Day One: Golden Circle & Drive to South Coast
- Antonia Quinn
- Apr 10, 2018
- 6 min read
The Day The Trip Began...
So, our trip began on Wednesday March 21st and we were all set to fly out of Newark Airport at 6:40 pm on WOW airlines. Well, actually the story begins about two days before because all of the sudden the weather report was predicting there would be a HUGE nor'easter the day of our flight out. We had gotten really bad predictions for snow storms earlier in the winter though that had turned out to be nothing more than a dusting of snow. So hopes were high, on my part at least.
But waking up the morning of the flight to a whiteout, I realized pretty quickly it was NOT looking good for our travel plans. Side note, me and my boyfriend Nick - well... now fiancé... but that part of the story comes later - have been together for almost 6 years and have really never been on vacation together. He lived in Florida for work for a while so I would go visit him and basically that was our vacation. But thats beside the point, basically we were both REALLY looking forward to going on this trip. I mean, as you'll see below we had everything planned to a T so we had no wiggle room if our flight was canceled.
I was obsessively looking at the Newark airport departures, and let me tell you it was looking BLEAK. And I mean reaaaallll bleak people, like 85% of all flights were cancelled by 10 am. But ours was still marked as scheduled... Now we were flying on WOW Airlines, not a major airline whatsoever, so they basically have one flight a day from Newark to Reykavik, and in turn, one flight a day from Reykavik to Newark. Now I was even more obsessively checking the Keflavik airport departures because I thought, if this plane is going to take off to Newark, it can probably take off from Newark.....right?
I have no idea if this logic makes sense but it was good enough for me. So FINALLY the flight took off, and now it was a waiting game. We got to the airport super super early, and it was actually a shanty/ghost town in there. Tumbleweeds were blowing through the concourse it was so deserted. I'm not joking when I tell you that we got to our concourse and the ONLY flight that was still on the departures screen was ours.
I kept making the joke that WOW only has one plane that goes back and forth to Newark so like, they HAVE to get that plane here so they can get back for tomorrow's flight - they literally cannot afford to cancel a flight. But honestly the more we made that joke the more it seemed like reality. Because low and behold, our flight landed at Newark. We waited for them to de-ice the plane and then our plane actually by some miracle of God, took off in a blizzard. Our flight got into Reykavik only FIVE MINUTES past schedule. It was incredible. WOW airlines does not have any free amenities, definitely has the least comfortable seats of all time, but they WILL get you there no matter what, and that's really all that matters at the end of the day.
Day One
The first day we planned to see all the Golden Circle destinations we wanted to see most, then drive to our hotel on the South Coast, and finally drive a short distance from there to see Seljalandsfoss for Sunset. We were kind of skeptical about the plan at first because it seemed like we had so much to see and do in one day, but honestly all we really needed at each destination was about 30 minutes. It was enough time to enjoy the views, take some pictures and explore a little bit, and then we were off to our next destination. We got to see everything we wanted and I think the itinerary worked out perfectly for that day!
Our flight arrived at Keflavik Airport in Reykjavik at 4:45 am local time (an ungodly hour), and after attempting to change clothes, wash our faces, and brush our teeth in the tiniest bathroom of all time (delirious, because we were running on two hours of sleep) we were off to pick up our rental car outside the airport. It was pouring rain like you wouldn't believe and it was still pitch black out when we started our drive. After getting a much needed coffee we were off to our first destination, Thingvellir National Park. Driving from Reykjavik to Thingvellir we immediately got a taste of the crazy Icelandic weather. As I said, it was down pouring in the city, and then as we started to drive out of the city we were immediately hit out of nowhere with a whiteout blizzard... then about 10 minutes down the road it was completely clear sunny skies. That was something I've definitely never experienced before.
And then a little down the road....
Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park which had really beautiful views. Right away when we got there we got introduced to Iceland's bathroom situation, which is that there are bathrooms everywhere, but you have to pay to use most of them. The cost is usually 200 króna, which is equal to $2. It's honestly not a bad policy because they do keep the bathrooms pretty clean and it spares you having to buy something at a gas station to use the bathroom. That being said, if you do buy something you don't have to pay the bathroom fee.
But back to the point, Thingvellir was beautiful with great views, and a great first stop. We only stayed for about 20 minutes, but you could stay longer and walk further to see more views.
Our next destination was Geysir Hot Springs, which was awesome. The big Geysir erupts ever 10 minutes or so, so you definitely will get to see it go off. We walked around to the other little geysers and hot springs, took some pictures, and then were off to our next destination.
Next up was Gullfoss, only about 10 minutes away. The clouds were really clearing up over there and we had the most amazing views. This was definitely one of our favorite places to see, the falls and the views were absolutely stunning!
Next up was our longer drive to the South Coast to drop our stuff off at our hotel for the night before we went to Seljalandsfoss for Sunset. The drive itself was so beautiful, although I'll admit I did a 20 minute meditation in the car... well what was supposed to be a 20 minute meditation but turned out to be an hour long nap... yeah. But when I woke up we still had a 40 minute drive and the parts I saw were really beautiful. We stayed at the Lindartun Guesthouse which was a small house absolutely in the middle of nowhere in Hvolsvollur, but it was a really great place to stay. I thought being in the middle of nowhere alone in a small house in a very foreign country would be scary, but it was actually incredibly peaceful. And we got to see these horsies right near the house!
Last stop for the day was Seljalandsfoss, a gorgeous waterfall. If we weren't so exhausted from the day it would have been nice to go behind the waterfall, which is easy to do and has the most incredible views from the pictures I've seen... but you have to come prepared because you will get absolutely soaking wet if you want to do that. And after a long day we just were not up for it.
After that we went back to the guesthouse and went to bed early to get a much needed full night of rest!
