ATHLLC2280747431

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.500 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:05.200 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:00:07.880 | If you're new here, I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,

00:00:09.840 | and one of the areas I love optimizing the most is travel.

00:00:13.120 | I've been to 60 plus countries,

00:00:14.520 | and on every trip, I love meeting locals,

00:00:16.820 | understanding their culture, having unique experiences,

00:00:19.560 | and eating the best foods a place has to offer.

00:00:22.040 | So, a few months back, I started doing episodes

00:00:24.200 | on top travel destinations,

00:00:25.580 | and the feedback I got from all of you was so positive,

00:00:28.000 | I'm gonna keep it going.

00:00:29.440 | And one country that's been on my list for years,

00:00:31.920 | but that I haven't made it to yet is Iceland.

00:00:34.520 | I thought it was finally gonna happen

00:00:35.880 | when some close friends of ours got engaged

00:00:37.600 | and said their wedding was gonna be there,

00:00:39.300 | but it ended up being only a couple weeks

00:00:41.040 | after our youngest daughter was due, so it didn't happen.

00:00:43.920 | But it's not just me that wants to go.

00:00:45.800 | I've heard from so many of you

00:00:47.320 | that it's at the top of your lists as well,

00:00:49.620 | so I thought it would be a great place for an episode.

00:00:52.080 | And funny enough, I already knew the perfect guest,

00:00:54.740 | Brandon Presser, who's joining me

00:00:56.480 | for his third appearance on the show

00:00:58.040 | after we did an episode on Japan just a few months back.

00:01:00.840 | Well, he's also an expert on Iceland.

00:01:03.200 | When he was researching a guidebook he was writing,

00:01:05.440 | he spent six months in the country

00:01:07.240 | and literally went everywhere.

00:01:08.760 | I mean, every restaurant, every hotel, every fjordhead,

00:01:11.480 | and every farm that had an extra bed.

00:01:13.820 | So when I say he knows the country,

00:01:15.200 | he probably knows it better than most locals do,

00:01:17.560 | and I am so excited to talk about when to go,

00:01:19.840 | what to see and do, all the experiences to have,

00:01:22.520 | and everything to eat and drink.

00:01:24.320 | And then after we're done,

00:01:25.480 | I'll cover how you might use your points and miles

00:01:27.800 | for your next trip to Iceland.

00:01:29.520 | I am so excited for this one,

00:01:31.000 | so let's jump in right after this.

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00:02:52.080 | (upbeat music)

00:02:53.880 | - Brandon, thanks for being here.

00:02:55.280 | - Thanks so much for having me again.

00:02:57.200 | - You knew everything about Japan,

00:02:58.240 | you know everything about Iceland.

00:02:59.120 | There are even other countries you know everything about,

00:03:00.840 | so I'll probably have you back.

00:03:02.360 | But what is it about Iceland that makes it a kind of place

00:03:05.440 | that you would want to learn everything there is to know

00:03:07.600 | about the country?

00:03:08.440 | - I approach travel in thinking about a destination

00:03:12.360 | qualitatively and quantitatively.

00:03:15.200 | And so for me, doing Iceland was really, really rewarding

00:03:19.000 | when I was writing "The Lonely Planet Guide"

00:03:20.640 | because I would finish a trip like six, seven months

00:03:23.360 | in the country and I'd go, okay,

00:03:25.640 | I have actually seen everything.

00:03:28.320 | I have been to every single place.

00:03:30.360 | I have vetted everything that there is to do.

00:03:32.920 | There is no such thing as not found in the guidebook

00:03:35.960 | because if I didn't put it in, it's not worth doing.

00:03:38.880 | And so there was a great amount of sort of

00:03:40.720 | quantitative satisfaction that I had seen everything

00:03:44.200 | and then I could kind of pivot to the quality

00:03:46.540 | and then troubleshoot exactly what a perfect trip

00:03:50.040 | for any type of traveler and any length of trip

00:03:52.560 | would be like.

00:03:53.400 | - What is it about Iceland?

00:03:54.360 | What makes it so special?

00:03:56.060 | - Well, so I think on my first trip to Iceland,

00:03:58.480 | I learned a lot of Icelandic words,

00:04:00.840 | which I think is important and we'll get to that soon.

00:04:02.640 | But one of my favorite words in Icelandic is kræma.

00:04:06.640 | Kræma means simmering and it's in two senses.

00:04:11.640 | Kræma is simmering like the earth is shaking.

00:04:15.720 | There's volcanoes erupting.

00:04:17.480 | It's an active geological environment.

00:04:20.700 | And then kræma, simmering as in creativity,

00:04:24.760 | the spirit of the local people, the imagination they have,

00:04:28.880 | the cool design, the music.

00:04:32.440 | And I think those two things together,

00:04:35.840 | the nature and the culture,

00:04:38.100 | make a place like you've never seen before.

00:04:41.860 | - I've seen so many pictures and I don't know how somehow

00:04:44.560 | it's escaped our travel list for so long, which will change.

00:04:48.080 | I'm sure by the end of this conversation,

00:04:49.880 | I'm going to be going to book flights.

00:04:51.840 | It's a small country.

00:04:53.240 | You keep going back.

00:04:54.360 | Does that mean that there's always something to find

00:04:56.680 | even though you've seen it all?

00:04:58.120 | - Definitely.

00:04:58.960 | And I think one of the weird things about Iceland

00:05:01.680 | is that you can visit the same thing twice

00:05:05.480 | and have a really dramatically different experience.

00:05:09.840 | So a good example of that would be a hike.

00:05:11.920 | You know, even a one-hour hike along the coast,

00:05:14.760 | you could do it at 11 p.m. in June

00:05:18.840 | and you have the midnight sun

00:05:21.120 | and there's this eerie, quiet, good weather

00:05:25.040 | and you're with friends.

00:05:26.460 | Or you could do it in the middle of winter

00:05:28.520 | and it's stormy and brooding

00:05:31.520 | and you'll see the country in so many different ways

00:05:34.620 | and that weather and the vibe, it's always something new.

00:05:39.620 | But then there's something else in Iceland

00:05:43.120 | that is sort of a big takeaway for me.

00:05:46.760 | And a lot of what I learned in Iceland

00:05:49.280 | is something that I actually do in my regular life,

00:05:51.320 | which is Icelanders think of their lives in eras.

00:05:56.320 | They don't think of graduating from college

00:06:01.000 | and taking on a job in a certain field

00:06:03.000 | and they're like, okay, that's it.

00:06:04.120 | You know, like, I'm gonna be a lawyer

00:06:05.240 | for the rest of my life.

00:06:06.480 | Icelanders have this notion of,

00:06:08.880 | okay, I'm gonna own a restaurant

00:06:10.640 | 'cause that's what I'm passionate about right now.

00:06:12.600 | And five years later, they're like,

00:06:14.200 | you know what, I'm gonna get my teaching certificate

00:06:15.920 | because I really wanna teach elementary school.

00:06:18.040 | And then seven years later,

00:06:20.000 | they get interested in being an interior decorator

00:06:22.600 | and they open a design firm.

00:06:24.120 | With such a small population

00:06:25.960 | and with such good social equality,

00:06:28.480 | these things are possible.

00:06:30.040 | And so I like to think of my trips to Iceland,

00:06:32.800 | and I go all the time, as eras.

00:06:35.680 | And every time I go back to Iceland,

00:06:37.000 | I sort of reflect on myself.

00:06:38.840 | What's changed in me, you know,

00:06:40.880 | in the last year or since I've been there?

00:06:42.720 | And what era am I in?

00:06:44.360 | - How do we even start to think about this?

00:06:46.160 | I haven't gone to Iceland,

00:06:47.080 | so let's say I'm planning a trip

00:06:48.200 | or anyone's planning a trip.

00:06:49.440 | It's a small country.

00:06:50.560 | Does that mean it doesn't need

00:06:52.520 | the full kind of two weeks to give it justice?

00:06:55.040 | Is there too long of a trip, too short of a trip?

00:06:57.760 | - I would say that you can do any trip that you can.

00:07:02.000 | It's worth doing.

00:07:03.320 | And the first thing to remember

00:07:04.520 | is it's so close to the United States.

00:07:07.880 | Of course, it's very close to Europe as well,

00:07:09.520 | depending on where you're coming from.

00:07:11.160 | But if all you have is four days,

00:07:14.880 | we'll get through some planning ideas

00:07:17.680 | for the perfect four-day trip.

00:07:19.160 | I mean, if you have 10 days, even better.

00:07:21.680 | But I kind of want to challenge you

00:07:22.920 | to think of Iceland as a place

00:07:24.080 | that you can keep going back to.

00:07:26.120 | I think a lot of Americans like to go back to Mexico,

00:07:28.600 | even for a long weekend.

00:07:30.040 | This can be a long weekend place

00:07:32.880 | that you can have six different versions

00:07:35.440 | of that long weekend and keep going back.

00:07:37.720 | You know, Icelandair has a stopover program

00:07:41.200 | on the way to Europe.

00:07:42.160 | So you can even tack on three nights in Iceland

00:07:45.960 | on the way to your trip to Paris for free,

00:07:49.040 | or do it on the return.

00:07:50.720 | So I think the big thing to start off with

00:07:53.160 | is that Reykjavik covers a huge amount

00:07:57.760 | of the population and urbanization in the country.

00:08:00.640 | So Iceland has 390,000 people,

00:08:04.120 | 240,000 of which live in the Reykjavik area.

00:08:08.280 | And so if you're going to plan a trip,

00:08:11.160 | you're definitely going to want to spend some time there.

00:08:13.840 | And I would say the first thing to remember is

00:08:16.160 | if you're going to math your trip,

00:08:19.040 | 20 to 25% of your trip should be in Reykjavik

00:08:22.720 | and the rest should be out in nature.

00:08:25.320 | And I think a lot of people do the opposite,

00:08:27.520 | where they base themselves in Reykjavik

00:08:29.520 | and then do trips out into the nature.

00:08:32.280 | You need to keep your time in Reykjavik

00:08:34.040 | to around that 20, 25%.

00:08:35.960 | So a four day trip, do one night in Reykjavik.

00:08:39.360 | You know, if you're doing a 10 day trip,

00:08:40.920 | two nights in Reykjavik.

00:08:42.520 | Because you're really going for that mix

00:08:45.320 | of nature and culture,

00:08:48.640 | but you're really just going to get like

00:08:50.760 | a tiny Scandinavian city

00:08:53.560 | if you base yourself in Reykjavik the whole time,

00:08:56.000 | which isn't like huge value add.

00:08:58.200 | - So one challenge I have is we have kids.

00:09:00.840 | Does that mean you're going to be staying

00:09:02.840 | one or two nights in a place, then move,

00:09:04.280 | then move, then move?

00:09:05.160 | Or when you say the other 75% of your trip,

00:09:07.960 | could that be in one or two places in nature?

00:09:11.440 | - Yeah, totally.

00:09:12.280 | We can jump right into what like a good

00:09:14.480 | four day trip would look like, if you want.

00:09:17.640 | What you would do is you would land at Keflavik,

00:09:20.120 | the international airport,

00:09:21.480 | which is a one hour drive from Reykjavik.

00:09:25.600 | You'll pick up a car in Keflavik

00:09:27.920 | and you actually will drive in the other direction,

00:09:30.720 | not to Reykjavik.

00:09:31.560 | You'll drive to sort of Southwest Iceland

00:09:34.600 | to towns like Hetlar, Kossuthur,

00:09:37.640 | and you'll set up there.

00:09:39.760 | You get like an Airbnb, stay in a hotel,

00:09:43.240 | and base yourself there to do hikes

00:09:45.960 | and day trips out to waterfalls or horse farms

00:09:49.280 | or whatever you want to do.

00:09:50.840 | And then as the trip comes to an end,

00:09:52.960 | you'll drive into Reykjavik,

00:09:55.440 | spend a night there, spend a day there,

00:09:58.320 | and then head back to the airport.

00:10:02.000 | If you have the means, sneak in a night

00:10:04.200 | at the Blue Lagoon Retreat, specifically Retreat,

00:10:07.800 | 'cause it's absolutely unreal.

00:10:10.000 | It's an amazing hotel.

00:10:11.720 | Or get the spa package at the Retreat,

00:10:14.200 | which gives you a day pass to this like private Blue Lagoon.

00:10:17.640 | And then you head home on your flight from Keflavik.

00:10:20.600 | That would be the perfect trip.

00:10:22.080 | - So we did jump ahead a little bit.

00:10:24.280 | Let's rewind a little and just like,

00:10:26.880 | Iceland is a place where you can go and be very cold,

00:10:29.600 | or you can go and have sun 24 hours a day.

00:10:32.800 | How do you even think about when to start planning a trip?

00:10:35.400 | Is there an ideal season?

00:10:37.200 | Is it different depending on what you want to do?

00:10:40.000 | - So if you're thinking about it

00:10:42.040 | in terms of wanting a lot of daylight,

00:10:44.200 | the solstice in June is gonna have 24 hours of daylight.

