Iceland 2026 Part 4 – The West

By Wednesday, July 1, we were making our way to the Snæfellsnes peninsula north of Reykjavik. It was absolutely the coldest, windiest, rainiest point of our trip. Unfortunately that meant we ended up missing a few sights and activities due to the weather, but it wasn’t a total loss as there was still a lot to see each day even in the bad weather.

Day 11 – Stykkishólmur to Hellnar

We had several planned stops, but we needed some food and medicine for Pete’s cough. Unfortunately, in Iceland you can only buy over-the-counter medication at pharmacies; medicine isn’t allowed to be sold at supermarkets. Adding to this problem is the fact that pharmacies have very limited opening hours. So our choices were to stay in Stykkishólmur until the pharmacy opened at noon, resulting in a lot of lost time, or try to find one along the way.

Fortunately the town right next to our second stop, Kirkjufell, is called Grundarfjörður – and it turns out they had a pharmacy that would be open if we happened to stop there for lunch. So we ate a quick breakfast plus coffee at our lodging in Stykkishólmur, took a few photos of the town (see my previous post), and headed out.

Our first stop was the Berserkjahraun Lava Field. You can see from the photo above how dreary the weather was, but it was very dramatic. And at least the rain wasn’t coming down sideways like the night before.

The most exciting part for me here was that we stumbled on the van for the World’s Worst Photographer. I’m not being rude; this was an actual contest run by Iceland Air. Parisian Blanche Mortemard won the (dubious) distinction, a $50,000 cash prize, and an all-expenses paid trip around Iceland. I really wanted to go up and meet her but Pete wouldn’t let me! In his defense, we would have had to chase her down a questionable F-road. (F-roads are the interior roads that are often unpaved and sometimes involve river crossings.) But I did snap a cell photo as she and her team drove off. You can read her diary here and see her van below.

From there, we headed on toward Grundarfjörður. But just as we were pulling into town, we came across yet another beautiful waterfall. This one is called Grundarfoss. We hadn’t planned to stop here, but of course we did. It was so beautiful!

We still had a little time to kill before the pharmacy opened, so we stopped at a place called Valeria Kaffi. It’s a cafe combined with an art and souvenir shop. Owned by a Colombian / Icelandic family, they import their own coffee beans and roast them on-site. We each had an “Iceland espresso”, which was an espresso with a piece of chocolate-covered licorice inside. I’m pretty sure they just made up that term, but I don’t care as it was delicious!

Finally it was time for the pharmacy, so we were able to get Pete both expectorant and a cough suppressant, as well as some soothing drops. This was a situation where it helped to know the names of the actual medications (dextromethorphan and guaifenesin) because the brands were completely different. And even the medications were spelled in a more Icelandic way, if that makes sense. But I could tell what each one was and knew they were the right thing. (Yay, me.)

Next on our itinerary was Kirkjufell (the mountain) and Kirkjufellsfoss (the nearby waterfall) that are so popular to see. Kirkjufell was the filming location for Arrowhead Mountain in Game of Thrones. Like many other sights, this one had a paid parking lot. From there you could see the mountain across the Ring Road, and access it to hike it – but it’s very difficult and dangerous and only recommended for experienced hikers. If you head away from the mountain, you access the waterfalls.

Here’s Pete’s video:

After Kirkjufell, we kept driving into Ólafsvik, where we had lunch at a restaurant called Sker. Then it was on to Hellissandur, famous for its murals. It was raining but we took photos of some of them from the car:

We then took an F-road a bit of the way inland and saw Rauðhóll, below. We wanted to get a view of Snæfellsjökull glacier, but we quickly realized we weren’t equipped for that, despite having a 4×4 vehicle. So we turned around after seeing Rauðhóll. We never did get to see the glacier due to clouds, unfortunately.

A stop at Djúpalónssandur Black Beach was next. It’s much smaller than Reynisfjara, but the waves hitting the rocks was really impressive. The climb down from the parking lot to the beach was a medium difficulty, in my opinion. It would probably be easier if it hadn’t been raining.

At the beach, there were an overwhelming number of stacked rocks. I took the video below, but mostly to use as a visual when explaining why not to do it. The blog Stuck in Iceland has written an entire post on it, but I’ll just say that it (1) is bad for the environment, and (2) in some locations it can be confusing for someone who might actually use cairns for navigation.

By this time it was time to check into our lodgings in Hellnar, so we skipped over Lóndrangar and planned to go back after check in, since it wasn’t that much backtracking. We stayed at Peninsula Suites, which were these spacious, freestanding “cube” apartments overlooking the ocean. I really liked this apartment. We unpacked, made coffees, and took a little walk around the property.

Remember how I said we would backtrack to Lóndrangar? Well we did…and I didn’t bring my camera. I don’t know what I was thinking, but in my defense I was super tired. So was Pete, since he had done most of the driving due to the weather. Well, we got there and saw tons of birds, including Razorbills. And I didn’t have any good photos of Razorbills yet. So my dear husband took us back to Hellnar so I could get it, and then drove us to Lóndrangar again a third time!

Dinner was at the nearby Fosshotel. One of the issues we had with many restaurants along the Ring Road were that they served the same dishes on repeat: beef tenderloin, cod, lamb, and a vegan option. I was so tired of the same food by this point, that I made my own soup and salad combo from the starters list. Our server questioned it but I think she was just curious; she didn’t have a problem with it.

Day 12 – Hellnar to Reykjavik

On Thursday., we left Hellnar and drove back to Reykjavik. Along the way we stopped at Ytri-Tunga Seal Beach (where it was very windy), the famous black church in Buðir, and the Eldborg Crater. We didn’t do any hikes because the weather was awful! But we still got to see almost everything we had planned, even if some of it was just from the car.

We had one last night in Reykjavik, where we finally got a hot dog from the famous stand there. It’s name is Bæjarins Beztu. The line was too long when we were here the first time, but this day it was shorter. Honestly, the hot dogs we got weren’t any better than the gas station ones, but it checked a box. Interestingly, their tables have built-in hot dog holders. And the birds nearby are waiting for any crumbs to be dropped.

Day 13 – Reykjavik to Orlando (home!)

The last day, we slept in and had breakfast downstairs, then used our Mr. and Mrs. Smith hotel voucher for some really tasty donuts for later in the day. I had read that the Keflavik airport can be crazy for departures, so we wanted to get there by noon, even though our flight wasn’t until 4:45pm local time.

Along the way to the airport, I saw a White-tailed Eagle, which was really amazing. I think I had seen another one earlier in the trip, but I wasn’t sure; this clinched it. We also drove out to Garður Lighthouse for one more sight before we hit the airport.

We arrived at KEF, where I waited curbside while Pete returned the car. We were so early that we couldn’t check in yet, and had to wait in the lobby for about 45 minutes. We finally were able to check in and drop our bags, grab a couple of gifts from the duty free shop, and make our way to the lounge. The Saga lounge is the only lounge at KEF, and it doesn’t support Priority Pass. We had flown first class, though, which came with access. What a great lounge! It wasn’t crowded (likely due to not supporting Priority Pass, of course) and had self-pour liquor and delicious food. I was determined to take advantage of that, and I definitely did.

My favorite thing to eat from their buffet was the curried herring! Pete wouldn’t even try it, but it was so good. I ended up full and relaxed before getting on the plane for an 8-hour direct flight, where we sat behind a man who watched The Big Bang Theory and Friends reruns and laughed so loudly the entire cabin was staring at him. It was cute at first, but got old after about an hour…leaving us with 7 more hours to be annoyed with him.

A small price to pay for such a wonderful trip!

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