Travel blog
Traveling around Iceland is something between an active holiday in the Alps and a flight to Mars
Iceland. How little in this sound merged for the Russian ear, how little echoed in it... It's a pity. For me, Iceland was a real revelation, a trip to another world, a flight to Mars, if you like. This is the most unusual and beautiful country I have ever seen, and believe me, I have seen quite a lot.
However, let's take it in order…
Arrival in Reykjavik. The airport is very large and modern for a country with a population of 320 thousand people. However, one must understand that with a country population comparable to the population of a medium-sized Russian regional center, Iceland is visited annually by an average of 1.5 million people, and this figure is growing from year to year. Actually, the entire infrastructure is “sharpened” for tourists and “tailored” Very good. At the airport, you can take a bus from one of three transport companies and it will take you not just to the city center, but directly to your hotel, hostel or campsite.
Hotels in Iceland are very expensive. Therefore, even wealthy Europeans prefer to stay in hostels or campsites, the network of which in Iceland is extensive and offers fairly decent service.
Rejkjavik Camsite – camping almost in the center of the Icelandic capital (it’s only a 20-minute walk to the very, very center of the city) – The biggest campsite I've ever seen anywhere. There are thousands of tents, hundreds of campers (mobile homes), hundreds of cars rented by tourists. In the dining room-living room, where you can cook your own food on electric stoves, wash dishes, and also sit at tables – to eat or just drink coffee, talk, charge phones and gadgets, play cards, read or surf the Internet thanks to free Wi-Fi, from 8 am to 12 am there is literally no crowd. People of different races, nationalities, social status, religious affiliation, speaking all possible languages of the world (among which there are very interesting characters), sitting almost on each other’s laps, eating and drinking together, finding a common language and it’s very interesting to watch this. But the service, of course, suffers from this crowding – Wi-Fi works so poorly during peak times that it is almost impossible to use it, it is very difficult to find a seat (many people stand or sit on the floor) and it is also difficult to find a free outlet to charge your devices. Therefore, having lived in this campsite for a total of 5 days, I made it a rule for myself to get up at 3-4 o’clock in the morning (fortunately, the time difference with Moscow of plus three hours allowed me to do this without any problems), calmly, without an hour-long queue, take a shower , enjoy using the Internet that is literally flying at this time, cook your own food, have breakfast and enjoy the peace and quiet. And by 8 am, when the living room is filled with people, leave the campsite to go about your business.
By the way, in this and some other campsites in Iceland, you can absolutely easily get gas, free food and second-hand clothes, shoes, equipment: there are special shelves where people finishing their trip They leave free of charge everything that they have left unclaimed or no longer needed for newly arriving tourists. If a large group is leaving, then whole packages of canned food (10-20 cans), unfilled gas cylinders, almost new equipment (tents, sleeping bags, trekking poles, etc.), as well as fruits are left behind. On the last day of our stay, for example, passing by one of these shelves we saw a huge and very ripe pineapple, a whole melon, an unopened jar of Nutella, and, of course, we could not refuse such a treat. And later, when packing our things, we also left everything we had left – gas, coffee, sugar, a packet of oatmeal…
In addition, the campsite is full of common new, good quality utensils, which you can use completely calmly and free of charge: frying pans, pots, steamers, plates, cups, spoons, knives… The only rule, not written anywhere, but taken for granted, which everyone strictly follows: wash up after yourself and put it back where you took it.
Reykjavik camping costs (the most expensive in Iceland) – 1,300 rubles per day per person, provided that you live in your own tent (a camper will cost much more). Not cheap for a tent, but considering everything described above, not that expensive. At the Landmanalaugar Valley campsite, for example, or at the Skaftafell National Park campsite, for almost the same money you will get nothing more than a place for a tent and use of a toilet.
Since I started talking about the cost of camping, I’ll tell you about prices in Iceland in general. They are very high, literally for everything. Some things cost 2-3 times more than in Russia, some – 5-10 times more expensive. For example, gas in cylinders for gas burners: you can buy it from us for 300 rubles, but there it will cost you 3,000 rubles for a cylinder of the same volume and quality. Car rental – 3-4 times more expensive than in Moscow, despite the fact that the price indicated on websites usually does not include insurance and you will have to pay extra for it. Or you will then have to pay for every scratch or crack from stones on the windshield, which is common in Iceland - many roads are gravel. Gasoline and diesel – on average 2 euros per liter.
