10 Things to Know Before Visiting Iceland

1. Download the Klappið app to use public transport. You can use the app to buy your bus tickets, and then scan the ticket through the app when you get on a bus.

2. The hot water in Iceland smells like eggs…but don’t panic! This smell is because the tap water in Iceland comes from geothermal sources, which sometimes have traces of sulfur. The cold tap water is safe to drink and is one of the cleanest drinking water you will find in the world.

3. Card is the most common form of payment, so if you want to pay with cash, you need to tell them as soon as they scan your items. Most places will automatically activate the card machine everywhere you go. I always felt guilty paying with cash because you could tell it was a headache for some employees. Icelandic notes come in large denominations of 1000, 2000, 5000 etc.

4. Iceland has been crowned as the safest country in Europe, and I felt it. I walked back from a tour at 2am and didn’t feel unsafe. I would NEVER feel safe doing that in my own city (London).

5. Prebook your tour tickets before you get to Iceland (especially if you are visiting one of the lagoons or northern lights) All of my tour buses were fully booked, and so was the Sky Lagoon despite it being February.

6. For the Sky Lagoon, you can get there by taking 2 buses from Reykjavik city centre. You can take a taxi too…but it will cost you £30 for a 10-minute drive (which I wasn’t willing to pay). The towels are free and there are toilets in the changing rooms if you want privacy. Make sure you bring your own flip-flops. You will be given a bracelet on arrival and you can pay for drinks at the water bar with this. There is a limit of 3 drinks per person. Be careful with the rocks there, it can be difficult to see where they start and end underwater because of the steam, and the way they are angled. I cut my leg here because of this (and saw a few other people write that this happened to them)

7. Keflavík International Airport is a 45-minute drive away from Reykjavik city centre. You can prebook a bus or buy a ticket on arrival from the self-service machines.

8. There are 2 bus terminals so check the address carefully on Google before planning your journey. I had booked a ticket that just said “bus terminal” with no address. So I obviously put this into Google Maps and when I arrived…it turned out I was in the wrong place, and the staff informed me there are 2 different bus terminals. Easy mistake to make so be careful.

9. It is freezing in Iceland during the winter (I experienced -15°C in some areas), but all indoor spaces have the heating on full blast so it’s easy to warm up. The heating was so hot in my hotel room that I had to turn it down even though it was -8 outside on that particular day.

10. As I always say…buy any food souvenirs in the supermarket. You will see Icelandic chocolate, lava salt, and liquorice for sale in the souvenir shops. But they charge a ridiculous amount of money. Iceland is already very expensive, and you can get the same products in “Bonus” supermarket for a lot cheaper.

Click here to read about my 3-day trip to Iceland.