Iceland in March + April | the Ultimate Family Vacation Guide

Volcanos. Glaciers. Whales. Geothermal pools. And SO so so many breathtaking waterfalls. Iceland is a nature lover's paradise, a quick flight from NYC area, and everyone speaks English fluently (more or less)! If the Land of Fire & Ice is not on your travel bucket list yet, I hope this blog post inspires you to add it right at the top!

We did Iceland on a budget, so I'm thrilled to share our trick to scoring cheap flights to Europe, and booking a cheap hotel in Iceland (that is big family friendly!). While I have you, don't forget to download our FREE travel prep + packing check list here (for ANY travel, not just Iceland).

​While most travelers plan their Iceland trip during their more temperate summer months, I'm thrilled to show you why spring is perhaps the BEST time to visit Iceland (spoiler: there are zero crowds, there are gorgeous snowy landscapes galore, and you'll have enough night time for Northern Lights but long enough daylight for 12+hr sightseeing days).  I'll share every aspect of my family's Iceland itinerary so you can quickly copycat our multigenerational family vacation, and I will include tons of tips and things to consider when planning and customizing your trip.

If you want to sit back and be entertained with beautiful footage of Iceland, watch our youtube highlights video below first! Then read on for all of the details!!

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored but we were provided some tickets free to in exchange for including them in our vacation guide, and they're noted below. This post also contains some affiliate links below, noted with ** - as an Amazon Associate, I receive commission from purchases made after clicking those links.

---

FLIGHTS:

​Flight times and prices will vary depending on your home airport and time of year, but I was able to find $280 roundtrip direct flights on Iceland's budget carrier, Play Airlines, for my family flying from Stewart International Airport in Newburgh NY (1 hr from NYC) to Reykjavik. INCREDIBLE!! It was about 4 hours there and 6 hours back, an easy peasy flight from the US east cost! 

When on Play's website, play around (see what I did there LOL) with the dates to find the best fare, and definitely also check out Kayak and Google Flights to compare with larger carriers. Think of how much baggage you'll need to bring and calculate that into your total cost. For example, with Play, only a "personal item" (SMALL backpack) is included in the lowest fare ticket. My family purchased ONE checked bag to share, and it was an amazing deal for us! But if your family needs a checked bag for each person plus you want in-seat entertainment and meal service, a higher priced ticket with a traditional carrier might be a better deal.​​

If budget travel is your thing, make sure to come back and read these 2 blog posts (or click over and bookmark them now!):

• How to pack to save money on flights
• How to save money on your spring break family vacation

---

ACCOMODATIONS:

​We traveled with my parents (in their 70s) and our 3 kids (ages 8, 8, 11) and wanted to be together in a stair-free accommodation, so our needs were a bit exceptional. We decided to stay the entire trip in Reykjavik, because researching and finding a different place in each stop was too much of a headache. Plus, we didn't want to be driving a 10 passenger van all over, which would have been necessary to fit the 7 of us and our luggage.

After hours and hours (no joke) of research, I booked a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom "Superior Apartment" with kitchen and balcony at Downtown Reykjavik Apartments on Booking.com**. It was PERFECTION! A true home away from home! It was very quiet while being centrally located in the city - just a 10 minute walk to the main street and bus depot. It was too cold to hang out on our 4th floor balcony but I set my alarm a few times each night to go out and look for Aurora and one night I actually did capture them on my phone from there!! They had an elevator, free wifi, we never had trouble finding a free parking spot, and there was a luggage room which worked out great because our flight arrived at 4:30am and our bus got us to the hotel at 8am but we couldn't check into our room until 3pm LOL! Just dropped our bags off, bundled up, and headed to breakfast at Sundholt Bakery followed by a FULL day on our feet sightseeing (more on that below)!​

If looking for a house, Airbnb** and VRBO** are great places to search.

---

Our 5-7 day Iceland Itinerary:

• Day 1: Red Eye Flight & Reykjavik Sightseeing.

