Iceland in Winter: Conclusion

This is the final in my series of posts on our experiences in Iceland in winter (January 2020). This post is largely a collection of links to useful articles and resources related to traveling in Iceland in the winter.

Iceland Weather and Road Conditions

Weather and road conditions can change quickly in Iceland in any season, but this is especially true during winter.

• Weather.is
• Icelandic Met Office Weather Forecast
• SafeTravel.is
• Road.is
  • How to Read Road Conditions in Iceland

Iceland Tourist Sites

The following links are to some of the most commonly seen sites related to Icelandic tourism. We did not experience and cannot endorse all of the vendors listed here, but we did have positive experiences booking activities with Extreme Iceland, Guide to Iceland, and Reykjavik Excursions. I list the other sites here because they provide useful background information on activities available in Iceland.

• Inspired by Iceland ("the official tourism site for Iceland")
• The Official Gateway to Iceland
• Guide to Iceland
• Extreme Iceland
• Reykjavik Excursions
• Reykjavík Attractions
• Iceland Travel
• Arctic Adventures
• Visit Reykjavík

Iceland News Sites (English)

The following web sites provide news local to Iceland, are written in English, and are of interest to locals and tourists alike. These are very useful for reading notices of weather conditions and road conditions in Iceland.

• Iceland Review
• Iceland Monitor
• Iceland Magazine
• The Reykjavík Grapevine

Transportation in Iceland

I covered driving and getting around in Iceland in detail in the post "Iceland in Winter: Renting and Driving a Vehicle" (see that post for links related to renting a vehicle in Iceland).

• Icelandair
• Keflavik Airport (main international airport for Reykjavik)
• Reykjavik Airport (for travel between Reykjavik and other parts of Iceland)
• RentalCars.com
• Reykjavik Flybus Airport Transport
• Visit Reykjavik: Taxi

Other Resources on Iceland in Winter

• Best Winter Activities in Iceland
• 5 Things To Know Before Visiting Iceland In Winter
• 5 Amazing Things to Do in Iceland in Winter (Unforgettable Experiences)
• Visiting Iceland in Winter: Top 18 Winter Activities in Iceland
• 10 Reasons Why You Should Travel to Iceland in the Winter
• Everything You Need to Know about Visiting Iceland in Winter
• How to Spend 4 Days in Iceland in Winter
• Winter in Iceland - When, How, and What
• When to Visit Iceland - Summer Versus Winter
• Weather in Iceland and Best Time to Visit
• 13 Special Things to Do in Iceland in Winter

Iceland in Winter: Whales of Iceland Museum

With the cancellation of our South Shore Adventure tour due to weather and road conditions, we had the opportunity to visit a couple of Reykjavik museums in addition to using the freed up time to visit the Raufarhólshellir Lava Tunnel/Tube and the Höfði House. This post discusses our visit to the Whales of Iceland Museum.

Whales of Iceland is located next to (and in front of) FlyOver Iceland. It's a large warehouse-style building and that vast amount of space is required because it holds over 20 life-size models of whales. Some of the whales that are modeled are enormous!

Although I've read about the size of different species of whales and have been fortunate to see some whales on whale tours in Alaska and Mexico, I didn't fully appreciate how large they can be until I stood next to the models of these different species of whales.

The models were colored to show the types of scrapes, cuts, and other markings seen on whales.

Seeing and standing next to the life-size models of whales helped me understand their sizes. The audio narration provided much more insight including discussion of their sizes, prominent features, eating and mating habits, and more.

There is a small cafe at the end of the narrated tour, but we had arrived just as they were opening and this cafe was not staffed.

Seeing the whales in Whales of Iceland is not the same as seeing whales directly in nature, but at the same time seeing models of whales in this fashion allowed us to see and learn about them in far better detail than one can see them in the wild when they are wholly are partially submerged. In addition, to see this many difference species of whales would require a lot of time and money. Whales of Iceland offers a comfortable environment to better understand the sizes and other characteristics of these sea mammals.

