Itinerary: 11 Day Ring Road Around Iceland

The Itinerary posts are actual trips that I’ve taken. The intent is to provide some inspiration or guidance in planning your own adventure to these locations. I organize the posts day-by-day to show what the area has to offer, and provide a look into what a family-friendly or solo-trip photography adventure to these amazing places can look like.

Check out the Iceland photo collection for photos I took while following the itinerary below.

Flights

This was an important trip for us - our first international trip since the pandemic, our daughter’s first ever flight. As new parents we had no idea what to expect, but we planned a redeye flight from DC to Keflavik in the hopes that she would fall asleep quickly and it would be smooth sailing. We ended up leaving DC at 7 pm, which is our daughter’s usual bed time, arriving in Keflavik at 7:30 am local time.

Our plan mostly worked. We boarded our flight early (hooray for priority boarding for families with small children!), got settled in, pulled out the stickers, and let her just play and look out the window for a while. Once we were up in the air, food was served relatively quickly, and she did fall asleep fairly early.

Icelandair is a great airline for traveling with kids, by the way. As soon as we were up in the air, the flight attendants came by and gave our daughter a little snack box and her choice of two toys from a hodgepodge of Iceland-themed stuffed animals, playing cards, and stickers. She ended up getting a small stuffed horse and puffin, and the newness of these toys helped keep her entertained for a while. Also, her flight was 20% cheaper than an adult ticket.

Our return flight departed Keflavik just before 5pm local time, and because of time zone changes, arrived back in DC just after 7pm.

Day 1 - Jetlag and Volcano Huts

Accommodations: Volcano Huts in Thorsmork
Food: Rauda Husid, Volcano Huts Base Camp

Family Activities: Black sand beach, some waterfalls, crazy bus ride.

Our first day, I had intentionally planned a pretty easy-going day in case we missed our flight, or just needed to find somewhere to rest for a while to get over jetlag. Our only commitment was to be at the bus stop for Volcano Huts by 6:30pm, 11 hours after we arrived. It was only 2.5 hours from the airport, so we slowly made our way over there, stopping whenever we fancied. I took some longer more scenic routes to allow our daughter to nap in the car a bit.'

Our first two nights were spent in the Thorsmork area at Volcano Huts. It was a little bit spendy, but I highly recommend the organization and location. Thorsmork is gorgeous (more on that in Day 2), and the accommodations were so cozy and remote. There was a great energy and the camp site, with a common dining room, common shower area, and even a small swing set for children to play on. Our daughter made some Italian friends at the park, and we had a great time watching all the bustle and eating surprisingly good buffet-style food at the common room.

Photo: Golden hour was just starting to hit when we were waiting for the bus, during which I grabbed this photo. I love Icelandic rivers because of how they meander through the black rock. They’re very wide and shallow and make for great foregrounds in landscape photography.

Day 2 - Nine Hours of Hiking in Thorsmork

Accommodations: Volcano Huts in Thorsmork

Food: Volcano Huts Base Camp for breakfast, dinner, and they even packed us lunch for the hike!

Family Activities: Hiking, picnic of sorts by the water

We started our second day with breakfast in the Volcano Huts common area - some yummy toast, yogurt, eggs, deli meats and cheeses and croissants. Then we went back to our cottage to gear up for a full day of hiking. Volcano Huts packed some sandwiches, bananas, Twix bars, juices, and ham-and-cheese wraps in tin foil, which I was easily able to fit into my camera bag and jacket pockets before we set off for our hike.

Doing two nights here was perfect, because we felt like we truly had the full day ahead of us. We hiked for nine hours, with a few breaks to enjoy a view or let my daughter out of the pack to run around a bit. The trails were all amazing and had something to see, and none of them were too strenuous. There was a lot of elevation gain, but nothing too steep, which meant that all of a sudden you would find yourself with an amazing 360 view and wonder how you’d even gotten there.

For lunch we stopped by the river bed, which was great for getting my 2.5 year old daughter out of her hiking pack and letting her run around a bit on the rocks. The water was shallow, and she loved throwing some small rocks into the moving water while mommy and daddy took our packs off and relaxed to the sound of moving water.

