Our trip to Reykjavik was quite upsetting and left us wishing to just get off the massive island as soon as possible. We arrived at 4am and couldn’t check into our hostel until 3pm, luckily we were able to at least drop our bags off at the hostel. To our dismay the 25 minute taxi ride from the Keflavik airport to our hostel was a total of $150 and included a very rude and transphobic driver. In Reykjavik during our stay the sun rose around 3:30am and set around 11pm, never actually getting fully dark. Originally our plan was to drop our bags at the hostel and immediately go out hiking, but the weather decided to ruin those plans. It would incredibly cold (around 35F) with high winds and rain. Disgruntled we try turning around and heading back to sit in the lobby of the hostel, only for it to become sunny 10 minutes later, so we try heading back out, only for it to start raining again five minutes later. So we pop into a cafe for about an hour, the rain stops, we head back our toward our desired hiking destination, and you guessed it, it started raining again. In the end we just continued on our way and it turned sunny and only light rain for the majority of the hike. We spent $20 on a Little Ceasers type pizza, walked back to the hostel and spent the rest of the night napping, eating, watching Netflix, and getting to know our hostel bunk mates.
The second day was our only full day in Reykjavik, it was freezing cold and rainy again. Our original plan was to find a natural hot spring to swim in, this turned into a disaster of getting very lost on an expensive terrible bus system which led us to a beach that surprisingly had a free outdoor hot tub. Before getting there went into downtown to a cute hipster cafe and paid too much money for a Skyrkaka (a small cheesecake type thing), spent $20 each at a fish and chip cart for one piece of delicious fish and small crunchy fries. We ended the night at sunny 10pm going to a few local expensive bars.
Trying to get to the airport our last day was another nightmare. We waited at a freezing cold rainy bus stop for two hours for a $30 bus. At this point all we wanted to do was leave as quickly as possible.
We were upset about the weather and frustrated with the cost of everything. Two days in Reykjavik I spent such a large sum of money I’m considered for the rest of the trip. And there are not really any cheap alternatives to anything there.
The only thing I can recommend if you really really are dying to go there, 100% rent a car, we immensely regret not doing that. If you don’t have a car and cannot leave the city, you will be miserable. Reykjavik itself is a one day trip, spend the rest driving through the beautiful countryside. Also if you insist on going there, have a very large budget, you will be surprised how quickly it will deplete there. The only good thing about Reykjavik is the view of the beautiful mountains and how LGBTQ+ friendly the city is. But in general, I can not recommend Iceland, I hope I never have to go again, and I regret ever stepping foot on the Island.
Allison's Adventures 