Iceland Guided Hiking Tour of Iceland’s Best Landscapes

Where else on the planet can you simultaneously straddle two continents (Europe and North America), and hike in the most unusual and varying landscapes in the world?  Iceland!!!  The competing tectonic plates mean you can actually SEE that the land is ALIVE!  

Gasses spout, geysers spray, volcanos explode, lands collide, and springs erupt in this unusual island nation that is tempered by the warmth of the Gulf Stream despite the fact that it sits just south of the Arctic Circle.

Progressive in attitude, almost all food is organic.  The water is so pure it doesn’t need to be treated.  Energy is cheap due to all the geothermal activity so it’s easy to stay warm during the long winter nights!

And did I mention the AMAZING LANDSCAPE!!!  Iceland has it all!  From humungeous glaciers to one of the world’s most beautiful non-tropical beaches, to moss covered mountains to those colored like a rainbow.  And hundreds of waterfalls!

Perhaps it’s all the stunning trails in Iceland that leads to its men to live the longest on Earth (and the women third longest).

Glacial Trekking Iceland

Our guest, Donna, says that her most memorable hiking story was running up to the glacier with her eyes closed – as directed by her trusted guide. The clear blue color doesn’t even look real!

Best Hiking Tour Iceland

The best hiking tours of Iceland will include this Top 20 in the world trail: the Laugavegur hike!  This other worldly scenery is considered some of the most beautiful in the world!  And at a difficulty rating of about a three out of five, is certainly doable for anyone who trains.

Iceland Hiking Accommodations

When you get out in the wilderness on an Iceland trekking tour, you will often stay in a communal mountain hut, so bring an eye mask and ear plugs. Nonetheless, it is SO worth it!  And don’t forget in the summer, the sun rarely, if ever sets (another good reason for an eye mask)!

Iceland Landscape

The landscape changes every day! Sometimes it is green, other times you will think you are in a desert. Yet again, there are times when the mountains are rainbow colored! Are you on the moon? Are you still on Earth??? Even tough slogs through scree will reward you with a priceless view as your reward!

Because the land is rugged, leave your trail shoes at home.  You should wear hiking boots for Iceland!

Backpacking Iceland

While it is certainly possible to back pack Iceland, I really recommend using a guided tour company. They know this rugged landscape and can add so much to your trip, plus keep you safe. Also, it can be logistically difficult to arrange this adventure on your own. Plus, you’ll get to meet similar like-minded adventurers you can swap stories with throughout your Iceland trekking tour!

And – no need to plan your route or bring an Iceland hiking map as your guide has all the little details worked out for you and can take you on the best day hikes in Iceland. I love when all you have to do is just show up and hike!

Iceland Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is one of the most popular adventures in Iceland is soaking in the iconic Blue Lagoon.  Yes, it’s a bit touristy, but it’s popular for a reason – it’s fun!

If crowds aren’t your thing, head over to the Secret Lagoon instead.  There won’t be as many tourists, but then again, it’s not as pretty either.

Photo courtesy of Donna Yelmokas.

These videos will give you a good idea of the country, Iceland’s culture and sense of humor (especially the cheeky “Hardest Karaoke Song in the World” which pokes fun at itself for Iceland’s incredibly difficult language. But don’t worry if, like me, you’d like a few more vowels please: virtually everyone speaks impeccable English.

Affiliate Partners :  Active Adventures and Wildland Trekking

There are two greats companies offering hiking tours in Iceland that I recommend: Active Adventures  and Wildland Trekking.  

Both recommended tour companies offer fascinating and challenging tours that get you hiking in all the best places in Iceland! See below for some of the differences.

Wildland Trekking’s

LAUGAVEGUR-SKOGAR BACKPACK

 This 9 day tour has one easy hike day and six long hike days of 7 – 11 miles.  Because you are backpacking, this tour costs less, but you are in the communal mountain huts most nights, so you can decide on what price/comfort level is best for you when choosing your tour company.

Get more info HERE.

Please use my links when booking your adventure.

