Iceland with Kids – The Itinerary Roundup
Iceland often felt like a Willy Wonka adventure – chartreuse marshmallow moss; pots of smoky, boiling chocolate mud; rivers of crackling ice; holes in the ground exploding with scalding water that turns to froth; and azure lakes with floating blue diamonds. With all these unbelievable sights and a culture of belief in fairies and elves, Iceland is a natural destination for families. This Iceland Itinerary will help you plan your own trip.
Iceland isn’t a well-kept secret. The country has transformed its economic structure since the financial crisis in 2008 and is now struggling with being a little too amazing. They have more tourism than capacity and infrastructure to manage but, for better or worse, that is changing.
General Tips
- Make sure to check out our Iceland reading list. One of my all-time favorites is on there.
- Rent a campervan. Because Beija says so in this post. Driving was easy, the roads were smooth (when you were on-road), and the maps we got at the rest stop gas station were very accurate.
- It is extremely expensive. Buying groceries was shocking.
- Going in summer? Bring eye shades so everyone can sleep. It is never dark.
- Be ready to initiate conversation if you want it. Icelanders are like me: introverted but friendly when engaged.
- Stop and hike everywhere, get off the main road! There are amazing things tucked behind every hill.
- Learn a few words that will help you navigate locations like jökull (volcano) and foss (waterfall), but almost all Icelanders speak English better than I do.
This is a map of our 14-day trip, starting in Reykjavík and looping all the way around the country. We took the first three days and went horseback riding in Þórsmörk (say Thor’s-mork, a mountain range named after the god Thor) then went back to Reykjavík for our campervan. That’s why you see the looping in the southwest. We weren’t actually lost. Since we had the campervan and cooked for ourselves most of the time you won’t find many restaurant or hotel recommendations here.
Summary of all the good stuff
Trip Length: Two weeks – 3 days on horseback and 11 days in the campervan
Time of year: Late June
Van rental: Camp Easy, but there are lots of others
Reykjavík: Laundromat Cafe, Tapas Barinn, Icelandic Fish & Chips, Fiskfelagid, Grillmarkadurinn, Bæjarins Beztu, and Snaps.
Thórsmörk: Íshestar horseback tours
Geysir: for the geyser
Fluðir: Gamla Laugin to swim and between Geysir and Fluðir, Friðheimar to eat
Skógafoss: for the waterfall
Heimaey: Ferry schedule and Eldheimar museum
Vik to Höfn: Kirkjubæjarklaustur for a walk, Kirkjugólf for the rocks, Vatnajökull/Svínasvellsjökull park and glacier hike, Jökulsárlón
Past Höfn: Brunnhóll for ice cream
Bakkagerði: Álfacafé for the best fish soup on the planet and visit the queen of the elves
Reykjahlið and Mývatn: Swim at Jarðböðin Nature Baths
Húsavík: Kaðlín Handicraft for local art
Vatnsnes Peninsula: Hvítserkur and Illugastadhir for walks
Bjarnarhofn: Bjarnarhofn Shark Museum
Borgarnes: The Settlement Centre museum
Vatnsnes Peninsula: Hvítserkur and Illugastadhir for walks
Reykjavík
We landed in Reykjavík and started walking right away. Partly because if we didn’t there was a very real possibility that we’d fall asleep standing up. We cruised around the central downtown area checking out public art and leaping off of anything leapable.
We listened to an amazing organ musician in the beautiful, geometric Hallgrímskirkja church. It makes me a little dizzy going between the angles of these two photos – does it do that to you?
We watched groups of people jogging in party dresses.
And, of course, eating. Restaurants I’d recommend are Laundromat Cafe (great menu and ambiance) and Tapas Barinn (amazing variety and flavors). There is also the Bæjarins Beztu hot dog stands if you are so inclined. Our friend Anneli, a frequent Reykjavik traveler, recommended these spots too. Reservations might help. Icelandic Fish & Chips (on the fancy side, delicious), Fiskfelagid (fabulous), Grillmarkadurinn (same!), and Snaps (Nordic comfort food).
Thórsmörk
Our three-day horseback riding trip was perfect in every way. You can see a short photo essay here that captures more of it. Íshestar did a great job with everything. It was basic, but met every need. I usually like traveling independently, but when there are horses involved it goes beyond my skill set. I am having a hard time choosing which picture to show you so make sure to check out the photo essay above. All that Icelandic pony mane is irresistible. Riding past glaciers and having your horse swim icy, raging rivers with you astride is an experience that you shouldn’t turn down.
