one of my ideas for an alternate long weekend is instead of picking up that car a couple of week airport driving into the south and doing this ring with Reykjavik. If you've done that, or if you just want to be in a place that is less expensive, what I would actually do is take a domestic flight to Akureyri.

So you land, then you're going to get on a very short domestic flight to Akureyri in the north, and you're going to do your own circle up there. So it's going to be Akureyri, Mivat, and Husavik, and you're going to have really cool stuff up there. The internal flight, the round trip to get up there and back to the international airport is going to be about $140.

And that cost is immediately defrayed by virtue of all the accommodation being so much cheaper up there because it's less in demand. So it ends up working out in the wash to be free, and you're going to have a lot less tourists up there than you would in the capital area.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel. If you're new here, I'm your host, Chris Hutchins, and one of the areas I love optimizing the most is travel. I've been to 60 plus countries, and on every trip, I love meeting locals, understanding their culture, having unique experiences, and eating all the food a place has to offer.

So a few months back, I started doing episodes on top travel destinations, and the feedback I got from you all was so positive, I'm going to keep it going. And one country that's been on my list for years but that I haven't made it to yet is Iceland. I thought that finally it was going to happen when some close friends of ours got engaged and said their wedding was going to be there, but it ended up being scheduled only a couple weeks after our youngest daughter was due, so it didn't happen.

But it's not just me that wants to go. I've heard from so many of you that it's at the top of your list as well, so I thought it would make for a great episode. And funny enough, I already knew the perfect guest, Brandon Presser, who's joining me now for his third appearance on the show after we did an episode on Japan a few months ago.

When he was researching a guidebook on Iceland that he was writing, he spent six months in the country and literally went everywhere. I mean, every restaurant, every hotel, every fjordhead, every farm that had an extra bed. So when I say he knows the country, he probably knows it better than most locals do.

And I'm excited to talk about when to go, what to see, all the experiences to have, and everything to eat and drink. I'm really excited for this one, so let's jump in right after this. Brandon, thanks for being here. Thanks so much for having me again. Yeah, I mean, it seems like you knew everything about Japan, you know everything about Iceland.

There are even other countries you know everything about, so I'll probably have you back. But what is it about Iceland that makes it a kind of place that you would want to learn everything there is to know about the country? Well, I think I approach travel in thinking about a destination qualitatively and quantitatively.

And so for me, doing Iceland was really, really rewarding when I was writing The Lonely Planet Guide because I would finish a trip, like six, seven months in the country, and I'd go, "Okay, I have actually seen everything. I've been to every single place. I have vetted everything that there is to do.

There is no such thing as not found in the guidebook because if I didn't put it in, it's not worth doing." And so there was a great amount of sort of quantitative satisfaction that I had seen everything, and then I could kind of pivot to the quality and then troubleshoot exactly what a perfect trip for any type of traveler and any length of trip would be like.

Okay, but what is it about Iceland? What makes it so special? On my first trip to Iceland, I learned a lot of Icelandic words, which I think is important, and we'll get to that soon. But one of my favorite words in Icelandic is "kræma". "Kræma" means "simmering". And it's in two senses.

"Kræma" is simmering like the earth is shaking. There's volcanoes erupting. It's an active geological environment. And then "kræma" is simmering as in creativity, the spirit of the local people, the imagination they have, the cool design, the music. And I think those two things together, the nature and the culture, make a place like you've never seen before.

Yeah, I've seen so many pictures and I don't know how somehow it's escaped our travel list for so long, which will change. I'm sure by the end of this conversation, I'm going to be going to book flights. You know, it's a small country. You keep going back. Does that mean that there's always something to find, even though you've seen it all?

Definitely. And I think one of the weird things about Iceland is you can visit the same thing twice and have a really dramatically different experience. So a good example of that would be a hike, even a one-hour hike along the coast. You could do it at 11pm in June and you have the midnight sun and there's this eerie quiet in good weather and you're with friends.

Or you could do it in the middle of winter and it's stormy and brooding. And you'll see the country in so many different ways and that weather and the vibe. It's always something new. But then there's something else in Iceland that is sort of a big takeaway for me.

And a lot of what I learned in Iceland is something that I actually do in my regular life, which is Icelanders think of their lives in eras. They don't think of graduating from college and taking on a job in a certain field and they're like, "Okay, that's it. I'm going to be a lawyer for the rest of my life." Icelanders have this notion of, "Okay, I'm going to own a restaurant because that's what I'm passionate about right now." And five years later, they're like, "You know what?

I'm going to get my teaching certificate because I really want to teach elementary school." And then seven years later, they get interested in being an interior decorator and they open a design firm. And with such a small population and with such good social equality, these things are possible. And so I like to think of my trips to Iceland, and I go all the time, as eras.

And every time I go back to Iceland, I sort of reflect on myself. What's changed in me in the last year since I've been there? What era am I in? Okay, so how do we even start to think about this? I haven't gone to Iceland. So let's say I'm planning a trip or anyone's planning a trip.

It's a small country. Does that mean it doesn't need the full 2 weeks to give it justice? Is there too long of a trip? Too short of a trip? I would say that you can do any trip that you can. It's worth doing. And the first thing to remember is it's so close to the United States.

Of course, it's very close to Europe as well, depending on where you're coming from. But if all you have is 4 days, we'll get through some planning ideas for the perfect 4-day trip. I mean, if you have 10 days, even better. But I kind of want to challenge you to think of Iceland as a place that you can keep going back to.

I think a lot of Americans like to go back to Mexico, and even for a long weekend, this can be a long weekend place that you can have 6 different versions of that long weekend and keep going back. Icelandair has a stopover program on the way to Europe. So you can even tack on 3 nights in Iceland on the way to your trip to Paris for free, or do it on the return.

And so I think the big thing to start off with is that Reykjavik covers a huge amount of the population and urbanization in the country. So Iceland has 390,000 people, 240,000 of which live in the Reykjavik area. And so if you're going to plan a trip, you're definitely going to want to spend some time there.

And I would say the first thing to remember is if you're going to math your trip, 20-25% of your trip should be in Reykjavik, and the rest should be out in nature. I think a lot of people do the opposite, where they base themselves in Reykjavik and then do trips out into the nature.