00:10:49.200 | And when you read a lot about Iceland,

00:10:52.360 | a lot of online sources get it wrong.

00:10:54.800 | They say June, July, August.

00:10:56.480 | But if you're doing the math

00:10:57.560 | and you're actually thinking about the sun,

00:10:59.760 | if it's kind of mid late June that has the most sun,

00:11:03.240 | then it's May and July that have the second most sun.

00:11:07.080 | So if you want all of that daylight,

00:11:09.560 | I would look at doing warm weather during the summer.

00:11:12.720 | Best hiking is July and August

00:11:16.520 | when practically every pass and every road is open

00:11:20.520 | because the weather has warmed.

00:11:22.560 | If you're just looking for that daylight,

00:11:24.040 | think maybe May because you're not really

00:11:27.120 | in the highest of high season.

00:11:29.960 | But in the way that people know

00:11:31.600 | the glory of the midnight sun and all of that good stuff,

00:11:34.400 | they think that there's basically darkness

00:11:36.440 | for the rest of the year.

00:11:37.720 | But I love going in March and October.

00:11:42.280 | So for example, March 1st,

00:11:44.200 | you have the sun coming up at around 8, 8.30 a.m.

00:11:48.160 | And the sun goes down at like 6.30, 6.45.

00:11:52.360 | You still get a full day of daylight

00:11:54.120 | and you get some glow on the horizon

00:11:56.720 | and you get no tourists really relative to the summer.

00:12:00.280 | And the same goes for October.

00:12:02.160 | I think I probably prefer October a little bit more

00:12:05.880 | because you have more green from the summer

00:12:08.400 | before the snow cover.

00:12:10.320 | March tends to be a little bit more brown.

00:12:12.600 | So if you want those perfect photos,

00:12:14.400 | October would be my ideal time to go.

00:12:16.800 | And I'm actually gonna go this October

00:12:18.480 | and I kind of regret telling everyone

00:12:20.840 | that it's the best time to go

00:12:21.880 | because now it's gonna be overloaded

00:12:23.440 | and my hotels are gonna be expensive.

00:12:25.560 | - Well, you just gotta book it quick.

00:12:26.880 | - Exactly.

00:12:27.720 | - Or you probably know everyone.

00:12:28.960 | But what about the winter?

00:12:30.120 | Is there a case to be made

00:12:31.880 | to go visit Iceland in December or January?

00:12:34.440 | - Yeah, absolutely.

00:12:35.480 | Much in the way that the Danes

00:12:37.720 | have commoditized this idea of hygge,

00:12:40.680 | this coziness that is so cozy

00:12:43.040 | it's sort of impossible to describe.

00:12:45.560 | The Icelanders embrace that as well.

00:12:47.640 | And if you're looking for a cozy, more romantic holiday

00:12:52.640 | where you're snuggled up in a cabin

00:12:54.800 | or you wanna embrace cafe culture in Reykjavik,

00:12:59.000 | you can certainly go in the dead of winter.

00:13:01.600 | Your experience then will be

00:13:03.400 | a little more culturally heavy than it will

00:13:06.200 | being out in nature

00:13:07.040 | because it's not that Iceland's really cold.

00:13:10.120 | So I grew up in Ottawa in Canada

00:13:12.360 | and that is proudly the coldest capital in the entire world.

00:13:17.640 | You would think Reykjavik would be colder by temperature.

00:13:20.600 | It's the wind in Iceland

00:13:23.440 | that makes hiking and traveling really difficult.

00:13:28.000 | And the wind can be there in June.

00:13:29.640 | It can ruin a hike on the warmest of days.

00:13:32.400 | - So that's kind of when to go.

00:13:34.600 | Before we go into places,

00:13:36.600 | you talked a little bit about the vibe and the experience,

00:13:39.480 | but what's the culture like?

00:13:40.680 | What are people like?

00:13:41.520 | Are people friendly?

00:13:42.360 | Can you get to know them?

00:13:43.520 | How would you describe culture in Iceland?

00:13:46.080 | - I think our first cultural touchpoint

00:13:47.960 | for a lot of people is Bjork or Bjork.

00:13:50.640 | And she brings this weirdness, right?

00:13:55.000 | The swan dress and all of this kind of stuff.

00:13:57.440 | And she is certainly a character,

00:13:59.800 | but there is something about her

00:14:01.960 | that you find in a lot of Icelanders,

00:14:04.280 | which is this uninhibited creativity.

00:14:07.520 | There is no shame in pursuing your passions.

00:14:10.360 | And you find that a lot of people are artists

00:14:16.040 | in some capacity or have this propensity

00:14:19.400 | towards the creative.

00:14:21.280 | And it can be really refreshing how it's expressed

00:14:23.680 | in a cool haircut or people designing their own jewelry.

00:14:27.040 | There's no fear of being judged.

00:14:29.880 | But on the other hand, there's this scandy coldness.

00:14:34.040 | You don't get that effusive American-ness.

00:14:36.320 | Hi, how are you?

00:14:38.080 | We never really mean hi, how are you when we say it,

00:14:41.200 | 'cause you're supposed to answer good, how are you,

00:14:43.120 | and not actually answer.

00:14:44.760 | So it's not weird to get a very one line,

00:14:47.840 | hi, how are you, and an Icelander will say, good.

00:14:50.960 | And it doesn't mean they're not friendly.

00:14:52.440 | When you start befriending Icelanders,

00:14:56.200 | their genuineness, their loyalty, and their care,

00:15:01.200 | I mean, it's like no other place on earth.

00:15:04.760 | - How do you go about doing that if you walk into a bar

00:15:07.400 | and you're like, hey, how's it going?

00:15:08.520 | It's like, good.

00:15:10.000 | Is it just pushing through it?

00:15:11.600 | What's your tips there

00:15:12.440 | for people who want to experience that warmth?

00:15:14.840 | - So I actually wrote a section

00:15:17.040 | in one of my Lonely Planet guides

00:15:18.320 | about how to blend in Reykjavik,

00:15:20.520 | because it's just so painfully obvious

00:15:23.280 | who's a tourist and who's not.

00:15:25.120 | And you have to remember, right,

00:15:26.040 | there's almost 400,000 people in Iceland,

00:15:28.680 | and last year there were 1.7 million visitors.

00:15:33.640 | So if you just took six random people in Iceland,

00:15:36.640 | five of them are gonna be visitors.

00:15:39.040 | So it's this huge onslaught of people

00:15:41.320 | who are not from there.

00:15:42.480 | One of the things that Icelanders love

00:15:44.080 | is swearing in English.

00:15:46.280 | They will talk amongst each other in Icelandic,

00:15:48.880 | but they will say with a very aspirated Icelandic accent,

00:15:53.880 | like, fuck, like a lot.

00:15:58.120 | And so if you can meet them at that obsessive swearingness,

00:16:02.600 | it'll actually endear the conversation.

00:16:07.600 | I think learning a few Icelandic words

00:16:11.440 | also really helps.

00:16:12.680 | Everyone speaks English at this point,

00:16:15.720 | but showing some local courtesy will really go a long way.

00:16:20.720 | And I think getting out of Reykjavik

00:16:23.600 | and going into smaller towns,

00:16:25.760 | it's a lot easier to make local friends there,

00:16:29.620 | because by virtue of Reykjavik having a lot of locals,

00:16:32.880 | it also has a lot of tourists,

00:16:34.740 | a lot of the hotels are there,

00:16:36.040 | but when you're off in the smaller town,

00:16:38.360 | like Húsavík or Akureyri or Eylsæs,

00:16:42.240 | you'll meet people a lot faster,

00:16:43.280 | 'cause they're like, who are you?

00:16:44.400 | This is a town of 700 people.

00:16:46.640 | I've never seen your face.

00:16:48.020 | - You said local courtesies.

00:16:49.320 | Are there any cultural norms to be aware of

00:16:51.760 | when it comes to etiquette or things to do

00:16:53.680 | or not to do in Iceland?

00:16:55.880 | - One of the big things is because it's so windy,

00:16:57.960 | like I said, never carry an umbrella.

00:17:00.300 | And Iceland has pretty bad weather on the whole.

00:17:02.960 | Like a friend of mine from Iceland

00:17:04.920 | actually texted me this morning a picture of snow

00:17:08.240 | and was like, this is what's going on here

00:17:11.080 | one day away from May, but never carry an umbrella

00:17:15.760 | because the wind will just tear it to shreds.

00:17:17.800 | So if you ever see someone walking down the street

00:17:19.560 | in Reykjavik with an umbrella,

00:17:20.880 | you know that they're not from there.

00:17:23.040 | Another thing is there's a lot of stray cats in Reykjavik.

00:17:26.880 | If you have a funny comment about loving cats

00:17:29.840 | or knowing about the stray cats,

00:17:32.600 | that's absolutely a thing.

00:17:34.000 | And a lot of people at Reykjavik also refer

00:17:37.480 | to sections of town by the zip code.

00:17:40.360 | So central Reykjavik is 101.

00:17:42.480 | So people are like, oh, where are you staying?

00:17:44.640 | If you try to like say the cross street,

00:17:47.080 | that's not what it is.

00:17:48.000 | You say, oh, I'm staying in 104.

00:17:49.880 | Or like, make sure you know the zip code,

00:17:52.480 | the postal code of where you're staying.

00:17:55.000 | 'Cause it's like these little things that will signify

00:17:57.400 | that you're not like a total noob.

00:18:00.200 | - Even if you are.

00:18:01.120 | - Even if you are.

00:18:01.960 | - Okay, so I'm ready to start planning.

00:18:04.920 | You've sold me.

00:18:05.880 | What are some of the real highlights

00:18:08.320 | that someone needs to make sure to include on any trip?

00:18:10.720 | And then let's talk about,

00:18:11.840 | you talked a little bit about four days,

00:18:13.200 | but let's talk about planning like a week or 10 days.

00:18:15.880 | - Okay, so to give you a sense of Iceland's size,

00:18:18.640 | it's about the size of Ohio,

00:18:20.840 | but you're never going to drive through Iceland

00:18:25.840 | in the middle, you know, the sort of Cincinnati,

00:18:28.920 | Columbus, Cleveland, Chevron.

00:18:31.080 | You're never going to drive that.

00:18:32.440 | Instead, you're going to have to drive

00:18:33.800 | the circumference of the island.

00:18:36.480 | And there's a very aptly named road called the Ring Road.

00:18:40.640 | And a lot of people set their sights on the Ring Road

00:18:43.280 | when they want to visit.

00:18:44.680 | And I think if you were to complete the Ring Road

00:18:47.880 | without stopping, I think it would take about 17 hours.

00:18:52.880 | And so a lot of people think,

00:18:54.440 | okay, I'm going to do this in like five days.

00:18:56.720 | Like I'll drive five hours a day,

00:19:00.040 | look at cool things out the window,

00:19:01.720 | stop every once in a while for a cool thing.

00:19:04.000 | I wouldn't attempt the Ring Road unless you have 10 days.

00:19:08.840 | And I probably wouldn't even plan it

00:19:12.240 | so that you were moving like two hours

00:19:16.560 | and then a night, two hours and then a night.

00:19:18.440 | I would actually try to book two nights

00:19:20.400 | every time you stop,

00:19:22.000 | so that it doesn't feel like a total slog.

00:19:24.160 | And while you will see beautiful things out the window

00:19:26.800 | on the Ring Road and all the car accidents

00:19:29.560 | in Iceland happen because people see something so beautiful

00:19:31.880 | that they slow down,

00:19:33.120 | not realizing someone's right behind them.

00:19:35.240 | But you really need to get off the Ring Road.

00:19:38.760 | All of the best stuff are all along the detours.

00:19:42.680 | And so giving you the luxury of time

00:19:45.600 | will definitely give you the opportunity

00:19:47.560 | to see those cool things.

00:19:49.960 | And I would even challenge you to do a different loop

00:19:54.960 | and mix it up and just look at looping

00:19:58.680 | along the West.

00:20:00.520 | So that would be going from the airport

00:20:03.320 | up through Reykjavik, all the way through West Iceland,

00:20:06.400 | the Snæfellsnes Peninsula,

00:20:08.400 | all the way up into the West fjords,

00:20:10.400 | which are kind of like those lobster claws

00:20:12.440 | that are like snipping off the side of Iceland,

00:20:14.520 | going through all those fjords all the way up there.

00:20:18.000 | And then coming back down past Reykjavik,

00:20:21.400 | there's a different way that you could come down

00:20:23.200 | so you're not doubling back on anything you've done.

00:20:26.560 | And that would be an incredible Ring Road alternate

00:20:31.400 | that very, very few people do.

00:20:35.120 | So those would be like the two big driving itineraries

00:20:39.640 | that I would put forward.

00:20:40.560 | Of course, if you have two weeks or three weeks,

00:20:43.080 | it's just the more time that you get to marinate

00:20:45.040 | in these incredible destinations.