Iceland in Winter: Höfði House, Painted Berlin Wall Slab, and Einar Benediktsson Statue

Our hotel (Fosshotel Reykjavik) is very close to the internationally recognized Höfði House and we had seen it multiple times when on tours around or leaving Reykjavik, but we did not have time to walk up to it until our South Shore Adventure was canceled. We took advantage of that cancellation to participate in the Raufarhólshellir Lava Tunnel/Tube experience, to see more of downtown Reykjavik and its museums, and to walk up close to the Höfði House.

Most of the photographs of the Höfði House show it in summer time with clear blue skies and deeper blue water of the harbor behind it. The photographs in this post are a bit different because we took them in the first week of January. Icelandars celebrate Christmas well into January as seen in this photograph.

The Höfði House is most famous outside of Iceland for the 1986 Reykjavík Summit between United States of America President Ronald Reagan and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics President Mikhail Gorbachev that started the process that ultimately resulted in the end of the "Cold War."

Because Höfði House is widely considered to be the location where the beginning of the end of the Cold Ward occurred, it is fitting that Iceland has placed near the house the painted slab of the Berlin Wall that was donated by the "Neu West Berlin art center on the occasion of Germany's 25-year reunification." There is a Wikipedia article listing the Berlin Wall segments that have been donated since 1989.

Within Iceland, the Höfði House is also well known as the home of famous poet Einar Benediktsson for a few years. In fact, it was Benediktsson that named this house. So it's also fitting to have the statue of him next to the house he named.

Visitors came walk up close to the house, but are not allowed inside. The statue and Berlin Wall slab can also be approached directly. These house, Berlin Wall slab, and statue of Einar Ben are interesting from a historical perspective and are backed by great views of the harbor. The photographs in this post show that the weather conditions in winter in this area of Reykjavik can be quite different than those typically seen in photographs of the house online.

Iceland in Winter: The Lava Tunnel (Raufarhólshellir)

Although we were disappointed when our South Shore Adventure was one of our three canceled tours during our January 2020 week in Iceland, its cancellation did provide us with time to visit a couple of Reykjavik's well-known museums, to see Höfði House up close, and to participate in The Lava Tunnel (Raufarhólshellir).

We arranged for this tour via Reykjavik Excursions as soon as we confirmed that the South Shore Adventure was canceled. The Reykjavik Excursions tour included a bus ride from our hotel to the Lava Tunnel and back to our hotel. Reykjavik Excursions had canceled nearly all their tours on that day due to bad weather and closed roads (including the South Shore Adventure), but was able to keep the Lava Tunnel tour because its only about a 30 minutes drive from Reykjavik and the road to it was not closed.

As is the case with most of the Reykjavik Excursions tours with hotel pickup, we were picked up at Bus Station #12 next to our Fosshotel Reykjavik and driven to their main terminal where we walked though the terminal building to the larger buses on the other side for our bus that would take us to the Raufarhólshellir lava tunnel (the buses typically drove us directly back to our hotels without the need to transfer again at the terminal).

When we got off the bus at the lava tunnel, a wind gust hit me from behind and pushed me forward several feet. We entered the small building where we were provided with helmets with lights on them and simple crampons. We then entered the tunnel as a group with a tour guide.

The short walk from the small building to the entrance to the lava tunnel was an experience in itself with the strong wind gusts and barren landscape.

The ice formations near the areas where the lava tunnel opened to the surface were interesting.

The lava tunnel was full of beautiful colors.

The narrator was interesting and mixed comedy and science facts. They also did the thing that many cavern tours we've done in the past do and had everyone turn off the lights so that we could experience the pitch black. After the tour was over, we purchased some hot chocolate in the small building before boarding the buses to return to Reykjavik. The Lava Tunnel was an interesting experience that had similarities to the many cavern tours we had done before, but also had unique attributes of being a lava tunnel. Just entering and existing the lava tunnel in the Iceland winter weather was a different experience in itself!