Buses – the most common, very comfortable and convenient transport on the island, with all the convenience, will cost you a tidy sum. True, having bought a so-called “passport” - a travel ticket for a specific route, you can save a lot. For example, a Highland Hikers passport, which gives the right to travel from Reykjavik to any point on the walking route, which will be discussed below, and then return from any other point on this route, from the company Sterna, which we used, costs about 7 thousand in rubles. Just round trip tickets will cost you 12-13 thousand rubles - almost twice as expensive! A Full Circle Passport, which gives you the right to travel along a circular route around the whole of Iceland, costs approximately 33 thousand rubles. For this money, for three months you can get off at any stop and continue moving on any day and at any time, coordinating your movements with the bus schedule of the company whose ticket you bought. Buying single tickets will cost three times more! And traveling by rented car along the same route will, of course, be much more convenient - you will be able to see more, since not all interesting places are located near the ring road, but it will also cost 5 times more, if not 10 times more.< /p>
In any case, if you are going on an independent trip to Iceland, you should be prepared for the fact that it will cost you much more than you expect. Well, you can’t go there without money at all – Hitchhiking is not very welcome, lighting fires is strictly prohibited – only gas, you can’t carry it on a plane, but buy it there – well, I already wrote how much it costs…
Well, now about the beauties of Iceland - what millions of people from all over the world come to this country for, despite its remoteness and high cost. There is beauty here - literally at every step.
The first and main route, designed for one day, which is taken by literally all tourists arriving in this country for at least two or three days – Golden Ring of Iceland. It includes visits to three interesting natural attractions:
1. Valley of Geysers, in which there is that same Great Geysir (it gushes with a fountain very rarely, so you won’t see anything from it except its name) – the name of a specific geyser, which has become a household word and means any geyser today; a dozen more steaming or boiling thermal springs, each of which has its own name and, most importantly, – Strokkur geyser, which shoots a stream of boiling water to a height of 20-30 meters every 3 minutes. His photographs and videos are published in all magazines, advertising brochures and travel websites dedicated to Iceland.
2. The cascading waterfall Gullfossis impressive in its size and power.
3. Thingvellir National Park, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The junction of the North American and Eurasian lithospheric plates passes through the territory of the park complex, which move away from each other by two centimeters every year, which is clearly demonstrated by a huge crack in the earth’s crust. Thingvellir National Park is also an important historical landmark of Iceland; it was this place that marked the beginning of the formation of the Icelandic nation, because here in 930 the so-called Althing (people's assembly) was convened, which later became the parliament. Here Iceland adopted Christianity.
This is Iceland's most popular tourist route. Every day, I think, hundreds of tourist buses, not counting the thousands of cars rented by tourists, come here and spit out tens of thousands of people from their bellies. So be prepared for the fact that natural attractions will be obscured by crowds of fussy and unceremonious Chinese, and you won’t be able to photograph a waterfall or geyser without hundreds of people getting into the frame. The only solution: not to go on a tourist bus, having bought an excursion (by the way, it’s very, very expensive), but to rent a car the night before and leave on your own as early as possible in the morning, so that you can see at least one attraction in a calm atmosphere and with a minimum of people in the frame your camera. By the way, we did just that.
The second, even more beautiful and less crowded route – Landmanalaugar valley. There is no asphalt road here, and the gravel road also goes through fairly deep fords, so you can only get there by SUV or off-road shuttle bus. There are fewer people here, although, for my taste, there are too many of them here.
From here begins the hiking route, the same Highland Hike, to Thorsm?rk National Park and further past the Eyjafjallaj?kull volcano to the Skogafoss waterfall, which is almost on the Icelandic ring road. We went exactly this route, but you can simply come to the valley for one or two days to walk through the surrounding mountains and enjoy the alien landscapes of multi-colored mountains, interspersed with black lava fields and river valleys, as well as steaming and bubbling thermal springs, of which here, valley, a huge number.
