After leaving the friendly confines of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula (read about that here), our family headed further along the Ring Road to North Iceland. North Iceland is an absolutely beautiful corner of Iceland that should be on everyone’s Iceland itinerary. Most of the sites in this area center around a lake named Myvatn, which means midge lake in English. In this area, you will find spectacular waterfalls, copious amounts of geothermal activity, and whale watching opportunities. Additionally, you will find 3 of my top 10 sites in Iceland, as seen in my Iceland Power Rankings.
As always, I’ll give you my honest opinions on every site we visited. I’ll also throw in additional, practical information. Below you will find a Google map of the area and the places we visited. From the map, you should notice a first for this blog, I will tell you about travel days. So with that, let’s get down with the Top of Iceland.
Travel Days
A travel day is a necessary evil when you plan road trips the way I do. I need to discuss why I plan road trips the way I do, but I will leave that for another post. Suffice to say, a travel day, ultimately, is when you are moving from one Airbnb to another. Completing your journey on these days is not optional. If you don’t get to your final destination, then you won’t have a roof over your head. And if we had to sleep in the car as a family, I might as well hire an attorney once I got back stateside because my wife would leave me. Yeah, it’s that serious.
Anyway, Day 3 of our Iceland vacation was a dreaded travel day. Our mission called for us to drive from our Airbnb in Stykkisholmur on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula to our Airbnb just outside the town of Akureyri in the North. This is a distance of about 220 miles on 5 hours of driving. Couple that with keeping two young kids sane and you got the makings for an awful day. The key to making a travel day suck less is to make sure there are sites you can see along the way to break up the journey (that and tons of downloaded content on a Kindle Fire for the kids!) For us, the two sites that fit the bill are what I will review next.
Grabrok Volcano
We were actually going to go to the Gerðuberg Cliffs, a ridge of basalt columns, first. However, there were scattered showers in the morning and it looked threatening. Therefore, we didn’t want to risk the rain and drove onto our first site of the day, the Grabrok Volcano.
The volcano has a free parking lot just off of the Ring Road. From there, you walk up a twisty, wooden staircase to the summit. It’s perhaps a 10 to 15 minute walk. The boys absolutely loved running up the steps. The slope of the volcano is very gradual, so it’s perfectly safe to let the boys walk up ahead.
Once you reach the top, you are rewarded with an excellent 360 degree panorama of the surrounding plain. Additionally, you can peer down into the crater of the now dormant volcano. You can also take a path that will allow you to circumnavigate the rim of the volcano. Be advised, though, that this path has fairly lax safety features. The only thing keeping you from doing your best Dread Pirate Roberts/Wesley down the hill (if you watch the video, wait for iiiiit…) are pieces of rebar with a single string tied between them. So keep an eye on the kids.
To be honest, this is just an average Iceland site. But it’s a perfect quick pit stop site on your way to the North via Route 1. Plan on a 45 minute visit here then hitting the road again.
N1 Gas Station
Why on earth am I writing about a gas station? Let me tell you. Iceland is a VERY rural nation. Its second largest “city” is Akureyri with only 19,000 residents. Basically, there is zero population density on the island outside of the capital region. Couple this with the fact that the whole appeal to Iceland is its nature and you are practically guaranteed to find yourself in the middle of nowhere.
One such stretch of stark nothingness lies after the volcano mentioned above. This road is basically devoid of any human civilization until you reach an N1 gas station about 45 minutes down the road. By now, you’ve driven about 2 hours from your Airbnb and hiked around a volcano. You’re understandably starving. N1 to the rescue! I give you that admittedly long preamble to tell you this: in Iceland, gas stations are the purveyors of fast food.
Now I have to admit something. In Georgia, where I’m based, there are several gas station chains that have hot food, such as RaceTrac and QuikTrip. But I always judged people hard that ate food at a gas station. I mean, who does that? Obviously, the universe has an awesome sense of humor because I can honestly say my family crushed food at N1 gas stations while in Iceland. And this N1 was one of the best in the country. Yes, I became an N1 connoisseur. Your family will likely be no different. But fortunately, almost every N1 gas station has a food item seemingly made by God…bacon wrapped hot dogs! Clearly, Iceland is a beautiful country in more ways than one.