Photo: A view of Rjupafell off in the distance in the early afternoon, about halfway into our hike. Behind it, Myrdalsjokull is visible on a clear day like this one.

Day 3 - Beautiful Drive and Fjadrargljufur Canyon

Accommodations: Klausturhof Guesthouse in Skaftarhreppur
Food: Volcano Huts Base Camp, The Soup Company, Systrakaffi
Family Activities: Skogafoss, Fjadrargljufur Canyon, watching horses right next to the hotel

After an early breakfast on Day 3, we caught the return bus back to where we parked our rental car. To get to and from Volcano Huts, you have to book a bus (an expensive one, unfortunately). The bus route we took was about an hour each way, along dirt roads and across shallow rivers. The trip is NOT something you can do in your own rented vehicle, even if you get a four-wheel drive SUV. We actually saw some young kids in a rented SUV ford the deepest river, and then watched while their car stopped working and listened to them call their rental agency in a panic. The bus is expensive, but this “off-road” bus is an experience in itself and well worth the price.

We got back to our rental car and left towards Skaftarhreppur, the closest town to the beautiful Fjadrargljufur Canyon. We stopped in Vik at The Soup Company for lunch, and I would highly recommend it as a quick, yummy, reasonably priced soup place. They even let you have a second helping for free, which we did.

Fjadrargljufur Canyon is beautiful but difficult to capture because it’s so deep, and therefore the sun has a tough time getting to the bottom of the canyon. But I’m glad we saw it and I took some snapshots on my phone.

Photo: A bright sun casts a vibrant rainbow across the mist of Skogafoss, visible from the parking area.

Day 4 - A Waterfall Hike and the Ice Lagoon

Accommodations: Lindarbrekka, outside of Djupivogur

Food: Breakfast at the Hotel, Skaftafell Visitor Centre, Bragdavellir Barn Restaurant

Family Activities: Svartifoss, Ice Lagoon (Jokulsarlon)

Day 4 was a big driving day, with almost 4 hours of driving. We broke it up with two main stops: a 45 minute hike to Svartifoss, pictured here, and a stop at the famous Ice Lagoon. We had been to the Ice Lagoon on our previous trip to Iceland, and this was the only stop that we wanted to go to again because it’s just so unique and beautiful. Unfortunately, this was also one of the worst weather days, but it actually worked out well since we were in the car for so long.

We had several long drives on this 11 day trip, but our family enjoyed the scenery and my daughter enjoyed drawing on her magnetic drawing board in the back, and pointing out sheep and waterfalls whenever she saw them. Southern Iceland is a drive I think everyone should take, and if you were trying to spend less time traveling and more time seeing in Iceland, I would recommend you spend it here. On our previous trip, we did a snowmobile ride on a glacier, a glacier hike, and horseback riding in the valley. There’s so much to do and it’s such a beautiful area to explore, but on this trip, we had a mission, so we drove through fairly quickly.

Photo: Svartifoss on a cloudy, rainy day. This was just taken on my phone, as the amount of other tourists and the confinement (justifiably) of the hiking path didn’t really allow me to set up and compose a great image. This was the one 10 second moment where no other visitors were in view.

Day 5 - Geothermal Baths!

Accommodations: Highland Lodge AirBnB at Studlagil Canyon

Food: Breakfast bars in the car, bistro at Vök Baths, pasta and veggies cooked in the AirBnB

Family Activities: Vök Baths, waterfall detour

This was our favorite day of the trip. We ate some breakfast bars in the car while we drove to our noon appointment at Vök Baths. It was only about two hours away, and we had all morning to get there, so we took some side excursions down a few dirt roads that just looked interesting, not really planning where we were going. We stumbled upon Folaldafoss and if you find yourself in Eastern Iceland with some extra time, I highly recommend the drive. There was no one there and the water was such an teal blue color, and the view down the valley towards the fjord is incredible.

