Southern Iceland itinerary add-ons!
 

Hi! My husband and I are going to Iceland the last week of August next year and we are finding ourselves with an empty day and a half in our itinerary and would love some advice on what to do! Here is what we have:

Day 1: ( We will have landed very late the night before) Reykjavik
Day 2: Golden Circle tour with snorkelling, evening in Reykjavik
Day 3: Pick up car, see Seljalandsfoss waterfall, Skogafoss waterfall, hike out to abandoned plane, Dyrholaey, and end in Vik ( or surrounding areas - any suggestions for where to stay?)
Day 4: Solheimajokull glacier walk and Secret Lagoon, afternoon in Vik
Day 5: Jokulsarlon, Fjadrargljufur Canyon, Black sand beaches, Seljavallalaug hot springs
Day 6: ?
Day 7: ? Our flight out of Reykjavik is at 5pm

Related question - are we packing too much into some days? Not enough? Is there another day and a half we can do based out of the Vik area, or should we keep going east and stay in like Hofn for a night? Or maybe head somewhere else entirely and spend a night or two? Thanks so much! We want to start booking accommodation ( AirBnb preferably) fairly soon since it looks like things book up in the more remote places!

You may want to check out my trip report from November 2015. Although slightly dated (and a different season), we visited many of the places you're planning. Our glacier trek was in Skaftafell National Park and was fabulous.

And yes, I think you're trying to pack too much in days 3, 4, and 5. On day 4, for example, you can probably do the glacier walk and Secret Lagoon, but that won't leave much of the "afternoon" for Vik. We didn't think there was a lot to see in the town, anyway, though, so maybe that's ok, but don't underestimate the distance between places and the amount of time you may want to spend.

See some details here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-november.cfm

Thank you, althom1122! We are looking into adding a night in Reykjavik at the beginning of our trip for a long self-drive day trip to the Snaefellsnes Pennisula, and then using our extra day on the south coast to slow down a bit and also leave some wiggle room for bad weather!

I would actually not worry about your itinerary length. We just returned in September and did a 10 day trip covering much of the area you mentioned. However, I would probably avoid heading to Snaefellsnes Pennisula and have some wiggle room. And again, bad weather could change your plans. One of the highlights of our trip was staying at the Hali Country Hotel and doing the glacier walk/climbing trip with Glacier Adventure. You might want to swap that out for your glacier trip. We saw some of the other glacier walks and they had big crowds that didn't look inviting. We had one other group of 8 on the glacier and our guide was so helpful and interesting (Hawk?). If you are active, I would highly recommend this trip which is booked on the Hali Hotel site. Their restaurant was also very good for dinner and breakfast. We did the Fjallsarlon glacier tour instead of the Jokulsarlon tour because we hadn't booked in advance. It was so nice and peaceful compared to Jokulsarlon and from there you can drive to look at the Jokulsarlon lagoon (very close) without booking a tour. Hope this helps....you might also want time in Reykavik as it was a nice city to visit and easy to walk everywhere.

You might want to spread some of your activities out, maybe day 3 should be 3 & 4 or day 5 should be 5 & 6. You are trying to do a lot in each day and driving distance is longer than anticipated. I wouldn't go to Hofn or go beyond Hali...not much to see (we tried to find a brewery) and the distances are longer than you anticipate. And if you like to hike, Skogafoss Waterfall has quite a number of waterfalls and hiking not seen from the road. We probably spent 2 hours on our trek. Hotel Skogafoss was a nice hotel for a stop in this area and we also did Icelandair Hotel in Vik but pricey for what it was. We like to travel quickly, but we also didn't want to spend most days in the car as it is vacation!