Iceland Visit 2024 Day 1

Documenting August 16, 2024.

The tl;dr for today is that we:

Disembarked from the ship
Picked up our rental car
Visited some sights
Checked in to our Airbnb

Before I get to the fun stuff, I want to put a few notes up front here for next time with respect to renting a car. If you don’t care about renting a car in Iceland after doing a cruise, feel free to skip ahead to ‘➡️ The fun begins here’. 🙂

A day or two after booking the cruise, months ago, I researched and made a car rental reservation at a place that showed as a 15-20 minute walk from the Reykjavik cruise terminal we’d be docking at. I figured we’d get off the ship, I’d hoof it over to pick up the car, and I’d swing back over to the terminal and pick the rest of the family up.

Once on the cruise, midway through the voyage, Guest Services took a poll through the (terrible) Celebrity app, surveying people’s disembarkation transportation plans. I don’t recall the exact answer I gave, but it was along the lines of “don’t worry about us, we’ve already made plans.” A day or two later, Guest Services left a letter in our room, the gist of which was “Transportation can be a challenge here in Iceland, there aren’t a lot of taxis, it would be better if you organized transportation through us.” I was still content with my plan until I hit this line in the letter: “Please note that the port is a secured area.” At other major ports such as Miami or Ft Lauderdale, you need to provide rideshare/taxi/limo ID in order to drive over to the actual pick up area, and I had no idea if similar restrictions would be in place.

So then the next few days I was riddled with self-doubt about my original plan. In the end, I decided we’d go with the herd. We arranged bus transfers through Celebrity over to the Reykjavik central bus terminal… at $20 per person for a 20 minute trip. For reference, Disney Cruise charges $34 per person to pick up from a variety of Disney hotels and deliver you an hour away. I cancelled that car reservation walking distance to the CRUISE terminal and replaced it with Hertz by the domestic airport, around a 20 minute walk from the BUS terminal.

While riding our $80 bus, I kept my eyes peeled and WE TOTALLY COULD’VE GONE WITH THE ORIGINAL PLAN. There were ample places for the family to wait just beyond the secured area, with plenty of out of traffic spots for me to do a grab-and-go. The only bright side in this scenario is that we ended up with a Tesla Model Y instead of a Toyota Proace City, which probably would’ve been fine but much less familiar to drive.

We made it to the bus terminal, and then me and Rowan hoofed it over to Hertz’ Downtown Office, around 20 minutes walk away. We swung back to the bus terminal for the girls, found the right stacking and angle to fit all the luggage, and then were on our way.

➡️ The fun begins here.

We left Reykjavik straight away and started toward the south coast. The route took us through Selfoss, a city we were familiar with from last year. We even happened across the same bakery we made our first stop at last year. We had pastries and warm drinks, then popped across the parking lot to Bónus grocery store for some snacks and sodas. This was still mid-morning with a check-in time of 4pm, which meant we still had a lot of time ahead of us. (Thankfully I wasn’t fighting 2 hours of sleep the night before and jet lag.)

Our first stop after breakfast was at LAVA Centre, around 40 minutes from our Airbnb in Steinar. https://lavacentre.is/ For some reason I was expecting real lava – somehow – but the movie and exhibits were still really well done, and I was happy with this stop.

They had an observation deck, from which you could see multiple volcanos in the distance: Girl in a white sweater standing at the LAVA Centre rooftop observation deck railing, with a panoramic identification placard behind her and green fields, scattered buildings, and distant volcanic mountains stretching to the horizon under a bright blue sky with wispy clouds

Inside there are displays seismic activity all around Iceland: Teenage boy in a black hoodie standing in a LAVA Centre exhibit hall with topographic contour lines carved into dark wood walls, a row of vertical display panels labeled with Icelandic volcano names like Trolladyngja, Hengill, Hekla, Katla, Oraefajokull, Grimsvotn Bardarbunga, and Askja, and a large illuminated relief map table of Iceland showing eruption zones in orange

And multiple interactive exhibits about earthquakes, lava, and eruptions: Dark LAVA Centre exhibit room with a glowing orange simulated magma dome inside a circular railing in the foreground, and three visitors silhouetted in front of a wall-sized projection titled Jardskjalftasvaedi / Earthquake zones showing a satellite map of Iceland with highlighted seismic areas

