Our First Stop: Iceland
Why there? Isn’t it cold? What the heck can you do in 24 hour layover in Iceland?
Great questions. I’m going to answer them in the text, but I wanted to provide a little background for those of you who just got here. My husband and I took our first international trip with our toddler + we made three stops:
Reykjavik, Iceland
Amsterdam, Netherlands
You can see what we packed for our trip here. I’ll add more links once the posts are written so that you can navigate from place to place with us.
I mean, why not Iceland?
Reykjavík. A city’s name that when I say it aloud it sounds like the biggest tongue twister ever. Shit’s difficult to say! Describing the city would be even more of a challenge, but hopefully I can let you all in on how the city treated us. After all, we are only here for ONE DAY!
I know what you’re thinking: why the heck didn’t y’all fly straight to your next destination? WASTED TIME! BOOOOO! *throws tomatoes*
I’ll grab your tomatoes (because I love tomatoes) and ask you to consider this: when will you EVER fly to Iceland to visit — really? Why not seize the opportunity? I’m not really asking you this, but these are questions we considered when booking the flight. What’s great is that IcelandAir gives you an option to stay up to five days at no additional charge. Certainly we could find something to do during our Stopover (as they call it) within the 24 hour time frame, right?
What day is it, again?
We landed in Keflavík International Airport at 6 AM which, in Denver time, would be 11 PM the previous day.
Ask me if I slept on the flight — ask me! Because the answer is not a damn lick. I was too busy being grown watching movies I’ve never seen and living my best life with my husband (he was doing the same). I also felt like I needed to stay awake so that I could switch my sleeping pattern to align with my new surroundings.
So what are we gonna do for 24 hours in the a city you’ve never been to and you haven’t gotten proper rest? Not to mention we have a toddler who needed to catch up on some ZzZzs to keep from turning into a life-size T-Rex. We decided to sleep/relax in the airport for a few hours, at least until the sun came up and stores would be open — around 10:30 AM (yes, the sun rises THAT LATE).
Scout, upon leaving the plane, was sleeping until she woke up from the hustle and bustle of the airport. Unable to go back to sleep, she spent her awake time in the play area for kids. She waved at the planes and freely ran around, singing songs and laughing. I, on the other hand, was guarding the luggage and stuffing my face with snacks we packed for the flight. Starving was not the word, ya’ll. We needed some food asap!
We finagled some “real” food from the shops by printing our boarding passes early (they will only allow departing passengers to purchase food), washed up in the family bathroom, and caught a ride on the FlyBus. The FlyBus is a bus that transport individuals from the Kefavik Airport to Reykjavik. If you asked me what turns we took, I’d give you the blankest stare ever. WE SLEPT THE WHOLE WAY, Y’ALL. Best 45 minute nap of my life. Scout was so tired she slept until it we decided to head back to the terminal at 4:30 PM.
Exploring Reykajvik while on a budget
So let’s be real clear here: I’m not in the ministry of spending unnecessary money. I knew whatever fun we had planned for the day, it was going to be for the low-low. Plus, something I admire about our unit is we are touristy yet love to do local things and we have this incredible way of finding how to balance the two.
The FlyBus took us to BSI Travel Center. There, we checked our luggage into a locker. No stroller? No car seat? Not a problem! Armed with the $15 USD (2000 ISK) for public transportation we began exploring with only a baby carrier.
Our first stop was the vegan restaurant Glo. Mark and I shared a Thai Noodle Bowl (absolutely delicious might I add) and chatted it up while we enjoyed the warmth of the indoors. Did I mention it’s was 37 degrees there and that the wind was blowing at 60 knots (70 mph)? K. Yea.
After that, we decided to roam the streets. Wherever the streets took us, that’s where we landed.
We heard the church bells ring at Hallgrímskirkja.
We popped our bodies inside of Harpa to warm up.
Eventually we got back on the bus only to explore the beyond. We found Kringlan Mall that housed a store called Hagkaup where we bought a few groceries for our extended stay in the terminal. Yes, we consciously decided to live like Tom Hanks in the Terminal until our early 7 AM flight took off to our next destination.
This portion of the trip could have looked differently for sure. Originally we had an AirBnB set but decided that it would be much more hassle (and more expensive) to rest there for all of what — 7 hours? We don’t have a car seat so we’re only using public transportation and had to vibe with the flow of the bus. Additionally, it would have cut it way too close to departure time if we did that and being that we’ve never traveled here before we weren’t trying to get stuck.
Spending the Night in the Airport
Once we got back to the airport, we had a family dinner at an airport restaurant until pretty much everything closed. That’s when the whole airport got completely silent; deafening quiet, though. It was us and another passenger there (she also had a stopover) and seemingly no one else. Occasionally, a plane would land and the terminal would be flooded with international travelers, but they were few and far between.
Because our bodies hadn’t really adjusted to the time yet, we were… up. And then when we finally needed to sleep, Scout was (you guessed it) up. Eventually, Mark and I devised a plan to take turns sleeping for at least an hour uninterrupted. For what it’s worth, it worked and eventually it was time to board our flight for Paris. We washed up in the family bathroom once again, boarded, and went on our way!
I am aware this type of travel life isn’t for everyone. We aren’t like everyone and we tend to do things a little on the edge. We try to make the most of the moments and sometimes that means sacrificing a little on the back end to get what you want on the front end.
Would I do another 24 hour layover in Iceland?
Hell — why not? We’ve done the worst of the worst, right? I wouldn’t plan another winter trip there, that’s for sure although Denver is seemingly colder than what Iceland was at that time. Nevertheless, a spring or summer trip would be divine and with more time we’d be down to explore Iceland on another level! We’d like to check out the Blue Lagoon and the Northern Lights.
Would you travel to Iceland? If so, what would you want to see?
If you haven’t had a chance to see what we packed for our trip, head on over to that post.