You need to keep your time in Reykjavik to around that 20-25%. So a 4-day trip, do 1 night in Reykjavik. If you're doing a 10-day trip, 2 nights in Reykjavik. Because you're really going for that mix of nature and culture. But you're really just going to get a tiny Scandinavian city if you base yourself in Reykjavik the whole time, which isn't a huge value add.

So one challenge I have is we have kids. Does that mean you're going to be staying in 1 or 2 places or 1 or 2 nights in a place, then move, then move, then move? Or when you say the other 75% of your trip, could that be in 1 or 2 places in nature?

Yeah, totally. We can jump right into what a good 4-day trip would look like if you want. I think what you would do is you would land at Keflavik, the international airport, which is a 1-hour drive from Reykjavik. And what you'll do is you'll pick up a car in Keflavik, and you actually will drive in the other direction, not to Reykjavik.

You'll drive to southwest Iceland, to towns like Hetlar, and you'll set up there, get an Airbnb, stay in a hotel, and base yourself there to do hikes and day trips out to waterfalls or horse farms or whatever you want to do. And then as the trip comes to an end, you'll drive into Reykjavik, spend a night there, spend a day there, and then head back to the airport.

If you have the means, sneak in a night at the Blue Lagoon Retreat, specifically retreat because it's absolutely unreal. It's an amazing hotel. Or get the spa package at the retreat, which gives you a day pass to this private Blue Lagoon. And then you head home on your flight from Keflavik.

That would be the perfect trip. So we did jump ahead a little bit. Let's rewind a little and just like, Iceland is a place where you can go and be very cold, or you can go and have sun 24 hours a day. How do you even think about when to start planning a trip?

Is there an ideal season? Is it different depending on what you want to do? Yeah. So if you're thinking about it in terms of wanting a lot of daylight, the solstice in June is going to have 24 hours of daylight. And when you read a lot about Iceland, a lot of online sources get it wrong.

They say June, July, August. But if you're doing the math, and you're actually thinking about the sun, if it's kind of mid late June that has the most sun, then it's May and July that have the second most sun. So if you want all of that daylight, I would look at doing warm weather during the summer.

Best hiking is July and August when practically every pass and every road is open because the weather has warmed. If you're just looking for that daylight, think maybe May because you're not really in the highest of high season. But in the way that people know the glory of the midnight sun and all that good stuff, they think that there's basically darkness for the rest of the year.

But I love going in March and October because you actually still get... So for example, March 1st, you have the sun coming up at around 8, 830 a.m. and the sun goes down at like 630, 645. You still get a full day of daylight and you get some glow on the horizon.

And you get no tourists really relative to the summer. And the same goes for October. I think I probably prefer October a little bit more because you have more green from the summer before the snow cover. March tends to be a little bit more brown. So if you want those perfect photos, I think October would be my ideal time to go.

And I'm actually going to go this October. And I kind of regret telling everyone that it's the best time to go because now it's going to be overloaded and my hotels are going to be expensive. Well, you just got to book it quick. Or you probably know everyone. But what about the winter?

Is there a case to be made to go visit Iceland in December or January? Yeah, absolutely. Much in the way that the Danes have commoditized this idea of hygge, this coziness that is so cozy, it's sort of impossible to describe. Icelanders embrace that as well. And if you're looking for a cozy, more romantic holiday where you're snuggled up in a cabin or you want to embrace cafe culture in Reykjavik, you can certainly go in the dead of winter.

I think your experience then will be a little more culturally heavy than it will being out in nature because it's not that Iceland's really, really cold. So I grew up in Ottawa in Canada, and that is proudly the coldest capital in the entire world. You would think Reykjavik would be colder by temperature.

It's the wind in Iceland that makes hiking and traveling really difficult. And the wind can be there in June. It can ruin a hike even on the warmest of days. Wow. Okay. So that's kind of when to go. Before we go into places, you talked a little bit about the vibe and the experience, but what's the culture like?

What are people like? Are people friendly? Can you get to know them? How would you describe culture in Iceland? Yeah. I mean, I think our first cultural touchpoint for a lot of people is Bjork, and she brings this weirdness, right? The swan dress and all of this kind of stuff.

And she is certainly a character. But there is something about her that you find in a lot of Icelanders, which is this uninhibited creativity. There is no shame in pursuing your passions. And you find that a lot of people are artists in some capacity or have this propensity towards the creative.

And it can be really refreshing how it's expressed in a cool haircut or people designing their own jewelry. There's no fear of being judged. But on the other hand, there's this scanty coldness. You don't get that effusive American-ness when you say, "Hi, how are you?" We never really mean, "Hi, how are you?" when we say it.

Because you're supposed to answer, "Good, how are you?" and not actually answer. So it's not weird to get a very one line, "Hi, how are you?" and an Icelander will say, "Good." And it doesn't mean they're not friendly. When you start befriending Icelanders, their genuineness, their loyalty, and their care, I mean, it's like no other place on earth.

Wow. And how do you go about doing that if you walk into a bar and you're like, "Hey, how's it going?" It's like, "Good." Is it just pushing through it? What's your tips there for people who want to experience that warmth? So I actually wrote a section in one of my Lonely Planet guides about how to blend in in Reykjavik.

Because it's just so painfully obvious who's a tourist and who's not. And you have to remember, there's almost 400,000 people in Iceland. And last year, there were 1.7 million visitors. So if you just took six random people in Iceland, five of them are going to be visitors. So it's this huge onslaught of people who are not from there.

So one of the things that Icelanders love is swearing in English. And they will talk amongst each other in Icelandic, but they will say with a very aspirated Icelandic accent, like, "Fuck!" A lot. And so if you can meet them at that obsessive swearingness, it'll actually endear the conversation.

I think learning a few Icelandic words also really helps. Everyone speaks English at this point. But showing some local courtesy will really go a long way. And I think getting out of Reykjavik and going into smaller towns, it's a lot easier to make local friends there. Because by virtue of Reykjavik having a lot of locals, it also has a lot of tourists.

