I Didn't Expect Iceland to Look Like This 🇮🇸

Iceland, the land of fire and ice. A volcanic island sitting alone in the north atlantic right on the edge of the arctic circle where glaciers, black sand beaches, waterfalls and lava fields all exist within just hours of each other. At times it feels like something from another planet. This is pretty crazy. This country has been on my bucket list for a very long time and I'm going to take you with me on the ultimate road trip through southern Iceland. Over the next few days we'll follow the coast through some of the most breathtaking and unique landscapes in the world, visiting the places Iceland is famous for and discovering a few places off the beaten path along the way. We'll eat local food, stay in some incredible places, experience a little Icelandic culture and get a better understanding of what life is actually like here in one of the most extraordinary countries in the world. This is Iceland. So we've just arrived and it's shucking down. Not a look, not a look. Straight off the plane and the waterproofs are already on. Lesson number one when coming to Iceland, waterproofs aren't optional. Torrential rain, awful awful weather. If there's one thing you can't guarantee in Iceland it's the weather, so you just have to make the most of whatever you get. So before we start our road trip we're making a quick stop in Reykjavik for some breakfast. Nothing screams summer holiday like fantastic and cool but walking down the rainy street. You're all summer. Honestly. But one thing you can guarantee in Iceland is seriously good pastries, cinnamon rolls, raspberry donuts and apparently bagels. We're at Digg to try their famous bagels and I go for one of the classics filled with cheese and egg patty and ham while Elliot goes for salmon and cream cheese. This is better than any New York bagel I've ever had. Oh my god. Cheddar cheese and mayo and the egg patty in the middle. I'm in heaven. Yeah. Beautiful smoked salmon with like capers. Yeah. I don't know. It looks insane. Something else that is insane, the views. This is amazing. With beddies full we set off Reykjavik to begin our southern Iceland road trip. We'll spend our first day taking in some of the highlights of the Golden Circle before staying the night in Hella, then continuing east to this place I cannot pronounce and finally on to Jökulsárlón to see the famous Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach. There's so many incredible stops along the way and we'll be spending our final day back in Reykjavik so stay tuned for that. There's lots of mysterious smoke. Not even 30 minutes into our journey and we've already stopped fascinated by what looks like a river rising with steam. It says due to the proximity of a geothermal power plant the water temperature may rise suddenly and cause burns. Bathing is strictly prohibited. This is wild. This is a smoking river. I think it's just that hot that the river is boiling basically. The craziest thing is it smells so sulfury. It smells like a factory of rotten eggs. This is some bizarre Icelandic music that's for sure. Okay so it's really rainy and really cold but we have to make the most of it. So unplanned. So we have started the Golden Circle route and the first stop is the crater over here. It's like a big, it's like a big hole in the ground but you can see it is actually quite big. There's people walking on the rim all over there and you can walk down too but I think it's a little bit cold to do that personally but yeah. The weather was definitely putting a bit of a damper on our spirits so we decided if we're going to get wet we might as well do it properly. Not too far away from the crater is the Secret Lagoon. Iceland is famous for its geothermal bathing culture with naturally heated pools dotted all over the country and while places like the Blue Lagoon have become some of Iceland's biggest tourist attractions, the Secret Lagoon feels a little more relaxed and comes at a fraction of the price. But this Secret Lagoon is perfect. It's got just the right amount of people and on one of those days where it is a little bit overcast like today, it's actually the perfect activity because you don't mind if you're getting a little bit wet, right? Entry is 4,500 Icelandic krona per adult and that gets you access to the lagoon, showers, and lockers. So these springs over here are what heating the lagoon over there and these are around 100 degrees celsius so if you jump in there you're gonna burn yourself. But back to the showers because there's one part of Icelandic bathing culture that definitely catches a lot of tourists off guard. Before getting into many of these geothermal pools you're expected to shower completely naked and I could see a lot of tourists, myself included, looking slightly nervous at the idea of stripping off and showering next to strangers. I understand the hygiene reasoning behind it but personally I'm still not convinced that a proper shower with your swimsuit on wouldn't do the job just fine. Icelanders, feel free to tell me why I'm wrong in the comments. Just arrived in our little Airbnb Ascot cottages and oh my gosh this is gorgeous. After spending a couple of hours at the Secret Lagoon we decided to head to our Airbnb in Hella a little earlier than planned. There's still plenty more to see around the Golden Circle but the weather wasn't getting any better so we opt for a chilled evening at home instead, stopping at a local