00:20:47.200 | Getting the crew together isn't as easy as it used to be.

00:20:51.920 | I get it.

00:20:52.760 | Life comes at you fast, but trust me,

00:20:55.440 | your friends are probably desperate for a good hang.

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00:21:54.340 | That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today.

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00:23:26.960 | I can kind of go through each region very quick

00:23:30.600 | and how Icelanders kind of see it.

00:23:32.800 | So you have the capital area, which is Reykjavik,

00:23:35.200 | and they have the suburb, Kopavogur,

00:23:36.840 | and then Hafnarfjörður,

00:23:38.240 | which is like a little town nearby.

00:23:40.080 | So that greater region is very urbanized,

00:23:42.960 | a ton to do, bars, clubs, big restaurants,

00:23:46.960 | big, cool hotels.

00:23:48.200 | That's where you're gonna get your fix of that.

00:23:50.040 | And then right outside the capital region

00:23:53.640 | is what you may have heard, the Golden Circle.

00:23:57.760 | This is strictly a tourism product that was created

00:24:01.800 | so that people could have a really fun day trip

00:24:04.160 | outside of the city.

00:24:05.320 | And basically that touches on three geological features.

00:24:09.380 | One is a big geyser called Geysir,

00:24:11.480 | which is where the word geyser comes from.

00:24:14.120 | And then Guttfoss, which is Golden Waterfall.

00:24:17.240 | And then Thingvellir,

00:24:18.840 | which is where the old parliament was

00:24:21.080 | and where actually the continental plates

00:24:24.160 | are cracking open.

00:24:26.120 | So you get these three really cool things.

00:24:27.880 | It's like a four-hour experience.

00:24:29.840 | It's a totally fake thing.

00:24:32.680 | And you could certainly drive through it

00:24:34.600 | on your way to something else.

00:24:36.280 | What's sort of exciting is just beyond that,

00:24:38.600 | Blue Lagoon is actually opening a brand new second resort

00:24:44.080 | up there.

00:24:44.920 | It's just about to open.

00:24:46.400 | So that's really exciting and will kind of change the flow

00:24:48.880 | of how people are moving through that Golden Circle.

00:24:51.920 | But the thing to remember,

00:24:53.240 | and before I kind of like quickly touch on the regions,

00:24:55.720 | is that there's no such thing as like the waterfall

00:24:58.320 | that you have to see.

00:24:59.640 | You can hike anywhere in Iceland

00:25:01.280 | and it's absolutely beautiful.

00:25:03.080 | And there's waterfalls that you think you'll have discovered

00:25:06.320 | because there's no tourists there.

00:25:08.400 | So I would kind of stay away from the Instagram version

00:25:14.000 | of Iceland that has prioritized really random places

00:25:19.000 | like this waterfall or this gorge or this fjord

00:25:24.480 | and keep things a little bit more up in the air.

00:25:27.560 | I'm gonna like do it clockwise.

00:25:29.640 | So you're leaving Reykjavik.

00:25:30.880 | The West has a few small towns

00:25:33.560 | and this very famous Snæfellsnes Peninsula

00:25:35.840 | with a glacier all the way at the tip.

00:25:37.760 | And this is where Journey to the Center of the Earth,

00:25:40.120 | the Jules Verne book actually takes place.

00:25:43.440 | It's beautiful.

00:25:44.280 | There's a lot of hot springs, horse farms.

00:25:48.120 | You can do a loop of the peninsula

00:25:50.360 | and it could be its own sort of Golden Circle

00:25:53.040 | in its own right.

00:25:54.520 | A lot of the sagas.

00:25:56.280 | So Iceland's very rich history that's detailed

00:26:01.280 | in these very sort of Dickensian, like Shakespearean,

00:26:04.880 | he killed this person and that person,

00:26:06.720 | revenge killed that person.

00:26:08.440 | A lot of that takes place in the West.

00:26:10.320 | Then beyond the West, you go up to the Westfjords,

00:26:12.240 | which I mentioned earlier.

00:26:13.400 | This is my absolute favorite region in Iceland.

00:26:17.040 | This is Iceland on steroids.

00:26:18.720 | The fjords are fjordier.

00:26:21.440 | Everything's like really dramatic.

00:26:23.320 | The waterfalls are huge.

00:26:25.120 | There's some like abandoned herring factories

00:26:28.720 | that have been turned into cool places to stay.

00:26:32.160 | Like it's just totally unreal up there.

00:26:35.960 | The best time to visit is July and August for that region

00:26:38.720 | because it can be a little bit trickier

00:26:40.920 | to get through some of the roads.

00:26:42.800 | There's a lot of road closures in the off season.

00:26:45.480 | But if you are going in the peak of summer,

00:26:47.720 | I would devote all of my energy and go up to the Westfjords.

00:26:50.520 | I absolutely love it up there

00:26:53.600 | and try to get there as much as I can,

00:26:55.440 | even though it's pretty far out of the way.

00:26:57.840 | For what it's worth, for anyone listening,

00:26:59.320 | I just pulled up Google Maps while Brandon's talking

00:27:01.440 | so I could like kind of just track where you are.

00:27:04.000 | Are we on like the North side?

00:27:05.720 | What are some towns so I can make sure

00:27:06.920 | I'm in the right place?

00:27:07.760 | So each region has their main town.

00:27:10.560 | So the West is Borganes and Stikisomers.

00:27:13.160 | Those are the two kind of main towns.

00:27:15.280 | And then up in the Westfjords, you have Isafjordur.

00:27:20.280 | That would be if you were to want to fly domestically,

00:27:25.120 | and we'll talk about kind of flying

00:27:27.120 | to kind of cheat some time off of your itinerary,

00:27:29.520 | you would fly into Isafjordur

00:27:30.760 | and then you could rent a car there

00:27:31.800 | and kind of drive around all of those fjords up there.

00:27:34.840 | And there's a really famous waterfall.

00:27:36.440 | Not to go against what I just said

00:27:38.000 | about not coveting certain waterfalls,

00:27:39.800 | but while everyone is kind of going gaga

00:27:41.800 | over the good fuss in the Golden Circle,

00:27:43.840 | there's Dinyandi waterfall

00:27:45.360 | that looks like an actual perfect Bundt cake.

00:27:48.560 | It looks like an AI generated a photo of it.

00:27:51.360 | It's totally unreal.

00:27:53.160 | There's some really, really, really cool towns up there

00:27:56.840 | that have 50 people, 200 people, all with places to stay.

00:28:01.240 | And it really just feels like you're on the end of the Earth.

00:28:03.720 | So then going across,

00:28:05.200 | so now you're kind of at midnight on the clock,

00:28:08.640 | is the whole northern stretch of Iceland.

00:28:11.800 | And the big city in that region is Akureyri.

00:28:14.360 | And Akureyri is the second city of Iceland.

00:28:18.120 | And to tell you how much smaller it is than Reykjavik,

00:28:20.800 | Akureyri has like 20,000 people on a good day.

00:28:24.720 | But it's really charming

00:28:26.440 | because it's the biggest city in the area.

00:28:28.760 | So there's like all these cafes and there's a bookstore

00:28:31.360 | and there are these restaurants.

00:28:33.240 | But when you're driving into the city,

00:28:35.160 | you can see it in its entirety.

00:28:37.160 | It's so tiny.

00:28:38.520 | There's something really charming about it

00:28:40.080 | when people have a lot of northern pride

00:28:42.320 | because so many of the rest of the people in the country

00:28:44.960 | live down in Reykjavik.

00:28:46.720 | So just beyond Akureyri, there's Mivat,

00:28:49.680 | which Mivat actually translates to fly water

00:28:53.360 | because there's a lot of flies in the spring

00:28:56.400 | when everything blooms.

00:28:57.560 | But in the summer, it's absolutely stunning.

00:28:59.600 | But that whole area has had a lot of

00:29:02.000 | ancient volcanic activity

00:29:03.840 | and there's some really cool formations to check out.

00:29:06.200 | And then Húsavík is like a college town nearby,

00:29:09.760 | like a really young, cool vibe,

00:29:12.200 | best place in Iceland to go whale watching in season.

00:29:15.560 | You can go out and see dozens of whales.

00:29:18.320 | Really cool town to spend some time in.

00:29:20.920 | And then you kind of go along to the east,

00:29:24.080 | so, you know, like three o'clock,

00:29:25.640 | and those fjords are really thin and jagged

00:29:28.840 | and kind of have a similar vibe to the West fjords.

00:29:31.800 | Some really extreme mountains meeting water,

00:29:35.880 | some really cool little towns.

00:29:38.960 | And then, you know, you kind of come around to Skaftafell,

00:29:42.520 | which is like a really cool geological formation.

00:29:45.440 | The glacial lagoon, which you might have seen on Instagram.

00:29:49.560 | And then you have the black sand beaches in the south

00:29:52.440 | and that crawls all the way back again

00:29:54.680 | to that golden circle area.

00:29:57.280 | - You went through the whole south pretty fast.

00:29:58.880 | Is that kind of maybe something

00:30:01.520 | that's often left off an itinerary or?

00:30:04.000 | - So the south is extremely popular

00:30:06.720 | because it's super easy to get to

00:30:08.360 | and the roads are always clear and really flat

00:30:11.520 | because of a lot of northern weather

00:30:13.560 | will hit the highlands of Iceland and dissipate.

00:30:16.840 | So you'll get rain,

00:30:18.120 | but you might not get as like extreme winds

00:30:22.640 | or things that would close a road.

00:30:25.440 | So I find like a lot of people on short itineraries

00:30:29.520 | will kind of do that Southern area.

00:30:31.640 | Vík, which is about halfway, kind of six o'clock.

00:30:35.080 | Vík is kind of the farthest point

00:30:36.520 | a lot of people go on a short trip.

00:30:39.240 | And then everything that's sort of West of Vík

00:30:42.600 | are the stuff that people explore.

00:30:44.000 | So there's like a really good waterfall at Skóðr

00:30:47.440 | and you can do some really cool hiking around Skóðr.

00:30:50.760 | And my favorite hike in all of Iceland

00:30:54.680 | is actually from Skóðr up over where that big eruption was

00:30:59.680 | about 12 years ago.

00:31:01.240 | And then you land down into a valley called Þarsmörk

00:31:04.600 | between three glaciers.

00:31:07.000 | The weather is always like pretty good in Þarsmörk

00:31:09.120 | because it's protected by glaciers.

00:31:12.520 | And that hike is called Fimvardals.

00:31:14.960 | It takes a whole day to do.

00:31:16.960 | I would definitely recommend having a guide

00:31:19.280 | take you to do it.

00:31:20.320 | It takes like 10 hours.

00:31:22.560 | Then you end up in Þarsmörk for the night

00:31:24.360 | and you could spend a night in Þarsmörk

00:31:25.800 | and then arrange to be picked up

00:31:27.080 | and driven back out to the ring road again.

00:31:29.080 | - That brings up a good point, guides.

00:31:30.640 | Is that something that if you're going to Iceland,

00:31:32.440 | you're like you probably should organize

00:31:33.760 | a lot of guides and trips or can you do this all on your own

00:31:36.920 | except maybe a few things like what you just mentioned?

00:31:39.720 | - Well, the one thing that a lot of people do

00:31:41.680 | is they get in trouble when they take

00:31:43.800 | their little Yaris car on an F road.

00:31:47.000 | So F roads are F for Fjall, which means mountain.

00:31:50.600 | And it is strictly prohibited to drive your rental car

00:31:54.000 | unless you have like a chonky SUV four-wheel drive,

00:31:57.960 | but it will say like in a sticker in the vehicle

00:32:00.520 | whether or not that car can go on an F road.

00:32:02.440 | You will know.

00:32:04.000 | And in the times that I've driven by broken cars on F roads

00:32:08.880 | because a tourist thought they were superhuman

00:32:10.960 | and thought they could do it.

00:32:11.800 | I mean, if I had a nickel,

00:32:13.040 | I would honestly be a millionaire.

00:32:14.800 | So you need a guide for that.

00:32:16.120 | I wouldn't want to try to get a car across a small river

00:32:20.000 | and having it swept away.

00:32:21.920 | If you really want to get into the highlands,

00:32:24.160 | go to places like Thorsmark

00:32:25.560 | or have that kind of rewarding experience,

00:32:28.000 | I would absolutely hire a guide.

00:32:30.600 | I would also hire a guide because like I said,

00:32:33.520 | you don't have to be precious about the exact trail to hike

00:32:38.080 | or the exact gorge to check out or waterfall.

00:32:41.560 | And what a guide will do is a lot of them

00:32:43.480 | have significant training and they're going to know,

00:32:48.320 | okay, the weather is coming in from the West.

00:32:50.480 | So we were going to hike in the West,

00:32:52.760 | but today we'll hike Eastward.

00:32:54.680 | We'll have beautiful skies and a chance of Northern lights

00:32:58.360 | and they'll switch it up.