Driving the Circle Road
Day 1: Hveragerði, Geysir, Flúðir, and Skógafoss
We spent our first night in the campervan at a formal campsite in Hveragerði. We never had a problem finding a spot in a campground, but we were told that you can camp anywhere if you check in with the farmer who owns the land. Beija slept in the loft above the main area and the back seats folded out to make a bed for Jay and me. It was perfectly cozy and as the door says, “simply easy.” A nice shower to clean off the horse smell, a little rain to go on top of our bacon, and a monster peering out of the van.
We cruised up the road to the famous Geysir and got our first taste of tourist buses. Just as we parked our rig to check out the steaming hot pools and geysers three tour buses pulled up with loads of people. It was a little overwhelming, but Beija figured out how to get right next to the big event and yet be perfectly alone…put on your rain jacket and stand in the spray. She did get drenched, but that is what rain gear is for. Iceland isn’t big on warning signs so anything dumb you do is on you.
We decided after the tour bus experience that we were going to try to get more off the beaten path. And the Gamla Laugin hot pools in Flúðir was it! We were the only ones there most of the time and enjoyed a peaceful connection with the steamy water and the slimy bottom.
Near Flúðir, a friend who was recently in Iceland recommended Friðheimar. It is a beautiful farm with geothermal heated greenhouses that specializes in everything tomato. And horses. Because, why not? Amy recommends the Bloody Mary and green tomato and apple pie.
We had a little time before our ferry to Vestmannaeyjar, anglicized to Westman Islands, (here is the ferry schedule) so we swung up to Skógafoss. I think there are as many waterfalls in Iceland as there are sheep – that is a lot. We started a little chant to the tune of the Australian fight song (Aussie, oi) every time we saw one of either – “fossy, fossy, fossy, sheep, sheep, sheep!” Ok, we are weird. But I bet you will do things like that too on your Iceland road trip.
Even if it wasn’t raining the rain jacket might have come in handy as we walked behind the rushing waterfall. Awesome power. I suggest not swimming here.
We got on the 9 pm ferry, but it didn’t really matter because it is light pretty much 24 hours in June. Coming into the harbor the sky gave us a peek of orange and there was only one other person in the silent green bowl of a camping area in Heimaey so we were happy!
Day 2: Heimaey
The next morning, waking up in Heimaey was magical. We got up early and wandered around the campground where there were replicas of typical Viking houses, then decided to just drive around the island while it was still quiet. We didn’t see a single other person as we parked at a turnout in the road and followed a path through the mist toward the ocean. Coming out of a fog bank, we found ourselves surrounded by rugged black cliffs, deep blue ocean, and… puffins!
We found Heimaey to be the perfect place to wander. The Eldheimar museum is one of the best I’ve been to. Small, focused, high tech, and had dramatic video of the lava flows engulfing the town inch by inch. In town, walking on the lava flow and finding the locations of buried buildings was fun. This pic is on the edge of the lava flow. I love the tidy, modern houses and the mix of the sharp, dark lava with the bright purple lupine.
Day 3: Vik, Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Svínafellsjökull, Jökulsárlón
After enjoying the day on the islands we took the ferry back to the mainland and spent the night in Vik. The campground wasn’t nearly as nice as others, but the chance to get to the mystical black sand beach before anyone else was totally worth it. The story goes that these are a troll’s fingers coming from the sea. He was caught in the sunlight and turned to stone.
The scenery moving across the southern coast is full of glaciers, sharp volcanic rocks and lava flows, all punctuated with June lupine.
And I can see why Icelanders believe in fairies. Who else would live in this soft moss?
We made a couple of stops this day to climb up to a pond and waterfall in Kirkjubæjarklaustur (church farm cloister) where there is some colorful lore about bathing nuns and a gold ring. In nearby Vatnajökull National Park you can find several jaw-dropping sights including geometric basalt columns in Kirkjugólf (church floor) and several glaciers. We did some walking at Svínasvellsjökull, below.
The sun felt fabulous because we’d been treated to the most typical of Iceland weather for the most part – bring a full suit of rain gear. Jökulsárlón was the next stop on a day packed full with adventures. It was crowded with tourists, but if you stop at the first sign of a pullout when you can’t yet see the glacial lake you can climb the berm and visit the iceberg pools nearly alone. After this, of course, we needed ice cream. We stopped at a quiet farm and guesthouse called Brunnhóll.
