Iceland had been on our list for years, and in 2025 we finally found the perfect excuse to visit: Icelandair's stopover program. Instead of flying straight to Europe, we added five nights in Iceland on our way to Croatia for the summer.
After landing in Keflavík, we picked up a rental car and spent our first night in Reykjavík. One of the our best travel hacks is booking the hotel for the night before our arrival so we can immediately crash for a few hours after an overnight flight. It gives you just enough of a boost to be able to explore the rest of the day and fall asleep on your new timezone, minimizing jet lag the rest of your trip.
From there, we spent the next several days making a loop through southern Iceland. We snorkeled the Silfra fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, ate tomato soup inside a greenhouse at Friðheimar, visited Gullfoss and Geysir, and drove through some of the most dramatic scenery we've seen anywhere in the world.
The south coast was the highlight for me. We walked behind Seljalandsfoss, stood in front of Skógafoss, explored the black sand beaches at Reynisfjara, and based ourselves in Vík for a couple of nights while exploring the surrounding area. Iceland has a way of making you pull over every fifteen minutes because there's another waterfall, glacier, lava field, or view that looks too good to drive past. At Diamond Beach, icebergs wash up on black sand. It's one of the few places I've visited that looked exactly like the photos—and somehow even better in person.
Back near Reykjavík, we also visited the Lava Show, where actual molten lava is poured into a viewing room just a few feet away from the audience. It sounds like a tourist attraction because it is, but it was also one of the coolest things we did all week.
A few takeaways for anyone planning a similar trip: rent a 4x4 even if you're visiting in the shoulder season, don't skip Silfra just because the water sounds cold, and seriously consider using Icelandair's stopover program if you're headed to Europe. Iceland is one of the few destinations where the journey itself can become a highlight of the trip.
Five nights felt about right for the south coast. If we come back someday, we'll check out the Westfjords or northern Iceland.