Reykjavik Iceland Highlights

Welcome to Reykjavik, Iceland, the land of Norse gods, the land of fire and ice, the land of the midnight sun. It literally never gets dark here in the summertime, it's the strangest thing you've ever seen. So you're going to fly into Keflavik, which is about a 40-45 minute drive into Reykjavik, so plan on a transfer charge. It's going to cost you, you know, 40-50 bucks in a taxi. You get car service, it's a little more hoity-toity, but the drivers don't seem as friendly, so go with a taxi. You're going to have to walk a long way from the terminal, down steps and going down escalators, and it's kind of inconvenient, and then you walk out to this. Yeah, oh there it is. It's winter. Okay, let's go home. So think, I don't know, 45-55 degrees in June, July and August up here, but it's not bad, and you get used to it pretty quick too, but layers are the key, we'll talk about packing soon. So we stayed at the addition of Reykjavik, which is right on the waterfront here, but fortunately Reykjavik is pretty walkable, so you can get to just about anywhere. This is a pretty convenient location, you have the advantage of dining on the waterfront, and it's kind of a hoity-toity hotel, a little more pricey, a little more money we want to spend. I probably wouldn't stay here again, probably stay a little bit closer to the inner city, but as far as the location goes, it is pretty accessible here. So we've got a nice little lobby, and of course hotel prices on the restaurant and the bar, and drinks are a little more expensive. Think big city, like Paris, London, New York kind of prices. It's right across the street from the Opera House music hall, so that is kind of nice, and this place is gorgeous. You can just walk in for free, take a couple pictures, and look around. They do have organized tours as well, and then the roof on the Reykjavik addition is very, very cool. A lot of people don't realize there's a bar, it's a like a hotel bar up here, so you can go up here if you're staying at the hotel. Some amazing views of the port and the city itself, I think it's four or five stories up, and just gorgeous. If you've never seen it before, just beeline to this top bar when it's open, and grab yourself a drink and relax. Down by the port, you'll see all kinds of stuff. If you're lucky, maybe you'll see a puffin, who knows? Little ducks swimming around, just enjoying the day, and it's really peaceful and relaxing down here. We really liked walking around the port. There's some restaurants and some coffee shops, limited hours. I think everything opens like 10 or 11 in the morning here. They're kind of really chill and laid back, and we like that down here. We came out here early in the morning, nothing was really going yet, and it kind of dead ends at the end of this port here. There's not a lot to walk, but the city is going to be a little bit further to the, so again, walkable from the hotel. Our hotel, we walked across this park, and then we were in the thick of it, but on this main strip, there's a lot of cool stuff down here too, in this like central Reykjavik. You'll find the Hard Rock, a whole bunch of restaurants of just about any genre, and the famous water closet that has been out of service, I understand, for a couple of years now, but it's kind of weird that there is a paid public toilet in the middle of this park, and I know everybody kind of comes here. It looks kind of cool, but it hasn't been open at all. I was really looking forward to trying it out, but unfortunately still out of service. But they are, you'll find these all over Iceland too, and all except Apple paying credit cards, your tap and shit cards. There is this interesting phallic museum there that we did not go in. Oh, and they pride themselves on their tap water. Instant cold, instant hot, super drinkable, very clean. It is very, it's like mountain water, literally mountain water. It is really good. Or you can go to the 24-7, which is their version of the 7-Eleven, and if you didn't bring a bottle, you can buy a bottle of water for 299 krona, a little bit less than that. It was about $2.15, so it's not horrible. And if you remember Capri Sun, that's big up here, especially for adults. The famous hot dog stands. Now these aren't the same hot dogs you're thinking about. I'm gonna let you figure it out and try it yourself to find out what's inside those things. But a ton of places to eat. Everybody speaks wonderful English here. There's theater. There's so much to do. You could easily spend a week in Reykjavik and never run out of things to do. People are super friendly up here. Very, very nice. Very chill. And we happen to have a couple of sunny days. It's not usually like this, we understand. It's usually rainy and windy up here, so those layers and a raincoat, very, very important. Don't bring an umbrella. This is great. I love the name of this place because the umbrella will blow up. And here's the famous Rainbow Road up here, which leads up to the church at the top of the hill. And we found this really neat little restaurant. We were starved. It's called Salka Valka, and a great little place to eat. Super friendly and the food was neat. We've got little pizzas and salads and meat dishes, lots of fish. Fish is really big up here, so if you're into fish, you're going to be in heaven. And it's right across the street from Babalu. It's kind of a famous coffee shop, I guess. And here was my dish. Very, very nicely done. It was yummy and the prices were fairly reasonable. And we went out at night to see what time it was. Yeah, a little bit after 10 at night. Not in the morning. This is night time. You can see it's the midnight sun. It doesn't really get dark. I mean, this is like sunsets at midnight and it just kind of dips below the horizon, but never really gets dark. But what's crazy is this place is rocking like seven nights a week. They have live music and there's a nice mix of locals and tourists in here and they're getting into it. You can see it's broad daylight. I've never seen anybody rock out to a band in broad daylight, but they do that there. And you can continue your walk up the strip here and get to Halsgrimskirchgrach. However you say it, I know I totally destroyed that. You get the best pictures at night when the sun's facing it, like anytime after like eight o'clock at night. And Leif Erikson, the true discoverer of North America. Sorry, Christopher Columbus, your opposer. And you can get tickets up here. It's about 14 bucks a person for an adult U.S. And you buy it from this lovely young lady in the gift shop here. You can buy some souvenirs as well. And the church. Don't miss the church. It is a Lutheran church. You can walk in there and tool about. If you happen to run into a service, you can jump in for that too. Fortunately, it's not steps. There's an elevator. And if you've seen how high that thing is, it's way up. And look at the views of Reykjavik. Unbelievable views up here. This is from the clock tower. So this is just the clock tower. You actually go up a little bit further to the bells. And we happened to hear the bells when we were there. And it kind of took us by surprise. And they are pretty darn loud. Take a listen to unbelievable, stunning views and maybe a music show, too. And that's just you have to see this once in your life. Now, what about tipping in Iceland? Let's hear from the source. Now, just outside Reykjavik, you're going to find Sky Lagoon. A little further is Blue Lagoon. They're having some trouble with the volcanic activity. Some of the roads are impassable. This is a man-made lake. I think this is a little nicer. And also, you can take a tour and see some of the things on the outskirts of Reykjavik. These little horses. You could try some tomato beer. Look at this little guy. And there are waterfalls. We took something called the Golden Circle tour. We have a video on this channel, too. So check that out. And you can see some geysers. This is the Stroker geyser. You can walk between the North American and European tectonic plates. You can actually walk down and explore a dormant crater. This used to be a volcano. Unbelievable. Tons of things to do. It's a gorgeous city. The people are really nice and highly recommend visiting if you have the opportunity.