Report: Two weeks in August, with kids
This sub was so useful when planning our trip, so I wanted to give back a little. We just returned from two weeks in Iceland, with two adults and two kids, coordinated with some other family members who were also going. My big goal was to travel light and to stay busy but NOT over-extend ourselves. This means that we missed out on some "big" attractions, but I have no regrets.
This is a long post, so if you don't really care, the TLDR is: merino wool is amazing; some of the best memories are from the impromptu or unplanned side-tracks, so don't plan too tight of a schedule; give yourself more time in the West than you'd think.
Packing and preparation
We traveled out with four under-seat bags and two overheads, and returned with four under-seats and three overheads (mainly for convenience-- we could have crammed it into two if we'd had to.) I completely hyperfixated on the Icelandair bag sizes and spent way too much time obsessing over our luggage. I ended up buying kids' backpacks from Mountain Warehouse that were almost precisely the right size for underseat, and I actually made our main overhead bag-- IKEA sells a zip-up clothing storage box that's very close to the overhead size, and I sewed a glorified tote bag to hold it (and take advantage of the extra centimeters). This was obviously overkill, but also very satisfying.
I started shifting my sleep schedule about two weeks in advance, because jet lag is terrible for me. On departure day I woke up at 4:45am for an 8pm flight. I think this was VERY helpful. I got an e-sim that included texts and calls because I was worried about a potential emergency scenario, especially with kids. I used the texts and data (about 2.7GB out of 10), but I never had to make a call.
My pack list:
3 bottoms (Carhartts, light hiking pants, long skirt) + wool leggings + PJ pants
3 long-sleeves (2 cotton, 1 silk thermal)
3 short-sleeves (cotton)
2 sleeveless (one stretchy, one "nice" shell)
3 sweaters (synthetic pullover, merino cardigan, oversize button-down)
sun hat, thin gloves, big thin scarf, sunglasses, mix of wool and cotton socks
Kizik hiking boots + backup shoes
nylon rain jacket
This was very close to perfect. I could have removed one cotton short and long sleeve each, but I wanted to be prepared for limited laundry. I never wore my spare shoes. To my surprise, I wore the sleeveless shell a lot-- on a clear day the sun is quite warm, even if the temperature is only 60F. The wool leggings and cardigan were the absolute heroes of the trip, and if I were going again I'd buy thin wool gloves and hat as well. The people wearing rubbery-style raincoats seemed a little drier than I was.
I wished I'd brought a phone tether (or a camera with a tether), and I wished I'd done more to prepare for the language-- even just learning how to properly pronounce the places we were going to.
Itinerary
Tuesday 4 - land at 6:30, eat, drive to the Reykjavik area to hang out at the playground in Heidmork and walk around Raudholar, get groceries, check into lodging, nap. This was planned as a very chill day and we needed that.
Wednesday 5 - Reykjadalur hot river hike, about an hour's drive away. This was planned as a chill half-day but it realistically took us all day. Between jet lag and the fact that one of our kids is less outdoorsy, it took about 90 minutes to hike up, 30-40 minutes soak, and an hour to hike back down. Then dinner at the food court in Hveragerdi, featuring the best fish and chips of my life. Really great second-day activity. It was a bit of a stretch in terms of stamina, but the trail is wide, safe, and well-populated, and the soak was a real treat.
Thursday 6 - Golden Circle day, including tickets for Silfra snorkeling. The weather was very dreary and we cut it short. I heard snorkeling was awesome. I was doing Thingvellir with the kids, and if I did it again, I'd make sure I could join the free guided tour with the park rangers; from what I overheard it was VERY interesting. On our way home from Thingvellir we parked at a random pull-off near a beautiful view, and ended up on an absolutely stunning little trail.
Friday 7 - Left early in the morning, hit the LAVA Centre (absolutely incredible, top-tier educational museum) on the way to the Westman Islands ferry, then got a tour with EyjaTours. Ebbi was great but definitely had a "guy's guy" vibe-- I probably would have enjoyed it more if I'd known to expect that. The puffins were amazingly close to us. Dinner at Gott was very good.
Saturday 8 - Impromptu hike to a historically important bathtub (Gudlaugssund), and up the side of Helgafell. Most of the path to the bathtub was along a road shoulder, which I didn't love, but the mountain trail was lovely. Quick trip to the Eldheimar museum about the 1973 eruption, then back onto the ferry. We had about an extra hour so we walked behind the waterfall at Seljalandsfoss, but I didn't realize it was so close to Glufrabui, the narrow cave with a "secret" waterfall at the end. Because it was a Saturday, there was a line to go in and we didn't have time, but we enjoyed all the smaller caves and waterfalls in between. Then we had to get going for our tour with the Caves at Hella, a walk-through of caves that were inhabited since before Viking settlement, which was VERY cool. Then back to Reykjavik.