00:32:59.400 | And they'll know because they have that experience

00:33:02.080 | from growing up in rural Iceland, what the weather is doing.

00:33:05.680 | And they'll just optimize your hike.

00:33:07.720 | Like you don't have to put on your rain coat

00:33:11.040 | and have terrible wind just to say

00:33:12.920 | that you walked from A to B.

00:33:15.360 | Your guide will give you the exact same experience

00:33:17.760 | that you didn't even know existed

00:33:19.800 | by walking you from C to D.

00:33:22.400 | That's the value.

00:33:23.720 | - Any tips for finding these guides to get a good one

00:33:26.040 | or is it easy?

00:33:26.880 | - Iceland's so small and there are a lot

00:33:29.720 | of tourism businesses and I don't necessarily

00:33:33.000 | want to prioritize one over the other

00:33:35.600 | because it's such a tiny place.

00:33:37.160 | But I will shout out one of my favorite groups

00:33:40.520 | on the island, Midgard Adventures.

00:33:43.120 | They're just such a cool group of people.

00:33:45.640 | They're all really young.

00:33:47.520 | They're in their late 20s and 30s

00:33:49.400 | and they have just like this incredible spirit about them.

00:33:52.600 | And they really vibe with this,

00:33:55.280 | like we're not just gonna take you to this thing

00:33:57.800 | because you saw it on Instagram.

00:33:59.560 | We're gonna give you a whole experience.

00:34:02.080 | But like it's not weird to end up at one of their houses

00:34:05.640 | at the end of the day because you guys were like bonding

00:34:08.120 | over some really cool music and you go and like listen

00:34:11.520 | to records at their house and like their mom cooks for you

00:34:14.000 | or something like that.

00:34:14.880 | I just love them so much.

00:34:16.360 | I remember the first time that I was in Iceland

00:34:19.520 | like 18 years ago, I met some of those guys

00:34:23.080 | when they were like teenagers

00:34:24.840 | and now they're married with kids.

00:34:26.760 | I just really respect what they're doing.

00:34:28.120 | There's a lot of people doing cool stuff like that

00:34:29.880 | but it's been fun to like watch them over the years.

00:34:32.280 | - And you mentioned Northern Lights.

00:34:33.560 | If that's on someone's bucket list,

00:34:35.000 | like I wanna see them somewhere, somehow in the world,

00:34:37.800 | is tacking that on in Iceland a good time to do it?

00:34:40.680 | - Yeah, so we're actually about to enter

00:34:43.360 | the era of solar maximum for Northern Lights

00:34:46.640 | and basically what that means is the sun is sort of on a,

00:34:49.880 | it's like an 11 year cycle of how it's producing flares.

00:34:54.040 | So we're coming into solar maximum

00:34:56.000 | which is supposed to be in 2024

00:34:58.160 | but you don't have to be in full maximum

00:35:00.280 | to have great Northern Lights.

00:35:02.000 | So they're gonna be great this year.

00:35:04.520 | So there's three ingredients that you need

00:35:06.440 | for Northern Lights.

00:35:07.280 | You need flares, you need darkness

00:35:10.120 | and you need a lack of clouds.

00:35:12.720 | A lot of people are gonna try to sell you

00:35:14.640 | on a Northern Lights tour.

00:35:16.640 | It's completely bogus.

00:35:18.480 | You don't have to pay all this money

00:35:20.440 | to have someone drive you out into the wilderness.

00:35:23.200 | You can do it yourself 'cause you're just looking up.

00:35:26.560 | And if you're gonna follow that 4D itinerary

00:35:29.080 | we were talking about where you're gonna go base yourself

00:35:32.120 | in the wilderness in a rural part of Iceland

00:35:34.960 | for the majority of your trip,

00:35:36.440 | you can just look out the window.

00:35:38.440 | But I've also seen amazing Northern Lights

00:35:41.600 | in downtown Reykjavik.

00:35:43.400 | 'Cause when they're good, they're good.

00:35:45.560 | There's a website that gives you Intel IS, V-E-D-U-R.IS.

00:35:50.560 | It gives you Intel and a score

00:35:53.640 | on what the flares are gonna be doing that night.

00:35:55.840 | And it'll also tell you how much cloud cover

00:35:57.760 | there's gonna be.

00:35:58.880 | So you can kind of make a judgment.

00:36:01.160 | I think the scale goes to nine, but a four is good.

00:36:05.000 | Like if you get a four, you're like,

00:36:06.320 | "Okay, I'm gonna see some Northern Lights.

00:36:07.760 | If it's clear, the conditions have to be correct."

00:36:10.560 | So because you need darkness,

00:36:11.920 | you would think December and January

00:36:14.200 | are actually the best months, but it's not true.

00:36:16.720 | Where all the factors kind of collide the best

00:36:19.720 | is sort of in that March and October range.

00:36:22.640 | So you're gonna get all that daylight during the day

00:36:24.440 | and then you're gonna get maximum Northern Light potential.

00:36:27.440 | I just wouldn't fall into the trap

00:36:30.480 | of needing to pay someone $150

00:36:32.720 | for them to drive you somewhere

00:36:34.800 | when you have a car and you could ask

00:36:37.640 | the hotel you're staying at,

00:36:39.000 | like where is a particularly dark place to go.

00:36:42.160 | If you're in Reykjavik,

00:36:43.000 | just drive an hour out of the city on the South Coast.

00:36:45.560 | The best Northern Lights I've seen are in that area.

00:36:48.160 | - We didn't talk too much about transportation,

00:36:49.680 | but it sounds like everyone needs a car.

00:36:51.480 | - Yeah, if you're going in the dead of winter

00:36:53.200 | and you just kind of want to be cozy in a cabin

00:36:55.720 | or you just want to be cozy in Reykjavik

00:36:57.520 | and kind of bop around,

00:36:58.640 | like you could certainly land in Keflavik

00:37:00.560 | and then take the bus.

00:37:02.200 | The buses run all the time

00:37:03.440 | and they're like coach buses.

00:37:05.200 | They don't feel like a public bus

00:37:06.720 | that you might find in a city in the US

00:37:09.120 | and then you will get to your hotel

00:37:10.800 | and you can kind of have your low key experience in the city.

00:37:14.280 | But yeah, I would absolutely rent a car.

00:37:18.280 | It just really maximizes your ability

00:37:21.000 | to get out into nature

00:37:22.160 | 'cause that's why you're there, right?

00:37:23.560 | Nature and culture.

00:37:25.400 | - Any tips on cars?

00:37:26.600 | I mean, you mentioned not all of them

00:37:28.160 | can go on certain roads.

00:37:29.360 | Is there something you'd be like,

00:37:30.280 | this is what you should be opting for

00:37:31.680 | or steer clear of all the US chains,

00:37:33.640 | like focus on local or anything like that?

00:37:35.960 | - There was this really funny era in Iceland

00:37:39.080 | about 10 years ago when they got a surplus of Yaris's.

00:37:42.960 | They were so omnipresent everywhere.

00:37:45.320 | You'd pull up to an attraction

00:37:46.960 | and there would just be 86 Yaris's lined up in a row

00:37:50.560 | that locals were calling tourists Yaris's.

00:37:53.840 | They're like, oh, there's another Yaris.

00:37:56.200 | And it's diversified since.

00:37:58.160 | When you get the four wheel drive,

00:38:01.160 | you get the opportunity to drive on the mountain roads.

00:38:04.240 | So it gives you more accessibility.

00:38:05.840 | They are significantly more expensive as a result.

00:38:09.320 | And if you don't have any experience

00:38:11.400 | using four wheel drives on those roads,

00:38:15.920 | this is not the time to start.

00:38:17.760 | So my instinct would actually be

00:38:20.960 | to get an affordable vehicle

00:38:24.040 | so that it can get you around.

00:38:26.440 | You know, if you're gonna rent that Airbnb

00:38:28.640 | out in Kvassar and you're gonna wanna drive

00:38:32.480 | to a cool restaurant nearby and drive to do a few things,

00:38:36.120 | do that and then save your money to splurge on a guide.

00:38:41.120 | And that guide will likely come with their own vehicle

00:38:44.080 | and take you up into the mountains

00:38:46.680 | or up into places where you don't really know

00:38:48.520 | where you're going and it's not the time

00:38:50.000 | to try to figure it out.

00:38:51.680 | - While we're on transportation, you mentioned flights.

00:38:53.560 | Is that something people should be thinking about

00:38:55.480 | if they have limited time or everything's small enough

00:38:59.560 | that is it really just kind of like a luxury

00:39:02.200 | that's not necessary?

00:39:03.880 | - So one of my ideas for an alternate long weekend

00:39:08.880 | is instead of picking up that car at Keflavik Airport,

00:39:14.120 | driving to the south and doing this ring with Reykjavik,

00:39:17.160 | if you've done that or if you just wanna be in a place

00:39:20.480 | that is less expensive, what I would actually do

00:39:23.960 | is take a domestic flight to Akureyri.

00:39:28.560 | So you land, then you're gonna get on a very short

00:39:31.680 | domestic flight to Akureyri in the north

00:39:34.200 | and you're gonna do your own circle up there.

00:39:36.020 | So it's gonna be Akureyri, Mivat and Husevik

00:39:39.000 | and you're getting a lot of really cool stuff up there.

00:39:41.740 | The internal flight, the round trip to get up there

00:39:45.240 | and back to the international airport

00:39:46.640 | is gonna be about $140.

00:39:49.080 | And that cost is immediately defrayed

00:39:52.480 | by virtue of all the accommodation

00:39:54.840 | being so much cheaper up there

00:39:56.840 | because it's less in demand.

00:39:59.600 | So it ends up working out in the wash to be free

00:40:04.600 | and you're gonna have a lot less tourists up there

00:40:08.480 | than you would in the capital area.

00:40:10.880 | And it comes with a little bit more bragging rights

00:40:12.840 | where you're up in this like much farther place,

00:40:16.120 | you're still gonna get your little taste of culture

00:40:17.880 | in Akureyri, the little big city of Iceland,

00:40:20.440 | but has all the things that the capital region has

00:40:24.160 | and that Southwest Iceland has,

00:40:26.040 | like the really cool hot springs

00:40:28.960 | and it has the spas and really great hiking

00:40:31.160 | and really cool horse ranches.

00:40:33.400 | It's just gonna be way less tourists

00:40:37.200 | and way more opportunities to connect with locals.

00:40:40.320 | - That sounds awesome.

00:40:41.200 | And I assume you could still go rent a car there

00:40:43.080 | and do all those things.

00:40:44.280 | - Oh, totally.

00:40:45.100 | There's a car rental right at the Akureyri airport.

00:40:47.080 | - Cool.

00:40:47.920 | So we've kind of talked about a lot of regions.

00:40:50.040 | Let's kind of zoom in to the capital for a little bit

00:40:52.880 | 'cause I know it's probably going to be a home base

00:40:55.320 | for everyone.

00:40:56.160 | If someone's looking to have a food nightlife experience,

00:41:00.060 | that's probably the place to do it.

00:41:01.360 | Though I imagine you can eat anywhere in Iceland,

00:41:02.880 | of course, people eat wherever they live.

00:41:04.840 | But let's talk about it a little bit.

00:41:06.400 | - Totally.

00:41:07.240 | Okay, so we'll start with accommodation.

00:41:09.160 | I have a really tricky feeling about Reykjavik

00:41:14.080 | because the city center becomes a bit of a tourist town

00:41:19.760 | a lot of people Airbnb their apartments.

00:41:22.800 | There's a lot of hotels that have gone up.

00:41:25.920 | It can be pretty intense.

00:41:28.560 | And there's a part of me that gets a little bit sad

00:41:30.540 | because it's supposed to be a city for locals.

00:41:32.880 | And then it becomes this hub.

00:41:34.960 | For me, I like to pick a hotel when I'm in Reykjavik

00:41:38.720 | instead of an Airbnb.

00:41:40.760 | And that's because it's kind of like that Barcelona thing

00:41:44.000 | where there were too many Airbnbs

00:41:45.680 | and suddenly the city had no soul.

00:41:48.620 | And I wanna put my money into a hotel in Reykjavik

00:41:53.620 | because I believe that to be more culturally sustainable

00:41:58.680 | and it keeps zoning a little bit better.

00:42:01.480 | The price of an Airbnb is so high in Reykjavik

00:42:05.800 | that you're not really getting a huge value

00:42:09.080 | in picking an Airbnb over a hotel.

00:42:11.680 | A lot of the Airbnbs are really small

00:42:13.600 | or they're just like a room in someone's house.

00:42:15.360 | And I appreciate having a family

00:42:17.480 | and needing two bedrooms or something like that.

00:42:20.120 | You'll find all of that out in the countryside.

00:42:23.300 | There's summer houses and like cool Airbnbs to rent

00:42:27.040 | that fit families all over Iceland in the countryside.

00:42:30.520 | I would stick to hotels in Reykjavik

00:42:34.800 | for a price reason and a cultural sustainability reason.