Hiking along the Highland Hike route – This is an incomparable feeling. These are colorful mountains with bubbling thermal springs and warm lakes with blue or milky-white water, in which, if desired, you can swim, these are black lava deserts and, suddenly, a real forest near Moscow with mushrooms in Thorsm?rk, four fords through icy mountain rivers, snow, gorges, glaciers and waterfalls – a huge number of waterfalls. But you have to pay for beauty with serious hardships – you must be prepared for this, otherwise it is better to limit yourself to those places in Iceland that can be reached by car.
The fact is that the weather in Iceland is changeable and full of rain, cold winds and fog. While hiking, you may be caught in a downpour, accompanied by an icy wind – conditions, to put it mildly, are not for a city dweller spoiled by comfort. The campsites along the hike route are purely conditional – toilet and cold water tap, no other amenities. At the campsite near Lake Alftavatn, however, there is a cafe with delicious but insanely expensive food, and at the campsite in Thorsm?rk Park – grocery store, but this does little to protect against rain, wind and cold nights in a tent, and fording icy rivers with strong currents causes panic and tears in some sensitive girls. By the way, the water level in one river is much higher than knees – Rolled up trouser legs just won't work – It’s better to first wear swimming trunks or short sports shorts under your pants so that you can take off your pants and go like that. This is especially true for women, for whom wet pants – a much bigger problem than for men, who are often indifferent to such camp trifles. Well, it’s advisable to have some kind of rubber slippers, like Crocs, since walking barefoot there is below average pleasure – very sharp stones and the likelihood of tripping and falling into an icy current with a backpack is much higher than with shoes.
But we had a hiking company, so we completed the route without problems and even a day faster than planned – on the first day, making double the norm. If you are a hiking enthusiast, you should also take this route – The difficulty is not much higher than hiking in Altai or the Khibiny Mountains, but the impressions are better due to the variety of landscapes, some of which you will not see anywhere else in the world!
Skogafoss Waterfall – the end point of our walking route – one of the most powerful, spectacular and famous not only in Iceland, but throughout the world. It is located just a kilometer from the Icelandic ring road, a three-hour drive from Reykjavik, so many come here by bus and car, without bothering with walking. Next to the waterfall there is a campsite where you can comfortably spend the night literally a hundred meters from the grandiose waterfall – unforgettable experience!
Well, if you drive another 20 – 25 kilometers along the ring road, then a whole bouquet of natural and other attractions awaits you there – American military plane that crashed in 1973, Dyrholaey and Reynisfjall. This was not in the program of our tour in 2017, my daughter and I went there in a rented car after the tour ended and we saw the group off to the airport, but it will all be in tour program in 2018 – I want to show you these beautiful and unusual places!
The remains of the DC-3 Plane Wreckage can be seen in many pictures on Instagram on corresponding tag or tag #iceland. This is a place of real pilgrimage for tourists, no less popular than mountains, glaciers, valleys and waterfalls. From the parking lot near the ring road, it’s a 4-kilometer one-way walk to get to it – quite a decent distance, but that doesn't stop anyone. If you come during the day, you are unlikely to be able to see the plane behind the backs of thousands of people. We arrived at sunset, when the approaching evening twilight had scared away the mass tourists, but even at this time there were at least 20 people walking around the plane. And someone went there with a large backpack, obviously planning to spend the night near the plane.
Dyrholaey – this is an area of ??the sea coast, indented by rocks, some of which are arches of natural origin, a lighthouse at an altitude of 300 meters above sea level and fantastic views from it of endless black beaches and bizarre rocks. It’s also a large colony of puffins – funny and very photogenic Arctic birds, which you can get very close to here. But in other places, separate excursions are organized to remote islands to watch these birds.
Reynisfjall – те же причудливые черные скалы, пляжи с черным песком и базальтовые колонны, как будто высеченные в скалах неизвестной нам цивилизацией и очень похожие на знаменитую ирландскую «мостовую гигантов». Здесь все в одном месте – есть где погулять и что посмотреть.