Our second stop was a random waterfall we happened to notice off the Ring Road. This would end up being Seljalandsfoss, one of the notable South Iceland must-see waterfalls. If we’d had our plans more together, we wouldn’t have been surprised by this. We parked, paid with their weird parking app, then walked over to the main waterfall. This one you could walk behind but it was too cold, misty, and muddy for us. There’s also a secondary waterfall about a kilometer away along a decent (and flat) path, so we opted for that as well. Happy with the side quest and that we’d killed some time, we moved on.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall plunging off a moss-covered cliff, viewed from the side along the walking path, with a girl in a pink jacket and other visitors in rain gear descending metal-railed steps and people visible on the trail that passes behind the falls

Panoramic view from beside Seljalandsfoss showing the tall waterfall dropping into a pool ringed by black rock and bright green grass, flat farmland stretching to the horizon under blue sky and puffy clouds, and a boy in a blue hooded jacket standing on the rocky path in the foreground

Next we were generally heading towards Vik and the black sand beach there, and also keeping an eye out for lunch. A few miles past our Airbnb we noticed a decent place on the left called Heimamenn (they also had a Street Food sign 🤷‍♂️) and looked promising for at least a check-out. They had some of the best fish and chips I’ve had anywhere. Granted it was 3500 ISK (~USD26) but I didn’t even care. This was a nice stop.

White gabled building with a large black Street Food sign and a metal exhaust vent, with a teenage boy in a black hoodie standing in front, a girl sitting hunched at a wooden picnic table, and green mossy hills rising behind under a partly cloudy blue sky

Basket of fish and chips at Heimamenn: a large battered fish fillet on a pile of french fries over newspaper-print paper, with paper cups of ketchup and tartar sauce and a lemon wedge, on a dark wooden table with water glasses and a second basket of fries in the background

Once fed, we set our sights on Vik and its famous black sand beaches. I was expecting something different, like a loooong sandy walk down to the water, dodging travel influencers the whole time. It wasn’t like that at all. There were relatively few people there, the weather was amazing – breezy, sure, but in the mid 50’s – and between the surf, sand, cliffs, grasses, and birds, it felt like a special place.

Mother, son, and daughter standing on the black sand beach at Vik next to a Vik Culture Walk interpretive sign about maritime history, with tall dune grass, the Reynisdrangar sea stacks rising from the sparkling ocean, and green sea cliffs in the background

Line of horseback riders crossing the black sand beach at Vik below towering green sea cliffs, with the jagged Reynisdrangar sea stacks silhouetted offshore in the glittering sea and patches of dune grass growing through the dark sand in the foreground

While in Vik, we bought some essentials at the grocery, then made the 40 minute drive back to our Airbnb to check in.

Sherri powered through most of the day feeling under the weather, but we now know it’s a nice hefty case of COVID. She’s been in the dumps for 2 days now, though seemingly trending better. In retrospect, I probably had COVID onboard the ship but with milder symptoms that presented more like a cold. We’re crossing our fingers the kids don’t pick it up.

Black corrugated-metal Airbnb house with a white garage door and gray roof at the foot of a dramatic craggy green mountainside, with a white Tesla Model Y rental car parked on the gravel in front under a blue sky with big white clouds

Open-plan interior of the Airbnb with exposed wooden beam ceiling and board-formed concrete walls, a white kitchen island, wooden dining table with chairs by windows overlooking flat coastal fields, and a floor mattress with white bedding where a boy sits under a duvet

As far as feedback on the lodging, it feels like an 80% complete Airbnb, and isn’t as good a value as the others we had last year. There’s no grill nor hot tub nor even patio furniture. There are two bedrooms with two queen beds, which cannot be separated. We borrowed a mattress cover from one bed and made a floor bed for Rowan, but overnight it ended up being too “spidery” there and he retreated to the couch. There are a few other nits that aren’t worth mentioning. On the positive side, the kitchen was well stocked with spices and a variety of pots and pans. Overall I wished for better accommodations here in South Iceland but we did book our cruise and post-cruise Iceland visit very late, so there wasn’t much to choose from.

All that said, it’s hard to argue with the view.

Boy in a black hoodie seen from behind, looking across a field of tall golden grass toward a rugged wall of green, moss-covered rocky crags rising behind the Airbnb under a dusky blue sky

Our sunset for today:

Sunset over the south coast of Iceland with pastel orange and blue sky, a dark band of clouds above the sea, grassy fields and a road in the foreground, and the silhouetted islands of Heimaey visible on the ocean horizon (If you look closely, you can see Heimaey off in the distance there.)

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