Hvitserkur
After having our fill of bacon wrapped hot dogs and miscellaneous other snacks, we continued on the Ring Road toward Akureyri. You are currently in what is considered Northeast Iceland. This place is largely devoid of any major tourist attraction. The closest thing around this area, at least in my estimation, to a must see is the sea stack named Hvitserkur. This elephant shaped sea stack is located along a black sand beach about 30 minutes off the Ring Road. You will have to take a dirt road all the way to get here.
From the free parking lot (with no toilets), it’s a rather long, circuitous route down to the beach due to the cliff-like nature of the shore. But the longer walk has an unexpected bonus of placing you directly across the inlet from a seal colony. The southern part of the bay has a large sand bar. Apparently, this sand bar is a breeding ground for seals in the summer. Therefore, you are practically guaranteed to see seals here. But to be honest, the picture above is deceiving. The seals are close enough that you know they’re there but far enough way that you can see zero details.
I can’t recall the exact length of time it took to walk to the rock. It felt like forever because there was a gale force wind and you’re walking in sand. Once you’re face to face with the rock, you snap a few photos and that’s pretty much the extent of it. If it’s low tide, you can walk out to the base of the rock, for us it was not. While this is not by any means a marquee site, the boys loved it and it makes a nice pit stop along the otherwise unremarkable Northeast.
Viking Cottages Akureyri
From Hvitserkur, it was about a 3 hour drive to our stay outside of Akureyri. Thus, we decided to drive straight through save for a stop for gas and snacks at another illustrious N1. In my opinion, I don’t think we missed much. The coast north of the Ring Road in Northeast Iceland undulates creating a few peninsulas. From my research, there didn’t seem to be anything that would pique our interest. Needless to say, we were happy to be pulling into our home for the 3 three nights after several hours of nondescript driving.
That home would be the so-called Viking Cottages. Above, I embedded the Airbnb site for this place. However, I found it to be cheaper if you booked directly on their website, which can be found here. As far as I can tell, there are 3 apartments here called A, B, and C. We stayed at A. Informed from my years of being forced to watch HGTV, I believe you would call this apartment “semi-detached.” It shares only half of one wall with the neighboring unit. Additionally, the units are staggered, so if you’re sitting on the porch you aren’t staring directly at your neighbors.
While not very large, this place does have everything a family of 4 would need. 2 bedrooms with king beds, a small but functional kitchen, and a fantastic bathroom. It also has great views down the river valley that extends south of the city. I would definitely recommend staying here.
Godafoss
Day 4 of our family’s invasion of Iceland started with a bang. Goðafoss is a fantastic, double barreled waterfall only 30 minutes from Akureyri. The name means waterfall of the gods. There’s actually a very cool story behind the name. According to legend, the priest that decided that all of Iceland would convert to Christianity threw his Old Norse idols into the rapids as a symbol of the conversion.
On our visit, there were no gods to be found but plenty of cruise ship groups. Due to the exponential explosion of touristic interest in Iceland, cruise lines have responded by adding routes that visit Iceland. Akureyri is on that route. During our stay, there was at least 1 large ship in port everyday, and sometimes 2. With Goðafoss being so close to Akureyri, you can bet every tour is going to stop here.
Nonetheless, a visit here is definitely worth it. We parked in the large, free parking area just north of the falls. From there, it’s an easy and flat 5 minute walk to the falls. The falls form a u-shaped wall of water that tumbles down to the awaiting river below. You could probably spend at least an hour here walking around the grounds. The parking lot is on the north bank but you could walk downstream and cross over to the south bank to see the falls at all angles. We decided to just stay on the north bank. Our visit lasted around 30 minutes.
Dimmuborgir
From the waterfall, it’s about a 45 minute drive to the shores of Myvatn, or Midge Lake. Several sites ring the eastern shores of the lake. Based on the success of our visit to Berserkjahraun, we decided to begin at the Dimmuborgir lava fields. To be honest, that was a mistake. Whoa, didn’t see that coming did you? Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of cool lava rock formations. But the place was overcrowded and felt very sterile. The lava field is filled with marked, paved paths that you’re supposed to say on. This neutered the site in my opinion. Gone was the visceral beauty and hint of danger that made Berserkjahraun so special. Instead, it was replaced with throngs of tour groups and an overpriced burger joint.
Fortunately, there was one source of salvation. Throughout the site, there’s map displays showing you the myriad trails available therein. The one trail worth your time is the “difficult” trail. I can’t remember the exact terminology they used, but it was something akin to difficult. This was the only path that allowed you to get off the paved trails, onto the actual lava, and away from the crowds. Once we found ourselves on this path, we did have fun and did enjoy it. Clearly, the boys loved the freedom afforded by this path to climb all over the lava.