At Active Travel Adventures, I offer my unbiased recommendations.  However, at no additional cost to you, some of my affiliate partners may offer me a small commission, or free or discounted travel, so it’s a great FREE way for you to show support of Active Travel Adventures.  Many thanks!  Kit

Hike Iceland – An Iceland Adventure Tour with Donna Yelmokas

I consider myself to be fairly well traveled, having been to approximately 30 countries I believe or somewhere around there. Anyhow, there are two places on Earth that when I go there, I feel like I’m on another planet. One of those is Utah and the other is Iceland. Iceland is a country that you can actually see that the land is alive. It is always spewing of gases or it’s moving with earthquakes and volcanoes and it’s got hot springs, glacial melts, everything to do with landscape and rocks and rivers and fire and ice. When you’re talking about landscape, it’s the most extraordinary country I’ve ever been to. Not only do you feel like you’re on a different planet, the landscape is so unusual that every day on this adventure you’re going to feel like you’re on a different planet. It’s like going to a solar system of landscapes.

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We’re going to go to the fantastical country of Iceland. It’s an extraordinary adventure we have for you and I can’t wait to share it with you. Donna, could you start by introducing yourself and perhaps telling us your age?

I’m Donna Yelmokas. I’m based in San Francisco, California. I am 55 years old.

Donna, tell us how you first got into adventure traveling.

My husband and I had been married for a couple of years now. One of the things that has kept us together for many years is our adventure traveling. From day one, I’ve dragged him all over the world. I’m a military brat, so I grew up traveling around the world, so I think it was in my blood from birth. I have always been a wanderlust for the next adventure. We’re not the typical, “Let’s book a hotel and go to a city,” we’re more like, “Let’s see the culture,” whether it’s biking or sailing or hiking. That’s what we love to do.

How did you even know this was even an option of a way to travel? Like you, I was a military brat and my father worked for Pan Am when he got out of the military, so I was fairly well-traveled as a kid. Yet, I never knew you could do these kinds of vacations. Even though dad was into the outdoors at home, I’m not sure it even occurred to him or us to actually explore the national parks or the natural wonders of these countries around the world. We do the typical go to the cities, do all the regular things you do that you see in all the guidebooks, a typical vacation. How on Earth did you figure out that this was even an option to do?

In my entire life, I have a job that allows me to travel. I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe, a lot of my workmates are European. They are so much more adventurous I think than Americans tend to be. I heard about these great trips. They were going to Thailand and Iceland and New Zealand. They weren’t staying at the Holiday Inn or whatever. They were actually finding a trekking company or going out on a trek on their own or doing a sailing trip and doing this fun travel, and I just got the bug.

Do your friends here in the States share your passion or are you an outlier?

I would say it’s 50/50. As I dragged my husband into the trips, I’ve dragged my friends along as well. Specifically, with using outland trekking and doing the hiking group, I tend to get a group of people that have never done this trip before, then they instantly got hooked. Our group is becoming bigger and bigger as we go along around the world.

That’s exactly what I’m finding. Once people try adventure travel, they don’t turn back or at least not going to turn back and do the traditional travel until their body can’t do it anymore.

Now we’re looking at things like, “Do we do this one before we get too old?” We start planning our next trip while we were on our trip. Isn’t that the best?

Yes. Plus, also you learn about new places when you’re on these trips from other people that have done something like, “I’ve got to try that one next as well.” What are some cool trips that you’ve taken?

Some of the coolest trip I mentioned Thailand. That was an amazing trip. As a kid, I had lived in Asia in the Philippines for three years. I wanted to get back as an adult. We went to Thailand and my stepsister is British and she was doing a travel around as they would their gap year and so I met her. We did a little bit of the hospital. That was my first adventure. I was much younger. What I did at the end was, “We’ve got to stay at a Sheraton or a Marriott or something like the last day. I need a little bit of a grownup hotel amenities. Thailand was great. We went all over. We did the islands. We’re very adventurous. We did trekking.

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Another great trip we did was Alaska. We didn’t do the cruise ship. We’re actually with a group of friends with our own boat. We docked every day and got off and did hiking. We had someone who knew all the plant life. She was actually the first mate. She would take us on our hikes every day. Australia was another one. We didn’t do the typical do Sydney. We traveled all over. Those were some of them. We did a great trip. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Sioux Falls.

I’ve heard of it, but I don’t remember where it is.

It’s a sub-canyon of the Grand Canyon. It’s near Flagstaff area. It was amazing. It is actually a tribe where the Native American Indians still live. You got to see their culture and then you got to see these beautiful waterfalls. It was tough. It’s ten miles down, but the whole time you’re thinking, “I’ve got to go ten miles back up in four days.”

I’d rather go up and down myself.

