Iceland: Plan the Trip from The Episode of Travel Man
- X
Travel With Travel Man to Iceland
Focus on Northern Iceland for this trip. After a few days in Reykjavik and an excursion to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, take an internal flight to Akureyri in the north. Enjoy the pleasant atmosphere of the country's 2nd largest village, listen to the whales singing and photograph the Godafoss Falls. Stroll along the banks of the Myvatn River and relax in the hot springs.
Richard Ayoade and Jessica Hynes had 48 hours in Iceland, which meant something had to give. They skipped the bus and chartered a helicopter over the Golden Circle, ate fermented shark because the itinerary said so, and stood outside in the dark hoping the sky would do something dramatic. Ayoade summed up the whole trip as a mix of incredible scenery, terrible food, and complete nonsense, which is a fairly accurate description of Iceland in general.
The good news is you don't have to compress it into a weekend. JournyGo trips run 7 to 10 days, long enough to actually drive the Golden Circle, sit through the bad parts of the Northern Lights search until they're good, and eat the shark on your own terms rather than because the cameras are rolling.
Gullfoss in summer, both tiers visible with a rainbow forming at the top of the falls.
See the Golden Circle properly
Strokkur geyser erupts every few minutes, which is good, because watching it once is not enough. Gullfoss drops in two stages into a canyon that looks like it was built specifically to be photographed. Ayoade and Hynes saw both from a helicopter in under an hour. You can do the same route on the ground at a fraction of the cost, with time to actually stand at the overlook instead of circling it once from above.
The third stop on the Golden Circle is Thingvellir National Park, where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs straight through the landscape and you can see the rift valley where two tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the location of Iceland's original parliament, founded in 930, which makes it one of the rare places where the geology and the history are pointing at the same thing.
The rift valley at Thingvellir, where hikers can walk the same ground where two tectonic plates are pulling apart.
Skip the shark, keep the rest of the food
Hákarl is fermented Greenland shark, and the show's reaction to it (somewhere between confusion and regret) is the standard one. Most people try it once for the story and never again. Icelandic food is otherwise built around what the country actually has a lot of: lamb, fish straight off the boat, skyr that bears almost no resemblance to the supermarket version. Reykjavik's restaurant scene has gotten serious about this in the last decade, particularly around seafood, without losing the unfussy quality that makes Icelandic cooking what it is.
Give the Northern Lights more than one night
Ayoade and Hynes ended up relying on a long-exposure photograph to actually see the lights, which says less about the aurora and more about how little time they had to wait for clear skies. The lights need darkness, low cloud cover, and patience, none of which fit neatly into a 48-hour schedule. A longer trip means more chances at clear nights away from Reykjavik's light pollution, which is really the only variable that matters.
Learn what the hidden people are about
Elf School in Reykjavik sounds like a punchline until you sit through it. Icelandic folklore around the huldufólk, the hidden people, isn't a tourist gimmick layered on top of the culture. It's old, it's taken seriously by a meaningful number of Icelanders, and it's shaped where roads get built and where they don't. The class covers the different types of hidden folk and the etiquette around them, and it's a genuinely good way to understand a part of Icelandic identity that doesn't show up in a guidebook.
Add whale watching and the Blue Lagoon
The dolphins Ayoade and Hynes spotted on their short trip out of Reykjavik harbor are part of a coastline that also sees humpback and minke whales depending on the season, and a full-length excursion gives you a real shot at seeing more than a quick flash of fin. End the trip the way the episode does: at the Blue Lagoon, the geothermal spa that turns "I have been outside in Icelandic weather for a week" into something a hot mineral pool can actually fix.
Plan your own Iceland trip
Richard Ayoade and Jessica Hynes had a weekend. You can have a week, or closer to ten days, built around the Golden Circle, the aurora, Reykjavik's food scene, and the hidden people Iceland takes more seriously than you'd expect. Click below to customize your itinerary.
Travel With Travel Man to Iceland
Focus on Northern Iceland for this trip. After a few days in Reykjavik and an excursion to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, take an internal flight to Akureyri in the north. Enjoy the pleasant atmosphere of the country's 2nd largest village, listen to the whales singing and photograph the Godafoss Falls. Stroll along the banks of the Myvatn River and relax in the hot springs.
- X
