Discover Iceland’s Captivating North Tour: Whale Watching, Quaint Villages & More

Your flight will land at Keflavik International Airport, and your private transfer will await your arrival. Outside of the airport, you will find grassy plains in the summer as the Atlantic Ocean laps at the shoreline. The country has a charming and relaxed atmosphere that you will immediately sense. Your driver will make your way to the heart of Reykjavik, Iceland’s largest city, and also the country’s capital. Colorful buildings will welcome you along the streets as people stroll down the main avenues of Old Reykjavik and the Old Harbor. Common eider and mallards swim on Tjornin Lake as the water divides the city in half, adding a suburban feel to the city-center with flourishing trees and vibrant cafes.

You will settle into your hotel before meeting your guide in the lobby for a private tour of the city’s history and culture. You will first notice the towering figure of a church spire as the entire edifice stands on a hill that overlooks the city. The Hallgrimskirkja is made of white concrete and makes the structure shine with opulence. The tower reaches a height of 244 feet above the streets and provides a remarkable panorama of the city. A statue of Leif Eriksson, the famous Viking explorer, adorns the stairs as the United States gifted the bronze statue to Iceland on the 1,000th year anniversary of the country’s founding in 1932.

People carry a friendly and welcoming air about them on the streets of the city as the aroma of freshly grilled sausages emanates from the many stands found around the city. You will continue to the Saga Museum, which is housed in a former warehouse at the harbor’s western edge where wax models depict the characters on reconstructed farms to bring the Icelandic medieval period to life. The tails of Iceland’s history are told with lifelike characters, including using synthetic aromas to recreate the scent of burning firewood and roasting meat.

In the morning, the city will fill with the aroma of roasting coffee. In the 1950s, the first coffeehouse in the country opened and soon filled with artists, students, and philosophers eager to share their ideas with one another. It remains a popular morning destination for locals, filled with the scent of roasted coffee beans and freshly baked waffles. Your guide will meet you at your hotel eager to lead you along one of the most celebrated roads in Iceland, known as the Golden Circle.

The route will lead you first to Thingvellir National Park where the tectonic plates have a physical manifestation in the park where you can see the North American and Eurasian continents pulling away from each other with dramatic fissures in the plain. Iceland’s largest lake, Thingvallavatn, covers 32 square miles and overtakes a significant portion of the rift plain. The pure glacial water from Langjokull filters through the bedrock and joins the Vellankatla hot spring. Arctic char swim in the deep water, and the fish have spent millennia isolated from other fish and have evolved into four subspecies. Harlequin ducks and great northern divers stop at the lake during migration to rest in the water and feed on the fish. At Silfra, a water system fills a rift between the tectonic plates, and you can find unimaginably pure blue water.

You can snorkel in the water, which looks more like the Caribbean Sea than a lagoon in Iceland. Snorkeling allows you to view the 75-foot depth of the large crack, making it feel as though you are soaring above submerged boulders. Follow the trails through the park to find Thingvalla Kirkja, one of Iceland’s first churches, consecrated in the 11th century. Although the foundation dates back to the 1200s, the current wooden structure was erected in the 19th century. The interior exhibits bells from earlier churches, along with an altarpiece from the 1830s. The power of Mother Nature meets the adaptive spirit of Icelandic heritage at Thingvellir National Park, and you will enjoy an immersion in it all.

In the morning, the mallards dip their heads into Thjorn Lake in search of breakfast. The white concrete of Hallgrimskirkja glints in the sunlight as your private transfer will meet you in the hotel lobby and escort you to the Reykjavik City Airport for your flight to Akureyri, known as the capital of the north. Akureyri is Iceland’s second largest city with a population of approximately 18,000 people. The city center, harbor, and commercial district of Kaupvangsstraeti are in the northern section of the city with the suburban areas that encompass the museums, and botanical gardens stand in the south.

As the plain descends into the city, you can see the small forest of Kjarnaskogur, a wooded area filled with trails and streams. Your private transfer will escort you from the airport to your hotel to settle into the culture of the northern city. The remainder of the day will be yours to enjoy the Akureyri and the region of its surroundings as you desire. The dominant church of Akureyrarkirkja stands on a hill overlooking the streets and shoreline. The structure was built in the 1940s and features a 3,200-pipe organ. You can also take the time to visit Grimsey Island, a land mass home to 100 people and countless sea birds.

Fishers reside on the island with their families and brave the storms as the waves can reach nearly 50 feet tall. The island stands in solitude, surrounded by the Arctic Ocean as a chorus of seabirds twitters and calls at all hours of the summer day. The birds reside in the high cliffs that surround the entire island ad the village on the island has an airport, small school, shop, and contemporary harbor. Once you arrive on the island, you will feel that you are visiting a place unlike anywhere else in the world.