But the highlight for the whole family was Vök Baths. There are tons of geothermal baths in Iceland and my wife and I have been to three of them now (Blue Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, and Vök Baths), and this was our favorite. It’s almost as far from Reykjavik as you can get, but that just means that it’s less crowded. It’s got four different areas with different water temperatures - basically the further you get from the main building, the hotter it is. There’s a great restaurant attached and they give you a complimentary herbal tea. There’s a freezing cold lake right next to the baths and you can take a dip in the lake to experience extreme hot to extreme cold, and vice versa. Talk about invigorating.

The water closest to the building was cool enough that our daughter had no issues with the temperature, and for her it was basically a trip to the swimming pool.

If you’re doing a full ring road trip, make sure you stop here. It’s right off the ring road, reasonably priced (way cheaper than Blue Lagoon), and the facilities are fantastic.

Photo: My espresso martini and my wife’s fruit smoothie, which my daughter commandeered. The swim-up bar, while not super fancy, hit the spot perfectly.

Day 6 - Studlagil Canyon, Lava Church

Accommodations: Lava Apartments in Akureyri

Food: Breakfast bars and car snacks, Naustid in Husavik

Family Activities: Svartifoss, Ice Lagoon (Jokulsarlon)

On Day 6, we woke up at our AirBnB that was right next to the canyon (like literally about a 2 minute walk) on the west side, ate breakfast, and drove to the parking lot for hiking. The hike itself is not spectacular, although there is a nice waterfall with basalt stone formations along the way.

Studlagil Canyon is beautiful and you will no doubt have seen photos of it online, but it gets crowded with other people very quickly. Make sure you go early, and park on the EAST side of the river. Also, take your car and cross the bridge instead of parking at the bridge, it will shorten your hike by about half. We made this mistake on a cold, windy, and rainy day and really wish we’d saved time by parking closer to the Canyon.

Afterwards, we drove out the Lava Church on our way to Akureyri. What was supposed to be a quick visit turned into a long hike because a portion of the trail was closed, so we had to go the super long way around, and also got lost a few times. The signage here isn’t great but the rock formations are very unique and well worth your time. It’s just a little further down the road from Dettifoss and not nearly as crowded, so if you want to get away from people I highly recommend this spot.

Photo: View from inside the Lava Church. Awesome little cave formation and we were pretty much the only ones there! My daughter had a blast climbing on the rocks.

Day 7 - Akureyri

Accommodations: Lava Apartments in Akureyri

Food: Kaffi Ilmur, a hot dog stand, Centrum Bar and Kitchen

Family Activities: Book store, toy store, botanical gardens, playground

This was the rainiest day of our trip, and my wife was also not feeling well, so we spent almost the entire day in town. We walked around a bit and shopped to get out of the rain, and when the rain let up for a while we checked out the botanical gardens, which my daughter enjoyed. There’s a playground on the main street where we also had fun, and in the afternoon I took my daughter to the nearby indoor mall to go shopping for a toy. Icelandic hot dogs are amazing, and while the little hot dog stand on main street doesn’t come close to comparing to Baejarins in Reykjavik, it still hit the spot on a cold and rainy day.

Photo: While my wife rested in our rented apartment with a headache, I loaded my daughter and camera gear into the car and we went for a drive. First stop was a toy store in a covered mall, but then we left the city for a while to see if there were any photo opportunities. Akureyri is surrounded by some beautiful mountains and while the weather wasn’t conducive to hiking, there were still some nice views to be had from the roads in the valleys. This was taken by the side of the road with my zoom lens to capture a hole in the clouds, where a ray of sunlight was lighting up a green patch on an otherwise black rock mountain.

Day 8 - Sunbathing Seals, Drive through the Mountains

Accommodations: Fagrabrekka Hotel

Food: Kristjian’s Bakery, Sjavarborg, gas station hamburgers

Family Activities: Visiting the sunbathing seals of Hvammstangi, a daddy-daughter waterfall hike

This was another big driving day, but the drive west outside of Akureyri was absolutely gorgeous. We also stopped in Iceland’s seal capital, Hvammstangi, and took a drive up the coast to stop at a couple seal hangouts. We saw several sunbathing on the rocks, and my daughter enjoyed looking out for their swimming heads in the water.

