pre-iceland post (1)
Halló visitor.
Today, July 21st, I am going to fly from Newark, NJ to Keflavik, Iceland. I'll be there for 9 days, and my only accomodation is a camper van. I feel a bit antsy, yet I know I'm pretty well prepared. I've done weeks of preparation, which is definitely more than enough time to prepare for a 9-day trip. I want to share with you my plans thus far, packing, and general experience.
About 3 weeks ago, my mom and I were searching for a beautiful place to explore during summer break. At first we were thinking Alaska, then we figured that our cousins had been to Iceland, so it was probably our turn. We made a quick plan using chatGPT, budgeted, etc. However, after a mere day of planning it was already pretty clear that my mom and I have pretty different ideas of what vacation is. I like hiking and exploring, while my mom is more chill. Thus, I decided that I'd go alone. It'd save some money and probably a lot of stress for my mom.
I was pretty lost when I started planning. I had no idea, and still have no idea, how people find out what the most popular tourist sites and most beautiful places are. I rented a travel book from the library, but it was a bit cumbersome to pore through pages and pages of information. It didn't feel very exciting. It took me a bit of research, but I found a pretty good method for travel planning that doesn't require boring reading. My method is:
YouTube → AI → Google My Maps
This worked extraordinarily well. Watch someone's travel guide on YouTube, look places up on Google and chatGPT, put it in my custom map. I now have a very solid map of where to go and what to do in Iceland. I also have good awareness of the logistics of receiving my van, getting gas, groceries, etc. See my map below:
Green location dot is must visits, orange star is essentials, black car is parking, yellow is food, brown cup is coffee, green tent is campsites. See map here.
I feel like I've hit all of the main attractions, with some really slept-on sights in there too. Without going into detail, here's some of the major sites in each town:
- Hallgrímskirkja. Cool church.
- Reynisfjara. Black sand beach.
- Vestrahorn mountain. Featured in ancient Icelandic lore.
- Stuðlagil canyon.
- Dettifoss. The second most powerful waterfall in Europe.
- Siglufjörður. Little fishing town up north.
- Kirkjufell. Cone-shaped mountain.
- Þingvellir national park.
I hope that, if you ever visit Iceland, my map will help you visit some really cool sites. In my next post, I will detail my packing and logistics.
Bless bless,
Ayaan