When I tell people my family and I went to Iceland for spring break, I usually get a funny look and often a question back. What made you pick Iceland?
It’s a valid question. After all, my husband, son and I live in Minnesota. It’s pretty cold here for six months out of the year. Why would we head further north in late March? Wouldn’t we be more inclined to crave the warmth of the sun, a beach or pool, and a place we can finally sit outside with a cocktail and a good book?
Apparently not. 🙂
All I can say is, there was something compelling about visiting Iceland with its geothermal pools, 10,000+ waterfalls, glacier hikes, and other-worldly landscapes. Iceland is also a pretty reasonable 6-hour direct flight from Minneapolis. And let’s be honest, we already had most of the winter-ish gear we needed: coats, hats, gloves, and lots of layers.
Bring on the Iceland spring break adventure!
Our Iceland Spring Break Itinerary
We only had about 6 days to work with because of spring break schedules and Easter weekend. I would’ve tacked one additional day onto the schedule but flights out of Minneapolis booked up faster than I realized. Instead of leaving Saturday night, we had to pivot to Sunday night.
- Sunday (overnight flight) – We flew out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Icelandair to Reykjavik (Keflavik Airport). We arrived at Keflavik at 6:30 am local time, got through customs, grabbed our luggage, and headed to the rental car company (see my note below).
- Monday – Blue Lagoon and exploring Reykjavik
- Tuesday – Reykjavik in the morning and travel part of the Golden Circle to Vik in the afternoon
- Wednesday – Glacier hike to an ice cave tour near Vik and then travel back to Selfoss
- Thursday – Explore Selfoss area and more of the Golden Circle
- Friday – Back to Reykjavik and our afternoon flight home to Minneapolis
By my own accounts, this was a pretty short trip and we were only going to be able to hit some highlights. Plus, the weather in Iceland in late March / early April was still fairly dicey so we kept our goals pretty manageable each day, knowing drive time could be disrupted by the weather. (There are also many roads in some parts of the country that weren’t open yet for spring.) That being said, we saw some amazing sights and learned so much about the history and culture of Iceland. We didn’t feel short-changed or too limited — except for the cloudy skies most evenings that really hindered our hunt for the Northern Lights.
(Pro tip: we highly recommend MyCar car rental company. We had a stellar experience — a nearly brand-new all-wheel drive SUV with a 2nd driver added for free and wifi in the vehicle. Easy pick-up and just as easy drop-off, too. Take the full insurance, though. Peace of mind with wind, sand and snow/ice damage is worth it.)
The Blue Lagoon
I did a fair amount of research about Iceland travel before booking our trip. That research led me to book our Blue Lagoon excursion for the morning our flight landed. It makes sense. Keflavik Airport is outside of Reykjavik, so it’s an easy stop from the airport instead of backtracking later in the day. Plus, many people swore that this amazing geothermal pool helped refresh and revitalize them after a short overnight flight. (Read: we didn’t get much sleep on the flight.)
And you know what? It really did feel like that. Blue Lagoon was a super cool experience. Was it a little touristy? Sure, but who cares! That’s what we were, after all. The pool, the mud masks, the cocktail (at 9:00 am in the morning) … it was incredible.
Reykjavik
Next, we headed to drop off our luggage at our hotel in Reykjavik and explore the city center. We stayed at Hotel ReykjavÃk Grand, which was in the business district of the city. I liked the free parking the hotel offered and our room was very large by European standards. This was especially helpful since we had three adults in one hotel room. The hotel was a quick taxi ride (5-10 minutes) to the city center. It may not have been super charming but we had amazing service, a very clean and well appointed room, and the location and amenities made it worth it.
Once we got our bearings, we realized Reykjavik is a great size for getting around easily — either by walking or by car. We walked the famous rainbow street all the way to Iceland’s largest church (it’s Lutheran!) and second-tallest building, HallgrÃmskirkja. Once inside, we marveled at the the two pipe organs as well as the beautiful and minimalistic interior. The church’s 73-meter-high tower offered a stunning 360-degree panoramic view of Reykjavik and the surrounding mountains.
Outside of this awe-inspiring Lutheran Church sits a statue of Leif Erikson. (It’s the work of American artist Alexander Calder, incidentally.) We also loved wandering through some of the shops and popped in to several restaurants and an ice cream shop. (If you know our son, then you know we are always on the hunt for good ice cream, no matter where we travel!)
