The Best Adventure is Not in a Bus

Massive resorts, meticulously planned guided tours, all you can eat hotel buffets, lounging in a pool, and our course tour buses. These are some of the most common and significant parts of many people’s vacations and vacation budgets. They make vacations easy, relatively affordable, and cover all of the important highlights of wherever you choose to visit. As society has become increasingly globalized there has been a massive growth in resorts, tour companies, and activities for all ages in nearly all possible vacation destinations. One of these destinations is Iceland. 

Now just to be clear, Iceland is the one you want to visit, and Greenland is the more barren country. About 10 years ago or less there were not constant flights to Iceland or hundreds of tour buses passing each other in a steady stream to see the breathtaking natural beauty of Iceland. Back then it was a relatively untouched country outside of the capital of Reykjavík, a city of 123,000 in a country of only 364,000. There were not many paved roads besides the main one ringing the country and many of the tourist attractions took careful searching and a gravely road to get to. There were not gas stations at every turn or tourist carts next to most waterfalls or lagoons, it was pure nature and the few people spread across the country. Now there are many daily flights to Iceland, for quite low prices too, there are tons of tour companies for any possible excursions, daily tour buses to hit the top attractions, and well-signed and paved roads to the many beautiful hikes, waterfalls, glaciers, lagoons, or hot springs. This of course is wonderful for Iceland as it creates a booming tourist economy, but not so wonderful for nature, as places need to be periodically closed due to too many tourists or those who go off trail and destroy delicate arctic moss. Now how do I know all of this about Iceland, well I have been lucky to be one of those tourists on three separate occasions. 

My first trip to Iceland was when I was four years old and though I do not remember much of the trip due to my young age I can say from my parents stories it was much different. The tourism back then was much rarer and it was quite unusual for my parents to have taken us to Iceland, but they always liked unique non-touristy trips. Since me and my sister did not remember our first Iceland trip my family decided to go again in 2015 and 2018, but things were much different than our first vacation there.

One thing very important to know about our family vacations is that we try our best to stay away from overly touristy experiences. We rarely stay in the capital of a city longer than a day and then always stay in AirBnBs to cook our own food and keep away from the mass of tourists. Our first trip back to Iceland we primarily explored the south and on our second trip we passed through the south and then explored the east and north. Iceland is filled with countless natural attractions and now pulling up to a place we want to see there will always be a tour bus or more, at least five cars, and a sign in English and Icelandic explaining the attraction. We of course did touristy things like going inside of a volcano, hiking on a glacier, kayaking on a glacial lagoon, and visiting major hot spring hikes; however, we made sure to fully experience the Icelandic lifestyle and nature. 

If we went on a hike we tried to find the most remote one, if we went to eat a meal we went to the tiny local place, and if we drove somewhere we always went down the gravel road if we could. Nevertheless, we constantly passed packed tour buses, got stuck behind countless slow cars, and saw many tourist shops or carts even in the east well away from Reykjavík in the west. The tour buses and curated experiences aim to give everyone the picturesque Iceland seen in postcards with glistening icebergs, sun soaked rolling hills, and glistening glaciers stretching for miles. In reality Iceland is often cold, windy, and rainy. My family and I wanted to see this “real” Iceland.

On our 2015 trip our wish was finally granted. We went to see the famous Reynisfjara black sand beach on a day forecasting wind and rain, but there is almost always a slight spatter of rain and gusts of wind on any given day in Iceland. This day there was a lot more than that. It was raining as we arrived, but we simply tossed on our rain pants and jackets and headed to the beach. There were a few other families out along the shoreline and a few more in the nearby beachside café. About 15 minutes into our walk on the beach it was as if the sky had a crack that water had slowly been leaking through and suddenly the crack split and the sky exploded. The rain was like nothing I had ever seen, we could barely see each other and all of the rocks off the shoreline and other families had disappeared from sight. Turning back I could not spot our car and I had accidently turned into the wind, which caused a massive gust of rain to slam into my face. I turned back out of the wind and my family hurriedly trudged through the mushy sand and sheets of rain to a slight overhang under the sea cliffs. There we found another family hiding from the rain, though the wind still whipped occasional gusts of rain at us. The other family looked scared and worried, but me and my family simply looked at each other and laughed, “yup we are definitely in Iceland” my Dad said. As we talked we decided the rain was not going to let up any time soon, but we had come to see the beach and to us this was just part of the experience so we tightened our hoods, protected our phones and cameras, and waterproofed ourselves as best we could. Then we stepped back into the flood falling from the sky. After 15 more minutes of walking we could barely feel our fingers and decided to abandon the beach and trudge back to the car. As we got to the car, I had to hold onto my sister’s door so it would not snap off its hinges from the powerful wind as she jumped inside still soaking wet and frozen. After sitting in the car for 15 minutes peeling off wet clothes and changing into warm new ones we all smiled and headed back out into the rain to get to the café where we had a steaming hot bowl of lamb stew. Eventually the rain subsided and we drove home, just another normal day in Iceland concluded.

Though we saw many amazing places and had many amazing experiences in Iceland, this memory stands out from the crowd. It was an adventure we never could have had sitting in a cozy resort, on a guided tour, or inside the protective walls of a tour bus. That is not to say those adventures are not special or very fun, but there is something different about the adventures in an uncontrolled environment where it’s up to you and nature and nobody else. These are the experiences that are lasting and are worth having over and over again. These are the adventures that at the time may seem difficult, but in the end they are the best ones.