A lot of the hotels are there. But when you're off in the smaller town like Húsavík or Akureyri or Eylsæs, you'll meet people off faster because they're like, "Who are you? This is a town of 700 people. I've never seen your face." Yeah. And you said local courtesies. Are there any kind of cultural norms to be aware of when it comes to etiquette or things to do or not to do in Iceland?

One of the big things is because it's so windy, like I said, never carry an umbrella. And Iceland has pretty bad weather on the whole. A friend of mine from Iceland actually texted me this morning a picture of snow and was like, "This is what's going on here one day away from May." But never carry an umbrella because the wind will just tear it to shreds.

So if you ever see someone walking down the street in Reykjavik with an umbrella, you know that they're not from there. Another thing is there's a lot of stray cats in Reykjavik. If you have a funny comment about loving cats or knowing about the stray cats, that's absolutely a thing.

And a lot of people at Reykjavik also refer to sections of town by the zip code. So central Reykjavik is 101. And so people are like, "Oh, where are you staying?" If you try to say the cross street, that's not what it is. You say, "Oh, I'm staying in 104." Or like, make sure you know the zip code, the postal code of where you're staying.

Because it's like these little things that will signify that you're not like a total noob. Even if you are. Even if you are. Okay. So I'm ready to start planning. You've sold me. What are some of the real highlights that someone needs to make sure to include on any trip?

And then let's talk about... You talked a little bit about four days, but let's talk about planning a week or 10 days. Okay. So to give you a sense of Iceland's size, it's about the size of Ohio. But you're never going to drive through Iceland in the middle. You're not the Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Chevron.

You're never going to drive that. Instead, you're going to have to drive the circumference of the island. And there's a very aptly named road called the Ring Road. And a lot of people set their sights on the Ring Road when they want to visit. And I think if you were to complete the Ring Road without stopping, I think it would take about 17 hours.

And so a lot of people think, "Okay, I'm going to do this in 5 days. I'll drive 5 hours a day. Look at cool things out the window. Stop every once in a while for a cool thing." I wouldn't attempt the Ring Road unless you have 10 days. And I probably wouldn't even plan it so that you were moving like 2 hours and then a night, 2 hours and then a night.

I would actually try to book 2 nights every time you stop so that it doesn't feel like a total slog. And while you will see beautiful things out the window on the Ring Road, and all the car accidents in Iceland happen because people see something so beautiful that they slow down not realizing someone's right behind them.

They don't pull off the road, that kind of thing. But you really need to get off the Ring Road. All of the best stuff are all along the detours. And so giving you the luxury of time will definitely give you the opportunity to see those cool things. And I would even challenge you to do a different loop and mix it up.

And just look at looping along the West. So that would be going from the airport up through Reykjavik all the way through West Iceland, the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, all the way up into the West Fjords, which are kind of like those lobster claws that are snipping off the side of Iceland.

Going through all those fjords all the way up there, and then coming back down past Reykjavik. There's a different way that you could come down so you're not doubling back on anything you've done. And that would be an incredible Ring Road alternate that very, very few people do. So those would be the 2 big driving itineraries that I would put forward.

Of course, if you have 2 weeks or 3 weeks, it's just the more time that you get to marinate in these incredible destinations. I can kind of go through each region very quick. Yeah, let's do that. And how Icelanders kind of see it. So you have the capital area, which is Reykjavik.

And then they have the suburb, Coburg, and then Hafnarfjörður, which is like a little town nearby. So that greater region is very urbanized. A ton to do. That's bars, clubs, big restaurants, big, cool hotels. That's where you're going to get your fix of that. And then right outside the capital region is what you may have heard, the Golden Circle.

This is strictly a tourism product that was created so that people could have a really fun day trip outside of the city. And basically that touches on 3 geological features. One is a big geyser called Geysir, which is where the word geyser comes from. And then Gullfoss, which is Golden Waterfall.

And then Þingvellir, which is where the old parliament was and where actually the continental plates are cracking open. So you get these three really cool things. It's like a four-hour experience. It's a totally fake thing. And you could certainly drive through it on your way to something else. What's sort of exciting is just beyond that, Blue Lagoon is actually opening a brand new second resort up there.

It's just about to open. So that's really exciting and will change the flow of how people are moving through that Golden Circle. But the thing to remember and before I quickly touch on the regions is that there's no such thing as THE waterfall that you have to see. You can hike anywhere in Iceland and it's absolutely beautiful.

And there's waterfalls that you think you'll have discovered because there's no tourists there. So I would kind of stay away from the Instagram version of Iceland that has prioritized really random places like this waterfall or this gorge or this fjord and keep things a little bit more up in the air.

I think the West travel... I'm going to do it clockwise. So you're leaving Reykjavik. The West has a few small towns and this very famous Snæfellsnes Peninsula with a glacier all the way at the tip. And this is where Journey to the Center of the Earth, the Jules Verne book actually takes place.

It's beautiful. There's a lot of hot springs, horse farms. You can do a loop of the peninsula and it could be its own sort of Golden Circle in its own right. A lot of the sagas. So Iceland's very rich history that's detailed in these very sort of Dickensian, like Shakespearean, "he killed this person and that person, revenge killed that person." A lot of that takes place in the West.

Then beyond the West, you go up to the West Fjords, which I mentioned earlier. This is my absolute favorite region in Iceland. This is Iceland on steroids. The fjords are fjordier. Everything's really dramatic. The waterfalls are huge. There's some abandoned herring factories that have been turned into cool places to stay.

It's just totally unreal up there. The best time to visit is July and August for that region because it can be a little bit trickier to get through some of the roads. There's a lot of road closures in the off season. But if you are going in the peak of summer, I would devote all of my energy and go up to the West Fjords.

I absolutely love it up there and try to get there as much as I can, even though it's pretty far out of the way. For what it's worth, for anyone listening, I just pulled up Google Maps while Brandon's talking so I could kind of just track where you are.

So are we on the north side? What are some towns so I can make sure I'm in the right place? So each region has their main town. The west is Borganes and Stikisomers. Those are the two kind of main towns. Then up in the West Fjords, you have Isafjordur.

That would be if you were to want to fly domestically. We'll talk about kind of flying to kind of cheat some time off of your itinerary. You would fly into Isafjordur and then you could rent a car there and kind of drive around all those fjords up there. And there's a really famous waterfall.

