For our 30th wedding anniversary, we took a trip to Iceland!

Overall, it was a nice trip, but in retrospect, Iceland is a bit oversold as a tourist destination. Our anniversary is in August so finding vacation spots that aren’t too hot can be challenging. Iceland was not too hot (the weather was actually pretty nice).

It’s an interesting country whose primary tourist assets are it’s natural sites. It is like a huge national park but without the crowds associated with US parks. You can see striking landscapes unlike most you’ll see anywhere else: vast plains of past lava flows, glaciers, volcanoes, geysers, waterfalls, etc. All are interesting, but if I had to pick two words to describe Iceland overall, they would be vast and desolate (think Smaug)…here’s a pic from along a highway:

The large majority of the population lives in one city: Reykjavik which is nice enough, but nothing to write home about. There, we visited the rainbow road, the central church (Hallgrimskirkja) which is large, but austere, a rather nice museum of a local artist (Einar Jonsson) which was a hidden gem, the Perlan museum (which was good), the Lava Show (good if you have a couple of hours to kill in Reykjavik; do the VIP package, it’s worth it), and walked around the downtown and waterfront.

We rented a car (really the only way to travel in Iceland); their roads are good and well marked; you drive on the right side so it’s very comfortable for US drivers. Car rentals are *expensive*; more than the air fare. We rented from Lotus and that was fine; we got their top-tier insurance which was advised by every travel site. Don’t go off-road (even a little) if you don’t have 4WD; we drove onto an inclined gravel road with a 2WD vehicle and barely made it back up.

We rented an AirBnB because we’d heard the food in Iceland is expensive and isn’t great so we wanted to be able to cook our own (it helps to eat fewer calories too). It turned out that the food in Iceland was quite good (albeit expensive), but we were glad for the rental for a host of reasons: space, flexibility, and we made good use of the kitchen and washer/dryer. It was very clean, comfortable, and spacious; we would rent from Isleigia again in a heartbeat (she manages a number of properties).

The only thing I would have done differently would be to have rented several spots around the Ring Road. The sites are *far* apart (2-6 hours drive) and, in retrospect, it would have been better to see the sites within 2hrs of one AirBnB and then drive to another and see the sites near it, working your way around the Ring Road. Having one home-base that you have to return to makes you spend too much time on the road.

The natural sites are the reason you go Iceland: waterfalls, rainbows, geysers, volcanic beaches, etc. The scenery is remarkable and there are *no* crowds which seems crazy as compared to US national parks.

There were a few unusual spots we visited including the famous “Tomato Restaurant” which is a restaurant inside a working farm. Everything is hydroponic in greenhouses since the winter is too cold for much agriculture. The food was good and the experience was interesting. They actually import bees to pollinate the plants; things are highly automated; the bees have free-run of the restaurant and are busy pollinating flowers as you eat; it’s an unusual concept that works extremely well. Reservations far in advance are required.

Iceland is clearly a fully developed nation; their roads and infrastructure are excellent; their supermarkets are well stocked (albeit almost entirely with imported food), and they have all of the comforts of a wealthy nation…heck, they even have a giant Costco:

About the flight…we flew Play Air to/from Iceland and…never again. The flight to Iceland was struck by lightning which led to a brief but memorable roller-coaster ride; at least half of the plane was screaming (roller-coaster style but with genuine fear) and we briefly pulled a lot of Gs as the pilots recovered the plane’s attitude and altitude. There were a lot of folks crying afterward and some were clearly traumatized. The rest were trauma-bonded. Fortunately, everyone was seat-belted and so nobody was injured; it was a lesson about the importance of keeping your seat-belt on in-flight; if anyone had not been belted, they would unquestionably have flown about the cabin injuring themselves and others.

Kudos to the pilots for keeping their cool and managing the situation well. We diverted to Boston Logan, circling for hours to burn off fuel and then after landing, spent the night in the airport…as good as the pilots were, the rest of Play Air was a disaster; they didn’t get us food or accommodation so most of us spent the night trying to sleep on the cold stone floor at Logan with bright lights and announcements blaring regularly; it was amateur hour at Play Air. (update: they no longer serve America).