Days 4 and 5: Höfn, Bakkagerði
The Höfn campground had views of the ocean and the fishing community below the hill. Like most small towns, it had an excellent swimming pool. A set of pools, really. Tough Icelandic women alternated between the flaming hot and insanely cold pools. After a toe dip in each I accepted that I am not as hardy as they and contented myself in the Goldilocks temperature pool. Kid after kid shot into the air from the long water slide.
We stopped at a few more villages on the coast, then dove back into the interior in a long tunnel. This was one of the days with the most driving. We cruised fairly quickly through Egilsstaðir then jumped off the main “highway” into two-lane territory onto road 94 back toward the coast. The silent views on the way to Bakkagerði were some of my favorites and the town itself was sleepy and mystical. Sleepy because there are fewer than 150 residents and mystical because of one special resident, the queen of the elves. A Reyjkavik Grapevine article that tells the stories. We spent the evening wandering through the church and checking out a few of the classic turf houses remaining in the village.
We ate the most delicious fish stew on the planet at Álfacafé – I got the recipe and will test and share as the weather cools off. We looked for treasures on the rocky beach.
We climbed the hill where the queen lives to burn the mountains into our collective memories and generally poked around remnants of village life.
This was one of my favorite stops on the trip.
Day 6: Reykjahlið, Mývatn
One of the first things we noticed as we got closer to Mývatn was the steam. From far away it looked like small brush fires, but as we approached we saw a small parking lot and pulled off to see boiling mud pits, mini-geysers, and all kinds of bubbling, blister-causing nature. Some were thoughtfully marked off with a bit of dental floss (see the afterthought of fencing in the background of this photo), but most were just open to using your best judgment about how close to get.
We continued along the road to the best way to boost a child’s mood—swimming! The pools at Mývatn are a smaller and less crowded version of the famous Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik. The water is the color of Baskin and Robbins’ Daiquiri Ice sorbet but perfectly warm and wonderful.
Passing through even more steam at the local geothermal plant to get to town, we went toward the lake and several campgrounds near the water. As we stepped out of the van we were swarmed with small gnats who seemed to want to check out all the orifices in our faces. To escape and take care of our empty gas tank, we went to the local convenient store and tourist information stop. The walls were lined with hats draped with fine mesh netting, several varieties of bug spray, and dried cod (fiskur). We didn’t buy any of their merchandise because surely we could find a spot that was a little further from the water and without the little bugs. It turns out…no. Mývatn means “midge,” or super-annoying little bug, and there is no escape. Those dots on the lens below? I am pretty sure they are midges. We waved scarves around our heads on this whole hike.
We headed up into the hills before making dinner completely enclosed in the van to see this amazing geothermal energy plant and take a short walk around some impossibly blue crater lakes. The landscape here is exactly what you would expect an active volcanic landscape to look like. Several tall black cinder cones marking the slow movement of the tectonic plates, lakes filling extinct volcanic craters, steam rising from every open break in the earth. Hey, here’s one of Jay the photographer! A very nice German man with a hole in the crotch of his pants took this picture. Beija talked about it for days.
Day 7: Húsavík and Akureyri
As much as I loved the geography of Mývatn, I have to admit that the midges drove me out. I am no match for a tiny fly and was flooded with relief as we drove past the lake toward Húsavík. We arrived in the adorable fishing village and booked an outing on a whale watching boat. It was fuh-reeeezing out on the water, but we made do and seeing all the humpbacks was exciting. I was hoping to see blue whales, but they hid from me. Maybe next time. We stopped at Kaðlín Handicraft, an artist’s collective for a few gifts. The items felt the most handcrafted to us of most other shops we stopped in. The woman behind the cash register was knitting and a woman’s name was safety pinned to each sweater.
One thing to note, unless you are superhuman linguist or already speak a Nordic language you are not going to be able to pronounce anything. My strategy was to remember the first three or four letters and keep looking for them on maps and signs. This could lead to errors, but it worked out okay most of the time. Here’s Beija reading road signs. And these town names are even a reasonable length.
Akureyri is a fairly large city by Icelandic standards and we enjoyed the local pool, coffee shops, and a soccer match in a pub with many enthusiastic fans. One of my favorite things about this well-populated campground was this monster. I had so many images of the insane places we could go in this campertank. As long as there was a gas station nearby, of course.
Day 8: Vatnsnes Peninsula, Helgafell, Hvammstangi
From Akureyri we turned inland until we reached the Vatnsnes Peninsula. We skirted the perimeter and turned down the gravel road to walk at Hvítserkur. The towering basalt formation is nearly 50 feet tall and is surrounded by golden stones.