Not to go against what I just said about not coveting certain waterfalls. But while everyone is kind of going gaga over the Goodfoss in the Golden Circle, there's Dinyandi waterfall that looks like an actual perfect Bundt cake. And it flows. It looks like an AI generated a photo of it.

It's totally unreal. There's some really, really, really cool towns up there that have 50 people, 200 people, all with places to stay. And it really just feels like you're on the end of the earth. So then going across, so now you're kind of at midnight on the clock, is the whole northern stretch of Iceland.

And the big city in that region is Akureyri. And Akureyri is the second city of Iceland. And to tell you how much smaller it is than Reykjavik, Akureyri has like 20,000 people on a good day. But it's really charming because it's the biggest city in the area. So there's all these cafes, and there's a bookstore, and there are these restaurants.

But when you're driving into the city, you can see it in its entirety. It's so tiny. There's something really charming about it. And people have a lot of northern pride, because so many of the rest of the people in the country live down in Reykjavik. So just beyond Akureyri, there's Mívat, which Mívat actually translates to fly water, because there's a lot of flies in the spring when everything blooms.

But in the summer, it's absolutely stunning. But that whole area has had a lot of ancient volcanic activity. And there's some really cool formations to check out. And then Husavi is like a college town nearby, like a really young, cool vibe, best place in Iceland to go whale watching in season.

You can go out and see dozens of whales. Really cool town to spend some time in. And then you kind of go along to the east, so you know, like three o'clock, and those fjords are really thin and jagged and kind of have a similar vibe to the West fjords.

Some really extreme mountains meeting water, some really cool little towns. And then, you know, you kind of come around to Skaftafell, which is like a really cool geological formation, the glacial lagoon, which you might have seen on Instagram, and then you have the black sand beaches in the south, and that crawls all the way back again to that golden circle area.

So you went through the whole south pretty fast. Is that kind of maybe something that's often left off an itinerary? So the south is extremely popular, because it's super easy to get to and the roads are always clear and really flat. Because of a lot of northern weather will hit the highlands of Iceland and dissipate.

So you'll get rain, but you might not get as like extreme winds or, you know, things that would close a road. So I find like a lot of people on short itineraries will kind of do that southern area. Vík, which is about halfway, kind of six o'clock when you're looking at Iceland as a clock.

Vík is kind of the farthest point a lot of people go on a short trip. And then everything that's sort of west of Vík are the stuff that people explore. So there's like a really good waterfall at Skóður, and you can do some really cool hiking around Skóður. And my favorite hike in all of Iceland is actually from Skóður up over where that big eruption was back in the, like about 12 years ago.

And then you land down into a valley called Þarsmörk between three glaciers. So it's, the weather's always like pretty good in Þarsmörk because it's protected by glaciers. And that hike is called Fimvalhals. It takes a whole day to do. I would definitely recommend having a guide take you to do it.

Takes like 10 hours. And then you end up in Þarsmörk for the night and you could spend a night in Þarsmörk and then arrange to be picked up and driven back out to the ring road again. That brings up a good point. Guides, is that something that if you're going to Iceland, you're like, you probably should organize a lot of guides and trips or can you do this all on your own except maybe a few things like what you just mentioned?

Well, the one thing that a lot of people do is they get in trouble when they take their little Yaris car on an F road. So F roads are F for Fjall, which means mountain. And it is strictly prohibited to drive your rental car unless you have like a chonky, you know, SUV four-wheel drive.

But it will say like in a sticker in the vehicle, whether or not that car can go on an F road, you will know. And I mean, I've in the times that I've driven by broken cars on F roads because the tourists thought they were superhuman and thought they could do it.

I mean, if I had a nickel, I would honestly be a millionaire. So you need a guide for that. I wouldn't want to try to get a car across a small river and having it swept away. You know, if you really want to get into the highlands, go to places like Thorsmark or, you know, have that kind of rewarding experience, I would absolutely hire a guide.

I would also hire a guide because like I said, you don't have to be precious about the exact trail to hike or the exact, you know, gorge to check out or waterfall. And what a guide will do is a lot of them have significant training and they're going to know, okay, you know, the weather is coming in from the West.

So we were going to hike in the West, but today, you know, we'll hike Eastward. We'll have beautiful skies and a chance of northern lights. And they'll switch it up. And they'll know because they have that experience from growing up in rural Iceland, what the weather is doing. And they'll just optimize your hike.

Like you don't have to put on your raincoat and have terrible wind just to say that you walk from A to B, your guide will give you the exact same experience that you didn't even know existed by walking you from C to D. Okay. That's the value. Yeah. And any tips for finding these guides to get a good one?

Or is it easy? Yeah. You know, Iceland is so small and there are a lot of tourism businesses. And I don't necessarily want to prioritize one over the other because it's such a tiny place. But I will shout out one of my favorite groups on the island, Midgard Adventures.

They're just such a cool, cool group of people. They're all really young. You know, they're in their late 20s and 30s. And they have just like this incredible spirit about them. And they really vibe with this like, "We're not just going to take you to this thing because you saw it on Instagram.

We're going to give you a whole experience." It's not weird to end up at one of their houses at the end of the day because you guys were bonding over some really cool music and you go and listen to records at their house and their mom cooks for you or something like that.

And I just love them so much. And I remember the first time that I was in Iceland, like 18 years ago, I met some of those guys when they were like teenagers. And now they're married with kids. And I just really respect what they're doing. There's a lot of people doing cool stuff like that.

But it's been fun to watch them over the years. And you mentioned Northern Lights. And I know we didn't bring that up earlier. If that's on someone's bucket list, I want to see them somewhere somehow in the world. Is tacking that on in Iceland a good time to do it?

Yeah. So we're actually about to enter the era of solar maximum for Northern Lights. And basically, what that means is the sun is sort of on a... It's like an 11-year cycle of how it's producing flares. And so we're coming into solar maximum, which is supposed to be in 2024.

But you don't have to be in full maximum to have great Northern Lights. So they're going to be great this year. And so there's 3 ingredients that you need for Northern Lights. You need flares, you need darkness, and you need a lack of clouds. And a lot of people are going to try to sell you on a Northern Lights tour.

