Iceland Itinerary: 5 days exploring Reykjavik, the South coast and Blue lagoon
Looking to plan your Iceland weekend itinerary? See how we spent a long weekend exploring the Blue Lagoon, famous waterfalls, black sand beach, Reykjavik and more!
Day 1: Arrive in Reykjavik and check-in at Kex Hostel
Day 2: Explore Reykjavik: Perlan Museum and Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral
Day 4: Return to Reykjavik and Blue Lagoon
Day 1 – Thursday night
Arrival in Reykjavic
Our flight left London Heathrow airport at 8.50pm and landed at Keklavik airport for 11.55pm. Unfortunately, our flight was booked for the day before Iceland had decided to lift all Covid restrictions. So we still had have a covid test before we left and present our negative results and health forms once we’d landed (even though the laws changed 5 minutes later!).
Travel to Reykjavik and Kex hostel
So we’d been a little bit worried about how we were going to get from the airport to Reykjavik so late at night. Looking online, taxis were listed for at least 130 euros. But fortunately, a regular bus service runs every hour out of the airport, even at midnight. We bought two tickets for about 25 euros each and got the coach to Reykjavik. Our tickets included minibus transfer from the bus terminal in Reykjavik to the front door of our hostel. We got in about 2am and went straight to bed.
About Kex hostel
This is one of the most popular hostels in the city. We had a private room with our own bathroom booked – and it was great! We had the combined the privacy of a hotel with the fun and social element of a hostel. Kex is decorated with lots of memorabilia from a school – maps, lockers, desks, etc. And there’s a great social area downstairs where food and drinks are served. The bar gets busy in the evening and is used by locals, not just hostel residents. Breakfast was nice too – lots of cereals, bread, eggs, and meats to start the day with.
Day 2 – Friday
The weekend before we landed in Iceland there had been a major storm in Europe. So if our trip had been been a week earlier, we would have been told to stay inside all weekend. Apparently, this can happen quite a lot in Iceland, so if you travel in February, it’s worth knowing that you’re taking a risk that the weather will ruin all your plans. By the time we’d arrived, the weather had calmed down a lot, but it still wasn’t great. We woke up to wind and sleet, and very poor visibility. Safe to say our plans to go on a horse-riding tour were off the cards.
Instead, we decided to explore Reykjavik and see what we could do locally. We started with Perlan museum – the Icelandic Museum of Natural History. Foolishly, we thought we’d be OK to walk there in the rain and wind. But what a mistake that was! We wrapped up warm, but the sleet was relentless, and we were absolutely drenched by the time we got to the museum.
Perlan is about a half an hour walk from Rex, and at the top of a hill. The museum is round in shape, creating some crazy wind tunnels around it. Each step that we took towards the entrance was hilarious! One at a time, fighting against the wind. But it did make it all the more rewarding when we got inside. We saw the aurora show, which taught us all about the northern lights and how they’re caused by solar radiation from the sun interacting with Earth’s magnetic field. We also went in the artificial ice cave (absolutely freezing – wear gloves!) and got some cool pictures in there.
We then went to the revolving café at the top of the museum where we had a croissant and a hot drink to warm up. At first, we both thought we were unwell, then realised we were slowly spinning! The seating of the café rotates around the middle of the museum. It makes you feel a bit uneasy but is a great way to see Reykjavik from above, and from all angles!
Next, we headed to the famous and iconic cathedral, Hallgrimskirkja, the architecture of which is inspired by Reynisfjara black sands beach. Inside, the ceiling is so high (I guess that’s obvious, it’s a cathedral, right?), and we were lucky enough to be there while a young girl was having an organ playing lesson. The sound was incredible – so loud and ominous. We decided not to pay to go up to the viewpoint after seeing Reykjavik from above in the museum, but we heard that the views are great from there too.
That night, we ate at Brass Kitchen and Bar restaurant and tried their burgers. My boyfriend had the lamb burger and I had the béarnaise burger – both delicious. We then returned to Kex for a couple of drinks with some people we’d met at breakfast. Today was the day that Iceland had removed all covid restrictions and so there was a big celebration with a DJ at the Kex bar until about midnight. Just in time for us to get some sleep before our early start tomorrow.
Day 3 – Saturday
South coast tour
My boyfriend had booked our South Coast tour with Buubble tours We were picked up in a suburban luxury SUV at 11.30am and drove for about two hours (with a quick stop for food and a toilet break) before arriving at Seljalandfloss waterfall. Seljalandfloss is 65 metres tall and is surrounded by birds that call it their home. In summer you can climb a steep staircase to get behind the falling water, but unfortunately this wasn’t possible when we were there.