Beija got tired in the long grasses on the walk back up the hill and had to sit pensively for a photo op in her new Icelandic sweater from Húsavík. We purposely got it several sizes too big and it still fits three years later.
I think that I have raved repeatedly about my favorite book, Burial Rites. As we looped around the peninsula we stopped at the farm, Illugastadhir, where the murders took place (I’m not giving anything away here). It was a beautiful farm with eider duck nests and a seal colony. The grandson of the brother of the murdered man (take a minute with that) showed us the ruins of the original home.
We spent summer solstice at Hvammstangi and watched as the sun dipped below the horizon at 11:59 and rose again at 12:01. This is pretty much as dark as it got the entire time we were there.
Day 9: Stykkishólmur, Bjarnarhöfn, Hellissandur
The next day was the day of Valhalla, fermented shark, and lava flow landscapes. We started the day with fiskur (dried cod) and butter at a little waterfall off the road and a wade that numbed the toes. One of the things we tried to do was to get off of the main Ring Road whenever we could even though we generally followed the circle. We liked the miles of nothing surrounding us.
Although our souls were already overfull with the awe of mother nature we decided to see if we could have a real spiritual experience on Helgafell. We climbed in silence without looking back, as the folklore goes, so we could have three wishes as we reached the summit.
The terrain changed frequently and we hit another round of jagged black lava topped with soft mossy patches that made us feel like we were on the moon.
After our fill of silence we pulled in to the Bjarnarhofn Shark Museum where we sampled a great Icelandic delicacy, hákarl. I won’t say that it is delicious, but we go into great detail about the joys of fermented shark in this post.
An off-the-main-road experience and tracking the coastline across the Snæfellsnes Peninsula was one unbelievable scene after another. And I don’t think it was only because we were a little buzzy from our fermented snack washed down with Brennivín – the Icelandic favorite, caraway flavored schnapps.
Our campsite for the evening in Hellissandur, the northwestern tip of Iceland, felt at the end of the world. Maybe as the name implies, near the gate to hell, but on the right side of the gate.
The wind jerked the van doors right out of our hands and the tent campers near us gave up and headed to a hotel. We leaned into the gusts and explored the tiny town, nearly stumbling over a set of whale bones (nicely labeled) and old fishing boat bits.
After breakfast we pushed even further off the main road toward the bit of Iceland that reaches toward Greenland. The surprising golden sand of Skarðsvík beach brightened our silent morning walk. It really called for leaping, as most beaches do.
The Snæfellsnes Peninsula holds so many wonders, but it started to pour rain so our motivation to explore them waned. We did make an excellent decision to stop at Djúpalónssandur and brave the cold sheets of water. Wearing glasses in the rain can be pretty annoying.
But the beach stones were even prettier when they were wet than they would have been in the sun.
Indoor activities seemed like the best idea after this so we headed toward The Settlement Centre in Borgarnes. Halfway there the pull of an outdoor geothermal pool got us off the road to warm our wet selves with more wet.
We didn’t expect much from The Settlement Centre except a dry activity, but soon we were enveloped in the Sagas and the story of poet viking Egill Skallagrimsson. We wandered through the exhibits and completely lost track of time. We felt our trip coming to a close and I was overcome by regret that I didn’t take more hikes up the sides of volcanoes, climb into more caves, carefully tread on more glaciers, slide into more hot swimming pools.
Day 11: Reykjavík and home
Our last day was spent moving toward Reyjkavik, getting lost, and then re-finding our campervan drop off and leaving our temporary home behind.
Iceland itinerary wrap up
When people ask about our trip it is hard to know where to begin. It was so different from other travels. Each trip looks at the world through a small, unique lens but broadens our view of what the world holds. Iceland was really about the power of nature and the unbelievable forms that it takes in fire and ice. Families will find so much to engage and entertain. I would do it again in a minute…if someone else is paying.
Are you ready to go with this basic Iceland itinerary? Let us know if you have questions about Iceland with kids of all ages!
So much fascinating and useful detail here, thanks very much. It sounds like June is a good time of year to visit Iceland. I’d love to hear more about swimming the river on horseback too!
Thanks Nancy! I think June-August are probably the best times, but rain gear and puffer jackets are year-round fashion. You are right, the swimming on horses was definitely a highlight. I’ll see if I can dig up some good pics. My favorite vision (I hope we have a photo) is our young Icelandic wrangler testing the river crossing with his horse while smoking and nearly being washed into the crazy flow. I was nervous for him, but he was laughing so hard that it made it entertaining.