Day One - Driving Iceland's Golden Circle
Keflavik to Selfoss
Our stops at a glance: Costco Iceland, Ikea, Laugarvatn Fontana, with an overnight stay at South Central Apartments
Our Day
We landed at Keflavik Airport at a bright and early 6am on April 6th, having flown Icelandair from Toronto, Canada.
Since Icelandair doesn't offer food on the flights in economy, we snacked on some energy balls I had prepared at home. We grabbed the first available shuttle to the CampEasy office to pick up the EasyFun campervan that we had prebooked in January. The shuttle was fairly easy to find, a short walk across the parking lot.
My first two thoughts stepping out of the airport were: 1) boy, is it windy! and 2) wow, the sun is bright! It seems that we had landed on day 2 of a raging windstorm in the country.
Our first stop was the CampEasy office. We received information about Iceland, the van, and how to monitor and understand Iceland's weather data to ensure we stayed safe on our roadtrip. To be honest, it felt daunting as we sat there taking in the information, to know that we were going to be pretty much on the road by ourselves in a new country, and one with harsh weather patterns at that. Much like in Canada, weather is a very important topic in Iceland - it can change in an instant and you need to ensure you are prepared for any instance.
The CampEasy office stores food items and non-perishables left behind by other travellers, so we grabbed some stuff we thought we could use. We also grabbed a lot of baskets from the office - they're free and they come in incredibly handy to carry things in and out of the car during the roadtrip.
The van came equipped with a GPS and wifi, including pre-programmed routes that you could select and sites to visit along the way, though we learned shortly not to rely entirely on the GPS and to always use it alongside something else, either Waze or Google maps. Once we'd familiarized ourselves with the van, we drove to our first stop: Costco! My bf has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with the store, and vows to visit one in every country he travels to.
Costco Iceland was quite busy! We were tickled to find a bunch of things that we had bought at our local Costco in Toronto, including merino wool undershirts for our trip. However, the price we paid in Toronto was much better than the equivalent Iceland price.
We then stopped at nearby Ikea for a bite to eat - I won't lie, I think I may have an unhealthy obsession with Ikea's meals particularly their veggie and plantballs (during their 50% off family promotions, I ate there every Thursday for two months - why pass up tasty food and a good deal?!).
Stomachs satisfied, we stopped at Bonus in the same plaza to get our groceries for the first leg of our trip. We were quite shocked at the lower quality of the produce and smaller sizes of the items - egg came in a 10-pack carton (we were used to 12) and were about $8.00! while the bread bags were much smaller. Later on our trip, we did encounter groceries with more value (this was in Akureyri in the north.
What we ate on our roadtrip in Iceland (Add link)
Thingvellir National Park was supposed to be our first tourist stop, but when we drove in to the parking lot, we realized that it was windy and cold, and we were tired. We decided to keep going to our next destination, which was the Laugarvatn Fontana.
Laugarvatn Fontana: When we got to the parking lot, we were so tired that we decided to take a little nap in our van first! Never underestimate the toll that an overnight flight (on which you get little sleep) and cold weather can take on your body!
The geothermal baths themselves were lovely. They are located on the shores of Laugarvatn, which is a lake in Iceland by the Golden Circle. The winds that day were terrible, despite it being sunny, cloudless skies - a tip for bald men is to wear a toque in the hot springs because while your body will be fine, your head is going to get very cold.
Our previous geothermal experience was in Jasper in 2023; we noticed that the locker system at the Fontana was much easier to use (considering that we both locked ourselves out of our lockers in the change rooms at Jasper!) - the wristbands they use in Iceland are much more user friendly. There are also saunas that you can use after the baths.
We ate dinner at the Fontana café. While we didn't join the geothermal bakery group - rye-bread baking in the hot volcanic sands - a unique activity you can pay for ahead of time when you book your time at Laugarvatn - we did try the geothermal rye bread baked at Laugarvatn, which was delicious - We were instant fans and even ended up buying some to take home with us. Dinner was all you can eat soup with bread + cheese + pesto, and it really hit the spot as we were SO tired and wind-worn (aside: do Icelanders have a word for this?!). We appreciated being able to eat as much as we wanted.
Our last stop was South Central Apartments, where we spent the night. Our first night in Iceland, we were surprised to find that the apartments felt quite literally like they were in the middle of nowhere. We later learned that it's pretty normal for apartments and Air BnBs to feel quite isolated and farther away from cities or towns. Camspites, meanwhile, often tend to be closer to the cities or towns, a distinction that was quite different from what we were used to in Canada.
The apartments themselves were very clean, spacious, with a bathroom, twin beds and bunk beds - perfect for families. Something interesting - none of the places we stayed in had a queen bed - perhaps a European thing, Iceland hotels and apartments provide two twin beds and two duvets which can be great if you are travelling with friends, but also make sleeping as a couple pretty comfortable as you get your own bedsheets, bed and comforter! A pretty neat concept, one that North America has yet to (and may never!) adopt.
The night ended up being incredibly windy, and wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we fell asleep rather quickly.
