The Perfect 3 Day Iceland Itinerary
Last fall I spent 3 days in Iceland chasing waterfalls and the northern lights! I decided pretty last minute that I wanted to treat myself to a birthday trip and when I found out Lexi was hosting a group trip to Iceland, I knew I had to go. Our first day was for arriving and self exploring. I took a red eye flight, arrived at 6am, and took a bus from the airport straight to the blue lagoon. Because it was November, it was still pitch black outside and the sun didn’t rise until almost 930. It was absolutely frigid! This SoCal girl forgot what real winter felt like. The blue lagoon was really neat though. The color of the water was so bright and vibrant and the face masks were really luxurious. It felt like I was at a spa.
After the blue lagoon, I met up with some of the girls on the trip and we explored downtown Reykjavik and got some food before checking into our hostel. We walked the infamous rainbow street and saw Hallgrímskirkja - the church of Iceland.
The next 2 days were spent with our amazing tour guide exploring all the highlights of Iceland. Day 1 was the Southern Coast and consisted of insane waterfalls, glaciers, and black sand beaches. We started the morning at Skógafoss and mama nature decided to bless us with a rainbow to start our adventure. The waterfall was huge and so magical and we even got to hike up to the top to see it from above.
Our second stop of the day was a glacier! We didn’t have the proper shoes to hike on it, but you can book a tour and actually hike on the glacier. It was still really amazing to see up close and be able to touch parts of it.
We then went to Reynisfjara - Iceland’s black sand beach. An interesting, but pretty scary fact about this beach is that it’s so dangerous everyone is warned to not get too close to the water because the current is really strong. If someone is taken by the current, tour guides are told to not rescue them because it’s too dangerous!
Our final stop of the day included two more waterfalls - Seljalandsfoss & Gljufrafoss. Gljufrafoss (shown in the left three pictures) is a hidden waterfall found by hiking through a cave and is surrounded by a slot canyon and cliffs. Seljalandsfoss (shown in the right three pictures) is a waterfall that we actually got to walk behind! Needless to say, we got really wet, but it was oh so worth it!
Day 2 was the golden circle. We started the morning at Thingvellir National Park. This place is unique for many reasons. Firstly, it is the only place in the world where you’re able to stand between two continental plates! Secondly, if you’re a Game of Thrones lover, parts of the show were filmed here. The weather definitely added to the moody ambience of the park and because it was so cold and so early we had the park pretty much to ourselves!
The next stop was Gullfoss Waterfall. On the way we stopped at a dairy farm to get some fresh ice cream and see some cute farm animals. At this point, we were all soaking wet from the sideways rain and strong winds and it was freezing cold, so we didn’t spend much time here. But truly the waterfall was massive and so peaceful!
Our next stop was Kerid Crater - a volcanic crater lake. We saw this place right at as the sun was setting, so we caught a gorgeous sunset. We hiked the short way down to the bottom to see the crater from below too.
To end the day and an incredible 3 days in Iceland, we did a Northern Lights Tour because let’s be honest you can’t go to Iceland in the winter without seeing them! We got so incredibly lucky because 2024 was supposed to be one of the best years to see the Northern Lights for a long time. Definitely book a tour if you can because the tour guides have an aurora forecast tracker to make sure they take you to the best spots at the best times. And they provide hot cocoa. Looking back at these pictures, they honestly look photoshopped and I can’t believe it was real! I feel so grateful to have witnesses this bucket list wonder!
I hope this post inspires you to go someplace new! Thanks for reading!