Iceland

Day 1: First impressions

We arrived in Iceland’s charming capital city of Reykjavík, where more than half the country’s population lives — which sounds crowded until you remember that Iceland has fewer people than most mid-sized American cities. The downtown is compact and pedestrian-friendly, with colorful buildings, cozy cafés, and an unmistakably Nordic sense of design. We spent the afternoon exploring on foot, drawn inevitably to Hallgrímskirkja, the iconic church that dominates the skyline. Its façade looks like a pipe organ made of concrete — or possibly a rocket ship designed by someone who really loves basalt columns. Inside, the acoustics are stunning, and we lingered longer than we planned.

• Church: Hallgrímskirkja
• Accommodation: Airbnb in Reykjavík

Day 2: Checking out the town

Another day exploring Reykjavík on foot, and the city keeps revealing new things to admire. The Harpa concert hall is a stunner — its prismatic glass façade catches the light and fractures it into rainbows inside, making the whole building feel like a giant kaleidoscope. We could have spent an hour just watching the light shift. Nearby, we found the Sun Voyager, a boat-like public sculpture facing the water that evokes the promise of undiscovered territory — very fitting for a nation founded by people who sailed into the unknown. We continued through the shopping district and back to Hallgrímskirkja, where we went up the tower for a panoramic view of the city’s colorful rooftops and the snow-capped mountains beyond.

• Concert hall: Harpa
• Monument: Sun Voyager

Day 3: Four-wheeling around the fjord

Time to leave the city. We picked up a rugged four-wheel-drive vehicle — essential for exploring Iceland’s unpaved roads, which make up a significant portion of the road network — and headed north out of Reykjavík just as it started snowing lightly. We took a right at Hvalfjörður and drove around the perimeter of this gorgeous fjord, passing snow-covered farms with views across the water to the hills on the opposite shore. We found plenty of dirt roads to explore and couldn’t resist splashing through icy streams, which is exactly the kind of thing a four-wheel drive is for (and also exactly the kind of thing rental companies hope you won’t do). The highlight was watching the sunset paint the fjord in shades of orange and pink before heading back to Reykjavík through the tunnel.

• Car rental: Isak

Day 4: Waterfalls and water rises

We drove to Laugarvatn today — not for the geothermal pools the area is known for, but for the lesser-known Brúarfoss waterfall. A short hike led us to a wooden bridge over the river, and the view stopped us cold (literally — it was snowing). The water is an astoundingly intense blue, the kind of color you’d assume was edited if you saw it in a photo. Big fat snowflakes started falling as we set up our cameras, which made the scene even more magical — and our fingers increasingly useless. We shot until we physically couldn’t press the shutter button anymore.

Next, we stopped at the Haukadalur geothermal area, home of the original Geysir — the massive hot spring that gave its name to all other geysers on Earth. That one wasn’t active during our visit, but nearby Strokkur more than made up for it, erupting every 5 to 10 minutes in a dramatic column of boiling water and steam. There’s something mesmerizing about standing next to a hole in the ground that periodically explodes. We watched several eruptions and somehow never got tired of it.

• Waterfall: Brúarfoss
• Geothermal area: Haukadalur
• Accommodation: Héraðsskólinn Historic Guesthouse

Day 5: Two famous waterfalls, even better in snow

Iceland is famous for its waterfalls, and today we understood why. We visited Öxarárfoss, a graceful cascade tumbling into a rocky gorge, and Gullfoss, a massive two-tiered falls that thunders with a force you can feel in your chest. Both were framed by snow-covered landscapes that made them look almost unreal — like someone had built a waterfall set for a fantasy film and forgotten to take it down. We’re starting to think Iceland might have more stunning waterfalls per square mile than anywhere else on Earth, and we haven’t even scratched the surface.

• Waterfall: Öxarárfoss
• Waterfall: Gullfoss

Day 6: The irresistible horse problem

This was a driving day — a long one, heading east to Hornafjörður, the farthest point on our itinerary. The landscapes along the way were stunning, but we kept getting delayed by Icelandic horses. They’re impossible to drive past. Every time we spotted a group near the road, we pulled over, and the moment we started walking toward the fence, they’d gather to greet us — curious, friendly, and clearly hoping for some attention. They quickly became our favorite photo subjects of the trip.

Iceland has about 80,000 horses for a population of 317,000 people, which is a remarkable ratio. They’re still used by some farmers for herding sheep, but mostly they’re beloved for leisure riding. What makes them truly unique is that Icelandic law prohibits importing any horses into the country — no other breeds, and not even previously exported Icelandic horses are allowed back. This means they’re the only breed on the island, and diseases are practically unheard of. They’re compact, muscular, with gloriously shaggy manes, coats in every color imaginable, and personalities that are friendly, easy-going, and enthusiastic. We briefly considered how we might fit one in our garden back home.

