Iceland: Thermal Heated Pools, Ice Cold Craft Beer and Sky High Prices!

In the summer of 2016, we had the opportunity to plan a trip to Iceland. As research into the costs started to become clear, it was decided to jam as much ‘fun’ into two nights in the country.

As an example, we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Reykjavik. Our room and two additional guest rooms SHARED one bathroom and the coast was more than staying on the club/executive floor of the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur! Plus, the cost of dining out was expensive too. So expensive in fact that we had one too many meals at a hot dog kiosk. Besides, the money saved there needed to be spent at the different microbrewery pubs in town! 😉

The bus transportation from the airport makes a stop at the Blue Lagoon. You are able to de-bus, put your luggage in lockers and spend as long as you like floating around in the outdoor thermal pool. The price of admission also comes with a free drink at one of the swim-up bars.

Once you’ve finished at the Blue Lagoon, you can continue your journey into town on the next available bus. As aside note, some people make the stop on their way to the airport from town. Either way, it is a great time saver to experience the attraction this way.

We happened to arrive on the day the national soccer/football team was being honoured for beating the England team 2-1 in the 2016 Euro Cup. It seemed like the entire country attended!

We even took a moment to pose with the team 😉

We also went on the ‘Golden Circle Tour’ which took us across some fairly imposing landscape which has played backdrop to the TV programs Game of Thrones as well as Vikings.

Along the tour, we stopped at the Geysir Geothermal Area.

Then it was on towards the breathtaking Gullfoss Waterfall.

While in town, the evenings were spent walking from craft brewpub to craft brewpub. A funny sad fact, in Iceland, beer only became legal in 1989! It is a good thing they have made up for the time with a number of fun places to enjoy a craft beer.

We went to a very small pub called the Micro Bar for happy hour where beers started at 4USD

We also stopped at Mikkeller and Friends.

Kaldi also had a great pub location that served its beer at happy hour prices (5USD) from 4PM-7PM.

Skúli Craft Bar had a number of great craft beer on tap. However, they did have wine too, if one was getting ‘beered-out’.

We saved the largest microbrewery pub for last which was Bryggjan Brugghús. There beer was made on site in a beautiful building close to the waterfront.