Sunday 9 - Plan was to sleep in and then activate 72-hour City Cards in the afternoon, so they would be valid through the morning of eclipse day. But it was gorgeous weather and we got convinced to do the Golden Circle again. It was fine. I think I'm not a waterfall person.
Monday 10 - Activated 48-hour City Cards at the Arbaer Open-Air museum, which I thought was good but not amazing. Reconstructed historical houses aren't really my thing. The playground was very popular with the younger set. Then we hit the Settlement Exhibition, which has an excavated Viking long-house on display in situ. Cool, but probably more engaging when you don't have extremely tired kids with you.
Tuesday 11 - I took the bus to downtown on my own and hit two art museums: the House of Collections and the Hafnarhus location of the Reykjavik art museum (their contemporary art location). Both were outstanding. Based on what others did, I wish I'd also gone to the Kjarvalsstadir location (modern painting, focused on Kjarval) and the National Museum for those sweet sweet artifacts. Partner and kids were chilling and enjoying the amazing playgrounds and pools.
Wednesday 12 - We used our last few hours of the City Card to go to the Reykjavik Park and Zoo, to burn off some kid energy. The animals were less compelling than the carnival rides. The City Card was VERY worth it, especially for a museum lover, but I think 48 hours was plenty. We had a very overcast view of the eclipse from near the Grotta lighthouse in Reykjavik, but it was still extremely magical.
Thursday 13 - Silver Circle day! We had tours booked with Into the Glacier (good, but not a standout memory for me, wool socks REALLY came in handy because I stepped in a deep glacial puddle), and then the lava cave at Vidgelmir (incredible, amazing, definitely one of the coolest things we did). Apparently I like caves. We were able to squeeze in a trip to Snorri Sturluson's personal hot tub in the morning, and after Vidgelmir we made an impromptu stop at Surtsuhellir, a very long lava cave that is open to explore (at your own risk). Even though we didn't go that far in, this was definitely a stretch for our kids in terms of responsibility, but it was one of the most rewarding things we did. Then another impromptu stop at the Settlement Museum in Borgarnes, sadly not enough time to see the whole thing. We opted for the walkthrough of Egilssaga, which was exactly freaky and gross enough for the kids to love it. If I were to do this trip again, I'd maybe treat Husafell (near Vidgelmir) as a home base for a couple of days and do day trips to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and possibly even the Westfjords.
Friday 14 - recovery and family hang-out day; my partner took some solo time in the city.
Saturday 15 - more recovery and family, plus doing some weekend-only activities in the city-- the flea market (only OK, but an antiques hound without kids might enjoy it more) and the mini gallery of the Icelandic Printmakers Association (very cool contemporary art).
Sunday 16 - Our flight out was at 5pm. We had originally planned to see the Seltun Geothermal area on the Reykjanes peninsula, but that ultimately felt like a full-day outing, not a "be at the airport at 2pm" outing, so we checked out some lighthouses and called it a day.
Managing kids
So many car picnics. So much deli ham and PB&Js. Bribery with chocolate chips. I think the best thing we did was plan a light schedule. One kid is pretty outdoorsy but the other is less so, and both of them were pretty tired and overwhelmed a lot of the time. I had gone out of my way to plan events around their interests, some of which ended up being some of my favorite experiences. And I think they grew a lot over the two weeks. Still, I'm glad we didn't take them at a younger age-- I think that under ~7 there's a lot more limitations to what you can ask of kids. But through the power of setting clear expectations, having deli ham in the car, and chocolate-chip bribery, everyone maintained a good attitude 90% of the time. I'm really grateful that they were old enough to remember it, too.
In conclusion
My top experiences were probably the Reykjadalur river hike, the LAVA Centre, the Caves at Hella tour, the Vidgelmir tour, the Reykjavik museums, and especially all the random impromptu trails (and caves) we wandered into. Most businesses and tours run from about 10am-5pm, which made scheduling weirdly tricky, but we ended up doing a lot of chill hikes in the mornings and evenings.
I'm really glad I planned a super easy couple of days at the beginning for jet lag, and it really helped to alternate more scheduled days and then more chill days. I think this trip inspired a greater love for hiking in all of us, and if we go again, we'll probably plan for more challenging or serious hikes. We skipped a lot of "classic" experiences, especially on the South coast, but the flipside is that this trip was extremely realistic about what we could happily handle. And that was really worth it for us.