It's completely bogus. You don't have to pay all this money to have someone drive you out into the wilderness. You can do it yourself because you're just looking up. And if you're going to follow that 40 itinerary we were talking about where you're going to go base yourself in the wilderness, in a rural part of Iceland for the majority of your trip, you can just look out the window.

But I've also seen amazing Northern Lights in downtown Reykjavik because when they're good, they're good. And there's a website that gives you intel.is. It gives you intel and a score on what the flares are going to be doing that night. And it'll also tell you how much cloud cover there's going to be.

So you can kind of make a judgment. I think the scale goes to 9, but a 4 is good. If you get a 4, you're like, "Okay, I'm going to see some Northern Lights if it's clear. The conditions have to be correct." And so because you need darkness, you would think December and January are actually the best months, but it's not true.

Where all the factors collide the best is sort of in that March and October range. So you're going to get all that daylight during the day and then you're going to get maximum Northern Light potential. I just wouldn't fall into the trap of needing to pay someone $150 for them to drive you somewhere when you have a car and you could ask the hotel you're staying at, "Where is a particularly dark place to go?" But if you're in Reykjavik, just drive an hour out of the city on the South Coast, the best Northern Lights I've seen are in that area.

And we didn't talk too much about transportation, but it sounds like everyone needs a car. Yeah. Again, if you're going in the dead of winter and you just kind of want to be cozy in a cabin, or you just want to be cozy in Reykjavik and kind of bop around, you could certainly land in Keflavik and then take the bus up into the...

The buses run all the time and they're like coach buses. They don't feel like a public bus that you might find in a city in the US. And then you will get to your hotel and you can kind of have your low-key experience in the city. But yeah, I would absolutely rent a car.

It just really maximizes your ability to get out into nature because that's why you're there, right? Nature and culture. Any tips on cars? I mean, you mentioned not all of them can go on certain roads. Is there something you'd be like, "This is what you should be opting for," or steer clear of all the US chains, like focus on local or anything like that?

There was this really funny era in Iceland about 10 years ago when they got a surplus of Yarises. And they were so omnipresent everywhere. You'd pull up to an attraction and there would just be 86 Yarises lined up in a row that locals were calling tourists Yarises. They're like, "There's another Yaris." And it's diversified since.

When you get the four-wheel drive, you get the opportunity to drive on the mountain roads, so it gives you more accessibility. They are significantly more expensive as a result. And if you don't have any experience using four-wheel drives on those roads, this is not the time to start. So my instinct would actually be to get an affordable vehicle so that it can get you around.

If you're going to rent that Airbnb out in Kosovo, and you're going to want to drive to a cool restaurant nearby and drive to do a few things, do that and then save your money to splurge on a guide. And that guide will likely come with their own vehicle and take you up into the mountains or up into places where you don't really know where you're going.

And it's not the time to try to figure it out. And then I guess while we're on transportation, you mentioned flights. Is that something people should be thinking about if they have limited time or everything's small enough that is it really just kind of like a luxury that's not necessary?

One of my ideas for an alternate long weekend is instead of picking up that car a couple of weeks airport driving into the south and doing this ring with Reykjavik, if you've done that, or if you just want to be in a place that is less expensive, what I would actually do is take a domestic flight to Akureyri.

So you land, then you're going to get on a very short domestic flight to Akureyri in the north, and you're going to do your own circle up there. So it's going to be Akureyri, Mivat, and Husevik. And you're going to love really cool stuff up there. The internal flight, the round trip to get up there and back to the international airport is going to be about $140.

And that cost is immediately defrayed by virtue of all the accommodation being so much cheaper up there because it's less in demand. So it ends up working out in the wash to be free. And you're going to have a lot less tourists up there than you would in the capital area.

And it comes with a little bit more bragging rights where you're up in this much farther place. And you're still going to get your little taste of culture in Akureyri, the little big city of Iceland. But then you're going to go... It has all the things that the capital region has and that Southwest Iceland has.

It has the really cool hot springs and it has the spas and really great hiking and really cool horse ranches. It's just going to be way less tourists and way more opportunities to connect with locals. And I assume you could still go rent a car there and do all those things.

Oh, totally. There's a car rental right at the Akureyri Airport. In a past life, there actually used to be a direct flight from Akureyri to Copenhagen. So at one point, that was an international airport too. And I think they're going to bring that back at some point. Cool. Okay.

So we've talked about a lot of regions. Let's zoom in to the capital for a little bit because I know it's probably going to be a home base for everyone. There's probably... If someone's looking to have a food nightlife experience, that's probably the place to do it. Though I imagine you can eat anywhere in Iceland.

Of course, people eat wherever they live. But let's talk about it a little bit. Totally. Okay. So we'll start with accommodation. I have a really tricky feeling about Reykjavik because the city center becomes a bit of a tourist town. A lot of people Airbnb their apartments. There's a lot of hotels that have gone up.

It can be pretty intense. And there's a part of me that gets a little bit sad because it's supposed to be a city for locals. And then it becomes this hub. So for me, I like to pick a hotel when I'm in Reykjavik instead of an Airbnb. And that's because it's kind of like that Barcelona thing where there were too many Airbnbs and suddenly the city had no soul.

And I want to put my money into a hotel in Reykjavik because I believe that to be more culturally sustainable. And it keeps zoning a little bit better. And the price of an Airbnb is so high in Reykjavik that you're not really getting a huge value in picking an Airbnb over a hotel.

A lot of the Airbnbs are really small or they're just like a room in someone's house. And I appreciate having a family and needing two bedrooms or something like that. You'll find all of that out in the countryside. There's summer houses and cool Airbnbs to rent that fit families all over Iceland in the countryside.

I would stick to hotels in Reykjavik for a price reason and a cultural sustainability reason. Now, as far as picking things to eat or things... If we go back to that idea of eras before, a restaurant could be doing wildly successfully... Could be wildly successful. And the chef could just be like, "You know what?

Now I want to be a schoolteacher. I'm going to close my restaurant." So the shelf life of eating establishments in Reykjavik is a lot shorter than I would like it to be, especially when I was writing guidebooks and I needed them to stay open so that my guidebook would stay relevant.