00:42:38.680 | Now, as far as picking things to eat,

00:42:41.420 | if we go back to that idea of eras before,

00:42:44.960 | a restaurant could be wildly successful

00:42:48.280 | and the chef could just be like,

00:42:49.800 | you know what, now I wanna be a school teacher.

00:42:51.180 | I'm gonna close my restaurant.

00:42:52.720 | So the shelf life of eating establishments in Reykjavik

00:42:56.680 | is a lot shorter than I would like it to be,

00:43:00.280 | especially when I was writing guidebooks

00:43:02.220 | and I needed them to stay open

00:43:04.040 | so that my guidebook would stay relevant.

00:43:06.960 | So the best resource in my opinion is Grapevine.

00:43:10.960 | It's the local paper, all of it's online.

00:43:14.040 | They've done a great job for years and years

00:43:16.320 | and they're totally tapped into the community.

00:43:19.200 | On their website, they have a best of list

00:43:21.840 | and I love all of their recommendations.

00:43:25.040 | Like I always wholeheartedly agree with their point of view.

00:43:29.320 | Some of my personal favorites that have been around

00:43:32.440 | for quite a long time are Fish Market, Fish Company,

00:43:37.440 | Dill, which is just like a great restaurant

00:43:41.120 | if you're celebrating something.

00:43:42.600 | It's sort of a cut above and just really wonderful.

00:43:46.280 | Ox is really cool.

00:43:48.080 | It used to lurk in the back of another restaurant

00:43:51.280 | and now it's opened in its own space.

00:43:53.800 | And then the cafe culture side, Reykjavik Roasters,

00:43:57.560 | they're everywhere now.

00:43:58.880 | It started as one spot, there's a few locations.

00:44:02.120 | Great stuff, great places to sit and hang out.

00:44:05.240 | But I really like Cactus Espresso Bar

00:44:08.000 | and all my friends in Iceland are talking

00:44:09.760 | about this new place that's opening called Anna Jónas

00:44:13.120 | that is getting a lot of buzz.

00:44:14.440 | And I'm really excited to go check that place out

00:44:16.760 | when I go back.

00:44:17.880 | The other thing also on the food side

00:44:20.200 | is not to snub fast food.

00:44:24.040 | Icelanders love their American style fast food

00:44:28.240 | and their candy.

00:44:30.720 | So you gotta get a hot dog.

00:44:33.520 | And when you order the hot dog, ask for it Einar með öll,

00:44:37.920 | which means one with everything.

00:44:39.400 | And it comes with like crunchy, like Funyun-y things on top.

00:44:43.800 | And that's a must.

00:44:45.120 | It's like, you know, drunk food at three in the morning

00:44:47.680 | after you've been out at the bars.

00:44:49.840 | Because Icelanders sort of covet American style fast food

00:44:54.840 | or the way that we're doing food,

00:44:57.960 | food halls are really trendy right now.

00:45:00.400 | There's just food halls everywhere.

00:45:02.360 | When Iceland's really busy,

00:45:03.480 | it can be hard to get a reservation at a restaurant.

00:45:05.800 | So going for dinner at a food hall

00:45:07.280 | is a totally worthy option

00:45:10.920 | 'cause you don't have to plan.

00:45:12.160 | And then if you're with a bunch of friends

00:45:14.600 | or if you're just with one person,

00:45:16.640 | you're in the mood for different things,

00:45:17.800 | you can each get what you want.

00:45:19.760 | I really like the one at Klemmer, that particular food hall.

00:45:23.200 | And then there's a new one at the post office, Postus,

00:45:26.440 | that is pretty cool as well.

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00:48:29.080 | So, that's places to go, but what about specific things?

00:48:31.520 | Are there things to try to eat

00:48:33.640 | to make sure you get to drink in Iceland,

00:48:35.720 | just if you wanna have that kind of local culinary experience?

00:48:39.320 | - There's a lot of novelty food in Iceland,

00:48:42.120 | like rotten fermented shark and all this kind of stuff,

00:48:46.760 | and it's pretty gimmicky, and it doesn't make a meal.

00:48:50.960 | So, the two things that I always recommend

00:48:53.000 | is fish and lamb.

00:48:56.320 | And the lamb roam free in the Icelandic countryside,

00:49:00.240 | and they eat angelica.

00:49:01.780 | So, they have a very distinct taste

00:49:03.680 | because they sort of absorb that herbaceousness

00:49:06.520 | when you eat them.

00:49:07.360 | It's really incredible.

00:49:09.160 | And they serve the lamb towards the rarer side.

00:49:13.200 | It's a really different lamb experience

00:49:14.800 | than what you're gonna have in an American restaurant.

00:49:17.800 | And the fish is just totally incredible.

00:49:20.200 | Everything is freshly caught,

00:49:21.840 | and you're gonna find it in a lot of different forms.

00:49:24.920 | At the more down-to-earth restaurants,

00:49:26.880 | and a lot of restaurants in the countryside,

00:49:28.740 | you're gonna get lamb soup, or lamb stew,

00:49:32.640 | or a fish soup, or a fish stew,

00:49:34.820 | and that's the perfect way to fill up

00:49:37.720 | for significantly less money while you're on the road.

00:49:41.920 | And it's in a vat, so it comes quick,

00:49:44.720 | and they serve it to you.

00:49:46.000 | By far, my favorite thing is to eat

00:49:48.260 | all like grandma's recipe, even at the nicest restaurants.

00:49:52.060 | - I'm thinking about all these places you mentioned.

00:49:53.700 | Is Reykjavik small enough that it's like,

00:49:55.300 | it's pretty easy to get around?

00:49:56.500 | If you're there for two or three days,

00:49:57.860 | do you need the rental car there

00:49:59.140 | to go check these places out,

00:50:00.540 | or how do you think about that?

00:50:02.300 | - Absolutely not.

00:50:03.140 | If you're planning to only go to Reykjavik

00:50:05.020 | on your trip for a few days, do not get a rental car,

00:50:09.000 | because parking is a total nightmare in the city center.

00:50:12.100 | All the locals have vehicles

00:50:13.300 | because they wanna go out to their summer houses

00:50:14.900 | on the weekends, they wanna get out of the city and explore.

00:50:18.020 | And a lot of their needs,

00:50:19.540 | like a lot of the big grocery stores and malls,

00:50:22.260 | the big box shopping that they need to do

00:50:23.980 | is a little bit outside the city center,

00:50:25.660 | so they need a car for that.

00:50:27.100 | I would absolutely advise against

00:50:29.780 | getting a vehicle in the city.

00:50:31.920 | Beyond restaurants, the big social pastime

00:50:35.180 | is the hot pot culture, the hot springs culture.

00:50:38.540 | There's water everywhere,

00:50:40.260 | and Blue Lagoon has been famous for a very long time.

00:50:43.740 | It's right near the airport, so a lot of people go.

00:50:46.160 | But I would highly recommend going to a municipal pool

00:50:50.180 | while you're in Reykjavik.

00:50:51.400 | There's a lot of them.

00:50:53.080 | My favorite one is Vesterberg on the west side,

00:50:56.720 | walkable from the city center.

00:50:58.100 | I've been there 300 times, maybe,

00:51:01.940 | and it's totally walkable from the apartment

00:51:03.960 | that I used to have, which was right in the city center.

00:51:06.160 | There's just a social element to bathing in the water.

00:51:09.440 | It's like the perfect hangover cure.

00:51:11.240 | I like going in the evenings.

00:51:12.840 | At the end of the day, it's like you've been walking around,

00:51:15.260 | your legs are tired, maybe you were on a hike,

00:51:17.580 | and I would absolutely do it in central Reykjavik,

00:51:22.060 | in addition to doing it all over the country.

00:51:23.980 | But this is a really important part

00:51:26.260 | of the Icelandic experience.

00:51:27.860 | And a lot of fancy hot spring destinations have opened.

00:51:32.380 | There's Sky Lagoon.

00:51:33.740 | There's actually one called Krøyma,

00:51:35.220 | Simmering, like we were talking about before.

00:51:37.340 | There's Secret Lagoon.

00:51:38.980 | There's a new one that opened called Kvamsvik.

00:51:41.700 | That's just outside the city.

00:51:42.940 | You'll need cars to get to these.

00:51:44.700 | They're significantly more expensive,

00:51:46.940 | but if you think of it as entertainment

00:51:49.040 | instead of a swimming pool,

00:51:51.340 | it becomes worth the money, in my opinion.

00:51:54.940 | And you can get a beer at a lot of them.

00:51:56.980 | - The advice someone gave me was that

00:51:58.660 | most towns have these community hot springs.

00:52:00.780 | They're free and open to the public

00:52:02.100 | and a great way to meet people.

00:52:03.580 | So it sounds like you could balance both of those

00:52:06.060 | and do this as you're traveling around the country.

00:52:08.140 | - Yeah, there's a whole mixed bag of municipal pools

00:52:10.680 | all over the country.

00:52:11.520 | So a little municipality will have a pool

00:52:14.220 | where you could do laps and then a hot tub next to it

00:52:17.140 | where you can soak.

00:52:18.340 | And you have to pay a fee to use those.

00:52:20.580 | And then there's just ones in the wild

00:52:22.700 | where people have cemented a little thing

00:52:25.780 | or there's a barrel

00:52:27.420 | and you kind of get pointed in their direction.

00:52:29.300 | You can actually look on Google,

00:52:31.020 | if you Google hot springs,

00:52:32.100 | there's so many websites that are trying

00:52:33.660 | to commoditize this, make money off of you for clicking it.

00:52:36.500 | You could just get it on Google Maps.

00:52:38.140 | There's lists everywhere of where these are.

00:52:40.920 | My favorite are up in the West fjords

00:52:43.420 | along the Strandir coast.

00:52:45.660 | One is called Traunsnes and the other Krusneslaug.

00:52:49.500 | They're like my two favorite kind of in the wild hot pots.

00:52:54.180 | They're not quite free anymore.

00:52:55.820 | A lot of the ones that are out in nature,

00:52:57.220 | there'll be like a little donation box,

00:52:59.240 | which is tricky 'cause you don't need to take out cash.

00:53:02.100 | In Iceland at all, everything you can do on a credit card,

00:53:05.300 | but there is an expectation now if you're a tourist

00:53:07.780 | that you do leave something when you go

00:53:09.980 | to the more wild ones out of courtesy,

00:53:12.840 | because they have to be cleaned

00:53:14.040 | and they have to be maintained.

00:53:15.440 | And with more tourists comes more usage.

00:53:18.040 | You need to keep the water clean.

00:53:19.100 | You have to bathe in a shower completely naked

00:53:23.960 | before you put your bathing suit on to go in.

00:53:26.200 | That is a social requirement.

00:53:28.840 | It is a must.

00:53:30.080 | A lot of the fancier facilities have private showers.

00:53:33.280 | All the municipal pools just have nozzles.

00:53:36.180 | You must get naked.

00:53:37.560 | A lot of the facilities used to have professional watchers

00:53:42.320 | that would watch you bathe to make sure

00:53:44.520 | that you were using soap to clean under your arms

00:53:47.000 | and your bathing suit area.

00:53:48.560 | - Wow, that just reminds me, like there's a cultural norm,

00:53:50.640 | like make sure you know that so you don't get in trouble.

00:53:52.880 | Any other random things like that to keep in mind?

00:53:55.800 | - I mean, my ultimate favorite municipal pool

00:53:58.760 | is the one in Hufsos in the Northwest.

00:54:02.600 | That one's super cool.

00:54:03.760 | It's like built like almost like an infinity pool.

00:54:06.360 | It's pretty incredible.

00:54:07.560 | Like the ones you have to pay $50 to go to

00:54:10.600 | are kind of similar.

00:54:12.120 | So if you're in the region, detour to Hufsos

00:54:14.100 | and definitely go to that one.

00:54:15.680 | - Any other things in Reykjavik to not miss,

00:54:18.480 | whether it's museum, art, nightlife, other things?

00:54:22.680 | - I would definitely refer back to Grapevine

00:54:24.640 | for the latest on cool shops to check out.

00:54:26.880 | There's just a roaring design culture

00:54:29.760 | and a lot of shops will have small boutiques

00:54:32.800 | of things that people are making locally or doing

00:54:35.400 | and all over the city shopping is super fun.

00:54:38.200 | I like cafe culture.

00:54:40.160 | I like holing up and having an incredible cup of coffee,

00:54:44.200 | people watching, seeing who else is there,

00:54:46.920 | going to like cool shops,

00:54:48.360 | dialoguing with the people who own those shops

00:54:50.760 | about the traditional loopy sweaters

00:54:54.080 | that they're making out of wool,

00:54:56.120 | from that to like really cool bathing gear,

00:55:01.120 | interior design stuff, that vibe.

00:55:05.120 | - And we hit a lot of things.

00:55:06.240 | We talked about hot springs,

00:55:07.320 | we talked about hiking, Northern Lights, eating.