We stayed the night at a small little “hotel” that was really just a couple of rooms in a person’s spare house that they were renovating. It was fine, the perfect distance between Akureyri and Reykjavik if you’re just looking to get through that relatively uninteresting part of the country quickly. It’s still a beautiful area, but it’s mostly flat and sheep land.

While my wife rested in the hotel, my daughter and I took a quick 15 minute hike from the hotel to check out a few small waterfalls nearby, surrounded by sheep. Even in the flattest and emptiest parts of Iceland, somehow you’re still only a short walk from a waterfall.

Photo: I initially parked on the side of a road to try to take a picture of some sheep that I saw crossing a river, but couldn’t compose them correctly. On the walk back to the car I found this flooded fenced area with the mountains in the background.

Day 9 - So Many Tomatoes and Glass Houses

Accommodations: Glass Cottage in the middle of nowhere

Food: Fridheimar, Valhalla Restaurant

Family Activities: A greenhouse meal, shopping, photography detour

This day was all about Fridheimar. I’d heard about the place only shortly before we left for our trip while watching an episode of Travel Man, and went to book but found that they were all booked up. E-mailing them instead of using their online booking system, I was able to secure a spot at 11AM, but that meant that we had to seriously book it from our hotel to the restaurant, a 3 hour drive.

Photo: I can’t say enough great things about Fridheimar. I have grown up hating tomatoes, but I went full-immersion and ordered myself just sliced heirloom tomatoes with burrata and salt, and it was probably my favorite meal of the entire trip. The ambience of sitting amongst all the greenery and ripening tomatoes adds to the experience. We also ordered a pizza with tomato sauce for my daughter, my wife had the tomato soup and bread, and we sampled the tomato lager, tomato espresso tonic, tomato cheesecake, and tomato-apple crumble. Everything was amazing and the staff were super helpful and sweet to our daughter. If you’re going to Iceland, have lunch at Fridheimar, just make sure you book well in advance!

Day 10 - Sheep and Reykjavik

Accommodations: Skolavordustigur Apartments in Reykjavik

Food: Breakfast at the cottage, Baejarins Icelandic Hot Dog Stand, Reykjavik Fish

Family Activities: A wool mill and yarn shop, amazing hot dogs, ice cream for dessert

After a great evening in our “splurge” stay at the Glass Cottages, we ate a breakfast of some yogurt and pastries we bought the day before at Bonus, a must-stop shop for any road trips in Iceland.

Our only goal for the day was to end up in Reykjavik in time for a hot dog lunch, because I was craving some Baejarins. We only had about an hour and a half drive to get into the city, so we stopped at Uppspuni Mill and Yarn Shop to visit the sheep and see how they process wool. We spent a bit of time in the shop, but it’s definitely geared more toward knitters, though they had a few finished products like blankets. The people that worked there were super sweet with our daughter.

Once in the city, we got our hot dog and walked around a bit on the main street to do some end-of-trip souvenir shopping.

Photo: I’m terrible at street photography or architectural photography, but I enjoyed going down to the docks and trying to capture some abstract photos like this one. This was after my daughter had gone to sleep, because sunset is so late in Iceland.

Day 11 - Shopping and Return Home

Accommodations: Home Sweet Home

Food: Braud & Co, Reykjavik Roasters, Fish and Chips at the Airport

Family Activities: A playground, art shops, sweater shopping, and the plane ride home

On our last day, we grabbed some coffee from Reykjavik Roasters and just down the street, some breakfast pastries from Braud & Co. Both of these were return visits from our honeymoon 5 years earlier, because their food and drink are so good. There’s always a long line outside of Braud & Co, and Reykjavik Roasters is perfectly situated right next to a public playground that my daughter really enjoyed.

We finished up our time in Reykjavik with a little more shopping, finally deciding to spend the money on real hand-knit sweaters from The Handknitting Association of Iceland. Several other places in Iceland sell Icelandic wool, but it’s knitted or woven overseas and the wool is more processed. At this place, the sweaters are guaranteed to be hand-knitted in Iceland and the look is much more “raw”. Maybe a little scratchier, and quite spendy, but we’ve been impressed with the warmth and quality.

Photo: See you next time, Iceland!