Wake the next morning to leave the city life behind at Akureyri and make your way to Myvatn. The landscape encompasses the diversity of Iceland’s natural formations that have been shaped by geothermal activity and volcanic eruptions over thousands of years. You will first visit Skutustadir, the pseudo craters. Lava flows pushed over the wet ground and shaped the phenomena as steam trapped under the weight of the lava caused immense pressure. When the pressure became too much, the steam erupted from beneath the hardening lava to shape the depressions. Lush grass rises to the top and even inside the caldera, but the rim maintains a charred color.

You can walk on the rim of the pseudo crater and look inside. From the top, you can see the peaceful waters of Lake Myvatn. Textured, craggy pillars rise from out of the clear water while the columns maintain their shape and color from their origins as cooled, solidified magma. Continue to the Dimmuborgir lava field to see the where legends are made. Huge lava rocks create a fairytale setting that local stories say house elves and trolls. The rocks are brittle but tall and maintain distinctive shapes across the valley. The colored paths lead you around the lava field that takes you past the monstrous pillars and creates a formation that resembles a church, with open walls and a dome-shaped roof.

Today you can recapture the wonders of Myvatn at your leisure to take in the beauty of the region and its mystique at your preferred pace. You could start your day at the simmering fumaroles at Mount Namafjall. The scenery resembles Mars as it glows red and barren in the sunlight. Inside, the fumaroles water boils over and spills into the small pools as the heat, silt, and gasses combine to make the water resemble melted clay. Nearby, you will find Mount Krafla, a caldera of six miles in diameter. The peak reaches 2,683 feet above sea level and contains two distinct craters as a teal lake sits at the bottom Viti Maar, one of the two craters. The water contrasts with the Martian red soil.

If you prefer a calmer day spent exploring the region you can head to the town of Husavik, often referred to as the “Whale Watching Capital of the World.” Colorful homes line the harbor, and the streets as snow-capped mountains roll along the horizon and frame the town. The charm of the village welcomes you immediately as you board a boat and set sail along the Skjalfandi Bay as the sea breeze carries the fresh and salty aroma of the water.

The boat lifts and falls with the view of the mountains as compelling as the open sea. The beaches rise into small cliffs as seals swim near the coastline in search of fish. Dolphins arch in the wake of the boat, and your captain will point to humpback whale as it lifts its fin out of the water as if waving. Another from the pod may gently rise above the surface and splashes down. The whale will come close the boat and tip its fluke out of the water. You can see the detail of the tail, which reveals a distinct design similar to a fingerprint.

In the morning, the sunlight will spread across the top of the Akureyjarkirkja Church. A suspended ship hangs from the ceiling and harkens back to an old Nordic tradition of protecting loved ones at sea, converging culture and monotheistic religion. Your private transfer will meet you at the hotel and escort you to Akureyri International Airport. Your short flight will bring you back to Keflavik International Airport, and you will make your way to the shores of the Blue Lagoon Spa. The facilities will welcome you with a pristine entryway and changing room.

You can rinse in the shower before entering onto the patio as the steam drifts slowly across the water’s surface. The milky blue hues of the lagoon glow against the rocky bordering hills and you will follow the wooden walkway into the water. The refreshing heat reaches a peak of 102 degrees Fahrenheit as the geothermal qualities of the region provide the mud with abundant minerals. Boxes around the sides of the lagoon allow you to reach in and lather your face with the nutrients.

The mud dries over your cheeks and forehead, and you can sit on a bench in the water to sip a cold drink from the bar or relax in a secluded cave that shares the history of the lagoon. After five minutes, you can wash the mud from your face and feel the new softness of your skin. After your soak, you can rinse off in the water and make your way back to Reykjavik where you will have the remainder of the day to enjoy the fabulous city.

Iceland has an undeniable allure that will make you want to stay, explore, and continuously discover what makes the people so friendly and the landscape so captivating. In the morning, you will find the familiar aroma of coffee emanating from the coffee shops around the city as Reykjavik City Hall looks as though it stands half in and half out of Tjornin Lake. The lobby features a gigantic handmade three-dimensional map of the country, and after studying it, you can sit near the window to notice how the waterline of the lake rises above the ground. It will feel like you are in an aquarium. A swan flutters past the window. Your private transfer will meet you in your hotel lobby when you are ready, and you can make your way once more to Keflavik International Airport with plenty of time to check-in for your flight home.