Next, we headed to Reynisfjara black sand beach in the small coastal town of Vik. This wildly exceeded our expectations! Reynisfjara is voted it as one of National Geographic’s Top 10 non-tropical beaches on Earth, with waves like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It’s hard to explain, but they’re almost like two waves crashing on top of each other at the same time. And there’s an ominous roaring sound as they hit the sand. I remember saying I felt like we were on the moon!
We had to be very careful of the ocean. Signs talk about the dangers of sneaker waves (random huge waves that come out of nowhere) but a lot of tourists on the beach don’t pay attention to these. We saw people taking photos at the rocky basalt sea stacks (called Reynisdrangar – the rocks which inspire the architecture of Reykjavik cathedral), get knocked over and drenched by a sneaker wave – our tour guide said they were lucky, because the sneaker waves can really hurt people, and often come in pairs or threes. There have been three deaths over the last five years. So don’t ignore the warning signs!
Next – we drove back on ourselves to Skogafoss waterfall, which was spectacular. Skogafoss is 60 metres high, 25 metres wide and very powerful. We walked up close to the bottom of the waterfall and saw all the icicles that had formed. We were grateful to be wearing waterproofs because the mist sprays up and gets rains down on you.
We also hiked up the staircase (crampons recommended – it’s very slippy!) to the viewpoint at the top of the waterfall. From here, we could Reynisfjara sea black sand beach, the waterfall from above and the surrounding landscapes. Beautiful!
At the end of the day, we went for dinner at a new food hall and brewery where we enjoyed some burgers and beer (don’t think we’ve ever eaten so many burgers in one weekend!), before moving to our stay for the night – the bubble hotel!
The bubbles are up a slight hill through the forest from the main service house (with toilets and showers). They’re all completely transparent, but far enough away from each other that you have plenty of privacy. Each bubble is inflated by a permanent fan, which creates a funny echo when you’re inside them. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the aurora, but we saw the most beautiful starry sky. A truly magical, once in a lifetime experience that I’d highly recommend doing if you get the chance.
Day 4 – Sunday
We left the bubble at 8.30am, stopping at a bakery for breakfast on the way. We all ate Bolludagors in celebration of Bolludagor season in Iceland (which we learnt is literally a celebration of cream buns and an excuse to eat lots of them!).
We got back to Kex in Reykjavik at about 11am decided to venture into town for some lunch. We arrived at Svarta Kaffid – a traditional Icelandic restaurant where soup is served in bread! There were two choices: lamb and beef soup (which my boyfriend had) and leek and potato (which I had) – they were both delicious! It was a great novelty eating them out of a bread bowl too. I also enjoyed all the Icelandic memorabilia on the walls.
Next up – the blue lagoon! We’d booked our tickets a few days in advance (they book up quickly, so I recommend doing this before your trip). We’d heard that sunrise or sundown is the best time to go for pretty skies. Apparently, sunrise is the quietest, but we wanted to be able to have a drink and not feel weird about it so chose the evening.
We booked transport with the same bus company that transported us from the airport (Airport Direct), which was the cheapest and most convenient way to get to the lagoon – it’s what most people without their own vehicle do. They picked us up at 4.30pm, and we were at the lagoon for our 6pm slot. There are large changing rooms with lockers, so you can secure your belongings once you’re ready to get in the lagoon. We were also advised to smear our hair in conditioner before getting in as the water as the chemicals in it can dry it out.
The lagoon was great fun, and well exceeded our expectations! It was quite busy at first but cleared out towards the end of the evening. There’s no time limit on your ticket, so you can stay for as long as you like. We had met people on our trip who had told us they had stayed all day, and we could see why. The water is so warm, which is so refreshing when the air is freezing cold and windy. You can even spend time in the saunas and steam rooms. Plus, there’s a bar, and a face mask area (one drink and mask is included in your entrance ticket). If you want to buy any extra drinks, they log the payment on your wrist band which unlocks your locker, and you have to hand and settle any outstanding payments before you exit.
The return bus comes along once every hour. So we stayed in the lagoon until close (8.30pm) and got the 9.15pm bus back to Reykjavik. This was a great way to finish our trip to Iceland. There is a highly recommended restaurant at the lagoon called Lava, but we decided to save our money and grab a burger from the joint opposite Kex hostel when we got home! Not going to lie, it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had!
Day 5 – Monday
We booked transport to the airport with Airport Direct again and made our way home. The airport had a few souvenir shops, but everything was quite expensive, so we wished we’d picked some up in Reykjavik. There’s also a Blue Lagoon store that sells some of their products (face masks, moisturisers etc.).
Interesting blog, sounds like you had a great time. The Blue Lagoon sounds fantastic, might be on my bucket list now!