Those are probably the top ones on the list. I travel for work. One of the things I like to do for work is I always try and stay at least one day extra to any city I go to, to do something either a museum or something cultural or just get lost in a city. Some of my favorite cities are Amsterdam and Berlin and just some interesting things you can do while you take advantage of business travel.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get you back on to talk about some of your other adventures. We’ve got you on to talk about your adventure in Iceland. How about you give us a brief overview and then we’ll drill down a little deeper?

My sister, we’re eleven months apart, so very close. We grew up as a military family. She’s got this adventure bug as well. She had started talking about going to Iceland and she called me one day and said, “My husband would like to go on this trip.” We thought, “Let’s do it.” They had done the rim to rim in the Grand Canyon using Wildland Trekking and they loved them, loved the service, loved the trek leaders. We said yes. Then we started talking to other friends and family. By the time we were done, there were nine of us in the group of twelve. I felt bad for the three other people. There were nine of us that signed up for this crazy adventure.

We didn’t want to do just the Ring Road. We wanted it to be an adventure. We wanted it to be more classical Iceland and more of the hiking and get to meet the people. This was a great opportunity to do that. We didn’t also want to do the full-on carry our bags, our full-on backpacks. Some of the older people older than me were comfortable with doing that as well. It started with a conversation with my sister and one thing led to another. We had nine people that wanted to go.

I want to clarify what the Ring Road is. Iceland, of course, is an island up near the Arctic Circle. The Ring Road is a road that goes around the circumference of the island so the residents can get around. They only built it maybe several years ago. One of the most popular tourists to take is the Ring Road Tour for tourists that do visit Iceland. The main reason people go to Iceland is for the incredible landscape. How about telling us a little bit about that?

For me, the culture and the vibe of Iceland as well. We live in San Francisco. There’s a certain vibe here in the city. It’s very cultural the social aspects of Iceland are very in tune with California and San Francisco. Yes, it’s the landscape. We took a gazillion pictures and it doesn’t capture the beauty. One day, you would wake up and you’re hiking and it literally looks like the moon. Then the second day you’re hiking and you’re looking at glaciers that are millions of years old. It puts things in perspective. We luckily had amazing weather. I did caution that we had every form of clothing you can bring. I was told a long time ago, there’s no bad weather, there’s just bad clothing. We were prepared. Honestly, the last day we hiked, we were in shorts and t-shirts. It was amazing.

Because of Iceland’s location, just south of the Arctic Circle makes it very far north and therefore in the colder areas, it’s also buffered by the Gulf Stream, which warms it a little bit. Between those two contrasting elements of weather, you can have very changeable weather all times a year, sometimes on the same day. It’s best to be prepared. I love that expression, “There’s no bad weather, just bad clothing.” I’m guessing in Iceland, you just have the summer if you want to do some hiking. When did you go?

We went in August and it’s pretty short, probably June, July, August. I would say probably the end of August, beginning of September would be the latest you would want to do this trek. There was actually snow when we were there during some of the hike. Obviously, we all had the right boots on and equipment. It wasn’t a foot of snow, it was an inch or so. The weather can be quite tricky but we were prepared. Luckily enough, we were blessed with good weather. We did the hut to hut so we also had a roof over our heads and we’re out in a tent somewhere. It did quite windy.

The Laugavegur Trek is the most popular, most beautiful trek in Iceland.

Yes, it’s the most popular trek. Even being the most popular, we went hours and hours without seeing other people on the trek. It was not one of those where hundreds of people are out on the trail. It was very peaceful out on the trail.

My sister, Terry, and I went to Iceland a few years ago to try to see the northern lights, which we were very lucky that we did. We went late February, early March. I always try, when I go to a new country, to learn at least a couple of the key phrases, the thank yous, the pleases, the common courtesies and a couple of sentences. Just so the locals know I’m trying. With Icelandic, there are too many consonants and not enough vowels. My best efforts were ridiculous, incomprehensible. Anyway, another thing I’d like to do when I travel is to try to meet locals and go to the Meetup boards and see if there’s anything going on that I might be interested in going to so that I can get to hang out with some of the locals. I saw that during the week that we were going to be there, that there was a local meetup of locals to practice speaking English.

I was like, “Perfect.” I wrote to the organizers and said, “How would you like to practice with some native speakers?” She wrote back, “Sure, that would be great.” They arranged to get together and we get there. They speak more proper English than Terry and I did. It was ridiculous. We had a wonderful time with them and it was made for a special evening. The language is not a barrier over there. Even though Icelandic gets incredibly difficult for the tongues of English speakers, everybody over there speaks excellent English. There’s no barrier whatsoever.