00:55:09.760 | What about the language?

00:55:10.600 | You said it'd be good to learn a few words.

00:55:12.720 | Any tips for which ones and where and how?

00:55:16.000 | - Yeah, I mean, there's a few pronunciation conventions

00:55:19.240 | that can be really confusing.

00:55:20.680 | The rite of passage in Iceland is trying to name

00:55:24.680 | that volcano that erupted about 12 years ago

00:55:27.400 | that had the really long name

00:55:28.640 | and there's like a hundred YouTubes of news anchors

00:55:31.560 | flubbing the pronunciation.

00:55:33.720 | It's Eyjafjallajökull.

00:55:36.080 | And if you can nail that, people will be really impressed.

00:55:39.760 | So I would work on that before you arrive.

00:55:42.000 | A few things like on signs that you want to check out

00:55:45.800 | to kind of understand that there's a few extra letters

00:55:49.080 | in the Icelandic alphabet.

00:55:50.360 | So there's the Eð, which is like a D with a slash in it.

00:55:54.800 | And that is pronounced like a th.

00:55:57.880 | And then there's Þórn, which is like a P,

00:56:00.320 | but the cup of the P is like a little bit lower.

00:56:04.000 | It's sort of in the middle of the stem

00:56:05.960 | and that's a Þ, like thing.

00:56:08.800 | And then there's a O with an umlaut that's like Ø.

00:56:12.880 | And then a double L is actually like the TL in kettle.

00:56:17.880 | So Fjall is like F-J-A-L-L,

00:56:24.160 | or like there's a place called Hætlisandur.

00:56:27.400 | So it's not Hælisandur, it's Hætlisandur.

00:56:30.720 | And it's little things like that,

00:56:32.360 | that if you can get them right,

00:56:33.920 | like a H and a V has like a k sound.

00:56:38.400 | So there's a town outside of Reykjavik called Hveragerði,

00:56:42.160 | but it starts with an H.

00:56:43.800 | You'll kind of lose people if you're like,

00:56:45.240 | where's Hvaragerði?

00:56:47.640 | It's Hveragerði.

00:56:49.160 | It's tricky, but you need to get these things

00:56:52.520 | in order for people to properly understand you.

00:56:54.680 | The J is like a Y.

00:56:56.560 | So again, the word for mountain, Fjall is F-J-F-J-L-L-T-L.

00:57:01.560 | Those are just a few examples.

00:57:04.840 | - So unlike some places where it's like,

00:57:06.120 | oh, maybe I should learn where's the bathroom,

00:57:07.640 | where's this?

00:57:08.480 | It sounds like maybe the better thing to focus on

00:57:10.320 | is just try to nail some pronunciation.

00:57:11.960 | So when you're talking about places to go and landmarks

00:57:14.640 | and stuff like that, you could just say them.

00:57:17.680 | - Yeah, the ones that I just mentioned,

00:57:19.920 | I would go back and re-listen if you are going

00:57:22.800 | and try to get those.

00:57:24.400 | That's like a good five or six to nail.

00:57:26.640 | There's a few more,

00:57:27.800 | but I feel like that might be too deep of a dive.

00:57:30.720 | That's a really good start.

00:57:32.680 | If there are three words that you're gonna remember,

00:57:35.560 | gratitude I think is always the most important

00:57:37.760 | to express gratitude.

00:57:38.840 | So thank you, takk fyrd.

00:57:41.200 | And then people say bless, like bless you,

00:57:46.040 | bless when they say goodbye.

00:57:48.760 | So it's not religiously charged.

00:57:52.080 | It's just when you leave a store or say goodbye to someone,

00:57:56.960 | they will say bless to you,

00:57:59.120 | which can be a little confusing

00:58:00.480 | if you don't know what it's for.

00:58:01.480 | And then good day, good day.

00:58:03.400 | - All right.

00:58:05.320 | Any other kind of secret places, that great Iceland vibe,

00:58:09.600 | maybe not as crowded that you wanna tap on?

00:58:12.080 | - I think really can't overexpress how much in the way

00:58:16.640 | that so many Icelanders live in the Reykjavik region.

00:58:19.160 | So many tourists congregate in the Reykjavik region.

00:58:22.920 | If you have the energy to get far away out of the region,

00:58:27.920 | the East fjords or the West fjords,

00:58:31.680 | you will have an experience that you covet

00:58:35.520 | with significantly less people.

00:58:38.960 | So if that is something that's really important to you,

00:58:41.320 | put in that energy, take that domestic flight

00:58:44.520 | or put in the drive and you'll get that return.

00:58:48.360 | - And I know you don't have kids,

00:58:49.440 | but you've met plenty of people

00:58:51.080 | that have traveled around Iceland.

00:58:52.520 | Kid-friendly place culturally

00:58:54.640 | and kind of some of the activities?

00:58:56.160 | - Yeah, a wonderfully family-friendly destination

00:58:59.440 | to the point where in the news,

00:59:00.680 | you'll hear like the biggest scandal that happens

00:59:04.080 | is a teenager stole a car and drove it a block

00:59:09.040 | and then got out and returned the keys to the owner.

00:59:12.280 | It's that kind of destination where it's super safe.

00:59:15.160 | And there's a culture of leaving your children

00:59:17.000 | in their prams outside of a restaurant

00:59:19.520 | 'cause it's supposed to be good for them

00:59:20.840 | to be kind of bundled up in the cold.

00:59:22.880 | You'll find that all throughout Scandinavia,

00:59:24.520 | but it's not weird to go to brunch,

00:59:26.440 | but leave your baby outside.

00:59:28.440 | - This is something my wife and I were talking about

00:59:30.000 | 'cause it's also true in other countries, like you said.

00:59:32.120 | And so don't be alarmed if you see that here,

00:59:34.720 | because I think in the States,

00:59:36.280 | people would definitely freak out.

00:59:38.480 | - Yeah, totally.

00:59:39.320 | And I mean, kids are gonna love this.

00:59:40.400 | It's such a candy-friendly destination.

00:59:43.600 | And there's skir, also this very proteinous kind of yogurt

00:59:47.360 | that's absolutely delicious.

00:59:48.920 | But there's a lot of things that kids are gonna love,

00:59:50.840 | like the amount of licorice.

00:59:52.560 | There's like a bizarre licorice obsession.

00:59:55.440 | And they have all these really cool candies,

00:59:57.840 | like rein is my favorite.

01:00:00.040 | And it's basically like a KitKat

01:00:03.800 | in a Rice Krispie treat dipped in chocolate.

01:00:08.840 | And every time I go, I bring back like 20 boxes of rein.

01:00:13.760 | And they love their licorice dipped in chocolate as well,

01:00:17.160 | which I'm not like a salty, sweet person,

01:00:19.640 | but rein is like my absolute guilty pleasure.

01:00:22.640 | - Wow.

01:00:23.600 | All right, I feel like we hit so much.

01:00:25.160 | Anything we missed that you wanna make sure we cover,

01:00:27.920 | because I'm ready to go and I wanna make sure I have it all.

01:00:31.240 | - I would definitely do some research on the hot springs.

01:00:34.080 | There's like Vøk in the east,

01:00:36.040 | Forest Bath in the north, Geo Sea and Husavik.

01:00:38.920 | These are all like really cool hot springs to check out.

01:00:42.720 | I would also challenge you to eat sort of unconventionally

01:00:47.440 | when you're outside of Reykjavik.

01:00:48.800 | One of the best meals I've had in Iceland

01:00:50.720 | was at the museum in Borgnes, which is in the west.

01:00:53.760 | It's the settlement museum,

01:00:55.000 | which tells the story of the sagas and Iceland settlement,

01:00:58.000 | but they have really good food at their buffet there.

01:01:01.080 | So a lot of the conventions

01:01:02.400 | and the way we think about where to eat and what's cool,

01:01:05.080 | throw that all out.

01:01:06.200 | You can go to a gas station in Iceland

01:01:08.000 | and have a really good hot dog.

01:01:09.480 | So put all that prejudice aside.

01:01:12.320 | - Amazing.

01:01:13.240 | So I've talked to a few people

01:01:14.160 | that are planning trips this summer,

01:01:15.680 | and they're saying Iceland is a little packed.

01:01:17.880 | I know you have a few places that you wanted to recommend

01:01:20.600 | that if someone wants that experience,

01:01:22.480 | but maybe doesn't, for whatever reason,

01:01:23.920 | wanna make it to Iceland or Iceland's too full,

01:01:25.960 | how do you get that same similar vibe somewhere else?

01:01:28.600 | - There's a lot of places in the greater region

01:01:34.160 | that are gonna give you a lot of the things

01:01:35.480 | that Iceland gives you, but without that tourist traffic.

01:01:39.400 | And one of my favorite places in the entire world

01:01:41.960 | is Newfoundland, the easternmost province in Canada.

01:01:45.080 | Canada has a problem with perception.

01:01:47.520 | People don't find Canada sexy, but Newfoundland is an island.

01:01:51.720 | It looks like it broke off Iceland at some point

01:01:54.760 | millions and millions of years ago.

01:01:56.200 | It has all the fjords.

01:01:58.080 | It has this really distinct culture.

01:02:00.400 | Local Canadians actually still have a brogue,

01:02:02.980 | like a Scottish brogue in some of the smaller towns.

01:02:06.440 | And you could do a really cool trip from the States

01:02:09.200 | where you fly in to the capital,

01:02:11.080 | you rent a car for like four or five days,

01:02:12.960 | drive up to the Bonavista Peninsula,

01:02:15.240 | stay at really cool inns and B&Bs or even rent a cottage,

01:02:19.520 | and you're gonna get like icebergs, whale watching,

01:02:23.720 | amazing hiking, one of the best hikes in Canada,

01:02:26.520 | the Skirwink Trail is up there.

01:02:28.920 | It's just one of the most stunning places on earth,

01:02:31.640 | and it's so cheap because it's the Canadian dollar

01:02:34.340 | and not the kroner or even a euro, right, in Europe,

01:02:37.340 | that it just represents amazing value.

01:02:41.220 | I love northern Norway as well.

01:02:44.380 | There are tourists up there,

01:02:46.220 | but Lofoten is sort of a peninsula of islands

01:02:50.220 | that have all been strung together by bridges.

01:02:52.740 | I am obsessed with that area,

01:02:55.700 | and it's the most dramatic mountains and water,

01:02:58.820 | and you can rent these old fishermen huts,

01:03:01.260 | these bright red cabins right out on the fjord.

01:03:05.020 | That area is really special to me.

01:03:07.060 | I've been there five or six times,

01:03:08.780 | and I'm always desperate to go back.

01:03:10.900 | That will give you a lot of the same energy,

01:03:13.420 | and you can really visit that any time of the year as well,

01:03:17.220 | and Greenland is ascending right now.

01:03:19.860 | They're actually building a new international airport

01:03:24.060 | that are gonna have direct flights from the US,

01:03:26.460 | and that's gonna start in late 2024, early 2025,

01:03:30.620 | and it's just gonna completely change the island.

01:03:34.220 | You're getting everything,

01:03:35.540 | this incredible, curious Greenlandic culture,

01:03:40.100 | flashes of Scandinavia and that Danish vibe,

01:03:44.660 | and extreme desolation and nature.

01:03:48.420 | I'm really excited for Greenland to evolve,

01:03:51.420 | 'cause right now you have to fly actually through Iceland

01:03:53.940 | or through Copenhagen,

01:03:55.480 | so it's a really big trek for an American,

01:03:58.220 | but when those airports open,

01:03:59.560 | everything is about to change.

01:04:01.780 | - Wow.

01:04:02.620 | You might be the first person I've ever talked to

01:04:04.060 | that's even been to Greenland, so.

01:04:05.540 | - Yeah, I've been twice.

01:04:06.580 | (laughing)

01:04:07.540 | - But I think I remember when I introduced you

01:04:09.340 | in a previous episode,

01:04:10.340 | it was like you've probably been to 130 plus,

01:04:12.340 | so you've probably been almost everywhere,

01:04:13.740 | places that most of us have never been.

01:04:15.860 | Any other places this year you've got on the docket

01:04:18.100 | that you're excited to check out?

01:04:19.980 | - I'm definitely going back to Iceland

01:04:21.380 | and spending some time there.

01:04:22.580 | I'm really excited to get back

01:04:24.140 | because it's been about 18 months.

01:04:25.980 | I'm pretty open.

01:04:27.380 | The summer's looking really busy as far as movement.

01:04:31.260 | There's still a lot of pent up kind of anger

01:04:34.660 | that the pandemic had us all shut in.

01:04:36.540 | Prices are really, really high.

01:04:38.100 | I'm really interested in kind of dipping

01:04:41.100 | into more emerging destinations.

01:04:42.700 | Like I'd really like to visit the Caucasus

01:04:44.820 | and Georgia in particular.

01:04:46.900 | That's high on my to-do list.