Overall, i’m a bit torn by this site. It absolutely cannot compare to Berserkjahraun. But if you didn’t see Berserkjahraun it’s an adequate and easily accessible introduction to Iceland’s lava fields. There’s also free toilets and a (expensive) restaurant. It’s probably worth an hour stop but there are better sights in the area.
Hverir
15 minutes down the road from the lava field you quickly come to the next site, Hverir. Sometimes you will see this place called Namafjall. Not sure why, but both names refer to the exact same place. This is a very large geothermal area, full of the characteristic orange hues and sulfuric smells that earmark geothermal areas in Iceland. There were bubbling, otherworldly grey pools and massive amounts of steam. There were even two mini steam volcanoes. Regarding the latter, look at the pictures and tell me they don’t look like onion volcanoes from a hibachi place. But I digress.
Obviously, I would highly recommend this site. There’s ample free parking and it’s easily accessible. The boys enjoyed our roughly 30 minutes spent here. As with pretty much all sites in the area, it will be crowded with tour groups. But I didn’t find that it took anything away from the site and it didn’t feel overrun like the prior site. One word of caution, when walking around the bubbling pools be sure to stay on the marked path. The ground behind the marked path is piping hot. So make sure your kids respect the boundaries in this area as well.
Viti Crater
From Hverir, it’s a 15 minute drive into a highly geothermic valley named Krafla to reach the next two sites. Like the word Peachtree in my home city of Atlanta, everything in this area seems to have the name Krafla. It can be confusing. Anyway, on the way to the next two sites you drive through the Krafla Geothermal Power Plant. It is interesting to see the veritable maze of pipes at the plant. After the plant, you veer to the right and park right next to a dormant volcano crater lake I am naming Viti. Google Maps has it marked as Viti and Krafla.
From the free parking lot it’s a short but steep climb to the rim of the volcano. From this point, you can see the vivid, blue-green water that fills the crater. The day we were there, it was very windy and the younger progeny wasn’t in the best mood. So we didn’t linger long. Probably only walked about a quarter of the way around the rim. But you could walk around the entire rim of the volcano. Unlike Grabrok mentioned earlier, the rim of this crater was big and more undulating. Therefore, a walk around it would be more challenging and take you about 30 minutes. Worth a stop for sure. Whether it’s worth a hike around the whole cone largely depends on your group’s interest and energy level.
Leirhnjukur
Right next door to Viti is a nondescript parking lot for Leirhnjukur. I’ve also seen this called the Krafla lava fields. Regardless of what you call it, this site will blow you away. Seriously. This site sneaked into my Iceland top 10 at number 10. Therefore, I’m actually going to break this review down into a few sections.
Approach
The parking lot for this site is free. If memory serves, I think it has porta-potties there. From the parking lot, it’s a pretty long approach trail to get to the main sight. Flanking this trail is an army of miniature, rolling hills. I have no idea what geological phenomenon caused this. But I can certify that the boys could not have had more fun running from “turtle” to “turtle.” After about 15 minutes of walking, you reach the outer border of the dried lava and the path turns into a wooden walkway. Another 5 to 10 minutes on the wooden walkway brings you too..
Geothermal Area
Unbeknownst to me, there’s a small geothermal area in the front of this lava field. The area has those same, stereotypical orange hues that you saw down the road at Hverir. But wait, there’s more! This geothermal area also contains a small pond that is an unreal highlighter blue color. It’s beautiful yet also kinda ghastly looking at the same time. You would think water like this shouldn’t exist in nature. I gotta tell ya, the photo with the bright orange and blue from this area juxtaposed to the pitch black of the lava is one of my favorites. Venturing beyond the orange ringed, blue pool rewards the adventurous with views of a vast…
Lava Field
If you haven’t noticed by now, this area of Iceland has extremely high levels of geothermal activity. In fact, between 1975 and 1984, this area suffered 9 different eruptions of varying lengths. It was these eruptions that created the seemingly all-encompassing lava fields. According to signage at the site, the area is equal in length to Manhattan. I definitely believe it. The sheer breadth of the beautifully grotesque lava is disarming. What awesome forces created such a thing? As if that wasn’t enough, there are patches of the lava that’s still steaming. Absolutely incredible. To me, this is what an Icelandic nature site should be: staggeringly beautiful with vast areas to explore freely. This site is a must see for every itinerary. You could spend all day here, but I’d say at least an hour and a half is warranted.