So the best resource, in my opinion, is Grapevine. It's the local paper. All of it's online. They've done a great job for years and years and years. And they're totally tapped into the community. On their website, they have a best of list. And I love all of their recommendations.

I always wholeheartedly agree with their point of view. Some of my personal favorites that have been around for quite a long time are Fish Market, Fish Company, Dill, which is just a great restaurant if you're celebrating something. It's sort of a cut above and just really wonderful. Ox is really cool.

It used to lurk in the back of another restaurant. Now it's opened in its own space. And then the cafe culture side, Reykjavik Roasters, they're everywhere now. It started as one spot. There's a few locations. Great stuff. Great places to sit and hang out. I really like Cactus Espresso Bar.

And all my friends in Iceland are talking about this new place that's opening called Anna Jona. That is getting a lot of buzz. And I'm really excited to go check that place out when I go back. The other thing also on the food side is not to snub fast food.

Icelanders love their American style fast food and their candy. So you got to get a hot dog. And when you order the hot dog, ask it for it, "Einar með ott", which means one with everything. And it comes with crunchy, funny things on top. And that's a must. It's like drunk food at three in the morning after you've been out at the bars.

And because Icelanders sort of covet American style fast food or the way that we're doing food, food halls are really trendy right now. There's just food halls everywhere. And when Iceland is really busy, it can be hard to get a reservation at a restaurant. So going for dinner at a food hall is a totally worthy option.

Because you don't have to plan. And then if you're with a bunch of friends, or if you're both in the mood, you're just with one person, you're in the mood for different things, you can each get what you want. And I really like the one at Klemmer, that particular food hall.

And then there's a new one at the post office, Posthus, that is pretty cool as well. And so that's places to go. But what about specific things? Are there things to try to eat to make sure you get to drink in Iceland that, you know, just if you want to have that kind of local culinary experience?

Yeah, you know, there's a lot of novelty food in Iceland, like rotten fermented shark, and all this kind of stuff. And it's pretty gimmicky. And it doesn't make a meal. So the two things that I always recommend is fish and lamb. And the lamb roam free in the Icelandic countryside, and they eat angelica.

So they have a very distinct taste, because they sort of absorb that herbaceousness when you eat them. It's really incredible. And they serve the lamb towards the rare side, it's a really different lamb experience than what you're going to have in an American restaurant on the fish is just totally incredible, you know, everything is fresh, freshly caught, and you're going to find it in a lot of different forms.

At the more down to earth restaurants, a lot of restaurants in the countryside, you're going to get lamb soup, or lamb stew, or a fish soup or a fish stew. And that's the perfect way to fill up for significantly less money while you're on the road. And you know, it's in a vat.

So like it comes quick, and they serve it to you. By far my favorite thing is to eat all like grandma's recipe, even at the nicest restaurants. And is I'm thinking about all these places you mentioned, is Reykjavik small enough that it's like it's pretty easy to get around?

Do you if you're there for two or three days? Do you need the rental car there to go check these places out? Or how do you think about that? Absolutely not. If you're planning to only go to Reykjavik on your trip for a few days, do not get a rental car, because parking is a total nightmare in the city center.

You know, all the locals have vehicles because they want to go out to their summer houses on the weekends, you know, they want to get out of the city and explore. And a lot of their needs like a lot of the big grocery stores and malls and you know, the shopping, the big box shopping that they need to do is a little bit outside the city center.

So they need a car for that. I would absolutely advise against getting a vehicle in the city. Socially, you know, beyond restaurants socially, right, there's bars and all that. But the big social pastime is the hot pot culture, the hot springs culture. You know, there's water everywhere. And, you know, Blue Lagoon has been famous for a very long time.

It's right near the airport. So a lot of people go, but I would highly recommend going to a municipal pool. While you're in Reykjavik, there's a lot of them. My favorite one is Vesterbyrlajk on the west side, and it's walkable from the city center. I've been there 300 times maybe, and it's totally walkable from the apartment that I used to have, which was right in the city center.

And there's just a social element to bathing in the water. It's like the perfect hangover cure. I like going in the evenings. At the end of the day, it's like you've been walking around, your legs are tired, maybe you were on a hike. And I would absolutely do it in central Reykjavik, in addition to doing it all over the country.

But this is a really important part of the Icelandic experience. And a lot of fancy hot spring destinations have opened. There's Sky Lagoon. There's actually one called Krøyma, Simmering, like we were talking about before. There's Secret Lagoon. There's a new one that opened called Kvamsvik that's just outside the city.

You'll need cars to get to these. They're significantly more expensive, but if you think of it as entertainment, instead of a swimming pool, it becomes worth the money, in my opinion. And you can get a beer at a lot of them. An advice someone gave me was that all around, most towns have these community hot springs.

They're free and open to the public and great way to meet people. So it sounds like you could balance both of those and do this as you're traveling around the country. Yeah, there's a whole mixed bag of municipal pools all over the country. So a little municipality will have a pool where you could do laps and then a hot tub next to it where you can soak.

And you have to pay a fee to use those. And then there's just ones in the wild where people have cemented a little thing or there's a barrel and you get pointed in the direction. You can actually look on Google. If you Google hot springs, there's so many websites that are trying to commoditize this, make money off of you for clicking it.

You could just get it on Google Maps. There's lists everywhere of where these are. My favorite are up in the West Fjords along the Strandir coast. One is called Draungsnes and the other Krasneslaug. Both of those. They're my two favorite in the wild hot pots. They're not quite free anymore.

A lot of the ones that are out in nature, there'll be like a little donation box, which is tricky because you don't need to take out cash in Iceland at all. Everything you can do on a credit card. But there is an expectation now if you're a tourist that you do leave something when you go to the more wild ones out of courtesy, because they have to be cleaned and they have to be maintained.

And with more tourists comes more usage and you need to keep the water clean. You have to bathe in a shower completely naked before you put your bathing suit on to go in. That is a social requirement. It is a must. A lot of the fancier facilities have private showers.

All the municipal pools just have nozzles. You must get naked. A lot of the facilities used to have professional watchers that would watch you bathe to make sure that you were using soap to clean under your arms and your bathing suit area. Wow. Okay. That just reminds me, there's a cultural norm.