01:04:48.740 | I'm gonna go back to Japan at the end of the year again,

01:04:50.900 | 'cause I always spend November and December in Japan.

01:04:53.740 | I'm excited about some islands in the South Pacific

01:04:56.180 | that are ascending and some West Africa.

01:04:59.740 | - Wow.

01:05:00.580 | This has been incredible.

01:05:01.620 | I keep saying it, but we've been talking

01:05:02.940 | about taking this trip to Iceland for almost a decade.

01:05:05.340 | And now I feel like as soon as Amy hears this episode,

01:05:08.420 | she's like, "All right, let's get it booked."

01:05:10.060 | - One more thing that I wanted to mention,

01:05:11.900 | the Icelanders believe in a hidden world and hidden people,

01:05:16.780 | which means that there are elves that we can't see

01:05:19.680 | that are lurking in stone formations.

01:05:22.060 | And you'll find a lot of the names of things like farms

01:05:25.140 | or elf church or elf lake, like Elftvat, elf lake.

01:05:30.060 | And the government actually has someone

01:05:32.660 | who can communicate with a hidden world on retainer.

01:05:36.220 | And so when they wanna build a new road

01:05:38.420 | in the middle of a lava field,

01:05:39.700 | they actually have to consult her to check

01:05:41.740 | if the elves are okay with their land being touched.

01:05:45.900 | And I just love that there is this very quirky facet

01:05:50.580 | that sort of underlies your experience.

01:05:53.900 | - Is there any way that someone traveling

01:05:55.780 | could like soak that in?

01:05:57.100 | Is there some like elf tour or can you meet

01:05:59.820 | with this government representative of the elves?

01:06:02.740 | - There is, there's actually a place

01:06:04.980 | called the elf garden in Hapnafjörður,

01:06:07.860 | which is the town just outside of Reykjavik.

01:06:11.860 | A really easy drive if you have a car,

01:06:13.860 | it's in the greater Reykjavik area.

01:06:16.340 | And it's the woman who used to work

01:06:18.140 | for the government doing this.

01:06:19.420 | And she has an elf center and you can learn

01:06:21.540 | where the elves are hiding and she's around,

01:06:23.780 | you can talk to her.

01:06:25.060 | - Wow.

01:06:25.900 | Okay, Brandon, I have one more thing.

01:06:27.180 | It's a little bit of a long shot.

01:06:28.820 | And so feel free to say no.

01:06:31.540 | But on the wild chance that we could get

01:06:33.900 | a handful of people in the All The Hacks community

01:06:36.580 | interested to plan a trip to Iceland,

01:06:39.380 | would you be up for being a part of that

01:06:41.420 | and organizing some kind of like

01:06:43.620 | All The Hacks Iceland experience

01:06:45.980 | that meets the needs of these people?

01:06:47.540 | So if we're coming with kids, like we'll find someone,

01:06:50.220 | maybe a local teacher who can watch kids during the day

01:06:52.540 | so we can go on some of these adventures

01:06:53.780 | if kids are young, that kind of stuff?

01:06:56.020 | - Oh, definitely.

01:06:57.340 | I mean, three phone calls and we'll have

01:07:00.300 | one of the best guides all to ourself

01:07:03.180 | to take us on the hidden hikes,

01:07:05.140 | check out some of those hidden hot springs

01:07:07.180 | that no one else knows about,

01:07:09.220 | meet some locals, spend time with them.

01:07:11.100 | Oh yeah, let's do this.

01:07:13.020 | - Okay, so I'm gonna go allthehacks.com/iceland.

01:07:15.900 | I'm gonna put a small survey.

01:07:17.500 | This is not something that I'm saying is happening, right?

01:07:19.580 | This came up on the fly,

01:07:21.300 | but if you go to allthehacks.com/iceland,

01:07:23.300 | answer a couple questions that I'll write up

01:07:25.380 | and maybe we'll see if this can happen.

01:07:27.780 | Where can people stay on top of all the travels

01:07:29.900 | you're doing, everything you're writing,

01:07:31.860 | because you just have such a great wealth of knowledge

01:07:34.260 | when it comes to all this stuff?

01:07:35.860 | - I try to post organically on Instagram,

01:07:38.460 | you know, when I'm on a trip researching.

01:07:40.180 | I write mostly for magazines now.

01:07:41.860 | I write a lot for Bloomberg and Vogue

01:07:43.620 | and Cunninghast Traveler and Traveler and Leisure.

01:07:46.300 | So, you know, on my Instagram,

01:07:47.500 | I'm just kind of posting different stories

01:07:49.420 | that I'm writing, different places that I'm researching.

01:07:51.820 | I really love connecting with all the listeners there.

01:07:54.820 | It's been super fun when we did the Japan episode.

01:07:57.060 | I get a message a day from people

01:07:59.140 | that are currently in Japan,

01:08:00.940 | like with a photo of one of the restaurants I recommended,

01:08:03.780 | being like, "Oh my God, I just ate here

01:08:05.100 | and it was so good, thank you."

01:08:06.860 | I just want people to enjoy travel.

01:08:09.740 | It's become so expensive that I want people

01:08:12.940 | to get the most out of their experiences.

01:08:14.540 | So feel free to reach out to me there.

01:08:16.140 | I have a personal website, brandimpressor.com.

01:08:18.420 | It's not a blog, it's just where I aggregate

01:08:20.420 | a lot of my information in books and articles.

01:08:23.340 | - You didn't say it, but it's Brand Press.

01:08:25.940 | - Yeah, Brand Press.

01:08:26.900 | The first five letters of my first name and last name.

01:08:29.460 | - Awesome.

01:08:30.300 | All right, thank you so much for being here.

01:08:31.860 | I will send you some notes when we're there,

01:08:33.980 | which hopefully isn't too far from now.

01:08:35.980 | - Awesome, thank you so much.

01:08:37.420 | - Wow, that was so awesome.

01:08:40.860 | The entire time I was thinking,

01:08:42.300 | how am I gonna plan this trip to Iceland this year?

01:08:44.740 | But now I'm thinking, how do we actually make this

01:08:46.940 | All The Hacks Iceland trip work?

01:08:48.860 | Yes, it's a crazy idea.

01:08:50.220 | We'll see if any of you are interested.

01:08:51.620 | Go to allthehacks.com/iceland and let me know.

01:08:54.340 | I'll also include something in there for other countries.

01:08:56.380 | So if you're not interested in Iceland,

01:08:57.860 | but you're generally interested in the idea,

01:08:59.820 | still go and fill that survey out

01:09:01.540 | and we'll see what happens.

01:09:02.500 | So Iceland is interesting because it feels so far away,

01:09:05.660 | yet from the East Coast, it's only six hours.

01:09:08.140 | And from the West Coast,

01:09:09.140 | it's actually only about seven and a half hours,

01:09:11.180 | at least from Seattle.

01:09:12.340 | So I had to actually go to this website, gcmap.com,

01:09:16.180 | which is the great circle mapping tool,

01:09:17.820 | which is interesting for flight distances.

01:09:20.220 | And I realized, oh wow, Iceland is so far North

01:09:22.660 | that actually getting there from the West Coast

01:09:24.020 | isn't that much further.

01:09:25.700 | And so comes to question,

01:09:27.860 | if you're saving up all these points and miles

01:09:29.540 | and you're really always trying to do these great

01:09:31.220 | international business class trips,

01:09:33.100 | is Iceland really the trip to do it?

01:09:35.660 | And for a lot of reasons, I would say maybe not,

01:09:38.140 | but let me run through all the different ways

01:09:39.500 | to get to Iceland from the States and Canada.

01:09:41.780 | First off, there are five airlines that you can fly.

01:09:44.060 | I'll start with the US carriers, United and Delta.

01:09:46.820 | Most of these flights are seasonal

01:09:48.780 | and seasonal means about May to September.

01:09:51.780 | So United flies from Chicago

01:09:53.980 | and Delta flies from Detroit, Minneapolis, and JFK.

01:09:57.100 | When it comes to miles,

01:09:58.660 | United actually might be a good option.

01:10:00.340 | I looked at economy and there is availability this year

01:10:02.860 | in May, June, and September.

01:10:04.740 | I think the overall theme here is that July and August

01:10:06.980 | are pretty difficult,

01:10:07.860 | but anything around that works pretty well.

01:10:10.660 | If you're trying to book those flights on United,

01:10:12.620 | it really depends what carrier you book from.

01:10:14.940 | So you could book from United on those economy seats

01:10:17.540 | and do it for 84,000 points around trip.

01:10:19.940 | But if you transfer points to Air Canada,

01:10:21.620 | you could do it for 70,000.

01:10:23.140 | And if you transfer points to ANA,

01:10:24.780 | you could do it for 56,000.

01:10:26.980 | I saw a lot of reports online

01:10:28.340 | that Avianca was also a great transfer partner,

01:10:30.460 | but for whatever reason,

01:10:31.380 | when I searched for these flights on the Avianca site,

01:10:33.540 | it didn't see the availability.

01:10:35.380 | You might be able to call them and get it

01:10:36.780 | because it's definitely there

01:10:38.180 | and it definitely shows up on other partners,

01:10:40.260 | but I wasn't able to see it online.

01:10:42.500 | In business class,

01:10:43.340 | I did actually see some flights in May, but very limited.

01:10:47.060 | But again, really important where you book from

01:10:49.060 | because if it's United or Air Canada,

01:10:50.580 | it was 120,000 round trip.

01:10:52.380 | But if you booked through ANA, it was 88,000 round trip.

01:10:55.460 | So obviously ANA is a great option,

01:10:56.860 | but I will just flag two important things.

01:10:58.820 | One, you can only transfer to ANA from Amex

01:11:02.140 | and ANA transfers take a few days.

01:11:04.660 | So it's one of those things

01:11:05.660 | where if you don't have flexibility,

01:11:07.140 | it might not be worth the risk.

01:11:08.740 | You don't wanna find one flight with just two seats

01:11:11.100 | and that's the only thing out there.

01:11:12.620 | Transfer to ANA and three days later,

01:11:14.380 | that inventory is gone.

01:11:15.540 | And now you just have a bunch of ANA miles

01:11:17.220 | that you don't have a plan to use.

01:11:18.700 | So I'd say when you're looking,

01:11:20.380 | ANA is a great option

01:11:21.820 | if you know you wanna take a trip to somewhere

01:11:24.580 | and you know you're gonna use ANA points

01:11:26.460 | and there's a lot of availability,

01:11:28.220 | but it might not be the best if it's really limited.

01:11:30.460 | On Delta, I'd say,

01:11:32.220 | unless you just really wanna burn your Delta points,

01:11:34.580 | there's not a great option.

01:11:35.980 | I looked from JFK in New York and in economy,

01:11:39.260 | the best possible deal I could find for all the dates

01:11:42.780 | was 160,000 points round trip.

01:11:45.020 | And in business,

01:11:46.140 | the cheapest absolute thing I could find was in September,

01:11:49.380 | there were some flights for 450,000 round trip,

01:11:51.940 | which is absolutely crazy.

01:11:54.420 | Using Delta miles for good value is so, so, so hard,

01:11:58.460 | which is why I generally try

01:11:59.860 | to not accrue any Delta miles if possible,

01:12:02.100 | because it's just so challenging.

01:12:03.780 | In fact, most of the time I've been using my Delta miles

01:12:05.860 | has been for domestic trips,

01:12:07.260 | little short trips where the flight might be

01:12:08.820 | $300 or $400, but it's only 10,000 miles.

01:12:11.460 | Otherwise, I've found it very hard

01:12:13.060 | to find availability for anything.

01:12:14.900 | And if so, you really wanna plan far, far in advance.

01:12:17.740 | Other North American carriers, Air Canada,

01:12:20.180 | which flies from Montreal and Toronto.

01:12:22.940 | I did find some availability.

01:12:24.340 | It's pretty decent.

01:12:25.340 | In economy, it was 70,000 miles.

01:12:27.220 | In business, it was 120,000.

01:12:28.900 | That's what it takes to use Air Canada miles.

01:12:31.180 | Again, similar to United,

01:12:32.580 | you might wanna see if there's another carrier like ANA

01:12:35.120 | that makes it cheaper to buy.

01:12:36.740 | Then for the Icelandic carriers,

01:12:38.560 | there are two.

01:12:39.540 | There's Icelandair and Play.

01:12:42.600 | Play is a new airline that was started

01:12:44.340 | by some of the people who previously ran Wow,

01:12:47.420 | which was a really low discount carrier

01:12:49.140 | that went out of business.

01:12:50.420 | If I remember correctly and do your homework,

01:12:52.740 | when they went out of business,

01:12:53.740 | it was a real big mess for anyone who had flights booked.

01:12:57.340 | So I would say, keep that in mind

01:12:59.300 | if you're planning something really far in advance.

01:13:01.540 | Icelandair flies from so many destinations in the US.