We didn’t have any troubles at all. When you fly into Reykjavík, everything from the US is pretty much an overnight flight. We on purpose flew from San Francisco to Boston, and we gave ourselves a day in Boston and then took the overnight to Reykjavík. We got there at 6:00 AM. We wanted to do something to keep us awake and keep us up. We did a walking tour the first day in the city and like you, they tried to teach us some words and we just laughed.

There are too many consonants and our tongues don’t work that way. Tell us your impressions about Reykjavík and then we’ll get back to the trail.

It is a super fun city. It was Pride Week while we were there, so that would have made it even more interesting. We decided to do an Airbnb, which there are literally hundreds of Airbnbs in the city, great locations, all types of accommodations. There’s everything from the church, which again, I’m not going to try and say it because it’s very hard. There’s a beautiful concert hall called Harpa. One of the cool things too is there are a lot of graffiti arts, so murals around the city. One of the things we had fun chasing around the murals, seeing what they meant and the local artists did that. A couple of other things we did was we did the Puffin Tour. You have to do it when you’re there. It’s one of those special things that you’re like, “It’s touristy but we have to do it,” and it was totally worth it. Then the Saga Museum, which is the Viking Museum, was also fun. It’s a small city. It’s super easy to walk around. People are friendly. I know everybody says this, it is expensive, but I live in San Francisco so I wasn’t shocked. My friends from Texas were beyond shocked with the pricing. It is costly.

Islands tend to be because they have to import so much. They also have a social welfare system and low taxes, not to mention cheap electricity. They paid for all that in their everyday purchases when they buy things, and as do we tourists. You’ve toured the capital and you’re getting ready to start your trek. Tell us about how all that happened.

We do a meetup the night before and they went over what the trek is going to be, what it’s going to look like. They look at your bag, they look at your clothing to make sure you’re prepared. Once you’re out in the mountains, there’s nowhere to buy anything or go back and get anything. They wanted to make sure everybody was prepared. It was the hut to hut. The first day we did a trek. Marion Bishop was our trek leader. This was our second hike to be on with her. She wanted to test us. We’re a group of twelve. Her brother was the other trek leader. They’re both French, so they spoke many languages. They wanted to test the group to see what our stamina was and how many miles we could do each day.

That was the first day, we got back to the hut. The huts have little kitchenettes. When I say a hut, it’s like a hostel. If you think of a large wooden building, I think our first hut was probably a couple of hundred people in there and they’re literally bunk beds lined up right next to each other. You’re pretty tight quarters. We knew to bring earplugs and so forth because you’re going to have a lot of noises when you have hundreds of people in the same room. They had little kitchens. Our trek leaders prepared our meal and you can imagine it’s lamb and fresh fish and you’re not eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It was amazing. That was the first day. The things we learned that everybody likes to soak in the hot tubs and the natural hot springs, we took advantage of that all the time. That was one of the fun things we learned on the first day. It was the geothermal hot creeks.

The hot springs are everywhere and if I remember reading correctly, the geothermal energy produced is 85% of the energy and they only bring an oil, just apparel the ships to do the importing and exporting there.

That is right. It’s quite astounding how in touch with they are with the environment and their surroundings and understand the beauty of Iceland. We’re used to, “That’s an old building, tear it down.” They are very outdoorsy and one with nature. That was nice to see that.

I remember that when I was there that they don’t even have to purify the water. It just comes straight out of glacial melt or whatever, but it’s so clean that it wasn’t even necessary.

We had our camelbacks each day and we filled them up with either from the stream or right from a faucet that was running like you said glacial water. I can tell you the water was amazing. It was one thing that even the group of friends that went on this trip, they’re like, “We miss Iceland water,” because it was so pure and so clean and cold and refreshing. It was good.

One cool thing I remember is a place that Terry and I went to where two rivers met. One was a glacial river, so it was freezing cold. The other was fed by hot springs. You can put your feet and feel hot and cold at the same time. It was cool. Your guide has now tested you to see what you guys are capable of. Did you do any training beforehand? What would your recommendations be for folks that want to do this?

