In some ways, I wonder how much I knew about the country of Iceland until I started looking at my trip to Europe in 2012. However, when I started doing bookings for a trip to Europe it showed up as a good option to get from Europe to North America. Of course, how can you transit through a country without taking the opportunity to stay for a few days?
Initially, I had just booked the transit stop on a flight from Manchester, England to New York, USA. It was a little later in the booking process that I realised I would need to fly the same route again. So a little look and I was able to book a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Toronto, Canada with a three-day stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Staying In Reykjavik
The booking turned out to be three nights, which gave me two full days in the city of Reykjavik. With the time I wanted to see the city and also spend a little time seeing outside of the city as well. Since Reykjavik is not a big city, I decided to make my own walking tour on the first full day. However, to see a little more countryside I decided to book a tour. With some research, I found that a good option would be a day tour around the Golden Circle.
The tour that I took was a full day tour visiting Iceland’s Golden Circle. I am not entirely certain that the exact same tour is still available but I have found a very similar one. It is available on the Viator website as the Grand Golden Circle Day Trip from Reykjavik (Affiliate Link). I don’t only recommend Viator because I can earn something from it, I booked over a dozen tours through the site when I visited Europe. It was a great way to find good value tours and for me pay in Australian Dollars beforehand.
Departing Reykjavik
The photo that I have today is from the very start of the tour as the bus was leaving Reykjavik. It looked like a rather idyllic spot to live with the houses along the edge of the lake. Unfortunately, I cannot remember exactly where it was around Reykjavik as you tend to get a little lost as tours depart cities. They wind around the city from one hotel to another and soon enough you are lost.
Either way, Reykjavik and Iceland is a location that I would love to return to sometime in the future. There is just so much there to explore and discover especially when you start to travel around the island. I would definitely recommend the Golden Circle tour above for any first-time visitor or if you only have a short amount of time. However, my next visit hopefully will be significantly longer and definitely include taking in the entire circuit around the island.
