Iceland Winter Trip

Let’s talk about bucket listing. Some say you shouldn’t do it; especially with travel. That it puts too much pressure on you to have a monumental time. I get that. But nothing compels you to make a bucket list like a life threatening disease. There is nothing wrong with taking stock of what you want to accomplish and ranking those goals. Maybe we should call it a goal list. For a Winter trip, we thought Iceland, for the Northern Lights.

Bucket List Planning

When I first thought about “if I only have one year of good health, what do I want to do?”, among a few philosophical topics not appropriate for a travel blog, travel was the only thing on the list. And lucky for me, most of the destinations really important to me, we have already been. Let me just say, “buy more things” never occurred to me; I am sure that does not occur to anyone.  

Anyone that knows me, knows I am goal orientated. So no one would be surprised that we have taken a few vacations with the goal of seeing or doing one elusive thing. When we came back from Costa Rica without seeing one Resplendent Quetzal, that became a miss that needed rectifying. Later we designed a trip to Panama and Costa Rica solely around where that elusive bird likes to perch. Turns out, we were not in the right places the first go around. On the second trip, after hiring the right guides; and hiking at all the right hours, we finally spied the bird…in a parking lot. And then several more. That is how it goes. It really is a beautiful bird by the way. 

Planning a Northern Lights Hunting Trip

Fast forward to Winter 2022. Topping my bucket list is to see the Northern Lights. A year and a half in the southern hemisphere, much in areas way south, and we never saw the Southern Aurora. It is going off almost daily right now for anyone lucky enough to be there. 2023 is a great year to see either Northern or Southern Auroras if anyone else is keen

Our goal was a winter trip to see the northern lights. We downloaded apps that track sightings; subscribed to facebook groups that are doing the same. After a lot of research on the few places in the world we could go to try to catch a glimpse of this middle-of-the-night phenomenon, we decided on Iceland. Mainly chosen on convenience. While Iceland is a destination that is on our bucket list, middle of winter does not suit. It is dark most of the time, so hiking is out of the question. We are making this trip for one purpose only. If we see a reindeer, or waterfall or black sand beach, all the better. 

Iceland for a Winter Trip Destination

Convenience directed another decision for this trip: we elected to take a tour. We hooked up with Intrepid Travel to take a small group tour. This way, they worry about the weather and the logistics of road travel in a pretty inhospitable place. We have taken trips with Intrepid Travel before for the same reason and were glad for the safety it ensured. This trip, same thing. We had a dodgy weather day and the guide and his back-office support made it almost indiscernible to us that there was a major weather event going on. Traveling Iceland, in winter at least, is not a piece of cake. It’s not the snow, sleet or rain, or freezing temps, it is the wind. It is not even legal to drive in wind over a certain speed. This is what kept us grounded. 

Still practicing our cabin luggage only campaign, we actually managed to get all that winter gear into the cabin with us. We were prepared to wear it on the plane. I went through all 8 days with one pair of boots. Any other shoes would have been a waste of space anyway. It was unseasonably cold once we got to Iceland, so we wore every stitch of clothes, most at the same time. Iceland is served by a variety of low-cost airlines. If you travel at all you know this business model: cheap seats, until you pick a seat, bring on a bag or two, and heaven forbid check one. Our current travel model is to upgrade to the very front of the plane. It is almost comfortable. And to get lounge access at every layover, provided by a good credit card. This keeps it peaceful and covers drinks and food we do not get on the plane anymore. 

We arrived in Reykjavik at 6:30 PM. Note, there is no time difference for us between Portugal and Iceland, convenient. It was pitch dark. Our tour bus picked us up at 9am, still pitch dark. And it remained dark for a couple hours of travel. All we saw were Christmas lights (Icelanders light their homes, all winter, they are not really Christmas lights). It was frustrating to be in a new place, supposedly beautiful place, and not be able to see it! I thought this was going to be really difficult. But we got used to it really quickly. There were only 4 hours of actual daylight, but sunrise and sunset take forever: two hours each. So there is a beautiful pink twilight for another 4 hours a day. 

One thing I will mention: Icelanders are supposed to be really friendly people. We did not find this true. They all seemed short tempered and generally grumpy. Seems like there may be something to that lack of light syndrome. Icelanders must be really happy in Summer to offset this time of year.

The tour was six days. Because of flight logistics we got to Reykjavik two days early. This turned out to be a godsend. Because we saw a fantastic northern light display on day one! And day two, I was out of commission with food poisoning. Kind of anticlimactic to see the lights so early in the trip, but it sure took the pressure off. And it made it much harder to get up in the middle of the night to trudge out in the cold to look for them. 

Iceland is known to be expensive. No joke. Extremely expensive coming from Portugal. This is a really good place to not drink. And maybe diet. Me getting food poisoning for one day saved us $200. 

The Intrepid tour covered the southern shore of the island to the east of Reykjavik: The famous Golden Triangle and Skaftafell National Park to Vatnajokull glacier. So for the extra days we concentrated on the west fjord region: Snæfellsnes Peninsula. We saw snow…and water. Really desolate land. No trees whatsoever. Okay, they have some runty bushes they call trees, but I don’t.  The star of the show here is really the pink light. Cute horses all over. Do not call them ponies, they really don’t like that. They being the grumpy Icelanders, the horses probably don’t mind. Really cute horses. They really make you smile.

There were only three other travelers on this Winter trip to Iceland. So we all got 3 seats apiece in our mini-bus! Our guide got us where we needed to be to see the highlights while it was light. Black sand beaches, waterfalls – three quarters frozen, geysers,  glaciers, ice cave, hot springs, all with miles and miles of frozen tundra in between. 

The country has a desolate beauty all its own, but it is really difficult to describe. For our Winter Trip to Iceland, other than the northern lights (which was everything you think it would be), my highlight was the ice cave. Hard to believe they are natural. We wormed through the ice on the Vatnajokull glacier, usually able to stand. Sometimes you could see daylight above the ice. 

In spring or summer, when the moss is green and waterfalls flowing 100%, Iceland would be a whole different place. I do not know which would be better, you need to experience both. There is a hut-to-hut hike we are thinking about. Another trip that needs to be done more than once with the changing seasons is the Arctic express: a train trip through Switzerland. This is on our list for later this year too. A winter trip to Iceland is highly recommended.