Следующий пункт программы – поселок Вик – популярное туристическое место. Здесь тоже огромные пляжи с черным песком, колония тупиков, колоритная церковь с обзорной площадкой на возвышении, с которой открывается прекрасный вид на все окрестности и гостеприимный кемпинг, почти не уступающий в удобстве рейкьявикскому. Здесь принято купаться в океане (мы это тоже сделали, хотя температура воды была едва ли выше 10 градусов тепла) и наслаждаться неспешными прогулками по черному пляжу. Это место – конечная точка многих стандартных маршрутов по Исландии, но мы поехали дальше…
Еще два часа езды по кольцевой автодороге и вы окажетесь в национальном парке Стафтафетль. Он знаменит тем, что находится рядом с ледником Ватнайёкюдль – самым большим ледником Европы (отсюда организуются разнообразные экскурсии на сам ледник и все его окрестности) и Ледниковой лагуной, а также кучей водопадов, среди которых выделяется водопад Свартифосс – имеющий оформление в виде базальтовых колонн и тем привлекающий к себе внимание множества туристов.
А если проехать еще минут сорок по дороге, то вы доберетесь до, пожалуй, самой зрелищной природной достопримечательности Исландии – лагуны Ёкульсаурлоун или, по-другому, лагуны айсбергов. Здесь от ледника Вантайёкюдль откалываются ледяные глыбы и через лагуну с нереально голубой водой, через узкий перешеек, соединяющий лагуну с океаном, уплывают в океан. Причем, когда отлив, вода через перешеек, превращающийся в бурную реку с довольно сильным течением идет из лагуны в океан, а когда прилив, наоборот – из океана в лагуну.
Айсберги, которые постоянно движутся, меняя ландшафт лагуны буквально каждый день, куски льда, вброшенные на пляж с черным песком, а также резвящиеся в водах лагуны морские котики, делают это место очень зрелищным, красивым и интересным для фотографов. Несмотря на отдаленность от основных достопримечательностей Исландии и ее столицы, здесь тоже всегда полно народу. Но если приехать сюда в хорошую погоду на закате или дождаться его, когда желтые краски заката смешиваются с голубыми красками лагуны, то вы получите еще большее эстетическое удовольствие.
Изначально я планировал ночевку именно на берегу лагуны, но, как выяснилось на месте, это запрещено – национальный парк, ставить палатки нельзя. Все попытки договориться и получить разрешение с администрацией парка результата не дали – нам советовали уезжать в ближайший кемпинг, но уезжать… было уже не на чем. Последний рейсовый автобус ушел, а попытки поймать попутную машину результатов не дали – все машины шли полные и ни одна из них не останавливалась. Мы отошли примерно на километр от домиков администрации и поставили-таки палатки! Был десятый час вечера и в этот момент наступил закат – все сомнения в правильности такого решения отпали сразу! Красота была необыкновенная, к тому же, никто не пришел и не сказал, что мы что-то нарушаем. Зато остались тысячи снимков лагуны в красках заката – зрелища, которое мало кто из туристов видел, потому что подавляющее большинство уезжает из лагуны раньше. В этот день лишь мы и еще максимум 5-6 самых терпеливых туристов, видели этот закат, но и они вскоре уехали, а мы остались.
На следующее утро мы как ни в чем не бывало пришли с рюкзаками к домикам администрации, позавтракали в кафе и сели на первый автобус в сторону Рейкьявика…
Здесь надо сказать, что в Исландии многие запреты и правила рассчитаны на сознательность выполняющих их граждан и практически никто никогда не проверяет их выполнения. Например, вы можете прийти в любой кемпинг (ни один из них не огорожен заборами и не имеет видеонаблюдения), поставить палатку и спокойно пользоваться всеми имеющимися в кемпинге услугами. Дважды в день кемпинг обходит человек из администрации и, если у вас на палатке не висит выданная при оплате кемпинга бирка, вешает красную бумажку со словами «Обратитесь на рецепцию» - весь контроль. При этом, если вы поставили палатку поздно вечером, а собрали ее рано утром, то вообще никто не заметит, что вы ночевали в кемпинге и пользовались его услугами.