Overnight flights are not ideal, and this was the worst timing I could have imagined because we weren't even tired til the end of the flight which was only 4 hours long!! We left Stewart at 7:30pm and arrived around 11:30PM ET / 4:30am Iceland time. I didn't sleep a wink and the kids nodded off for *maybe* one hour. After going through customs and collecting bags, we waited for the first airport shuttle at 6am (we booked with Gray Line because kids under 12 are free), got to the hotel around 7:30am, put our stuff in the luggage room, bundled up, and headed out for the day since we couldn't check in til 3pm. It was a long day, but we walked outside in the brisk sunshine and kept very busy. I was shocked how well the kids handled it (only passing out briefly when we went to a coffee shop - hilarious footage in our 1st video). What to do and see in Reykjavik is outlined in another section below)

• Day 2: Self Drive, Southern Golden Circle (more below)
• Day 3: Self Drive, Northern Golden Circle (more below)
• Day 4: Reykjavik Sightseeing (more below)
• Day 5: Whale Watching + Public Geothermal Pool  (more below)
• Day 6: Flight home

---

BLUE CAR RENTAL:
Figuring out who to rent a car from was another hours upon hours of research I put into our trip, but you can save yourself the hassle and just choose Blue Car Rental, which was amazing!!! AND you can save 5% with my commission earning affiliate code Usjapanfam by clicking this link**!! One thing that's so great about Blue Car Rental is they have an office at Keflavik Airport AND in downtown Reykjavik, so you can pickup and dropoff at either. Personally, we only used the city location because we wanted to get a 7-seater, which was just big enough for our group WITHOUT our luggage. The Kia Sorento was less than a year old, in perfect condition, and all of their cars have studded tires (see photo below!) so you don't have to worry so much about weather, well, not when it comes to the car anyway!

Car Rental Tips:

• Stay on top of weather and road conditions on Safe Travel. 
• Bring an ATM card with PIN for getting gas.
• Paid parking is via app or credit card station at most places, even at most of the parks. There are signs posted so keep a look out.
• I was nervous about driving in Iceland but it could not have been easier. You drive on the right side, just like in the US. The roads were in perfect condition, there was NO traffic in the city or on the Golden Circle (I suspect there is a lot more traffic in summer), the GPS we got with the car was great but we usually used Apple CarPlay with my husband's phone since he purchased an international plan for the month so we could use his data.
• When putting destinations into the GPS, try to include "parking lot" otherwise you may be misled to the wrong location.
• There are all kinds of extra insurances available, even one that covers volcanic sand and ash. When in doubt, like I was, just get them all, including roadside assistance. Better safe than sorry!!

---

SELF-DRIVE ITINERARY:
​

Road Trip #1:  Southern Golden Circle (12hrs)
Picked up our rental car at 8am and headed out bright and early... we all crashed at 6pm our first night so it was actually perfect, despite our bodies still being on Eastern Time (4 hours behind Iceland)!​

Stop 1:  Urriðafoss / Urridafoss Waterfall
​Not super tall but large and powerful, very short path from parking lot i.e. you could do as few as 5-30 minutes here)

Stop 2:  Lava Centre 
An amazing hands on educational center that gifted us tickets in exchange for including them in our review. They had a beautiful volcano movie (with bean bags on the floor the kiddos loved) and so many exhibits where you could learn about how volcanos work, how Iceland is divided between 2 spreading tectonic plates so the country grows bigger at a rate of 2" per year! They even have an earthquake simulator!!! Very cool place!! We probably spent 1 hour here, followed by lunch on the road nearby.

Stop 3: Seljalandsfoss Waterfall
Beautiful tall (almost 200 feet) and narrow waterfall from a glacier-capped volcano. You can see it from quite a distance as you approach it by car. In summer you can walk behind the waterfall (bring a poncho) but in winter and in spring when we went, the back path is iced over and blocked off, and even the matted path in front was pretty icy (my kids loved "skating" around and had a hilarious fall a stranger caught on camera for us (see below photo!). We didn't want to risk my parents falling so they stayed back beyond where the mist was hitting (and freezing). This is a MUST stop, absolutely gorgeous! It's not far from the parking lot, maybe 5-10 minute walk, plan for at least 30 minutes here, more if you want to hike and see more waterfalls along the way.​

Stop 4: Rútshellir Cave
A quick, free, and unique stop to break up the drive but you do need to be rather agile to maneuver the little ladder over a fence to access the cave (my 70 year old parents had no problem, but just a heads up). 10-15 minutes is all you need here.

Stop 5: Skogafoss Waterfall
This waterfall was spectacular, my favorite of all of them! Almost 200 feet fall and 82 feet wide. When we were there in early April, there was a lot of ice all around which made it even more stunning, there was a rainbow over it at one point, and you could hear ice break off and fall down occasionally. It is about a 10 minute easy walk from parking to the waterfall, plan for at least 30 minutes here, more if you are adventurous enough to climb the MANY stairs to view it from the top (we did not). You can walk right up to it but the mist gets heavier and heavier as you get closer (and the ground icier and icier).

​Sólheimajökull Glacier:
We did not stop here but rather admired it while driving by on the Golden Circle, which was enough for us. There are plenty of tour groups that organize hikes here, they'll provide the gear and everything!