Hagkaup (Grocery Store)
After the lava fields, my crew was exhausted. We had about an hour and a half drive to get back to base camp, so we decided to call it a day. Once we arrived back to our temporary home, I headed out to get some supplies. Part of staying at Airbnb’s, or “self-catering” stays as it’s frequently called in Europe, is that you have to basically live as a temporary local. And part of that is going to grocery stores. While I won’t bore you with further details, I will say this was a fantastic grocery store that also doubled as a department store. It was basically an Icelandic Super Target. So if you find yourself in Akureyri needing groceries, I’d highly recommend shopping here. Now, onto Day 5!
Dettifoss
What Day 5 lacked in quantity of sites it made up for in quality of sites. We only saw 3 sights this day, but 2 of them are in my top 10 in all of Iceland! To kick off the day, we drove about 2 hours to Dettifoss, my #2 site in my top 10. As with other top 10 sites, I’ll devote more space to this one.
East Side vs West Side
No, this won’t be a treatise about early 90’s rap battles. This is a brief discussion about which side to view the waterfall. You see, unlike Godafoss mentioned earlier, you cannot practically see Dettifoss from both sides. Like Luke Skywalker, you must chose which side you will be on. Yeah, I apologize for that one. The pros and cons are this. The west side is the more accessible side. It’s about a 20 minute shorter drive from Akureyri via 100% paved roads. Additionally, the walk from the parking lot to the falls viewpoint is not as steep. The downside is that it is significantly more crowded and on the cruise tour circuit. So it’s mobbed. A quick glance at the aerial view on google maps shows that the west side parking lot is about 3 times bigger than its east side counterpart. This is a clue.
The east side is further away from civilization and can only be reached via a very rough dirt road. Seriously, this road was as rough as a Highlands F road in places. So if you don’t have a 4×4, I wouldn’t go on this side. Additionally, the walk down to the waterfall is pretty far down a number of steps into the canyon. But, if you chose to take the road less traveled, you’d be rewarded with spectacular and up-close views of the waterfall and surrounding canyon. Moreover, this side essentially gets no mist, so you have a largely unclouded view of the majesty that is Dettifoss. With apologizes to 2Pac, the east side is better than the west side.
Approach
Walking down from the free, east side parking lot, you are afforded absolutely jaw dropping views of the downstream canyon. Guys, this view looks like a painting. Just unreal. And due to the curve in the valley, you only get this view from the east side. Once you reach the valley floor, it’s about a 10 minute walk or so to reach the falls. Along the way, there’s plenty of opportunities for the kids to safely “boulder” over some rocks. As well, you get great views of the waterfall as you approach with a great viewpoint along the cliffs around halfway to the falls.
The Falls
According to several things I read, Dettifoss is allegedly the most powerful waterfall in Europe. After seeing the way the water punishes the cliff, I have no doubt of this. It is also the most magnificent waterfall I have ever seen. Honestly, it’s hard to write words that do it justice. You just have to see it. Its power is palpable. You are almost afraid to approach it, thinking it could veer from its path and swallow you whole. But, if you’re brave enough, you can literally walk right up to the edge of the falls from the east side. Additionally, since the cliff line is about a 45 degree angle from the general direction of the river’s usual course, you can get some great photos. Bottom line, if you come to Iceland, you should see this waterfall.
Surrounding Area
Dettifoss is actually only 1 of 3 waterfalls the glacial river Jökulsá á Fjöllum traverses on its way to the North Atlantic. Upstream from Dettifoss is Selfoss. Downstream you find Hafragilsfoss. The latter is not really accessible, but you can obtain a bird’s eye view from the cliff’s rim nearby (pictured above). Selfoss, the former, is accessible, but only recommended from the east bank as the majority of the falls are actually on the west bank. Unfortunately, on the day we visited Dettifoss, we didn’t think we had enough time to visit both falls. So we skipped Selfoss. I’ve regretted that decision. So I would recommend spending more time in the area and taking the 15 minute hike from Dettifoss to Selfoss.
Asbyrgi
After leaving Dettifoss, we continued north 40 minutes on the dirt superhighway 864 until it dead ended onto the pavement of Route 85. From this point, it’s only a 5 minute drive to a horseshoe canyon named Asbyrgi. In theory, this should be an amazing site. This is a long, slender canyon with tall, sheer cliff walls. Unfortunately, Iceland picked a very inconvenient place to actually have trees. You’ll notice throughout Iceland that it is largely devoid of trees. I’m assuming this is due to the rocky, lava-laced soil. But this canyon has a certifiable forest in it. So you basically cannot see the canyon walls until the very southernmost end of the canyon. But then you’re too close to really take it all in. The time we spent here would have been better spent walking to Selfoss. I’d skip this site.
