Travel Tips for Iceland

We all just returned from Iceland, land of volcanoes, glaciers, sheep and geothermally heated "hotpots!" The scenery was awe-inspiring everywhere we went, and we got to view it for essentially 24 hours each day since it never truly got dark. My next few posts will be about the different regions of the country that we visited, but first I want to share a few travel tips, in case you ever find yourself with a round-trip ticket to Iceland...

Tip #1. DO NOT take the red-eye flight with a 10 month old infant riding on your lap.

Aiden was definitely a real trooper during most of our Iceland vacation, considering he had no idea why we were driving and hiking around like maniacs snapping pictures left and right. But he was a true little divil on the plane flights! Picture spending 5 hours confined to one seat holding a squirming, complaining, sometimes bawling, NEVER sleeping, WAY overtired baby on your lap. Banging on the seats in front of us, grabbing for everyone's in-flight beverage, and of course taking a poop when it's least convenient. It might have been a little better if he had his own seat, but I'm not sure he would have slept even then. If anyone in rows 23 or 25 on Icelandair Flight 631 happens to stumble upon our blog, I do apologize for the inconvenience.

Tip #2 DO try the local cuisine!

Icelanders are known for eating some really bizarre and gruesome things, but we found plenty of local specialties that tasted great.

Some of the best:

- Skyr: this is an icelandic specialty something in between fresh cheese and a really thick yogurt, and it comes in different yummy flavors like "peach and raspberry" or "melon and passionfruit." This was by far Aiden's favorite! Skyr has been made in Iceland since vikings inhabited the country, and it isn't made anywhere else in the world (too bad for Aiden Aiden Poop).

Mmm...skyr...




Are you telling me I can't get skyr at home?!?

- Smoked Lamb & Bean Sandwiches: These we found at literally every convenience store or supermarket we went into- different brands but always the same ingredients. I was skeptical at first but they were delicious and after the first one I got them everywhere.

- Icelandic Ice Cream: can you say HEAVY CREAM? The butter aftertaste on these ice-cream cones are ridiculous. Again, a favorite with the fussa bud.

Mmm.... frozen butterfat.....

- Minke Whale Steaks: OK, ok... Greenpeace and PETA will put this blog on their hit list, but Andy and my Dad had minke whale steaks at a seafood restaurant (Fimm Fiskur, or "five fishes") and they were just like rare, tender beef. Only a bit darker in color.

Minke whale steaks

- Smoked Puffin: Andy could not partake of eating a "poor little puff-puff" but I had to try it. Pretty good- I expected it to be fishy but it wasn't at all.

Poor little puff-puff! Mmmm....

- "Cool American" Flavor Doritos: Just kidding- we didn't buy these but laughed at the label for what we would call "Cool Ranch" here.

There were some things of which i was not a big fan:

- Icelandic Beer: pretty much on par with Schlitz Ice or Natural Light- whether the brand was "Viking", "Gull", "Premium", or "Thule" the taste was all the same out of large 20 oz. cans. We stuck to the Danish beer after awhile.

- Licorice & Chocolate Candy Bars: There is a lot of different candy in Iceland, and its usually behind a glass counter which somehow makes it seem like a controlled substance and strangely more appealing. A lot of the candy features black licorice, which I actually like quite a bit, but the Icelanders like to mix licorice with chocolate in their candy bars. I'm not a fan of the combination but maybe it's an acquired taste!

- Brennevin: Icelandic Schnapps with an anise-caraway seed taste. You're supposed to mix this with coffee but I just can't do that to my coffee.

And some things even I wouldn't try:

- Hakari: Probably the most famous "gross" dish in Iceland, featuring gelatinous rotted shark that has been buried underground for a long time and then dug up when it's good and putrified. Supposedly it smells like ammonia and you can leave it outside for as long as you like without any fear of a feral animal running off with it.

Tip #3. DO NOT convert prices from icelandic kroner to dollars before you buy something.

This is for your own sanity. Almost everything in Iceland, with the exception of geothermal energy and possibly skyr, must be shipped to the country. As a result, everything is ridiculouslly expensive. For example, to fill our gas tank about 3/4 full, it cost about $85 US dollars. A typical entree at a (NOT fancy) restaurant runs about $40, a bowl of soup is about $20. If you just don't do the math, you are much happier. (Until the credit card bill comes, which it hasn't yet!)

Tip #4. DO go in as many "hot pots" as you can!

Aiden hot-potting with mommy

Geothermally heated pools, or "hot pots" as they call them in Iceland, are everywhere. Many of them are not chlorinated (some are actually just hot lakes, steaming up from the grassy landscape), because they're designed so that the naturally hot water refreshes in them about every half hour. Aiden LOVED hot-potting, and we LOVED it too, since it was basically how he kept semi-decently clean the whole week!