m going in July, and shouldn\’t have these problems. If you do research on the Blue Lagoon, you’ll learn not to get your hair wet!
I loved Iceland and I was so pleasantly surprised that it has some of the most amazing book stores and coffee in addition to incredible landscapes. For those planning to go to Iceland summer is the best time. Also, the Blue Lagoon is a big tourist trap. There lots of small hot springs used by locals. It’s said some go daily. Cheaper, less crowed and you get to be with the locals.
Loved Iceland , we went in October ,rented a car had the most wonderful time .
The nature is amazing , the air fresh , it’s just beautiful.
Did not see any northern lights either , but hey , that’s nature for you .
The Blue Lagoon is a tourist trap but i wanted to go anyways , just to say ” check ” been there done that ., and i was happy i did , it was great .
Thank you for this comment. My daughter and I are going next month, October. We have booked a camper van and will be there for 10 days, I hope to see the Northern Lights in that time. But if it doesn’t work out, I may just have to make another trip. We plan on checking out the Blue Lagoon as well, just because. Thank you again for your positive comment, we so looking forward to our trip.
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My daughter and I went in May and had the most wonderful experience. We were not interested in Nothern lights.
There was day light for about 20 hours. We rented a 4WD and drove all around the Island and saw all the wonderful waterfalls, Icebergs, volcanic craters, Geysers, puffins (they were so cute) and spent an evening at the Blue lagoon too. The landscape was just amazing. Food is not that great but I enjoyed the fish soups. Their Ice cream is so creamy. Weather was just fantastic, sunny and not too cold. We really enjoyed Iceland.
Make a more new posts please 🙂
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Sanny
This was a great post! I am going with my fiance next month in March. I am so excited!