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If you’re going to do this trek, I would absolutely recommend some type of training. Mark and I live in San Francisco. We’ve got plenty of hills and mountains around us. It’s super easy for us to do that. My sister lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anywhere to train. What they did was they found large parking garages and they would take a Saturday morning and go up and down the stairs to get the steepness in there that they needed. Everybody trains how they want to. I do recommend some level of fitness. There were parts that were strenuous I would say. If you went in there doing no preparation, you would probably be hurting a bit.

It looks like your highest elevation gain in any one day was about 1,600 feet. However, you did have some pretty long days.

Some of them were even longer. Once they determined the fitness level of each of the group members, what they did is each day, we would all start together. Because there were two trek leaders, we would get an option to do either the shorter or easier to the second hut or do a longer trek. That was interesting. My husband and I mostly did the longer treks. We got to see some things the other team didn’t see and they got to see some of the things we didn’t see because we would always go a different way. The cool thing about using a trekking company is they know all the hidden gems that if you’re looking at a hiking trail and staying on the trail that you would never see.

We did a lot of side hikes. One of the probably most special ones was on day two where we did this side hike and we got to hike out. It’s not even on the brochure that you read from the trekking company. We got to go right up to the glacier. We were almost to the glacier and Michael, who was the other trek leader, said, “Before we get to the edge of the glacier, I want everybody to drop their backpack.” There were probably five or six of us that did this side trip. We dropped our backpacks and he goes, “Close your eyes and run and I’m going to tell you when to stop and then you open your eyes.” We were literally on the edge of the glacier. The cool thing too is they knew the rocks and the formations and the history of the glacier and why it was named as such.

The cool thing about that is that’s where we stopped. We had lunch there and talked about how the glaciers are melting faster than they ever have before in history. Whether you believe in the reasons why they’re evaporating and why they’re melting so quickly is your own. Looking back on one of the reasons we wanted to go is we feel like the landscape is going to change pretty dramatically in the next twenty years, and we wanted to see Iceland as it is with the glaciers in the landscape that it has now before it disappears.

On day three, the itinerary says multicolored mountains. What exactly does that mean?

You’re going from glaciers to multicolored. I believe it was more of a volcanic terrain.

It says here, obsidian lava fields.

This is the moon thing. I’m telling you it’s crazy beautiful. It’s the oddest thing you’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to Glacier National Park or anything like that or Arches or these weird formations. You’d be hiking along this volcano and all of a sudden you would see this little pool of hot bubbling water. This is where we saw a little bit of snow and it was crazy beautiful.

I’ve been lucky enough to go to both Arches National Park and Glacier National Park. In fact, Glacier we covered in episode two of the Active Travel Adventures podcast. When you were there, was it clear enough for you to see Mount Hekla?

Yeah. We had pretty clear views the whole time, so we were able to see all the mountain ranges, all the glaciers.

The next day it looks like you’re going to see some moss-covered hills, some very green landscape. The landscape has changed yet again.

You feel like now you’re in a rainforest. Another micro-climate within a short period of hiking. That was our last day. That was probably the prettiest hot views we had. They had a yoga class going on when we got there and we knew it was the last day that we’d be on the trail. That was a fun night.

It looks like on the last day, you’re hiking out across up the black sand desert. Now you’re in the desert?

Yes. That was tough. I felt like, “Is it ever going to end?” It felt like it was forever and of course it wasn’t. It was a tough last day. We knew we were going to get back to Reykjavík and had adult beverages and be happy that we accomplished what we did.

Even though it was a difficult day, was it pretty?

Yeah. It was a totally different terrain than what we had seen the other days. Gone was the lush greenery that we had seen the day before. Pretty much these flat canyons but it was like the sandy terrain.

Finally, before you get back on the bus to head back to town, I see something about some basaltic columns. Is that something you would see in Utah? What do they talk about there?

That’s the day we’re heading back to Reykjavík, and they put you on these huge buses with giant four-wheel-drive tires. You are four-wheeling through the canyons to get back to the Ring Road. That’s how you get back to Reykjavik. We giggled and laughed the whole time on these buses because they’re regular buses you would see with giant tires on them that go through all these river crossings. It was an interesting trip home. Also on the way home, there are waterfalls that you stop and see. The journey is not over when the trek is over. You actually get this extra little bonus at the end on the trip back.

Let’s talk about your overall impression of Iceland. When you look back on your trip, what memory comes to you first?