То же и с национальными парками: ставить палатку нельзя, но, если поставил, никто не придет и не выгонит :) Заходить за ограждения возле обрывов и водопадов нельзя, но если зашел – никто ничего не скажет. Наоборот, не раз наблюдал картину, как за нами за запрещающее ограждение начинали заходить и другие туристы – сами они боятся нарушать запреты, но за компанию с другими уже не так страшно :)
Не подумайте, что я такой уж русский хам, нарушающий все и вся. Скорее наоборот: я платил за кемпинги там, где безо всяких проблем можно было не платить, неукоснительно соблюдал скоростной режим и все другие правила на машине и, если где что нарушил, так только по невозможности выполнить запрет, как в том случае с палаткой в национальном парке или из-за огромного соблазна сделать красивый снимок, зайдя за чисто условные ограждения. Они, кстати, есть только в местах большого скопления туристов, в менее людных местах гораздо более опасные обрывы не огорожены.
Завершалось наше путешествие посещением Голубой лагуны – природной достопримечательности, облагороженной человеком. Это термальные источники с целебной белой глиной и красивой бело-голубой водой, превращенные в спа-центр. Купание в источнике стоит денег, но к нему прилагается полный комплект услуг дорогого спа-центра: полотенца и халаты, шкафчики для переодевания, бесплатные напитки в баре и различные спа-процедуры. Приятный бонус после двух недель скитаний по марсианским ландшафтам :)
В следующем году едем в Исландию снова, маршрут будет другой, но не менее интересный: на машине вокруг всей Исландии. Кроме вышеописанного, нас ждут городки Хебн и Акюрейри, озера Миватн и Вити, действующий вулкан Крафла, «Черная крепость» Диммуборгир - природная достопримечательность, лавовое образование, которое, по легенде, является вратами в подземный мир, а также визитная карточка Исландии – гора Киркьюфелл. А после мы полетим в Гренландию, где расширим знакомство с другой Планетой – отличной от всего того, к чему мы и вы привыкли. Почитать программу и записаться в поездку можно здесь.
Еще больше фотографий Исландии в фотогалерее и в фотопотоке.
The next morning, as if nothing had happened, we came with our backpacks to the administration houses, had breakfast in a cafe and took the first bus towards Reykjavik…
Here it must be said that in Iceland many prohibitions and rules are designed for the consciousness of the citizens who carry them out and almost no one ever checks their implementation. For example, you can come to any campsite (none of them are fenced or have video surveillance), pitch a tent and calmly use all the services available at the campsite. Twice a day, a person from the administration goes around the campsite and, if you don’t have the tag issued when you paid for the camping, hangs on your tent, he hangs a red piece of paper with the words “Contact the reception.” - all control. At the same time, if you put up a tent late in the evening and packed it up early in the morning, then no one will notice that you spent the night at the campsite and used its services.
It’s the same with national parks: you can’t put up a tent, but if you do, no one will come and kick you out :) You can’t go beyond the fences near cliffs and waterfalls, but if you do… ; no one will say anything. On the contrary, I have seen more than once how other tourists began to come behind us behind the prohibitory fence – They themselves are afraid to break prohibitions, but being in company with others is no longer so scary :)
Don’t think that I’m such a Russian boor who violates everything and everyone. Quite the contrary: I paid for campsites where it was possible not to pay without any problems, strictly observed the speed limit and all other rules on the car, and, if I violated anything, it was only because it was impossible to comply with the ban, as in the case with a tent in the national park or because of the huge temptation to take a beautiful photo by going beyond purely conventional fences. By the way, they are only in places where there are large concentrations of tourists; in less crowded places, much more dangerous cliffs are not fenced off.
Our trip ended with a visit to the Blue Lagoon – a natural attraction improved by man. These are thermal springs with healing white clay and beautiful white and blue water, turned into a spa. Swimming in the spring costs money, but it comes with the full range of services of an expensive spa center: towels and robes, changing lockers, free drinks at the bar and various spa treatments. A nice bonus after two weeks of wandering through the Martian landscapes :)
Next year we are going to Iceland again, the route will be different, but no less interesting: by car around the whole of Iceland. In addition to the above, we are waiting for the towns of Hefn and Akureyri, lakes Myvatn and Viti, the active volcano Krafla, the “Black Fortress” Dimmuborgir is a natural landmark, a lava formation, which, according to legend, is the gateway to the underworld, as well as the hallmark of Iceland – Mount Kirkjufell. And then we will fly to Greenland, where we will expand our acquaintance with another Planet – different from everything that we and you are used to.
Even more photos of Iceland in photo gallery and in photoflow.