About a month ago my husband and I took a weeklong trip to Iceland, and we had an amazing time! Neither of us had ever been to Iceland before, but it was my husband’s turn to pick our destination. And he wanted to go to Iceland. So we spent a week there to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and we loved it! So I thought I’d share our itinerary. Initially I wanted to drive the entire ring road ( the road that circles the whole island),but after some research I decided that we really didn’t have enough time. Based on some other sites I found it is possible to drive the whole ring road in a week, but it looked like that would mean long days in the car, and we would have to relocate every night. After our trip to New Zealand earlier in the year (lots of long days in the car) we both liked the idea of staying in the same place for a couple of nights and taking day trips out to explore, so thats what we did. Our trip focused mainly on Western and Southern Iceland- so if you’re looking to do the whole ring road this isn’t the itinerary for you. But there are heaps of ring road intineraries out there on the web!

We did go in late September, and autumn was in full swing. We left 95 degree F weather in Tennessee and arrived in Iceland to temperatures in the 50’s- such a welcome change! We personally enjoy cooler temps, especially my husband, so this was perfect for us. The days were growing shorter while we were there, but there was still about 12 hours of daylight so we had plenty of time to explore, but enough darkness that we had a chance of seeing the aurora borealis. Below is the itinerary and some of the things we did at each destination.

Iceland in September is a pretty introvert-friendly destination, as far as I’m concerned. For one, it’s shoulder season. While you won’t have any of the popular destinations to yourself, you won’t be contending with large crowds either (except maybe at the Blue Lagoon). And outside of bigger towns like Reykjavík it’s seems to be pretty sparsley populated, mostly small towns often separated by wide expanses of gorgeous, lonely, otherworldly landscapes often dotted with waterfalls and fluffy horses. Basically a dream come true.  Without exception everyone we met was kind, and pretty much every Icelander we met spoke great English. We had awesome hosts who were wonderful to converse with, but also respected our privacy. While I can’t speak for any other time of year, I think the shoulder season was an excellent time to go- fewer crowds, no snow yet, and a decent chance to see the Northern Lights. That’s a winning combination in my book.