butcher on the way to pick up some incredible Icelandic ribeye and vegetables for dinner. If the weather is on your side or you're simply more willing to face the rain than we were, you could easily fit in a few more of the Golden Circle's biggest sights including Thingvellir National Park where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart, the geyser geothermal area and the enormous Gullfoss waterfall. Just around 15 minutes outside of Hella and it's on a horse farm. Right in front of us as you can see we've got this gorgeous view of the fields and we've got the horses grazing right in front of us and we've decided to make use of this lovely kitchen in the Airbnb and we've got Elliot cooking us a steak. This is honestly one of the nicest Airbnbs I've ever stayed in. I'll leave all the links to where we stayed below but this place was so cozy overlooking the gorgeous open fields with every little detail so thoughtfully done. With a glass of Malbec in hand, the rain spattering against the window and Elliot cooking us a proper feast. It smells so good! It actually ended up being the perfect way to spend our first evening in Iceland. My god, perfectly cooked, insane sauce, carrots, potatoes, this guy over here knows how to cook. I always like to highlight the food culture wherever I travel and I have to give a big shout out to the meat in Iceland. The rib eye genuinely goes down as one of the best steaks I've ever had. My goodness me! Thank you! Wow! Cheers! Off on our next adventure. Day two in Iceland and it's still pretty miserable but this is the outside of our little cottage and this is a really sweet idea. This building over here is basically a little self-service shop that the farm has and you can just leave cash and get a few basics which I thought was a nice idea because from here the closest supermarket is around 15 to 20 minutes away so it's nice that you got the stuff on your doorstep. One thing that certainly isn't little in Iceland are the cars. I don't know how I didn't know this before coming here but Icelanders love huge soup tub 4x4s with massive wheels, basically monster trucks built for rugged landscapes, rough roads and serious off-roading. Our first waterfall of the day. I have to say it's pretty packed with the cars. While most of Iceland's waterfalls are completely free to visit parking often isn't. One of the best things about Iceland is that all of the tourist sites that you go visit they always have like a little cafe selling hot chocolate and it makes it so much better when you're freezing. At most car parks you can expect to pay around 900 Icelandic krona for the day which is more than enough time unless you're planning on spending eight hours just staring at a waterfall. Seljalandsfoss unsurprisingly is one of Iceland's most famous waterfalls sitting just a few meters back from the road and best known for the fact that you can actually walk behind it. So now we're behind the falling sheet of water and actually I'm getting less wet here than I was up there. Continuing through the wet and windy weather we jump back in the car and drive around 25 minutes down the road to another one of Iceland's most famous sites and at this point you're probably wondering why am I barefoot walking across a freezing fast-flowing river. Just hold that thought because the view is worth it. So standing behind me we have the most beautiful waterfall in the whole of Iceland guys. This is Skogafoss. Most recognized from its appearance in Game of Thrones, Skogafoss absolutely lives up to its reputation as one of South Iceland's most beautiful waterfalls. I don't think you can fully grasp the size of it until you're standing right in front of it. From a distance the people at the bottom genuinely look like ants and to get this view we had to cross the shallow channel running in front of the waterfall which explains why I was wandering around barefoot in freezing water. My feet were absolutely numb but you'll be happy to know I still have all 10 toes and honestly this view is worth rolling your trousers up for. Looking at all these photos and videos you're probably wondering what on earth we're using to capture them. My number one most asked question is Oriana what do you shoot with? You can probably tell from the shadow on my face I shoot with a DJI Osmo Pocket 4P. Over the past few months I've had the chance to properly test out the new DJI Osmo Pocket 4P and has genuinely become my most used camera because wherever I am whether I'm hiking through Iceland, filming on a beach, walking through a city or just quickly trying to capture something while we're on the move this literally fits in my pocket and when you travel and move around as much as we do that makes such a big difference. The capabilities of this camera are amazing every single time I bring it out I'm just so so shocked from the zoom to the quality both vertical and landscape. Before if I wanted a really wide landscape shot and then one of those tight cinematic zoomed in b-roll shots I'd normally be switching between different cameras or lenses. With the dual camera system here it's all in one. I'm having so much fun experimenting with this zoom. That is Elliot over there and just look at how crazy this is zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom what on earth I can practically see who he's texting. You can go all the way up to 12 times so I can stand in exactly the same place and suddenly pick out all these