• Accommodation: Hali Country Hotel

Day 7: Iceberg lagoon and diamond beach

Today we visited two of Iceland’s most surreal sights, right next to each other. Jökulsárlón Lagoon is a lake full of icebergs that have calved off the retreating Breiðamerkurjökull glacier — the lagoon has been growing for about 80 years as the glacier shrinks, and the result is an otherworldly scene of blue and white ice chunks floating silently toward the sea. Just across the road is Diamond Beach, where smaller pieces of crystal-clear ice wash up on jet-black volcanic sand. Each chunk is sculpted and polished by the ocean into shapes that look like they belong in a gallery. The contrast of the translucent ice against the dark sand is extremely photogenic.

• Jökulsárlón
• Diamond Beach

Day 8: Reflect on it

We liked Diamond Beach so much that we went back for a second round this morning. The ice is constantly moving and changing — new pieces wash ashore, old ones shrink or vanish entirely — so each visit feels like a different exhibition. We could probably come here every day for a week and never get bored.

In the afternoon, we drove to Vestrahorn, a jagged ridge of dark mountains that rises dramatically from the coast. When the tide is right, the wet sand flats along the shore become a near-perfect mirror, reflecting the peaks so clearly that it’s hard to tell which way is up. It’s one of the most photographed spots in eastern Iceland, and standing there, we immediately understood why.

• Vestrahorn

Day 9: More waterfalls… and northern lights

On our way to Vík, we stopped for a short hike to Svartifoss — a waterfall that stays hidden until the very end of the trail, when suddenly you’re standing in front of a plume of water pouring down a wall of perfect hexagonal basalt columns. It looks like nature tried to build a pipe organ and then decided to add a waterfall for dramatic effect. We waded into the frigid water to get just the right photo angle, so you don’t have to.

We arrived in the cute little town of Vík in time to explore by daylight, then headed for Skógafoss in the evening with one goal: northern lights. Let’s be honest — the Aurora Borealis was a major reason we came to Iceland in winter, and we are thrilled to report that we absolutely lucked out. For three nights in a row, the skies were clear and the aurora was blazing. We chased the lights deep into the night, completely forgetting about sleep or cold, mesmerized by the slow-morphing shapes dancing overhead. The colors were predominantly green — from electrons colliding with oxygen — and purple, from collisions with nitrogen. According to old Icelandic legend, the northern lights could relieve the pain of childbirth, though the same superstition warned that if the mother looked at the aurora during delivery, the child would be born cross-eyed. We’re not sure about the obstetric claims, but we can confirm that standing under the aurora makes you forget about every other discomfort entirely.

• Waterfall: Svartifoss
• Waterfall: Skógafoss
• Accommodation: Hotel Katla

Day 10: Petrified trolls

The area around Vík is stunning. Black sand beaches, dramatic basalt cliffs, and towering rock formations rising from the Atlantic surf. The best part is the legend of the Reynisdrangar — three rock pillars jutting out of the ocean just offshore, which were supposedly trolls who stayed out too late one night and were turned to stone by the rising sun. A cautionary tale for night owls everywhere.

We also stopped at Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall you can actually walk behind through a cave-like passage — an incredible experience in theory, and a freezing one in practice. The spray was turning to ice before it reached us, coating the camera in a fine layer of frost and making photography an exercise in determination. This one is probably better in warmer months, but we regret nothing.

And then, as if the day hadn’t been generous enough already, the northern lights returned for an encore.

• Waterfall: Seljalandsfoss

Day 11: Aurora recovery

Three nights of chasing northern lights until the wee hours has finally caught up with us, so today was a slower day. We spent the morning exploring a bit more of the dramatic coastline around Vík — hard to leave a place this beautiful — then drove west to Hvolsvöllur. The drive was typically Icelandic: every few miles, a new landscape that would be the highlight of a trip anywhere else but here is just another Tuesday.

• Accommodation: Hotel Hvolsvöllur

Day 12: Kirkjufell at sunset

A long drive today — past Reykjavík and out onto the western Snæfellsnes peninsula, which felt like a greatest-hits compilation of everything Iceland does well: rustic cabins, majestic mountains, desolate lava fields, and ancient churches that have been standing in the wind for centuries. The drive alone would have been worth the day, but the real prize was arriving at Kirkjufell just as the sun was going down. This distinctively shaped mountain, with the delicate Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall in the foreground, is another of the most photographed scenes in Iceland — and when the sunset light hit it, we understood exactly why everyone makes the pilgrimage.

• Peninsula: Snæfellsnes
• Waterfall & mountain: Kirkjufellsfoss & Kirkjufell
• Accommodation: Kirkjufell Hotel

Day 13: The Blue Lagoon

We wrapped up our stay in Iceland with a visit to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa fed by stunningly blue, mineral-rich water that also serves as an energy source — because in Iceland, even a spa doubles as renewable energy. The steaming pools set against the snow-covered lava fields made for an incredible sight, and felt like the ideal summary of this whole trip: volcanic, beautiful, and slightly surreal.

Two weeks of winter in Iceland was absolutely the right call. The northern lights, the snow-covered waterfalls, the empty landscapes, the horses, the ice — we wouldn’t trade any of it for a summer visit.

• Blue Lagoon
• Accommodation: Hotel Jazz