Make sure you know that so you don't get in trouble. Any other random things like that to keep in mind? My ultimate favorite municipal pool is the one in Hofsos in the Northwest. That one's super cool. It's built almost like an infinity pool. It's pretty incredible. The ones you have to pay $50 to go to are kind of similar.

So if you're in the region, detour to Hofsos and definitely go to that one. Awesome. Any other things in Reykjavik to not miss, whether it's museum, art, nightlife, other things? I would definitely refer back to Grapevine for the latest on cool shops to check out. There's just a roaring design culture.

And a lot of shops will have small boutiques of things that people are making locally or doing. And all over the city, shopping is super fun. I don't know, I think by virtue of relishing experiences and knowing just the incredible nature that Iceland has... I don't love being cooped up in museums when I'm in Iceland.

That personally isn't my favorite thing to do when I just want to be out and exploring all of the destination's natural virtues. So there's a few really wonderful museums. I definitely don't want to bash them. I like cafe culture. I like holing up and having an incredible cup of coffee, people watching, seeing who else is there, going to like cool shops, dialoguing with the people who own those shops about like the traditional loopy sweaters that they're making out of wool, from that to really cool bathing gear, interior design stuff, that vibe.

I mean, we hit a lot of things. We talked about hot springs, we talked about hiking, northern lights, eating. What about the language? You said it'd be good to learn a few words. Any tips for which ones and where and how? Yeah. I mean, there's a few pronunciation conventions that can be really confusing.

The rite of passage in Iceland is trying to name that volcano that erupted about 12 years ago, that had the really, really long name. And there's like 100 YouTubes of news anchors flubbing the pronunciation. It's Eyjafjallajökull. And if you can nail that, people will be really impressed. So I would work on that before you arrive.

A few things like on signs that you want to check out to kind of understand that there's a few extra letters in the Icelandic alphabet. So there's the Eð, which is like a D with a slash in it. And that is pronounced like a Þ. And then there's Þórn, which is like a P, but the cup of the P is like a little bit lower.

It's sort of in the middle of the stem. And that's a Þ, like thing. And then there's a O with an umlaut that's like Ø. And then a double L is actually like the T-L in kettle. So Fjall is like F-J-A-L-L, or like there's a place called Hetlisandur. So it's not Hellesander, it's Hetlisandur.

And it's little things like that, that if you can get them right, like an H and a V has like a K sound. So there's a town outside of Reykjavik called Hveragerdi, but it starts with an H. So you'll kind of lose people if you're like, "Where's Hvaragerdi?" It's Hveragerdi.

So it's tricky, but you need to get these things in order for people to properly understand you. The J is like a Y. So again, the word for mountain, Fjall is F-J-F-J-A-L-L-T-L. Those are just a few examples. So unlike some places where it's like, "Oh, maybe I should learn where's the bathroom, where's this?" It sounds like maybe the better thing to focus on is just try to nail some pronunciation.

So when you're talking about places to go and landmarks and stuff like that, you could just say them. Yeah. The ones that I just mentioned, I would go back and re-listen if you are going and try to get those. That's like a good five or six to nail. There's a few more, but I feel like that might be too deep of a dive.

That's a really good start. If there are three words that you're going to remember, gratitude, I think, is always the most important to express gratitude. So thank you, tak fredigt. And then people say bless, like bless you, bless when they say goodbye. So it's not religiously charged. It's just when you leave a store or say goodbye to someone, they will say bless to you, which can be a little confusing if you don't know what it's for.

And then good day, good day. Okay. All right. Any other kind of secret places, that great Iceland vibe, maybe not as crowded that you want to tap on? I really can't overexpress how much in the way that so many Icelanders live in the Reykjavik region. So many tourists congregate in the Reykjavik region.

If you have the energy to get far away out of the region, the east fjords or the west fjords, you will have an experience that you covet with significantly less people. So if that is something that's really important to you, put in that energy, take that domestic flight, or put in the drive.

And you'll get that return. And I know you don't have kids, but you've met plenty of people that have traveled around Iceland, kid-friendly place, culturally and some of the activities? A wonderfully family-friendly destination to the point where in the news, you'll hear the biggest scandal that happens is a teenager stole a car and drove it a block, and then got out and returned the keys to the owner.

It's that kind of cat stuck in tree. It's that kind of destination where it's super safe. And there's a culture of leaving your children in their prams outside of a restaurant, because it's supposed to be good for them to be kind of bundled up in the cold. You'll find that all throughout Scandinavia, but it's not weird to go to brunch, but leave your baby outside.

Yeah. So this is something my wife and I were talking about, because it's also true in other countries, like you said. And so don't be alarmed if you see that here, because I think in the States, people would definitely freak out. Yeah, totally. And I mean, kids are going to love this.

It's such a candy-friendly destination. And there's skir, also is very proteinous kind of yogurt. That's absolutely delicious. But there's a lot of things that kids are going to love. The amount of licorice, there's a bizarre licorice obsession. And they have all these really cool candies. Ryn is my favorite.

And it's basically like a KitKat in a Rice Krispie treat dipped in chocolate. And every time I go, I bring back like 20 boxes of Ryn. And they love their licorice dipped in chocolate as well, which is like my... I'm not like a salty, sweet person, but Ryn is like my absolute guilty pleasure.

Wow. All right. I feel like we hit so much. Anything we missed that you want to make sure we cover? Because I don't know, I'm ready to go. And I want to make sure I have it all. I would definitely do some research on the hot springs. There's like Vörk in the east, Forest Bath in the north, Geosi and Husavik.

These are all really, really cool hot springs to check out. I would also challenge you to eat sort of unconventionally when you're outside of Reykjavik. One of the best meals I've had in Iceland was at the museum in Borgarnas, which is in the west. It's the settlement museum, which tells the story of the sagas and Iceland settlement.

But they have really good food at their buffet there. So a lot of the conventions and the way we think about where to eat and what's cool, throw that all out. You can go to a gas station in Iceland and have a really good hot dog. So put all that prejudice aside.

Amazing. So I've talked to a few people that are planning trips this summer. And they're saying Iceland is a little packed. I know you have a few places that you wanted to recommend if someone wants that experience, but maybe doesn't, for whatever reason, want to make it to Iceland, or Iceland's too full.

