Guided by Adventure

Iceland is one of the most magnificent places in the world! From hikes to waterfalls, hot springs and outdoor activities, what more could you want? We found that the best way to experience this incredible country was through traveling the ring road in a camper van. We rented a Jeep Renegade 4xe with a rooftop tent for the trip! This was the perfect option as it is a versatile car, and you can only access f-roads if you have 4WD.

Why Iceland?

When you think of Iceland you may think of the name, a land of ice. However, that is the worst description for this magical country! Think waterfalls, epic hikes, adventurous activities, gorgeous scenery, adorable wildlife, magnificent landscapes, natural hot springs, great food, glaciers, and so much more. Those are just some of the reasons you should visit Iceland! It is the ultimate road trip destination for any adventure lover!

What did we Bring?

About our Trip

In August 2023, Hayden and I (Sierra) embarked on our exciting journey to Iceland! I had visited for my first time in August 2018 with my family. We had only visited the south coast, Reykjavik, and the golden circle. Hayden and I were so excited to visit and road trip the entire ring road! We rented a Jeep Renegade, spent 12 days camping and road tripping around Iceland, exploring the ring road to its fullest! You can click HERE to book a car or campervan in Iceland!

About our Camper

Hayden and I rented a Jeep Renegade 4xe with a rooftop tent. Usually we are not Jeep fans but this was a fantastic car! As I mentioned previously, we needed a 4×4 to drive on the f-roads and wanted to sleep in the car so this was the perfect option as it was also automatic! The tent was water and weatherproof and came with a semi comfortable mattress. In addition, we were shocked and thankful as both Hayden and I fit sleeping inside, he is 6’4″ (193 cm) and I am 5’11” (155 cm.) The rental also came with two Sleeping bags, pillows, a fridge, camping chairs, table, stove (with gas), pots and pans, dishes, cutlery, a water tank, and our favorite, unlimited miles! You can click HERE to book a car or campervan in Iceland!

We purchase WIFI however it did not work. The sim card ran out of data. To fix this, you can purchase a new sim card and most camper companies will refund you. However, we use the Airlo app for data, in addition every campsite has WIFI so we were not frustrated by it.

The Weather

The weather changes very frequently and can be unpredictable, usually weather apps are not correct. Additionally, it would be raining in one spot and we would drive 30 minutes to sunny skies. So our best advice is bring gear to accommodate unpredictable weather! We got lucky in August with mostly sunny days. However, within our sunny days had slight rain showers and wind. We did have a few days of mostly rain and one day of extremely strong wind where we could not even set up the roof top tent. When visiting, make sure you are prepared with gear for rain, wind, and sun!

Best Camping Tips for Iceland

When camping in Iceland there are some things to look out for. One of our biggest suggestions (which luckily did not apply to us) is to ensure you have campgrounds booked ahead of time because they can book out during the busy season far in advance!

I was worried there would not be showers at our campsites, but I was in luck to find every single campsite we stayed at had a shower (although some charged), bathrooms, most of them had areas to charge phones or appliances, some had restaurants and cafes, and thankfully every single campsite had some form of a covered cooking area so that when it was rainy or windy, campers have a place to cook.

Best Tips for Traveling Iceland

When traveling in Iceland there are some best tips to help your trip!

1. It gets VERY busy during the summer so ensure you have campsites booked. The South Island is the busiest part of Iceland, many tourists choose not to explore the entire island.
2. Restaurants may close early or may not have correct times listed so ensure you have enough food just in case.
3. Service is very spotty around the island even with international plans!
4. Weather changes extremely quick! Ensure you have gear for rain and wind even when it looks sunny.
5. Allow yourself flexibility to change plans if needed! One day when it was super windy we skipped that day’s itinerary and went to do stuff in another area of Iceland.
6. Paid Parking. When traveling around Iceland be aware you MUST pay for parking at most main attraction! They are not joking about parking tickets.
7. If you plan to visit the highlands in Iceland, you need 4wd! This is a requirement when driving in Iceland for all f-roads.

Hot Springs in Iceland

I am thankful to have visited Iceland twice! Once in 2018 and once in 2023. Both were very different experiences! Highlights of both trips consisted of bathing in the natural hot springs that Iceland has to offer. Below are my favorite hot springs in Iceland!

1. GeoSea! This natural hot springs was my favorite because the views are absolutely incredible. It overlooks the ocean and mountains in the background. Not to mention it is usually less crowded as it is on the other side of the island in Húsavík.
2. Sky Lagoon! While we did not visit Sky Lagoon we will next time! The experience is amazing and luxurious with private baths and beautiful views.
3. Vök Baths! This was another lagoon we did not visit but desperately want to! The lagoon looks luxurious and relaxing.
4. Secret Lagoon! We loved the Secret Lagoon because it felt natural and real. It felt like an authentic Icelandic hot springs. Not to mention the views are beautiful.
5. Blue Lagoon! This was one of my least favorites as the water is very murky and it made my hair incredibly firm and crispy for a few days after. It is a fun experience but one I feel is overrated. I went in 2018.
6. Guðrúnarlaug Hot Spring! The benefits to this spring is that it is free. However, it is right next to a hotel and incredibly small. It is adorable and fun but again very small (5 people max.)

