Day 1

11:30- Arrive at Keflavik International Airport

You’ll likely arrive at Keflavik Airport, located about forty minutes away from Reykjavik. As international airports go, Keflavik is pretty small and relatively easy to navigate.You’ll likely want to make a few stops in the airport, though.

Stop #1- Pick up beer from the duty-free store. Alcohol is crazy, crazy expensive in Iceland (it was only legalized in 1989!) and can’t be bought in most gas stations and grocery stores. After our first night in Reykjavik, I found out that most locals pre-game at home before going to bars because of how expensive it is (which is why the nightlife scene doesn’t really get bumping until 1 am or later). So if you want to live like a local (or you know, just have a beer cheaply), you can save about 50% by picking up beer at the duty free store instead of wasting your time hunting down one of Iceland’s elusive stores licensed by the state that can sell alcohol.

Stop #2- Dunkin Donuts (after customs)- You may be wondering why (beyond a caffeine fix) you’d want to stop at this American chain when first stepping foot into exotic and gorgeous Iceland. Well, to pick up your pocket wifi, of course! Justin pre-ordered a pocket wifi from Trawire (costing about $10/day) and, with no kiosk or dedicated store at the airport, the company has chosen Dunkin Donuts as their customer pickup location. With the amount we relied on GPS and Google while out and about in Iceland, I’m so glad we made these arrangements. Make sure to pre-order your wifi online; while there are some stores in the airport that rent similar devices, they cost about 150% more than pre-ordering.

Stop #3- Rental car- Unless you’re planning on spending your whole trip in Reykjavik (a cool and quirky, but pretty tiny city), you’re going to need a way to travel to some of Iceland’s natural landmarks, some of which are eight or more hours from Reykjavik. Booking tours is a more stress-free option, but I like the flexibility (and let’s be honest, comparative inexpensiveness) of getting a rental car. Note that the rental car facility is fairly far away from the airport, with a shuttle only about every half hour or so. We went with the cheapest option at the time, which was a company called SADcars (kind of an unfortunate name, no?). After booking and paying for our rental car, I had read some real horror stories about SADcars, but can say nothing but positive things about our experience.

Protip #1- Make sure to book your rental car with a credit card that offers rental car insurance, like the Chase Sapphire. I booked our car way in advance before I got a travel credit card and had to cough up quite a bit of extra money to get insurance for our time in Iceland.

Protip #2- Consider where you want to visit in Iceland prior to booking your rental car. A lot of places require you to have a 4x4 to access it (I’m looking at you, Laugavegur). While you can book tours to these places, that adds up quickly and pretty much eats up an entire day of your vacation, so it may just be worth it to pay a little extra for a 4x4!

13:00- Lunch- Bike Cave (Einarsnes 36101 Reykjavík; 9:00-22:00)