Iceland in Winter: The Golden Circle

In my previous post, I wrote about the Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Plant and the Friðheimar Greenhouse, which we respectively visited before and after visiting traditional Golden Circle sites on our Gate 1 Travel tour. In this post, I focus on our observations related to visiting the three sites traditionally associated with the Golden Circle: Þingvellir National Park, Geysir geothermal area, and Gullfoss waterfall.

Þingvellir National Park

Because the Icelandic 'Þ' character is pronounced like "th" in English, one often sees Þingvellir National Park spelled "Thingvellir" on blog sites and articles written in English.

The overlook near the visitors center has some impressive views!

From the observatory point near the visitors center, one can walk down into the valley-like area.

There are more impressive winter views down in the valley area!

Þingvellir National Park is a beautiful park and it's interesting to see how the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia are separating here. This is also a historically significant park:

No single place epitomizes the history of Iceland and the Icelandic nation better than Þingvellir by the river Öxará. At Þingvellir - literally "Assembly Plains" - the Alþing general assembly was established around 930 and continued to convene there until 1798. Major events in the history of Iceland have taken place at Þingvellir and therefore the place is held in high esteem by all Icelanders. Today Þingvellir is a protected national shrine. According to the law, passed in 1928, the protected area shall always be the property of the Icelandic nation, under the preservation of the Alþing.

 

Geysir Geothermal Area

Our next stop on the tour was the Geysir Center to have lunch and see the geysers.

There are multiple restaurant options at the Geysir Center and we selected Kantina, which is described as "a fast service restaurant specializing in an honest and affordable menu." We chose it (fish and chips) to ensure that we had plenty of time to see the geyser before leaving for our next stop. I liked that the fish and chips was a large fried fillet of fish rather than pieces of fish.

The geothermal activity in this area is obvious even before seeing the geyser.

The area has a barren beauty about it.

Geysir ("The Great Geysir") is largely inactive now, but is still well-known for being the name from which the term "geyser" has been derived.

Fortunately, nearby Strokkur geyser is still active.

This geyser may not typically shoot as high into the air as Geysir once did, but it's frequency (every five to ten minutes) is convenient.

Only needing to wait several minutes for it is nice, especially when compared to waiting much longer for "Old Faithful" in Yellowstone National Park.

The boiling water forms a blue "bubble" effect immediately before the eruption.

Strokkur does not erupt as high as Old Faithful, but it's still always incredible to see the power of this hot water shooting out of the earth.

I suspect that seeing Strokkur erupt would be even more special for those who have not seen a geyser before. As I've finally started to travel to other areas of the world and enjoyed and appreciated their beauty, I've also been reminded of how many great places I've been able to experience in the United States, but have taken for granted because they were "close to home." I've been to Yellowstone National Park multiple times and am reminded to not take it for granted. Strokkur is well worth the visit, especially as part of the Golden Circle. In fact, it's just a short drive away from the last major stop in the Golden Circle that will be covered in this post: Gulfoss Waterfall.

Gulfoss Waterfall

I'm a big fan of waterfalls and feel privileged to have been able to see Niagara Falls within a few months of seeing three of Iceland's better known waterfalls: Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss, and Gulfoss. We saw the first two of these Iceland waterfalls while driving to Vik and back, but we saw Gulfoss ("golden falls") on the Golden Circle tour. Although all three waterfalls are magnificent, Gullfoss was my favorite and reminded my of Niagara Falls.

Gulfoss is said to be "one of Iceland's most beautiful and without a doubt Iceland's most popular waterfall."

Conclusion

It's easy to understand why the Golden Circle is such a popular tourist attraction in Iceland. In a single day with only 4-5 hours of daylight, we were able to see the magnificent sights of Þingvellir National Park, Strokkur geyser and Geysir geothermal area, and Gulfoss waterfall. Our Gate 1 tour book-ended these outdoor wonders with visits to Hellisheiði Power Plant and Friðheimar Greenhouse to make it a packed day of beautiful natural sights and interesting information about Iceland's ability to adapt to its environment.