How do you get that same similar vibe somewhere else? Yeah. There's a lot of places in the greater region that are going to give you a lot of things that Iceland gives you, but without that tourist traffic. And one of my favorite places in the entire world is Newfoundland, the easternmost province in Canada.

And a lot of people... I don't know. Canada has a problem with perception. People don't find Canada sexy. But Newfoundland is an island. It looks like it broke off Iceland at some point, millions and millions of years ago. It has all the fjords. It has this really distinct culture.

Local Canadians actually still have a brogue, a Scottish brogue in some of the smaller towns. And you could do a really cool trip from the States where you fly in to the capital. You rent a car for like four or five days, drive up to the Bonavista Peninsula, stay at really cool inns and B&Bs, or even rent a cottage.

And you're going to get like icebergs, whale watching, amazing hiking. One of the best hikes in Canada, the Skurwink Trail is up there. It's just one of the most stunning places on earth. And it's so cheap because it's the Canadian dollar and not the kroner or even a euro in Europe.

It represents amazing value. I love northern Norway as well. There are tourists up there. But Lofoten is a peninsula of islands that have all been strung together by bridges. I am obsessed with that area. And it's the most dramatic mountains and water. You can rent these old fishermen huts, these bright red cabins right out on the fjord.

That area is really, really special to me. I've been there five or six times and I'm always desperate to go back. That will give you a lot of the same energy. And you can really visit that any time of the year as well. And Greenland is ascending right now.

They're actually building new international airports that are going to have direct flights from the US. And that's going to start in late 2024, early 2025. And it's just going to completely change the island. You're getting everything, this incredible, curious Greenlandic culture, flashes of Scandinavia, and that Danish vibe and extreme desolation and nature.

I'm really excited for Greenland to evolve because right now you have to fly actually through Iceland or through Copenhagen. So it's a really big trek for an American. But when those airports open, everything is about to change. Wow. Yeah, you might be the first person I've ever talked to that's even been to Greenland.

So... Yeah, I've been twice. But I think I remember when I introduced you in a previous episode, it was like you've probably been to 130 plus. So you've probably been almost everywhere. Places that most of us have never been. Any other places this year you've got on the docket that you're excited to check out?

Well, I'm definitely going back to Iceland and spending some time there. I'm really excited to get back because it's been about, I don't know, like 18 months. I don't know. I'm pretty open. The summer is looking really, really, really busy. As far as movement, there's still a lot of pent up kind of anger that the pandemic had us all shut in.

Prices are really, really high. I'm really interested in kind of dipping into more emerging destinations. I'd really like to visit the Caucasus and Georgia in particular. That's high on my to-do list. I'm going to go back to Japan at the end of the year again because I always spend November and December in Japan.

I'm excited about some islands in the South Pacific that are ascending and some West Africa. Wow. All right. This has been incredible. I keep saying it, but it's like we've been talking about taking this trip to Iceland for almost a decade. And now I feel like as soon as Amy hears this episode, she's like, "All right, let's get it booked." All right, Liz, one more thing that I wanted to mention.

The Icelanders believe in a hidden world and hidden people, which means that there are elves that we can't see that are lurking in stone formations. You'll find a lot of the names of things like farms or elf church or elf lake, like Alftavat, elf lake. The government actually has someone who can communicate with a hidden world on Retainer.

And so when they want to build a new road in the middle of a lava field, they actually have to consult her to check if the elves are okay with their land being touched. And I just love that there is this very quirky facet that underlies your experience. Is there any way that someone traveling could soak that in?

Is there some elf tour or can you meet with this government representative of the elves? There is. There's actually a place called the Elf Garden in Hapnafjordur, which is the town just outside of Reykjavik. A really easy drive if you have a car. It's in the greater Reykjavik area.

And it's the woman who used to work for the government doing this. And she has an elf center. And you can learn where the elves are hiding. And if she's around, you can talk to her. Okay, Brandon, I have one more thing. It's a little bit of a long shot.

And so feel free to say no. But on the wild chance that we could get a handful of people in the All the Hacks community interested to plan a trip to Iceland, would you be up for like being a part of that and organizing some kind of like All the Hacks Iceland experience that, you know, meets the needs of these people?

So if we're coming with kids, like we'll find someone, maybe a local teacher who can watch kids during the day. So we can go on some of these adventures if kids are young, that kind of stuff. Oh, definitely. I mean, three phone calls, and we'll have one of the best guides all to ourself to take us on the hidden hikes.

Check out some of those hidden hot springs that no one else knows about. Meet some locals, spend time with them. Oh, yeah, let's do this. Okay, so I'm gonna go all thehacks.com/iceland. I'm gonna put a small survey. This is not something that I'm saying is happening, right? This came up on the fly.

But if you go to allthehacks.com/iceland, you can answer a couple questions that I'll write up. And maybe we'll see if this can happen. Where can people stay on top of all the travels you're doing, everything you're writing? Because you just have such a great wealth of knowledge when it comes to all this stuff.

I try to post organically on Instagram, you know, when I'm on a trip researching for... I write mostly for magazines now. I write a lot for Bloomberg and Vogue and Condé Nast Traveler and Travel and Leisure. So on my Instagram, I'm just kind of posting different stories that I'm writing, different places that I'm researching.

I really love connecting with all the listeners there. It's been super fun. When we did the Japan episode, I get like a message a day from people that are currently in Japan, like with a photo of one of the restaurants I recommended being like, "Oh my god, I just ate here and it was so good.

Thank you." And that is for me... I just want people to enjoy travel. It's become so expensive that I want people to get the most out of their experiences. So feel free to reach out to me there. I have a personal website, brandpresser.com. It's not a blog. It's just where I aggregate a lot of my information and books and articles.

Yeah. And you didn't say it, but it's brandpress is your Instagram. Oh, yeah. I'm so bad. I'm so bad at being like, "Yo, follow me." Then I didn't even say what my handle is. Yeah. Brandpress. The first 5 letters of my first name and last name. Awesome. Alright. Thank you so much for being here.

I will send you some notes when we're there, which hopefully isn't too far from now. Awesome. Thank you so much.