01:13:04.220 | I think it's about 14,

01:13:05.460 | all the way from Vancouver, Seattle on the West Coast

01:13:07.860 | to basically the entire East Coast

01:13:09.720 | and a few places in between

01:13:11.000 | like Denver and Minneapolis and Chicago.

01:13:13.120 | Definitely an option, but very hard to use points.

01:13:15.800 | Technically, they are an Alaska Air partner,

01:13:18.640 | but everything I read online

01:13:20.040 | is that it's almost impossible to use Alaska miles

01:13:23.480 | to book on Icelandair.

01:13:24.920 | If you're able to make it work, definitely let me know,

01:13:27.280 | but it looks very difficult

01:13:29.000 | and I wouldn't waste your time on business,

01:13:30.800 | paid or with points

01:13:32.920 | because their business class looks about the same

01:13:36.040 | as like domestic short haul coach,

01:13:37.940 | just a bigger seat, roomier, but definitely not a lie flat

01:13:41.300 | and definitely doesn't look like anything

01:13:42.740 | that I like to splurge my miles on for with business class.

01:13:46.820 | So for that, you're just gonna have to pay.

01:13:48.460 | But like Brandon mentioned, they do have a program

01:13:50.780 | where if you want to fly Icelandair to Europe,

01:13:53.200 | because they have a ton of destinations in Europe,

01:13:55.100 | you can do a free stopover in Iceland.

01:13:56.980 | So that's another great option if you're paying.

01:13:59.460 | And on play, they only fly from Baltimore, Boston, DC.

01:14:04.460 | Technically, they say they fly from New York,

01:14:05.740 | but it's from Stewart Airport,

01:14:06.880 | which is about an hour and a half bus ride from Manhattan.

01:14:10.420 | And then also from Toronto, but from Hamilton Airport,

01:14:12.660 | not the main airport.

01:14:14.360 | So what's interesting about play actually

01:14:16.480 | is that one, very, very, very, very affordable.

01:14:19.900 | I was looking at flights and you can get there

01:14:22.360 | from as little as $200 each way, which was awesome.

01:14:26.140 | And their entire economy cabin for these flights

01:14:29.020 | has 34 inches of leg room,

01:14:30.820 | which is about the same as you get on Economy Plus,

01:14:33.960 | on United, Comfort Plus on Delta.

01:14:36.360 | So I'd say if you're buying a coach ticket,

01:14:38.060 | sometimes I think the discount airlines,

01:14:39.860 | it's gonna have the worst experience.

01:14:41.460 | In this case, you're actually getting the most leg room

01:14:43.980 | of any other basic coach ticket

01:14:45.700 | where you're not in the kind of premium economy cabin.

01:14:48.300 | However, everything else is an add-on, bags, food, drink,

01:14:52.340 | and there is no power, no wifi, no entertainment.

01:14:54.940 | So no frills, except the leg room, but super cheap.

01:14:58.700 | The short of that, unfortunately,

01:15:00.340 | is that there aren't a lot of great options

01:15:02.620 | for points and miles.

01:15:03.460 | Yes, you could do it on United.

01:15:05.060 | Yes, maybe you could do it through Air Canada.

01:15:07.260 | Everything else is gonna be tough.

01:15:09.100 | But fortunately, there are a lot of options

01:15:11.260 | for not that expensive.

01:15:12.420 | And because the flight's short,

01:15:13.660 | I think it's not one of those aspirational trips

01:15:16.500 | from the perspective of wanting to fly

01:15:18.400 | in these beautiful business class cabins

01:15:19.940 | and use your points there.

01:15:20.820 | So for me, if we were looking to do this,

01:15:22.460 | I'd probably end up just buying the economy ticket

01:15:24.660 | and flying as close to direct as possible,

01:15:27.140 | which unfortunately, from the West Coast,

01:15:28.900 | means changing planes somewhere.

01:15:30.580 | And I will say while we're here,

01:15:31.820 | despite that it's not relevant to Iceland,

01:15:33.400 | I just wanna flag that there are a handful

01:15:34.980 | of transfer bonuses happening right now for your points.

01:15:37.660 | So if you are looking to book a flight in the near future,

01:15:40.860 | definitely consider this.

01:15:42.420 | For going to Air France KLM Flying Blue,

01:15:45.460 | there's a 25% transfer bonus on Chase that ends on the 15th,

01:15:49.660 | and then a 25% transfer bonus on Amex that ends on the 22nd.

01:15:53.140 | So get some extra points there.

01:15:55.060 | And then going to Avianca Life Miles from Amex,

01:15:57.900 | you get 15% more miles until the end of May.

01:16:00.680 | And then from Chase to Virgin Atlantic,

01:16:02.740 | you get 30% bonus until June 15th.

01:16:06.140 | There's also a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott on Chase

01:16:09.440 | until the 15th of May,

01:16:11.000 | but I just don't love using Chase points for Marriott,

01:16:13.140 | even with this bonus,

01:16:14.160 | 'cause I think the valuation's not there.

01:16:15.640 | So not one I'm excited about.

01:16:17.480 | However, let's move over to hotels.

01:16:21.180 | This one is gonna be shorter than some countries.

01:16:23.020 | I think when we talked about Japan,

01:16:24.320 | there were 30 plus hotels in every chain.

01:16:27.200 | And when it comes to using your points in Iceland,

01:16:30.100 | I found eight hotels.

01:16:31.640 | Now, finding award hotels has historically been a huge pain.

01:16:36.160 | It literally was me going on the Hyatt site,

01:16:38.280 | the Marriott site,

01:16:39.440 | and just searching on individual websites.

01:16:41.400 | The filtering, sorting, it's really just not that good.

01:16:44.240 | And so I am so thankful.

01:16:45.800 | So when I was doing this, I just went to Aways,

01:16:47.680 | which is a site I've talked about before,

01:16:49.440 | and I'm such a big fan of.

01:16:50.960 | It's like all the great tools that there are for flights,

01:16:53.500 | there was never a great tool for hotels.

01:16:55.680 | And then Aways came out recently.

01:16:57.640 | I found it this year, and it's just been so helpful.

01:17:00.960 | So I type in Iceland, I type in the dates.

01:17:03.080 | You can say whether you have Hilton, Hyatt,

01:17:05.200 | IHG, or Marriott points,

01:17:06.600 | but you can also just say I have Amex, Chase,

01:17:08.680 | or Built Points,

01:17:09.640 | and they'll filter on only the points you have.

01:17:12.280 | They also have, you can filter on free night certificates.

01:17:15.000 | So if you've got a Hilton free night,

01:17:16.360 | or Marriott certificates,

01:17:17.580 | even how many Marriott certificate points you have,

01:17:20.200 | 35,000, 50,000, whatever the category.

01:17:23.120 | So they make it super easy.

01:17:24.480 | And so I searched for Iceland,

01:17:25.560 | and it was very easy to see

01:17:27.080 | that there are eight hotels you can use your points on.

01:17:29.700 | So whether you're planning a trip to Iceland

01:17:31.480 | or anywhere else, definitely check out Aways

01:17:33.320 | if you're looking to use points for hotels

01:17:35.160 | and wanna find live cash and award pricing,

01:17:37.360 | get award availability,

01:17:38.740 | see a calendar of the days those are available.

01:17:40.920 | So if there's a hotel you have your heart set on,

01:17:42.880 | you can look at when that's available,

01:17:44.600 | which I actually used a lot in researching Iceland

01:17:46.480 | to try to get a sense of,

01:17:47.320 | okay, well, if you were flexible with when you could go,

01:17:50.080 | when can you get the best deal on hotels?

01:17:51.960 | So Aways has a free version.

01:17:53.840 | You can go and search for availability.

01:17:55.840 | But if you also wanna get a longer calendar view,

01:17:58.680 | do some individual searching, filter on a few more things.

01:18:02.200 | They do have a premium plan,

01:18:04.000 | but you can try it out for a day to see if you like it.

01:18:06.720 | If you go to allthehacks.com/aways,

01:18:08.680 | and you'll get a little bit of an extra discount

01:18:10.400 | for doing that.

01:18:11.300 | So definitely recommend it.

01:18:13.080 | It's basically my go-to search for hotels

01:18:15.240 | when I'm trying to use points and see what's a good deal.

01:18:17.620 | They even show the cash price

01:18:18.860 | so you can get a sense of whether or not

01:18:20.480 | it is a good time to use points or not.

01:18:22.720 | Back to hotels, there are eight options in Iceland.

01:18:25.880 | There's one Hyatt, the Hotel Ranga.

01:18:27.680 | Forgive me for getting all the names mispronounced,

01:18:29.880 | I'm sure.

01:18:30.720 | It's about 90 minutes from Reykjavik.

01:18:32.580 | And it actually looked pretty easy to find availability

01:18:35.140 | except July for 30 to 35,000 Hyatt points,

01:18:38.480 | which by the way, you can get from Chase or Built.

01:18:42.000 | Then Hilton had decent availability at all three hotels.

01:18:46.320 | All three are in Reykjavik and between 60 and 80,000 points,

01:18:49.720 | but they all had decent availability.

01:18:51.440 | So if prices are high, that could be an option

01:18:53.460 | if you have Hilton points.

01:18:55.220 | And then five Marriott properties.

01:18:57.460 | One was the Reykjavik addition,

01:18:58.920 | which the addition line from Marriott

01:19:01.240 | has been something that kind of intrigued me.

01:19:02.800 | It's super high-end.

01:19:03.760 | It looks awesome.

01:19:04.600 | I've never stayed at one.

01:19:05.980 | So that's one that I was pretty interested in.

01:19:08.040 | There were some really good values there

01:19:09.680 | where a stay was over $1,000 a night,

01:19:12.000 | but you could get it for 70, 75,000 points.

01:19:14.120 | In general, it's in the 75 to 80,000 point range.

01:19:17.200 | So I'd say you get the most

01:19:18.160 | out of your Marriott points there.

01:19:19.800 | There's one courtyard at the airport.

01:19:21.600 | I'm gonna assume that you're not gonna be spending

01:19:23.080 | a lot of time near the airport

01:19:24.080 | based on how our entire conversation went.

01:19:26.600 | So I'd skip that.

01:19:28.060 | Two others in Reykjavik,

01:19:30.300 | the 101 Hotel and the Ion City Hotel.

01:19:33.140 | Those two and the one I'll get to after

01:19:35.220 | are all parts of the Design Hotels collection,

01:19:37.460 | and they are all really, really cool.

01:19:39.460 | Like really great design.

01:19:41.100 | Looks like a kind of place, at least,

01:19:42.300 | I would really love to stay.

01:19:43.980 | They were all in the 60 to 80,000 points a night range.

01:19:47.460 | Do keep in mind that with Marriott,

01:19:48.820 | if you book four nights, you get your fifth night free.

01:19:50.900 | So that drops a little bit.

01:19:52.820 | Availability varied depending on each hotel.

01:19:55.220 | I would say in general, it was easier in June and September

01:19:58.320 | and very hard in July and August.

01:20:00.920 | The last one is the Ion Adventure Hotel,

01:20:03.080 | which looked amazing.

01:20:04.160 | It's kind of right in the middle of that golden circle area

01:20:06.920 | that Brandon talked about.

01:20:08.320 | Again, beautiful hotel.

01:20:09.380 | These Design Hotel collections that Marriott has,

01:20:11.640 | I really, really like.

01:20:12.880 | I've stayed at a few around the world,

01:20:14.820 | especially that one I mentioned in the Japan episode,

01:20:16.920 | Satoyama Jujo, and it was awesome.

01:20:19.400 | So not a lot of hotel options for Iceland,

01:20:22.220 | but there are eight, and the availability for all of them.

01:20:25.560 | Yes, you could go to individual sites,

01:20:27.160 | but you can also go to Aways, and it's just super easy

01:20:29.580 | because you can see the whole calendar.

01:20:31.400 | Again, allthehacks.com/aways to get a deal there.

01:20:34.420 | And I think that's it.

01:20:35.620 | Normally, there's a lot more because there are dozens

01:20:38.500 | and dozens of hotels and lots of flight options.

01:20:41.440 | Iceland's a little trickier for all of this.

01:20:44.000 | I didn't go into all the hotel options

01:20:45.900 | that you could stay at for dollars.

01:20:47.320 | I'll let you do your own research there.

01:20:49.040 | Or if we plan this trip, I'll let Brandon help us out.

01:20:51.640 | (upbeat music)

01:20:52.780 | That's all I've got.

01:20:53.620 | I hope you're as excited to go to Iceland as I am,

01:20:56.100 | maybe even on a trip together.

01:20:57.580 | We'll see.

01:20:58.420 | I know it's a crazy idea.

01:20:59.620 | We still have two young kids,

01:21:00.740 | so maybe it won't happen this year,

01:21:02.620 | but it's at least something that I think

01:21:04.220 | would be really fun to start doing with this community.

01:21:06.540 | So allthehacks.com/iceland for that.

01:21:09.180 | That's all for this week.

01:21:10.300 | See you next week.

01:21:11.140 | (upbeat music)

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