Day 1 of our Ring Road Trip

Day one started off strong! We landed at the airport at 9:30am, picked up our camper, and were on our way immediately! During our research phase we found that Bonus is the best budget supermarket in Iceland and luckily there is one nearby! Hayden and I stopped there first and filled up on everything we needed. After gathering all supplies, we hit the road!

Our first official stop of the trip was Urriðafoss. Honestly we would recommend you skip it. Originally we planned to head up to Stakkholtsgjá Canyon but due to time we decided to skip it. Our second stop of the day is one of our most popular, Seljalandsfoss.

Next to Seljalandsfoss is Gljufrabui. This is a beautiful waterfall hidden inside the rock. To access it you need to hop across rocks over a river inside a cave!

Our final stop of the day was another incredibly famous waterfalls in Iceland, Skógafoss. This was also the most incredible waterfall! Not only can you do a short hike to the top of the waterfall, you can actually walk super close to the base, just watch out as you will get wet. Additionally, did you know you can camp in the Skógafoss parking lot? We did not know this until later in our trip!

We ended the day by camping at Vik Camping. This was a cool campsite which thankfully had a covered cooking area and showers as it rained that night.

Day 2

Day two was one of our favorite days of the entire trip! We started the day off at the. famous Black Sand Beach Reynisfjara. It was raining but honestly added a moody edge to the vibes.

Our second stop of the day was supposed to be Svartifoss but when we arrived at the parking lot there was an insane amount of cars so we decided to skip it and head to Svínafellsjökull Glacier! This was such a unique and beautiful sight.

Our next stop was Múlagljúfur Canyon which ended up being our favorite hike of the trip! It was a fairly easy, well marked hike. From the base to the best viewing point (the one in the photo below,) it took us about 30 (ish) minutes. We are fairly experienced hikers and did this very quickly! To reach the end of the hike it was about another 15 minutes for us. The hike is gorgeous! There are multiple waterfalls, a river flowing in the valley, and greenery all around!

After the hike, our next stops were Diamond Beach and Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. When traveling around Iceland be aware you MUST pay for parking at every main attraction, these two are no exception. The beach and lagoon were beautiful!

We ended the day at Vestrahorn Camping which was one of our favorite campsites. This campsite had showers, a covered cooking area, a café called Viking Café and an unique experience, the Viking village where TV shows such as The Witcher have been filmed!

Day 3

Day three started off exploring the Viking Village after grabbing a coffee at the Viking Café!

On our way up the coast we stopped at Fauskasandur. It was a beautiful beach with lots of places to explore! Our next hike was Fossardalur. This hike took about 45 minutes. The scenery changed drastically from the start of the hike to the end of it, but that was what we found so amazing.

We stopped at Folaldafoss next. There are multiple amazing viewpoints for this waterfall along the road so we did not hike down and still had an amazing view! From there, our next stop was Flögufoss. This was such a unique waterfall as there was no one around. We had the entire place to ourselves!

Gilsárfoss was the next waterfall on our list. This is a unique waterfall where you can actually walk under it into a cave! To end off the night we camped at CampEast – Reyðarfjörður. This was an adorable campsite, again with showers, a covered cooking area, and outlets! Our favorite part was the adorable ducks that lived there.

Day 4

We started the day off by exploring the adorable town of Seydisfjordur! We went to a coffee shop, drank some delicious hot lattes, and walked around this adorable town.

When driving to Seydisfjordur, there is only one main road. On the way back up we stopped at a few beautiful sights, Gufu waterfall, Haífoss, and Fardagafoss. We found all three very intriguing but Fardagafoss was the most fun with a 15 (ish) minute hike up and a beautiful view at the end!

After the hike, we stopped in Egilsstaðir at a Bonus to restock food and headed to our next destination. We arrived at Jökulsá á Dal útsýnispallur and were disappointed that we did not find blue water, instead it was brown and murky which is very common after rain. We quickly moved on to our next stop Torfhúsin I Hjarðarhaga, these are old sheep houses, the remains of a six-house cluster. The houses were in use until 1980.

One of the points that we were looking forward to seeing the most was Stuðlagil Canyon Viewpoint! When we arrived we were at first a bit confused as the directions can take you to the Stuðlagil Canyon Main Access. However, this is NOT where you want to go to walk down to the canyon. There is camping and a viewpoint area, but not much more. Instead, you want to navigate past Rjúkandi Waterfall to Parking Klaustrusel – Stuðlagil. From there, you walk down about 30 minutes to reach the canyon.