The beauty and the people. The people are welcoming and so warm, and just the beauty of the landscape. We went with family and the first day of the trek we went around and said, “What do you want to accomplish? What’s your goal for the trek?” Some of us were like, “We just want to be friends when it’s over.” We laughed and had the best time. A lot of a-ha moments of when you cross a bridge and you’re like, “Oh my gosh.” You can’t explain it. They’ve gone up this hard mountain and it’s worth it to get to the top for the view. It was on the bucket list and I would absolutely recommend it to anybody to put it on their bucket list as soon as possible.

On a scale of one to five, with five being like Mont Blanc difficult and one being a couch potato, where would you rank this adventure as far as difficulty rating?

I would say probably maybe two and a half, three. Because you have the options each day, you could do your own pace. The trek leaders were wonderful. There was never any pressure that you had to keep up or you had to do anything. There were some river crossings we had to do where the water’s pretty swift and your leaders were right there to help you. Even if you never used hiking poles before, how to go up a steep climb with your poles is very helpful and understanding. We had all levels of athletic ability on the hike and everybody walked away having a good time.

On the photos that you sent at the river crossing, would that be typical of the rivers that you crossed or are some deeper? Tell us a little bit about that.

Knee-deep. You brought your river crossing shoes or sandals or I think everybody is wearing Crocs now and keens and so forth. You would take your boots off and put them around your neck and you use your poles to balance yourself and you’d go through the water. It was cold but nothing. It just lasts for a couple of minutes. It’s not a big deal. Some people wore those neoprene socks but none of us did. It was fine.

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Looking back, is there anything that you wish you had known before you’d gone on the trip that you could share with us?

To be prepared for the food maybe. European cultures can be very different than American food, so I think to just be super specific with the trekking company, don’t be afraid to say what you do and don’t like. We had jeeps that took our stuff from hut to hut. We had the luxury of having some pretty great stuff. The food is one. Be prepared for the cost and the pricing and plan appropriately. Things that I read ahead on were if you’re going to buy alcohol like bottles of wine, do it at Duty-Free at the airport before you leave. If you’re going to buy food and have an Airbnb, go to the local grocery store and buy bread and some cold cuts or whatever. Little things like that, don’t be shocked by the pricing because it is expensive.

Since on this adventure you were with a tour company, most of your expenses once you got with the company are included. Is that correct?

That’s right. We did two days on both sides of the trek in Reykjavík, so we had the Airbnb two nights before in two nights after. We did do some of our own food, but that’s exactly what we did. I took advantage of happy hours. Look for the deals and the bargains and just be prepared.

Do you have a favorite story that you’d like to tell about your adventure in Iceland?

Probably the glacier one of just drop your backpacks and have the confidence that this guide’s going to tell you when to stop, so you don’t jump over the glacier and being far enough away where you couldn’t see it yet and then running up to it, and opening your eyes. This glacier and the blue of it and knowing it’s millions of years old and the significance of you’re standing on it. It was beautiful. There was one trek that we did, it was one of those side hikes and it was very tough. It was that quick sandy, where you took a step and you went one inch back and you take another step. It was hard to get momentum up the hill. We were all like, “Are we ever going to get there?” Then you get to the top. That was one of the, “Oh my gosh,” moments. The scenery and the beauty is breathtaking. I would encourage anybody if you’re going to go to Iceland, you’re going to do the Ring Road, do a little bit of hiking as well because I don’t think many people do the hike that go there.

There are two Icelandic airlines that offer great deals: Icelandair and WOW Air. They allow you to do layovers in Reykjavík so that you can actually get two vacations in one. For example, I went to Berlin but I spent a week in Reykjavík in route. It doesn’t cost you any extra to do that. Remember that at lease with the budget airlines, they will nail you with the excess baggage. If you’re going to go hiking, you’re probably going to have some excess baggage. Keep that in mind when you book.

We flew from San Francisco to Boston but Boston to Reykjavík, we took Icelandair. We knew ahead of time that there would be bank charges and so forth. Especially for the trek, you’re going to need it because there’s no way you can fit it in an overhead everything that you would need.

How Icelandair and WOW Air work is that you can go to Reykjavík and also to any other place that they go to on their fly routes at no additional charge. For example, when Terry and I wanted to go to Iceland and I wanted to go to Berlin, Terry and I had the vacation in Iceland and then she went back home to work and I continued on to Berlin. My plane ticket didn’t cost me any extra. It was just as if I was going directly to Berlin.

A ton of people were doing that. It’s an excellent idea because they do it from a couple of other cities I believe in Europe as well. Berlin seems to be a favorite.

