Ready, set, ICELAND!

Tekijä
Today is a day for many first times. This is the first time in my life I’m actually traveling north for a holiday. There have been a few moments that I thought to myself “what the hell was I thinking?”, and then I see some amazing pictures of Icelandic nature, and I go “ohh yeah, makes sense.” I’m also packing up my new never-used 68 liter backpack, and going on a 11-day camping trip for the first time in my life. That also includes me driving a rental car all around the country. That’s right. No buses, trains or tours. So Icelanders be aware.

Going on a camping trip to Iceland was a random idea I came up with and pitched it to my boyfriend. Random ideas happen all the time in my case, and now, months later, I’m actually impressed that we ended up going through with it! Well, I’m always up for trying something new and this was no exception. So here we go.

When we started to plan our trip, there was a lot of things to consider. Good camping equipment was one. Icelandic weather and preparing for that was another. And then of course moving around. As Iceland is considered to be one of the most expensive countries in Europe, we (read: I) didn’t even consider hostels, let alone hotels. Renting a car is not cheap but it turned out to be the best option if you want to travel around the country, or the Ring Road, which is the main road that goes around Iceland. 

Our camping gear includes:

  • a two person tent (North Face)
  • 2 self inflating sleeping mattresses (Sea to Summit + Thermarest)
  • 2 sleeping bags
  • 2 travel pillows
  • a camping stove, including two pots and a “frying pan” (Trangia)
  • camping plates, mugs, sporks, long spoons 
  • a cooking knife
  • can opener
  • a foldable water container, 2 liters
  • a fashlight + tent light
  • cleaning sponge 
  • Thermos
  • hammer
  • a swiss army knife
  • a few bags of dried camping foods + instant coffee

We decided to go for a camping card which costs 149€ and it covers about 40 campsites for two people around Iceland. Other wise the campsites cost about 10-15€ / person / night. I also already know the cheapest grocery store is called Bonus, so I have them marked on our map. I’m not kidding. 
The weather can be anything from +9 Celcius to +25 Celcius, so it is essential to pack a lot of layers. This includes hats, gloves, leggins, wool socks, and waterproof outer wear. I also have a pretty sweet disposable rain poncho from Peru, which I hope I won’t have to use. 

Our flight is operated by WOW Air (also a first time for me), and even though we had our doubts about the airline, as it basically charges for every single thing on the flight, I got no complaints about the flight. There’s a lot of legroom and the staff is cool. Plus everything is purple. I don’t know why is that relevant.

From the airport, we’ll go pick up our car, the camping card, get some fuel for both the car and our stove, go to the grocery store and navigate to our campsite in Grindavik! The weather should be about +18 C and cloudy/sunny. 

LET’S GO! 



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