Before leaving this beautiful city, we visited the National Museum of Iceland, which taught us so much about the island’s culture history. We highly recommend you check this out while in Reykjavik.
The Golden Circle, Heading to Vik
With the sun shining in Reykjavik after a bit of snow, we hit the road for part of the Golden Circle route, which is on everyone’s bucket list when visiting Iceland. The first part of the route took us to Selfoss and we continued on from there all the way to Vik, on the southern tip of the island. This was such a fun drive that surprised us with waterfalls everywhere, plenty of Icelandic horses on farms that we could spot from the highway, and a little bit of everything, weather-wise.
We loved Seljalandsfoss, one of Iceland’s best-known waterfalls, but there were also so many smaller waterfalls that would catch our eye as we were driving. And the drive into Vik was stunning – the view of the ocean and this idyllic little town was breathtaking!
Once in Vik, we stayed at Vik Apartments, which was within walking distance to restaurants, a supermarket, and offered easy parking and plenty of space for us. Vik itself is tiny — around 300 year-round residents; however, it has enough beds to house 3,500 tourists each night! We really enjoyed the food at Black Crust Pizza. and also The Soup Company (where we also found some Icelandic-flavored macarons). Honestly, why aren’t there more restaurants that simply serve amazing soups and bread in the U.S.?
Ice Cave Tour
We highly recommend the Katla Ice Cave Tour that loaded us up into giant trucks in Vik and drove us about an hour across a glacier to a remote ice cave. Our photos tell the whole story. It was absolutely the coolest thing ever!
After our ice cave adventure, we stopped at Skool Beans Coffee for a little caffeine before head back toward Selfoss and the rest of our adventure.
Selfoss and The Golden Circle
The final two days of our trip were centered near Selfoss in a house rental called Kerbyggð that was literally in the middle of the countryside. We absolutely loved it and it ended up being the perfect location.
We explored Selfoss itself and hit up a couple of local grocery stores so that we could cook our evening meals in the beautiful kitchen we had. We tried a weird local tradition — fermented shark — which we absolutely cannot recommend. HA! And we also cooked up Ielandic horse steaks and arctic char. The horse tasted like ham and the arctic char was a delicious – it’s a fish similar to salmon. We also took Icelandic Skyr (similar to Greek yogurt) and make a yummy frozen dessert with a gluten-free graham cracker crust and melted dark chocolate drizzled on top.
After an overnight snowstorm dropped a few inches of snow, we chilled at the house in the morning and then hit the road in the afternoon to go check out these sights:
- Kerið Volcanic Crater: A striking 3,000-year-old crater filled with deep, vibrant blue water (although full disclosure, the snow covered the water that day).
- Geysir Geothermal Area: Located in the Haukadalur Valley, this area is famous for bubbling mud pits and steaming hot springs. While the original Great Geysir is mostly inactive, its neighbor, Strokkur, erupts high into the air every 5 to 10 minutes.
- Gullfoss Waterfall: Translating to “Golden Falls,” this massive, two-tiered waterfall drops 32 meters (105 feet) into a rugged, ancient canyon. It was quite literally breathtaking — and especially beautiful with snowflakes falling.
What Did We Pack?
Our lighter winter jackets were our friends on this trip. The weather (to us) wasn’t super cold but the wind was definitely a force to be reckoned with. We are used to March and April temps that fluctuate so we dressed in layers and always had winter hats and gloves at the ready. I also wore my thermal leggings under pants for the days we were outside most of the time – this was super helpful.
Did We Ever See the Northern Lights?
Well, not full on in their glory, unfortunately — but we came pretty close our last night at the Airbnb outside of Selfoss. And if you could only see how many times that night I would go in and out of our little home to check on the sky. Our son, Joe, texted me at like 2 am to tell me to look out my bedroom window!
And That Was a Wrap on our Iceland Spring Break
All in all, we felt like we saw quite a few of the many highlights of Iceland on our short spring break trip. And while some people may not necessarily be keen to go in March and early April like we did, we actually rather liked exploring this gorgeous island when it was still a bit snow covered without the huge throngs of tourists that came during the summer.
Definitely no regrets from my family — it was another stellar family trip in the books and we would absolutely recommend you check Iceland out someday!