tiny little details in the distance. The image quality is insane it has an enhanced one inch sensor and 17 stops of dynamic range so you get so much detail but what I notice more than anything is how rich the colors are a lot of the time I genuinely don't even feel like I need to color grade it and if you do want more control afterwards you've also got 10-bit d-log 2 which in simple terms gives you much more flexibility when you're editing afterwards. You can also shoot 4k slow motion at up to 240 frames per second you've got three axis stabilization and active track which is so useful when I'm filming myself and don't have Elliot behind the camera but for me the biggest thing is just having all of this in one tiny camera. Wide shots, zoomed in b-roll, portrait, slow motion tracking, great color all without having to carry around loads of different kit and somehow it still fits in my pocket which when you're road tripping around a country where you want to stop and film something every five minutes is exactly what you want. All right so we've just been doing a bit of driving and we spotted this bakery on the side of the road so we want to see what little treats we have. Faxi bakery isn't a stop on the road trip it's a part of the road trip the second you walk inside you're hit with the smell of warm butter cinnamon and freshly baked pastries coming straight out of the oven. There are cookies enormous cinnamon rolls with all sorts of flavors all sorts of baked goods lining the counter and I can immediately see why this place is so loved but with the cold Icelandic wind outside we also decide to try something a little more traditional an Icelandic lamb soup known as kjødsupa. So hearty like on a cold rainy windy day like today this is what you need warmth from the inside out salty nice rich broth and soft lamb meat perfect. And just like that the wet windy overcast weather finally gave way to beautiful blue skies and a dust storm. All right so we are driving amongst all these lava fields all of this rock that you see besides me the glaciers are huge. As we drive further east the landscape completely changes giving way to these vast moss covered lava fields that look like the surface of another planet. There are designated stops along the way where you can pull over and properly take in just how strange and beautiful this landscape is and then we arrive at our next stop Fjallraugluver canyon or what I like to call middle earth. A short walk up from the car park brings you to the famous viewpoint. This is another spot made famous by game of thrones and the rock formations and sheer cliffs here are unlike anything I've ever seen. The canyon itself was formed around 9 000 years ago towards the end of the lost ice age when retreating glaciers and powerful meltwater gradually carved their way through the rock creating these deep winding curvaceous canyons you see today. If there's one thing I find most impressive about Iceland is just how dramatically the landscape changes. Every 30 minutes on the road feels like you've arrived in a completely different country more so a completely different world and as we continue east and further in this video you're going to see that even more. They call Iceland the land of fire and ice but that barely scratches the surface. Glaciers, volcanoes, lava fields, black sand beaches, waterfalls and canyons all on one little island. So it's pretty crazy we're just driving to our hotel for the night driving you can see the most incredible scenery I mean every five minutes you're just seeing waterfalls like this it's it's absolutely beautiful. They say don't go chasing waterfalls but if there's ever a place to do it it's Iceland. The fact that waterfalls like these are just things you pass on the side of the road is pretty phenomenal. We are at the Floss Hotel Nupar. I chose this place because I like the fact that it was between where our last place was at the Asgard Cottages and the Glacier Lagoon and the Diamond Beach which we'll be visiting tomorrow. Along the way obviously as you guys can see we managed to visit a lot of really great iconic sites as well see a lot of just the natural beauty and have a lot of nice spontaneous moments in between. It really does lend itself to that in this area. What are you doing? We've got our own little balcony area over here overlooking the beautiful hills and mountains in the background as you can probably see from the reflection over here. It's right by the road so tomorrow is going to be super easy for us to get on the road to our next destinations. I wasn't expecting much from this place I saw it more as a stop between everything we'd seen today and tomorrow's journey to the Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach but it completely exceeded my expectations. With these gorgeous grassy fields and dramatic mountains and glaciers sitting in the distance and with the midnight sun keeping everything glowing late into the evening the whole place felt pretty magical. They have lava salt. They have what salt? I thought this was two peppers. Lava salt? Lava salt. That's really cool. The food at the hotel was magnificent we went for a classic Icelandic beef burger and fish and chips and after a long day on the road it really hit the spot. Waking up nice and early to make the most of the day we set off again passing Lomagnapur that huge foreboding cliff mountain along with several incredible black sand plains and glacial rivers and then almost true to Iceland's name the landscape began to change again. Huge glaciers started appearing in the distance guiding us towards our first stop of the day Svinasveldjökull. All right so we just got to Svinasveldjökull. