Reykjavík

What to expect the moment you arrive

Iceland is the rare place that feels enormous and completely manageable at the same time. Reykjavík is small enough to walk end to end, English is spoken everywhere, and card payment works from the airport bus to a gas-station hot dog. Autumn was our season: rust-and-gold shrubs against black lava, waterfalls running full, and rainbows that appear about every twenty minutes because it keeps drizzling and clearing.

Arrival notes

Keflavík is about 45 minutes from Reykjavík. The Flybus is easy, runs to every flight, and drops at hotels — but if you plan to see the south coast, pick up a rental car at the airport instead. Grab groceries at Bónus on the way in; food is the real expense here.

Getting around

Reykjavík is walkable. Everything else is the Ring Road. Roads are well maintained but weather changes fast — check road.is and vedur.is every morning, keep the tank above half, and never open a car door into the wind.

Highlights

• 01Walk the rainbow street up to Hallgrímskirkja and take the tower elevator for the city view.
• 02Soak at the Blue Lagoon at dusk — book the earliest or latest slot to avoid the crowd.
• 03Hraunfossar: hundreds of little waterfalls seeping straight out of the lava field into turquoise water.
• 04Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, then cross the road to Diamond Beach.
• 05Reynisfjara black sand beach and the basalt columns — stay well back from the sneaker waves.
• 06Stjórnarfoss at golden hour, usually with nobody else there.

From our trip

Photos taken by us, on the ground.