Whale Watching from Husavik
From Asbyrgi, it’s about a 50 minute drive to the little hamlet of Husavik…if you’re following the speed limit. We were running late for an appointment, so I was flying down Route 85. Fortunately, there were no speed cameras in the area, so I didn’t get a ticket. What on earth could we possibly have an appointment for in a tiny little town like Husavik? Well, if the heading wasn’t a dead giveaway, we had a reservation with a whale watching cruise. This activity is #3 in my Iceland Power Rankings.
Picking a cruise
There are two main outfits that do cruises: Gentle Giants and North Sailing. As with any duopoly, their prices and services are essentially the same. So you likely can’t go wrong. Adults cost between $75 and $80 a person depending on exchange rate. Kids under 7 are free, so our kiddos went free. Score! We went with North Sailing, so my info and review will center on that. In the summer, especially July, prebooking is essential. Now that doesn’t mean you have to book weeks in advance. Once we were in Iceland, we looked at the best day according to the forecast and booked about 48 hours in advance. While some sailings were fully booked, we still had multiple selections available. We chose the “original” sailing that departed in the early afternoon. The cruises are 3 hours on an old whaling ship.
Pre-Cruise
The offices for both whale watching outfits are right in the middle of the town, just steps above the port/marina. We got lucky and parked right next to the marina only steps away from our vessel. But just park as close as you can to the marina and you shouldn’t have a problem finding your way around. I forget how long they recommend you get there prior to launch. I would recommend 30 minutes, just to get the crew ready and check in. For check in, walk to the offices and present your reservation. They will give you physical tickets as well as directions to and the name of your ship. From there, walk to the pier and go.
Oh, I should mention, that North Sailing does have a little cafe and restrooms attached if you want to grab a quick snack and bathroom break prior to getting on the boat. One last thing I would recommend: GET SOME DRAMAMINE. Across the street from both cruise offices is a pharmacy named Lyfja. We did not and a couple members of our crew regretted it (that’s called foreshadowing for those scoring at home). Once on board, the company provides you with a full body, NASCAR racing suit looking thing to keep you warm.
The Cruise
As mentioned, the cruise is a three hour tour. Yes, a three hour tour. It leaves from Husavik and plies Shaky Bay (Icelandic name: Skjálfandi Flói) looking for whales. It takes about 30 minutes to get out to the middle of the bay. On our sailing, the weather was absolutely fantastic, a chamber of commerce approved, perfect day. It was partly cloudy, no rain, and the highs a little over 70. So the suits we had on just made you really hot. Anyway, I emphasize the great weather to tell you that the bay was still filled with large, rolling waves. This absolutely knocked Angela and Connor on their backs. They slept through the entire trip. So I’ll emphasize the need to buy Dramamine if you are sensitive to a rolling ocean.
Once in the middle of the bay, the fun began. For a while, we just idled in the bay waiting for the signal. In this case, the signal was a whale surfacing to breathe. Once the captain saw that, we hightailed it in that direction. We were basically stalking whales the rest of the time.
We ended up seeing a half dozen or so different humpback whales. Liam absolutely loved it. We both have seen beluga whales at the Georgia aquarium. But there’s something magical about being out on the water, a stone’s throw from the Arctic Circle, seeing whales in their natural habitat. To be honest, we didn’t see any whales “breach” meaning jump out of the water. And my photos aren’t great. But the memories I made standing on the deck of an old whaling ship with my oldest son will stay with me forever. I hope you get a chance to experience the same thing.
Missed Sites & Wrap Up
Once we got back to the dock, we took the 1 hour drive from Husavik back to the Viking Cottages, thus concluding our adventures in North Iceland. As always, we didn’t see everything. I already mentioned my regret about missing Selfoss. I would also add that I think hiking up the volcano cone Hverfjall would have been a fun, albeit tiring, activity. Finally, I think we should have been adventurous and taken the 45 minute drive to the secluded waterfall named Aldeyjarfoss due south of Godafoss. But overall, I think we did an excellent job at seeing the best sites in the area.
This was a long post. So I am going to break up my next one up into two to finish off the rest of Iceland. I hope you join me.