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly for the hundredth time but this is a really really cool sight and probably the thing I wanted to visit the most in Iceland. It is the glacier where Interstellar which is my favorite movie in the world it's my number one favorite movie was filmed. Another short hike brought us to the edge of the famous glacier that served as man's planet in Christopher Nolan's epic. I legit feel like I am on another planet right now. I don't think I've ever said those words so many times in my life I've already said it several times in this video but standing this close to the surface of a glacier really brought it home. This is pretty crazy. I never ever thought I would say that I'd stand on top of a glacier but this is pretty pretty sick. Svinasveldjökull is actually an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull. An ice cap so enormous it still covers around seven percent of Iceland. As the ice slowly moves under its own weight it fractures and folds creating these incredible crevices ridges and jagged formations across the surface and the colors are phenomenal too. You have bright white ridges mixed with almost turquoise blue ice making the whole thing look even more otherworldly. One important thing though glaciers are not somewhere you should just wander onto by yourself. Crevices can be incredibly deep and can even be hidden beneath the surface so I kept to the solid ground around the edge rather than venturing properly out onto the ice but even just getting this close to it was an experience I don't think I'll ever forget. I love that there's little cafes while you're driving which have incredible baked goods and nice hot cups of tea. That is, that hits. From there we stopped at another great bakery where I had what I think was the best brownie I've ever eaten. Not long after we were back on the road passing the famous glacier lagoon and diamond beach and just a few minutes later we arrived at our third stay of the trip. This was by far our most expensive stay but it's also one of the best hotels in Iceland so considering we'd paid a premium for it we decided to actually make the most of it and spend the rest of the day here slowing down enjoying the hotel and taking in what is some fabulous scenery around us. Okay so we've just checked into our beautiful hotel the glacier lagoon hotel. It is really beautiful and we've got an amazing view of the glacier right in front of us as well as like a fresh alpine lake. I will say one thing though hotels in Europe are wild. Like you're paying premium dollar to stay in a place like this and you jump out of your car hauling suitcases full stop on duty and they're just watching you doing absolutely nothing by the way just watching you. It's absolutely wild there's no sense of hospitality of like looking after the guest in this part of the world it's really crazy. I think I don't think it's just an Iceland problem I think this is a European problem but it's got to change guys it's wild. I will say this when you're paying over 700 dollars a night you would at least expect someone to help you take your bags to the room. Outside there are these gorgeous hot tubs which probably explains the price tag of the hotel as they're overlooking the beautiful glacier ahead and if you're feeling brave you can even jump into the private lake in front of the hotel before warming back up in their own sauna. All things considered it really is a beautiful spot. A nice polar cloud cocktail. Really good. Cheersing to a great day we made our way to dinner at the hotel restaurant which had another incredible view and a great atmosphere. We treated ourselves to the three course menu. I started with the seafood soup while Elliot went for cured mackerel with radishes and looking out from our window seat the hot tubs were getting pretty busy at this point. Okay ladies and gentlemen here we are in Iceland. There's the ice, there's the land and we have some lamb. Now lamb is very famous in Iceland. I've seen many sheeps here. There's my wife she has a steak also with some potatoes. It's a massive portion. We finished everything off with a delicious chocolate mousse and after so much driving and sightseeing it was actually really nice to slow things down for an evening enjoy the hotel properly and have a great dinner together. I won't be complaining because it is a beautiful sunny day but it is freezing. We are at the famous glacier lagoon right now where you can see behind me all the incredible large icebergs in this glacier lagoon. I've never seen an iceberg before so this is really really surreal to see this in the flesh and it is very very cool. Both physically cool. Don't underestimate Icelandic weather it really can feel like four seasons in one day even when the sun is shining it can still be freezing. Bloody hell. Oh it's not fun. This lagoon was formed as the glacier began to retreat leaving behind a deep basin that filled with melt water while huge chunks of ice continued to break away from the glacier and float through the lagoon towards the ocean. This is a black sand beach and it is filled with icebergs everywhere. Once the icebergs reach the shore the waves begin to break them apart leaving pieces