Iceland

Iceland Day 4: Long Way Back to Blue Lagoon

Over the last 3 days in Iceland, we drove few hours per day and today we had to drive all the way back to the airport area – Keflavik……more than 250 miles and speed limit in Ring Road 55 mph so need at least 5 hours! Last night I notice the bookshelf with encyclopedia wall and that is how it looks like in day light:

We had a full lunch again not knowing when and where can we stop for lunch during our long journey back. Originally, my plan was to leave at 6 am and will arrive Reykjavik by noon to explore before Blue Lagoon at 6 PM that I booked in advanced. Few weeks prior to our trip I know with a large group traveling together, we’ll take longer than I estimated and will be too rushed so we visited Reykjavik on the first day instead. The last day, which is today, only mission is to drive back and make it to Blue Lagoon by 6 PM! Plenty of time for stops along the way!!!

First stop, we had to say goodbye to Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon!

And we witnessed an iceberg flipped wowwww it happened unexpectedly and quite fast!

The sea lions wake up early as well!

I hope we will be back soon!

Back to the car and continue our journey back…another thing I will not forget about Iceland – those low hanging clouds!

And cute sheep roaming everywhere!

And those scary one lane bridges!

Cake-like mountains…

We made a short stop at Foss á Síðu, a waterfall that is closed for public access.

We stopped because of those two Iceland horses 🙂

He doesn’t like me “stop bothering me” awwww!

Looks like in a post card?

Hubby has a great potential to be a farmer!

Me? Not at all….they walked away…awww!

Those gigantic wheels!!!

After 2 plus hours of driving, we made a stop at Vik to get gas, use the restroom inside the gas station, and some shopping 🙂 The gas station there has a little cafeteria on the back selling hot food!

Across from the gas station, I spotted some very cute “underground’ cabins:

After we filled the tank, we parked the in the parking lot and across from it has an Icelandic Wear shopping outlet.I got a wool hat around $25 USD as my souvenir, hopefully it’ll help me survive the brutal winter!

Bye Vik!

Another 3 hours of driving, we made it back and have time to check-in our hotel near the airport – Bed and Breakfast Keflavík Airport. I highly recommend this close to the airport hotel, it has all the amenities you need for a convenient stay. We arrived at like 3 PM so it was too late to go out for lunch but we had some left over instant noodles. The breakfast area/cafeteria opens 24/7 so you are welcome to get drinks like milk and juice for FREE and use plates, cups, utensils, etc! How convenient is that!

Our family room for $174 USD a night for 5 of us:

Inside there’s a bedroom with 3 more dorm beds:

The restroom – not luxury but clean:

We got some rest before heading out to Blue Lagoon only around 10 miles away from our hotel.

I was debating if we should go to the Blue Lagoon as some said it’s a tourist trap at 35 Euros per person (the cheapest package – not include towel and facial mask, I’ll explain how you can get that for free later) while other natural hot springs are much cheaper throughout Iceland. It was conveniently close to the airport so people can have a dip before or after the long flight. I guess you pay for the facility as it’s the most “luxurious” of the hot springs. We took the towels from our hotel room with us to Blue Lagoon as our package doesn’t include towel. We arrived Blue Lagoon, parked our car, and went in. I gave the pre-book tickets to the lady to scan and she gave each of us an electronic bracelet. Blue Lagoon is very high-tech, the lockers and paying for drinks are all by your electronic bracelet – don’t lose it!!! We walled into this hallway and another lady pointed us to the locker rooms; the ladies’ locker rooms are located on the 2nd floor while the guys’ on the ground floor. I was very nervous about how can I get change and shower…I heard you must shower naked before entering the lagoon. And Europeans are used to change in the open……but thankfully there are three closed-door shower rooms and a closed-door changing room. And coming at 6:30 PM helped; no line for either of those rooms. We three occupied all three shower rooms! I told my cousin and my friend to apply and leave a ton of hair conditioner in their hair and tie their hair up. The reason is: the silica and sulfur in the water will dry out your hair like hay!

There are body wash, shampoo, and conditioner – Blue Lagoon brand!!! – inside the shower rooms so you don’t need to bring your own. We stored our bags into the electronic locker – it’s big enough for our bags but we bring our phones with us as well as my camera. We wrapped ourselves with the towel and walked to the lagoon – it was cold outside temperature was like 50’s only! We met up with the guys and walked out! We found an area close
to the bench so I can place my camera and our phones there and can keep our eyes on them.

The water was so hot when I first stepped into it but my body quickly addressed and felt so comfortable!

My friend stayed to watch our camera and phones while we took a walk around the whole lagoon area…some area are hotter than others! We eventually found the free silica mud, walk under the bridge and continue to the end, there’s a wooden “stage” area with scopes. You are free to scope out the silica mud from the pails floating on the stage and apply to your face and body 🙂 They also got some drinks from the water bar to enjoy.

Once the mud dried, rinse it off! My face skin felt so soft!!!