If you want to do this, you go to the website of Icelandair or WOW air and look at their flight plans, look at the map of where they go to and then you can pick your end destination. They all go through Reykjavík, so you can do your end plan be it at Barcelona, Berlin or wherever else they want to go. You just spend some time in Iceland either before or after your main trip to wherever else you’re going to. It’s cool and it saves you from paying two airfares to get the two vacations. Donna, on a scale of one to ten, where ten means, “You cannot possibly top this trip,” how would you rank your Icelandic adventure?

I am still looking for my ten. I would say it was probably a nine. It was one of those very special trips. Definitely a solid nine.

Our thanks to Donna for being with us. I’ve got a couple of key takeaways I’d like to share with you. It’s interesting how Donna has built this tribe of people that are getting into adventure travel. It started off with her. She gets her husband hooked. Next thing you know, they’ve got nine people going on this group of twelve. That’s cool and that it’s not that hard probably once you get people started to create your own private group without paying the custom charges. That’s nice if you wanted to do a tour like that. Number two, I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling my mortality. I’m trying to pick my trips according to what I think my body can do versus maybe later I will be able to do it. Just like what Donna was talking about when they’re trying to plan their next trip, they’re trying to figure out how our knees and our hips going to work and rank them by orders.

I do that and frankly also do a little bit by safety. If a country is getting to be a little bit dicey, that moves up the list because I’m going to go there before there are any troubles. Unfortunately, one of my favorite places and favorite trips I ever did, Nicaragua, is no longer safe and probably won’t be safe for the foreseeable next few years for sure. Anyway, I’m choosing a little bit about that sometimes as well.

In Iceland, she talks about the expense. This is another good reason to use a tour company because you can stay within your budget because it is shockingly expensive. Terry and I made sure we only went to happy hours because a beer was $10 and this is several years ago. It’s probably $12 or $13 a piece and it’s half price for the one or two hours of happy hour. Everything was expensive. Brace yourself, try to go local as much as possible. Like she says, go to the grocery stores, maybe do your breakfast at Airbnb or your hotel, make a lunch and then go out for dinner or something like that. Once you’re on the tour, generally speaking they are providing the food for you so that way you have a pretty good idea of what your nuts is going to cost.

Speaking of using a tour company, there are a couple of things too. When you go to such an exotic landscape, the guides are local. They know what safe to do and what’s not safe to do as far as river crossings, whether something’s too high. They did have alternative plans because they know which ones might become an issue and they’ll have a backup plan available for you. They can help you build your own skills, be it with sticks or crossings and help guide you to become a better adventurer. They also know about specific cool things such as when she ran up to the glacier or Nicaragua when our guide took us to this hidden bat cave that we would never would have found in a million years on our own.

If you are a subscriber to my monthly newsletter, that will come automatically, so don’t worry about that. I’ll be sending that with no extra effort on your part and it’s free. It has some of my recommendations and links so that you can see the weather and the best time to go and what to pack. All these kinds of things so that you have in one printer-friendly, one to two-page sheet of paper, everything that you need to know in order to plan your trip to Iceland. A cool thing about Iceland too is this is where the continents meet. That’s one of the reasons for some of the cool landscape formations. There’s a center where you can actually straddle the continents and have one leg in Europe and one leg in North America. That’s cool.

Finally, if you want to take advantage of Iceland because of the layover rule that Icelandair and WOW Air are doing, that has made Iceland extremely popular. If you’re going to go hiking, you’re not going to find the crowds because most people tend to stay with the touristy things on the Ring Road. Nonetheless, Iceland has become a known place to go now. If you’re interested, I would recommend going sooner rather than later before it does get too crowded. It’s a fabulous country that I want to go back again. Terry and I went to see the northern lights. We’re very lucky generally speaking to see those in the winter or have a better chance of seeing them in the winter than in the summer, so we went in late winter to try to do so. I think there are the occasional appearance in the summertime. I believe it is generally speaking the winter also when it’s darker during the night so you have a greater opportunity for the clouds to part so that you can actually see the lights, which is otherworldly. You feel like you’re in heaven with seeing all these dancing lights. It’s amazing.

I’m always looking for great adventure ideas, so be sure to send me an email at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com. If you’ve got some suggestions, I love to hear them all. Also, any comments all about the show, I love hearing from you. I’ll be back soon with another great adventure. Until then, adventure on.

Important Links:

• Wildland Trekking
• episode two
• Icelandair
• WOW Air
• Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com

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