Postcards from Iceland

I stumbled upon a nicely edited travel video of Iceland on twitter last night and it reminds me of my time in Iceland. So, I decided to write a post about Iceland, finally hehe.

I visited Iceland June last year during the month of Ramadhan. YESSS! It was my first time traveling while fasting and on top of that it’s a long 21 hours daylight. If you didn’t know, the day in Iceland is longer than the night, the sun shines for 21 hours, yes you read it right, 21 HOURS. In fact, while I was in Iceland, it didn’t even get dark at all. Iceland is known for it’s midnight sun. To be able to witness that is, mashallah, what an incredible experience. It would’ve been nice if I could witness aurora as well but since it doesn’t get dark at all, it’s impossible to see aurora during the summer.

It was a 5 days trip with my friends, there were 12 of us. We traveled to the southern part of Iceland only since we have limited time and tight budget, we couldn’t go to the northern part. Overall, I spent £450 which is about RM2500 but please take note this is because I’m traveling from the UK so the flight ticket is much cheaper.

I would say that Iceland worth every penny. Here’s few things you need to know before traveling to Iceland.

1. Road trip in Iceland is the best. Driving around Iceland is more convenient than taking the bus or joining a tour. EVERY INCH OF ICELAND IS MAGNIFICENTLY BREATHTAKING.  So, if you drive, you literally can pull over anywhere to take picture. One time we saw a field of purple flowers (I found out later that it’s lupin), so we decided to pull over for a few minutes to take pictures and it’s probably one of my favorite pictures from Iceland.

Gullggafoss waterfall

2. Planning is important. Since one place to another is quite far so you need to plan where you will stay. We stayed in 3 different places for the whole 5 days. To save money, we decided to sleep in a tent for 2 nights and god knows how cold it was. But it was still bearable. Camping in Iceland? No problem!

Gullfoss waterfall

3. The weather in Reykjavik is not cold, I even had an ice cream. But when you go out of the city, it is REALLY cold, even in summer! A thick coat is not enough, so make sure wear layers of clothes and if possible wear a waterproof jacket since you will visit to few waterfall area. 

Plane wreck site

4. Traveling in summer is better since the daylight is longer, thus it allows you to travel to a lot of places in one day. While traveling in winter is great cause you will get the best scenery ever, but it depends on you, for me traveling during winter can be bothersome since the road will be icy and slippery also the night is longer than the day thus you can only visit few places in a day. 

5. Lastly, here’s a few places you must visit while you’re in Iceland: Jokulsarlon (the iceberg), Black Sand Beach, Plane Wreck, Diamond Beach,  Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, Gluggafoss waterfall, Skogafoss waterfall, Gullfoss waterfall (this is WAJIB PERGI). These are just my favourite places, there's more places to visit especially the ones in northern part. 

Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon

Skogafoss Waterfall

Black Sand Beach, Vik