We were very disappointed to see that due to rain, the water was at a high level, rushing fast, and had turned brown with mud. This was not what we expected but it was still beautiful! After the canyon we stopped to admire Rjúkandi Waterfall which is on the walk back to the parking lot. We ended the day camping at Camping Myvatn. This was a gorgeous campsite on the lake with showers and an enclosed cooking area. Our only thing was the bugs were insane! They sell bug nets in the camp shop but it was still nasty. However, the beautiful views do make up for the bugs.

Day 5

Day five started off exploring Myvatn Lake and the Myvatn Geothermal Area. It is a gorgeous lake with many amazing areas to see! We drove around the entire lake before our next stop.

We were very excited for our next stop in Húsavík! We walked around the adorable little town while waiting for our GetYourGuide booking and explored coffee shops, the church, and the Whale Museum which was very fun! One of the best known activities in Húsavík is Whale Watching! If we had enough time we would have loved to book a whale watching tour.

Another well known activity in Iceland is the natural hot spring baths! We visited Geo Sea Thermal Baths and had an amazing time. It was $86.16 total for two people. The baths overlook the ocean and mountains in the distance! In addition to the multiple baths there is a sauna room which feels incredible! We absolutely loved this experience and had a great booking experience with GetYourGuide.

After GeoSea, we stopped at Goðafoss Waterfall for a quick stop then were on our way! We had a long drive but it was filled with lots of incredible views and adorable towns such as Siglufjörður. Along this drive we were hoping to stop at Grafarkirkja, which is the oldest church in Iceland, but it was unfortunately closed. Eventually we arrived at our campsite Camping Varmahlíð.

Day 6

Day six was off to a great start, on our way to our first activity we ran into a bunch of adorable horses! The drive to Borgarvirki was a bit long, about 45 minutes there and 45 back, but it is a very cool sight to see. Borgarvirki was used as a defense when the chieftains of Borgarfjörður attacked in the 11th century during the Heiðarvíga killings.

After our fun history lesson, we journeyed to Kolugljúfur Canyon. We decided to set up camp for a quick breakfast where we made pancakes next to this beautiful river! This was one of my favorite memories of the trip.

After breakfast, we set out to find Benefoss. This was a tricky hike as the path to the waterfall is not clearly marked. Once you arrive at the “parking” you have to follow the trail across the bridge and walk up on the left (when facing upriver) side of the river. From there you keep following it up until you see the waterfall. It is a beautiful sight but again, tricky to get to!

After our hike we decided to drive a bit out of the way to an adorable hot springs called Guðrúnarlaug hot spring! Don’t let the photos fool you, this hot springs is right next to a hotel. It is beautiful but only fits 5 people.

Originally we planned to visit Selvallafoss and Berserkjahraun. As we drew closer it started to rain and the wind picked up, eventually we went straight to our campsite to hang out in the car and pray the weather got better for tomorrow. We camped at Campground Grundarfjörður. The wind and rain at the campsite was so bad that we were unable to set up the roof top tent and instead had to clear out the car to sleep in the back. If you know us, you know that I am 5’11” and Hayden is 6’3″ so us in the back of a Jeep Renegade does not make sense…

Day 7

Day seven was off to a rough start. The wind and rain from the day before had continued into today. Instead of following the ternary we had planned we had to switch things up. Originally our plan for the first half of the day was to go to Kirkjufellsfoss, Ingjaldshólskirkja, and Skarðsvík Beach. Then we were going to hike up to Saxhóll Crater, drive to Snæfellsjökull then visit Búða beach and Ytri Tunga. We skipped most of it and only visited Kirkjufellsfoss and Búða beach.

We then stopped at Grábrók, a crater, and continued on into the Golden Circle. We stopped at a small waterfall called Glanni Waterfall and debated doing the Barnafossar hike (which is a 3 hour hike with 2 river crossings) but decided against it due to the weather. We stopped at one of the famous waterfalls in the Golden Circle called Öxarárfoss. This was one of the waterfalls I visited in 2018 on my first trip to Iceland!

We ended the day at Úthlíð Cottages! This campsite has a hot tub and a restaurant so it was nice to relax at both.

Day 8

Our eighth day was spent relaxing and exploring the Golden Circle! It was my second time here and when I first visited I thought it was incredible but after exploring the entire island this was not as much a highlight of the trip. To start off the day we visited Geysir. We watched it erupt a few times, hiked to the top of the viewpoint, then visited the gift shop.

Gullfoss Falls was our next stop. This is another very famous waterfall in Iceland! Of course it is beautiful and massive.

