Iceland - Day Two
Skool Beans Bus Cafe - Scenic Green Lava Walk - Fjadrargljufur Canyon - Fossálar Waterfall - Jökulsárlón Lagoon - Vestrahorn
Skool Beans Bus Cafe
Skool Beans is a delightful, offbeat cafe located in Vik. Made out of an old school bus, it’s tiny and only seats a handful of people, but it’s worth the wait. Officially named, “Skool Beans micro roaster… and sometimes a cat!” in honor of Jeffrey, the resident feline who almost never makes and appearance, the staff are engaging, quirky, and a ton of fun - and the coffee is great too.
You can find Skool Beans on the map here
Parking and Restrooms: Very small, crowded parking lot and may need to wait for a spot inside - but it’s worth it.
Time spent: About 30 min to grab a seat, check things out, order, and eat.
Scenic Green Lava Walk
One of the important things to remember on any trip is to leave time and openness to explore, unplanned. If you see something cool on the side of the road - check it out! The Scenic Green Lava walk is a quick roadside stop that’s worth a look. It ended up being our only opportunity to experience the moss covered rocks that are iconic to the Iclenad. The moss is protected and sacred - do NOT walk on it. At this location, there is a small walking loop that allows visitors to explore safely.
Parking and restrooms: There is a small parking lot, no restrooms, no trash cans.
Time spent: 15 min is plenty to take in the views and walk the loop - quick, easy stop.
The walking path through the rocks is clearly marked with ropes but it's not a smooth path and I wouldn't recommend for anyone who isn't confident on their feet. But there is a great lookout post that is easily accessible.
Fjadrargljufur Canyon
Fjadrargljufur Canyon is easily among the most breathtaking landscapes we’ve ever seen in any of our travels. This moss-covered canyon is absolute must-visit and a total show stopper. Visiting was tricky, requires a bit of a hike, but is absolutely worth the time.
Parking & Restrooms: As of of May 2022, the parking lot, access road, and public restrooms were not accessible. We followed the gravel road past the entrance and parked along the side of the road behind the dozens of other cars, then walked quite a ways to get to the top of the canyon.
Time spent: All in all, we spent about an hour at the canyon which included parking, walking to the overlooks, taking pictures, and walking back.
Accessing the canyon: Even if the small lot near the restrooms had been open, it's still a 15min walk uphill to get to the canyon. We enjoyed the walk along the gravel road to the top of the canyon. It wasn't particularly beautiful or fun, but it kept the canyon completely hidden so the the views were a total surprise when we got to the top. Had we been able to park at the lot near the restrooms and take the walking path up, we would have seen the canyon the entire time, which would also be fun, but the surprise at the top literally took our breaths away. So, while it's not a terribly rigorous walk (there's either a gravel road or a path), it was a longer walk. On the gravel path it took us 15-20min. But 100000000% worth it
There are two lookout stations at the top of the canyon, not ideal for those afraid of heights, but worth the push as the views are stunning.
Stay on marked paths - You can tell where people have walked/stood to get photos in previous years, but these areas are roped off because are stupidly dangerous.
Fossálar Waterfall
Parking and restrooms: There is a small gravel, pullover area, no restrooms.
Time spent: 5-10min
Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon
Walk to the water - check out the lagoon from the parking lot by the bridge. It’s a zoo, very busy, but you get up close views of the ice. There’s seals and waterfowl everywhere. Directly across the road is Diamond Beach.
Parking and restrooms: There are numerous, gravel parking lots along the lagoon and if you park in the larger lot by the bridge, there's plenty of restrooms.
Time spent: 30-45min
Vestrahorn
Vestrahorn is show-stopper.
You can view the entrance to Vestrahorn on the map here (The Viking Cafe is the entrance)
Getting to Vestrahorn: Navigate to the Viking Cafe linked above, park in one of their gravel lots, and then head inside to the shop/cafe for entry tickets to the park. They'll give you a card with a QR code that you scan at a lift gate. **You will exit through the SAME GATE. It's on a censor and will open right up for you (no need to scan). We stayed past the hours the Viking Cafe was open and the gate still opened for us without issue.
Parking and restrooms: Both restrooms and parking are available at the Viking Cafe.
Time spent: 45min-1hr+ depending on what you do.
When to visit: We wanted to visit when the mountain would be reflecting on the water below it, which we’d read would be at low tide, but having visited, I'd say that was not entirely correct for capturing the reflection - you need water to be there. When we visited in May, the water was completely gone at low tide, leaving the black sand beach. It was still very cool, but not we hoped for. Ultimately, visit whenever makes the most sense for you - it's a beautiful location no matter the time of day, the tide, etc.
Wildlife: We saw everything driving to, while in, or leaving Vestrahorn. On the way an artic fox, at the parking lot you can hang with some Iceland ponies, and we saw humpback whales while on the beach. Taking a short walk toward the Stokksnes Lighthouse, we saw adult and baby seals and all sorts of birds. While leaving, we got the biggest surprise - a group of reindeer, We saw a male, female and a baby, which was thrilling and a lucky encounter as they aren’t often in that area.
Höfn
The brightest stop of Höfn was Otto Matur & Drykkur Restaurant. We wanted to go somewhere special for our 5 year anniversary and Otto Matur really nailed it. Reservations are highly recommended and we were lucky to get a table without one. The staff are wonderful, the dining room is light, bright, cozy, and well styled. The food is locally sourced, hearty and delicious. Every table starts with homemade sour dough and homemade butter with fresh sea salt. Our favorites dishes were the lobster soup, lamb and anything with scallops in it.
Höfn is a quiet town with few hotels or restaurants. Despite it’s size, we learned a very valuable lesson while visiting. Up until this point, every hotel we’ve ever stayed in had a 24/7 check in desk or process. Every. Single. One.
Our Höfn hotel, Milk Factory, was the exception. After a long day of sight-seeing and a late dinner, we arrived to Milk Factory around 9:45pm. The front doors were locked with notes taped up telling us to call various phone numbers for assistance. Both numbers were disconnected (we had upgraded T-Mobile service, so wasn’t an issue there.). Panicked, we went to the nearest hotel for help, Hotel Höfn, and only found an incredibly rude and unhelpful clerk, and no spare rooms.
We drove to another hotel 20 minutes down the road, Hotel Jokull, where we were greeted by an incredibly kind and helpful front desk manager who managed to get a hold of the Milk Factory manager to get us into the hotel.
It turns out that Milk Factory's policy is to provide your key in a lockbox for after-hours checkin, but they never called, emailed, or notified us of this policy. So while the hotel itself was lovely, I would not recommend Milk Factory because of their poor policy management and advise travelers to be very mindful of check-in deadlines.