Over the years my wife and I have been very fortunate to travel to a number of beautiful countries and i’ve never really shared a lot of the photographs i’ve taken there but i’d like to change that now, starting with Iceland which we visited back in November 2016. The main reason for visiting Iceland was to see the Northern Lights as that is at the very top of my Photography Bucket List of things/places i’d like to photograph before I die (hopefully not for a long time but still). Advanced warning, The Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis apparently don’t like me as they didn’t show (but did the day before we arrived and the day after we left …. hmmmm). I’m going to use these travel blog posts as a way to share some of my personal photographs as well as talk about the tours we chose to get the best out of the time we spent in Iceland and hopefully help you save money along the way with information on cashback/offers etc we used.
My wife and I began our Icelandic adventure travelling from Birmingham to Reykjavík Airport with Iceland Air which I have to say was one of the nicest flights i’ve had in years with a comfy seat, friendly staff, free hot drink and a tablet computer in the headrest in front to watch TV/films (all included in standard class). After landing we made our way to the Flybus which is the most direct and affordable way to get to the centre of Reykjavík and costs about £21 for the 45 mins journey (they’ll also drop you direct to your hotel if you’re in the centre) and very usefully they have Free WiFi and USB charge points on board (handy to email friends/family and let them know you’ve arrived safely, or just update your Facebook status to be the envy of your friends).
To keep costs down my wife and I chose to use Airbnb as it worked out to around half the cost (around £50 a night) of the nearest hotel in Reykjavík and we selected a place just outside the main city (about 10-15 minutes walk into the centre) hosted by a lovely and friendly couple called Oddur and Telma. The Airbnb room (link) itself is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the local supermarket which was very handy to get supplies from. For a base for the holiday it was great. It had everything we needed including a hob, fridge, nice double bed and an incredibly warm shower (very useful to defrost after the sub zero temperatures outside) and we would stay there again without a doubt.
Reykjavík is a beautiful city bursting with character and culture that has a large town feel to it rather than that of a bustling intimidating city. It has embraced street art on its buildings and quirky aluminium sheet houses to help to make it stand out as a truly unique location. I’ve added below some photography of the city graffiti and the coast taken on the first day in Iceland.
In the next Travel Blog post i’ll share some information and photographs of two of the most beautiful buildings in the city, Harpa & Hallgrímskirkja.
If you’ve been to Iceland or are thinking of going i’d love to hear your thoughts, pop a comment in the section below.