of ice scattered across the black sand like diamonds which is how diamond beach got its name. And it's really cool because the little pieces of ice which are broken off you can actually pick up and hold them. Look at this. So they're absolutely everywhere just scattered all along the beach as you can see and you can actually pick up these these bad boys. I mean that's quite a big one it's quite a heavy one. Bloody hell that's heavy and look at that wild. Kids were having so much fun holding these big chunks of ice but honestly I was having just as much fun as them. What are you doing mate? What are you doing mate? As the waves continued pummeling chunks of ice back onto the shore we said goodbye to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach and started the long drive back to Reykjavik. It's around five hours of driving and a lot of people choose to break the journey up with another night somewhere along the south coast but being a little short on time we decided to tackle the whole drive in one day. So we've got a nice sandwich for our way back to the capital. I have to say one thing I love about Iceland is the fact that as you drive there's quite a few different independently owned cafes, restaurants, places that you can stop by and get a nice little snack, some lunch and these are all so good. This is a ham and cheese sandwich also got a brownie and it's delicious. We grabbed a delicious sandwich for the road, passed a few more obscenely large Icelandic monster trucks and broke up the journey with a stop in Vik to see its famous black sand coastline. So we've stopped just a few minutes outside of Vik at a famous spot for spotting puffins. Now when I thought I'd see a puffin I thought perhaps I'll see one flying in the distance but guys we've seen them literally nesting just a few feet away from us. This is one of the most magical things I've ever seen. Puffins are pretty unique birds because for most of the year they live almost entirely out at sea only returning to the cliffs of the north atlantic during the summer months to nest and raise their chicks. I think this was Elliot's dream. Are you excited? I'm so happy. I never imagined we'd see them so close. They're so cute. The puffins are absolutely gorgeous especially with those bright orange beaks and they are actually quite a bit smaller than I imagined. The location itself is breathtaking too even if it wasn't puffin season I'd probably still come up here just for the view. What's really crazy about Iceland is as you're driving you see these glaciers but underneath those glaciers are actually active volcanoes. Some of the most active volcanoes in the entire world. The one that's next to us is called that Within the next 30 years it is estimated to is going to erupt basically. I don't know how people decide where to live here but honestly I wouldn't feel too comfortable with having my house right on this you know the foot of this volcano. Have a look at it. Massive, massive, massive volcano. As we drove back through the otherworldly landscapes of the country even passing a now very sunny Seljalandfoss it felt like Iceland was showing us a completely different side of itself. And by early evening we had finally made it back to Reykjavik. So we've just got to Reykjavik and Elliot has decided to pull out his fishing stuff. Hotels in Iceland are notoriously expensive and anything under 200 a night often comes with a shared bathroom. We managed to find this small but cute hotel with our own bathroom and within that budget. With fishing gear in hand we headed out to grab a bite to eat and explore a little more of Reykjavik. So last few hours in Iceland. It's nice to be here when the sun is out where we can walk and actually experience the city. And I have to say my impression is completely different now with the sun out. It seems like a really nice bustling city and a lot to do. Heading down towards the harbor we stopped at this huge converted warehouse filled with different food stalls. Final meal. We've got lamb soup, a lamb burger and the traditional Icelandic hot dog which I've been wanting to try. Really really delicious. I love the crispy onions on top and the mustard. And I knew we were heading to the harbor for a reason. Elliot does not bring his fishing gear out here for nothing. Before long we were sitting right on the edge of the water fishing alongside a few fellow Middle Easterns. Of course I had to have a go myself. I always do and somehow within no time at all I had a fish on. The fishing here is great and that's a whole other opportunity and video I have got to do at some point. Sitting there afterwards having actually caught something with the midnight sun still lighting up Reykjavik, I found myself thinking back over the last few days. You always arrive in a country with a certain expectation of what it's going to be like and Iceland really really blew me away. The landscapes, the food, the weather changing every five minutes, the glaciers, the waterfalls, even the random moments on the side of the road, it felt like every day showed us something completely different. There's still so much more of this country I want to see and I really hope I get the chance to come back and explore another part of it. But for now thank you so much for watching and make sure you subscribe because the next adventure is coming very soon and I promise you you're not going to want to miss it. Welcome to Cyprus. Thank you so much. Cheers!