We then made a quick stop at Brúarhlöð to see the blue river, which was again brown from rain… and headed to one of our favorite stops of the day, the Secret Lagoon! This was such a relaxing lagoon as it felt very natural. The water was warm, the ground was mud, and there was nature all around.

After relaxing at Secret Lagoon we went to one of the most incredible restaurants in Iceland, Friðheimar. This is a greenhouse restaurant that specializes in tomato food! We absolutely loved the food and the scenery.

After our lunch stop we visited the Kerid Crater! This is an awesome sight and a very short walk but they do charge a small entry fee of $3.29 USD.

We ended the day at our campsite, Skjol Camping. In addition to a campsite they have a delicious restaurant called Skjól Cafe! We were starving and both got pizzas which tasted incredible.

Day 9

Day nine was created entirely around visiting Kerlingarfjöll! It is in the Iceland Highlands, to get there you need a car with 4wd and you need to take an f-road. It is about 1.5 hours from our campsite from the night before. Not only was Kerlingarfjöll incredible and had scenery that looked out of this world, there were lots of incredible views along the way! We believe if you go to one highland area in Iceland you MUST visit Kerlingarfjöll. When you are there you feel as if you are walking on Mars!

Once we got back from Kerlingarfjöll, I begged Hayden to go back to the Friðheimar restaurant! We ate lunch and enjoyed the romantic setting in the wine tasting room.

After lunch, we visited the LAVA Center! This is a fun museum about the volcanos in Iceland and the history behind them.

After the LAVA Center, we went back to Skogafoss. Through our entire Iceland road trip this was still one of our favorite waterfalls! After finding out you can camp at this incredible waterfall, Skigar Camping, we decided to revisit and stay the night. We were curious to see if we could see Skogafoss with less people around. Luckily once the sun goes down there less tourists to be found.

Alternate Day 9

Originally our day 9 was supposed to look very different, but due to Kerlingarfjöll, we decided to change plans to the day above. However, this is how our day would have gone if we did not switch up the plan. First we would have visited Landmannalaugar which is a different highland area also accessed by f-roads. We then would have visited Stútur crater, Ljótipollur View Point, Hnausapollur (Bláhylur) View Point, Sigöldugljúfur, Sigöldufoss, and lastly Haifoss. While this also would have been an incredible route, through our research we found that Kerlingarfjöll is a MUST SEE in Iceland.

Day 10

Day ten started off at Skogafoss! The waterfall is gorgeous so we had to admire it once more. After that we went back up the South Island to see Dyrhólaey. We skipped this on our first time passing by but decided to check it out since we had time. We were hoping to see the puffins but unfortunately they already flew out to sea.

Our next stop was back towards Reykjavik. We took another f-road to visit Stakkholtsgjá Canyon. This was a gorgeous canyon with lots of incredible views! However, to get here you need to make a few river crossings. We had so much fun on this adventure.

After the gorgeous canyon we went to the recently erupted volcano Fagradalsfjall Volcano! This was a very cool and unique experience. We were able to see the lava flow area from just a few days prior! There was still smoke escaping through the fresh rock.

We finished our day with dinner at the Rif Restaurant then headed to make camp at Reykjavík Campsite, which is in the middle of Reykjavík.

Day 11

On our eleventh day we explored Reykjavík! We walked around, checked out cute shops, visited museums (like the Perlan Museum), and went to the famous church Hallgrimskirkja.

We ended the day with some drinks and pool at Café Petite then ate a delicious dinner from Hjá Höllu, a restaurant near the airport and next to our campsite. Our waiter was so much fun to talk to! She has been keeping track of all of the visitors from the United States of America and only has a few states left to check off the list before she has had a visitor from every state! We then went to our campsite, Happy Campsite Keflavik, and watched a gorgeous sunset to end our trip! The next morning we got up at 7am and flew home.

Our Favorite Part

Our Iceland trip was magical! We had so many favorite moments and saw so many incredible views. While we loved everything on the trip, we do have a top three moments!

1. Our TOP favorite part was the Múlagljúfur Canyon hike! This was one of the most incredible and beautiful hikes we have ever experienced. The multiple waterfalls, green canyon, and gorgeous views were magical.
2. Our SECOND favorite part was GeoSea! We had such a fun experience at these baths, getting to bask in the warmth of the natural water and enjoy the magnificent views was magical.
3. Our THIRD favorite part was the the Friðheimar restaurant! This was just such a unique experience with delicious food. This is a ONCE in a lifetime restaurant.

Would We Go Back?

We are DYING to go back to Iceland! We loved everything about this trip! The waterfalls, hikes, camping, all of it! We are so excited to go back for another incredible trip! This time we may try some Airbnb’s and explore the more luxurious side of Iceland.