Iceland was one of the trips that we prepared for in advance and we are really grateful for that. While we were surprised by a couple of things (that we wrote about in our previous blog post here), we had an amazing time we will cherish forever. 

After booking our tickets, we booked our hotel and reserved a rental car. Initially, after reading a bunch of travel blogs we were set on driving to all the sights ourselves — doing a road trip of sorts. Then after finding out that the price for a gallon of gas is $8-$10, we pivoted and decided on another plan, and thank God we did. It saved us money and unnecessary stress. 

The first thing we did in our planning process was write down the places we wanted to see. Most of the sights were in the south coast or were part of the Golden Circle. From there, we searched day tours for both and found so many options. Both tours ended up costing us $313, which may seem like a lot, but trust us, the price of gas for those drives alone would have cost more. The tours kept us busy for two full days and then for the rest of the days, we used our rental car to get us to nearby sights.

We created this itinerary specifically because we knew we were limited with time and couldn’t explore the rest of the island. We had decided that we would rather spend more time in a couple of places rather than explore everything with very little time. If you find yourself in the same situation as us, then the itinerary below is the way to go! 

Here’s a brief overview of what we did and saw in the 5 days we were in Iceland. 

Day 1 (Sunday): Arrive, settle in the hotel, get snacks/water from store. Get over jet lag 🙃

Day 2 (Monday): Visit the Reykjanesfólkvangur nature preserve (about 40 mins away from Reykjavik). Hike, take pictures. Spend the rest of the day exploring downtown Reykjavik. Make a stop at Sandholt Bakery for pastries and grab some ice cream from Valdis. 

Day 3 (Tuesday): Go on the Golden Circle Full Day Tour with Gray Line. Sights included: Thingvellir National Park, Gullfoss and Geysir Geothermal Area. 

Day 4 (Wednesday): Go on the South of Iceland Full-Day Tour from Reykjavik with Bus Travel. Sights included: Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss, Sólheimajökull (glacier), Vik and Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. 

Day 5 (Thursday): Swim in the Blue Lagoon (make sure you book your tickets in advance because they can sell out). It’s open during all kinds of weather. 

Day 6 (Friday): Have breakfast at Deig bakery in downtown Reykjavik (their creme brulee donuts are to die for!) and then leave to Keflavik airport. 

CHECK OUT OUR HIGHLIGHT REEL OF OUR TRIP TO ICELAND IN THE VIDEO BELOW

We know it was helpful for us to look at other people’s itineraries before we built our own and so we hope sharing ours is beneficial to you. If you are planning on visiting Iceland, what are you most excited to see? Share with us in the comments below.