We stayed around an hour in the water and decided we had enough of relaxation. We grab our stuff and went back to the locker room. I stored my camera and our phones inside the locker, went to shower again, and then change. The locker room has hair dryer but someone was using it sighhhh. To exit the facility, you’ll need to scan your bracelet and a little door open for you to deposit your bracelet before it lets you to get out. If you used the bracelet to pay for drinks, you’ll need to pay at the counter first or else you’ll not be able to get out; pretty high tech 🙂 There’s a gift shop on the exit that sells Blue Lagoon beauty products as well as other premium accessories. I tried the moisturizer cream and it smells very good and very smooth. The small bottle of cream cost 105 Euros! The silica mask, 200ml, cost 70 Euros! I told myself I should checkout the price at the airport as it’s duty free so I have another chance to buy it later!

At the airport: the Blue Lagoon shop is located after security, you can hand carry those and the prices are tax free! I bought the moisturizer cream (10800 ISK that’s around $82 while at Blue Lagoon was 95 Euros), the duo pack of silica mask set (8800 ISK that’s around $67, excellent deal, while at Blue Lagoon was 110 Euros), and an algae plus silica mask set (12000 ISK that’s around $92 while at Blue Lagoon was 120 Euros). Since I bought just over 30000 ISK, I got a cleanser/toner free worth 30 Euros!

We got outside and there are an area where we could take some photos before leaving the facility!

Look at that milky blue water!

The walkway to the parking lot:

On the ride, I took few more photos of the facility; they are working to expand it:

On the back are the geothermal power plant.

Blue Lagoon Tips:

  1. The Standard package is fine to save money, just bring your own towel from the hotel!
  2. There are closed-door changing and shower rooms so don’t worry if you don’t feel comfortable changing in the “public”.
  3. There are Blue Lagoon body wash, shampoo, and conditioner in each shower rooms so no need to bring your own.
  4. Apply plenty of conditioner and leave them on in your hair, tie up your hair if you have long hair.
  5. There are free silica mud for you to use, walk around the lagoon and you’ll find it.

We drove to Thai Keflavik for dinner. Luckily, we found a parking slot near by in the city center.

Inside is decorated with Thai pictures and statues but no idea why they didn’t turn all the lights on, our section was very dark! The dishes we ordered:

Hubby’s fried rice was good, had the “wok” taste!

Another fried rice – spicy (it was very mild spicy to us).

Our must eat Thai disk – drunken noodle..although the noodle is not the wide flat kind, it’s Iceland what can we expect? But the taste was okay!

Fried fish as appetizer, it was good.

My curry – it was too sweet for my taste though!

Another yellow curry, that was still too sweet for my taste as well and not as spicy as I would like.

We missed rice so much!!! Total for our dinner? $100 USD for 5 of us not too bad in Iceland prices!

Another plus of our hotel is that breakfast opens as early as 4:30 AM since our flight is 6:45 AM so it works out. Plenty of cold cuts, love those!

We arrived at the rental office at 5 when they open and returned our car. It was quite fast and easy. Then we walked over to the airport and OMG long lines everywhere!!! I don’t expect the airport will be that busy that early in the morning!!! Somehow both WOW Airlines and Icelandair scheduled a lot of flights early in the morning around the same time. I felt like the airport does not have enough capacity to handle this many passengers! Even though the airlines divided up lines for each specific fight (so pay attention to which line you should be standing in) it didn’t help much! Thankfully they didn’t weight each carry-on bags or else it’ll be a disaster! They do have a specify line for carry-on only customers where they paid for the extra carry-on weights. Security was very high tech and efficient; it was all electronic! The bins automatically come up onto the belt where you place your items then it goes through scan. For questionable bins, it get pushed to another line for a thorough search. You placed the bins at the end and it automatically takes it and sends it to the front of the line again without the need of a person walking back and forth to refill the bins. I wondered why Iceland has it all electronic while Boston doesn’t? After security, we had to run and barely made it for the “final boarding call”!!! We got into the bus that transferred us to the plane but ended up waiting for more customers as they are running late too! If you have early flight, please factor in extra time, you might think a small airport with two airlines shouldn’t be busy…totally wrong!!! Goodbye Iceland, next stop: London but we’ll be back on our way back home for an overnight stay!!!

3 thoughts on “Iceland Day 4: Long Way Back to Blue Lagoon

  1. As usual, beautiful photos, great details and commentaries! That one waterfall, Foss á Síðu, didn’t look real. Love your new hat and you will be able to wear it in Boston. You and hubby looked so cute with the facial mud masks in the Blue Lagoon. Thai food in Iceland?! The breakfast before flight to London looked really fresh and yummy except for the waffles that would be a bit too burnt for my taste. What are the best months to visit Iceland? I know you went in August and looked pretty green then and did not look too cold.

    1. Thanks Delia! Yes Thai food in Iceland, we missed rice LOL! The best months to visit Iceland depending on what you want to see! End of August is not too cold and enough daylight hours to see a lot in one day 🙂

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