Iceland 🇮🇸 Notes 2025

July 26, 2025

General

Car Rental

• Although Hertz and Enterprise are available, based on Reddit threads, I opted to use local company Blue, which was great. Instead of the madhouse of rental kiosks in the KEF terminal, they have a serene well-staffed office which is a short 5 minute walk away across a parking lot. There is also a rental car shuttle bus that will also take you right there. Super easy and nice.
• Lots of talk about rental coverage especially Icelandic black sand and volcanic ash damage; due to my credit card extended coverage I declined both without issues, although I did verify beforehand that there were no excusions for those in my coverage.
• You do have the option to rent EVs which I was dubious of, but there are lots of chargers around so that actually might be feasible (at least in the south coast and golden circle, I can’t say about an entire Ring Road trip).

Mobile Phone

• We have T-Mobile which gives us free international texting and data in most countries including Iceland. However, we have an older plan so speeds are restricted to 3G at best, so pretty slow. It seemed to work for the most part for everyone else with some spotty coverage (which might be the 3G restriction vs partner network).
• Since I was going to use my phone for navigation, I wanted something a little faster and less restricted, so I bought a local eSIM, which worked out to $13 for 12GB of data valid for two weeks. Honestly I could have bought a lot less; once I figured out to turn off data access for Spotify and podcasts during my trip I used maybe 3GB during the week.

Money

• I was able to pay for everything using my credit card using Apple Pay tapping with my watch. You really don’t need any cash here; even though we got some out in case (using a Schwab checking account which gives you free international ATM access) I didn’t use it at all. Also despite fears of chip-and-pin, I never was asked for a PIN; and the only time I had to do chip-and-sign was at the duty-free store in KEF

Itinerary Planning

• With 8 days, even though it was technically possible to do the entire Ring Road, it sounded like it would be a push, having to do several long driving days and also sticking to a schedule to make sure we get there in time.
• Thus we made Reykjavik our base, with plans to do mostly day trips from there to the Golden Circle and the South Coast.

Reykjavik

It’s honestly not that big, if you are just hitting the highlights you can easily see most of it in a day or two. It’s also super walkable. However, since we had a car and our place was a little further from the city center, we ended up driving in every time. Parking was super easy, there is a lot of street parking and lots all around, and you can pay for your parking using the Parka mobile app.

Some Good Restaurants

• Cafe Laundromat - cute little diner with a laundromat in the basement.
• Grái kötturinn - this was Snapper’s favorite brunch place
• Icelandic Street Food - Simple menu with just two types of stew/soup: fish/shellfish or lamb, served either with bread or in a bread bowl. Portions are not huge but you get UNLIMITED SERVINGS! You can even switch soups every time if you want. Also FREE pancakes!!!
• Salka Valka eldhús - this had the more traditional Icelandic fish stew, which is blended with potatoes so it’s more of a thicker stew topping.
• Fish & Chips / Reykjavik Fish Restaurant - pretty outstanding fish & chips
• Chickpea - outstanding falafels, including a beet root falafel.
• Mama Restaurant - vegan restaurant, mostly stews but pretty tasty
• Kattakaffihúsið - cat cafe!
• Ramen Momo / Meira Ramen Momo - they have art on the walls implying it’s ok to stick your chopsticks standing up in your ramen bowl. it’s not. otherwise, not bad. the two locations have slightly different menus.
• Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur - home of the original famous Icelandic hot dog. honestly really delicious, full of organic Icelandic beef, pork, and lamb. Go early or late in the day to avoid ridiculous lines.

Go see

• Hallgrimskirkja - the huge church that overlooks something like 90% of iceland’s population. you can buy a ticket up to the bell tower to get a great look around.
• Harpa concert hall - you can go in for free and go up to several of the floors
• community pools - they are super cheap to get into (something like $8/person) and they have several hot tubs you can soak in with the locals. Entrance includes lockers and you can even rent a towel if needed.
  • https://reykjavik.is/en/sundholl-reykjavik-pool
  • https://reykjavik.is/en/vesturbaejarlaug-pool
  • https://reykjavik.is/en/laugardalslaug-pool

Golden Circle

A pretty easy day trip. If you take 435 to 360 it’s much more scenic.

• Þingvellir National Park
• Efstidalur II - really nice place to get lunch at a working dairy farm; you can eat your hamburgers and ice cream right next to the cows
• Geysir
• Gullfoss Waterfall
• Kerið Crater

South Coast Waterfalls

• Urriðafoss (not crucial but right off of the highway)
• Ægissíðufoss Waterfall‌ (not crucial but right off the highway)
• Seljalandsfoss - fantastic waterfall you can walk behind. wear rain gear, including rain pants if you got em, as you will get hit with heavy spray if you do go around the whole way
• Gljúfrabúi - don’t miss this hidden waterfall just 500m up from Seljalandsfoss. wear hiking boots as you need to walk through a bit of the water to get to the falls
• Skógafoss - tbh we didn’t actually make it to this one but it was the last one on our list