Stop 6: Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
​
​A beautiful beach, infamous for "sneaker waves" which suck a few people each year out into the frigid open waters. There are warning signs up - never turn your back to the ocean and don't go past the dry sand too close to the shoreline. Even when waves look calm, there could be a random one that "sneaks" up on you. Best case, you get wet and someone adds a video of you to countless other Reynisfjara  sneaker wave videos on TikTok. Worst case, it knocks you down, pulls you out, and game over.

That said, it's a beautiful beach which my kids will tell you is NOT black sand, it's black pebbles LOL! And the gorgeous basalt structures to admire, just wow, I loved those!! ​

Stop 7:  Vík i Myrdal​
We didn't spend much time here but it's a popular place to spend the night if doing a multiple night ride around the Golden Circle. Defintiely see their iconic church and have dinner at Black Crust Pizzeria (it's not black from volcanic ash but rather charcoal, to go along with the black sand beach vibe - SO yum!! I highly recommend the #2 (pizza with duck, cream cheese, syrup soaked orange, cashew nuts + chilli), and the sweet bacon wrapped dates. OMG. I'm drooling just remembering these!! ​

Dinner completed our first road trip and we drove 2.5 hours back to Reykjavik, with a brief pit stop for ice cream and bathroom at a nice convenience store on the highway.

Road Trip #2: Northern Golden Circle (8hrs)​

Stop 1:  Brúarfoss Waterfall
​This was a nice waterfall but a bit scary as there was a portion before the bridge that had no guardrail - if you have little ones, please be careful! The view over the waterfall from the small foot bridge is lovely! It's probably the longest trek from parking to a waterfall that we did, but still quite short, maybe 10 minutes, so schedule 30 minutes here to be safe. If I were forced to drop any of the waterfalls from our itinerary it'd probably be this one, but only if FORCED. It was beautiful, just a bit of a drive off the Circle and then a walk, so took quite a bit of time if you're rushed, consider dropping this one to save time.​

Stop 2:  Strokkur Geyser
​There is an amazing visitor center here - very new and modern with a huge variety of delicious food options!!! Depending on your schedule, you may want to plan for a meal or a snack here, then head over to the geyser. It's a quick 5 minute walk and erupts with a spout of water 100 feet high every 10-20 minutes. Lots of bubbling hot springs around so just stay on the path. The larger Geysir is dormant now, unfortunately, but Strokkur was still impressive! Allow at least 30 minutes here.​​

Stop 3:  Gulfoss Waterfall
​This waterfall is incredible!! If you have time you can walk along the path for a few different angles, it's not far from the parking and this one also has a wonderful visitor center with great food options! Give yourself at least 30 minutes here.

Stop 4:  Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Bakery Tour & Geothermal Baths
​
To be honest, I heard about this place on Netflix's Down to Earth with Zac Efron and reached out to see if they'd host us for a visit, and they did!! And this place did not disappoint!!! You MUST schedule this on your trip to Iceland, it's right on the Golden Circle and provides some once in a lifetime kind of experiences!!! Book the Geothermal Bakery Tour and they'll take you out to their lake, dig up bread that's been baking in the ground for the last 24 hours, and bury a new loaf for tomorrow's tour to dig up. You'll see the water in the ground actually boiling!! Geothermal energy, baby!!! THEN, you go inside and they cut the Icelandic Rye Bread open - it's still steaming hot!! And you'll eat it with fresh Icelandic butter and smoked trout caught in the very lake you are at!!! It was absolutely delicious!!! 

We followed up the bakery tour by relaxing in their geothermal baths. Bring your own towels and swim suits or you can rent from Fontana. They have nice big locker rooms where you can safely stow your items and wear the key on a wrist band. You'll need to scrub down in the showers before putting on your swimsuit and heading outdoors to the various naturally heated geothermal pools. I'm not gonna lie, it was COLD when we went. They were having a wind storm and it was honestly probably 0 degrees Fahrenheit wind chill!!! You briskly walk from the locker room and then plunge down into the hot baths and it feels SO good!!! The lake was frozen but they pound out the ice so you can do a cold plunge if you please (we did not but many people did), and you've also got snowy mountains in the background. After bathing, head back to the locker room - they've even got shampoo and hair dryers for you (but no shower curtain... when in Rome)!

Both bakery and bath adventures at Fontana were so incredibly unique, this place goes down as one of my top 10 most memorable and recommended travel experiences ever, 100%!!!

​Stop 5:  Þingvellir / Thingvellir National Park 
This is supposedly the only place on earth where you can see on land where two tectonic plates meet and it's spectacular. We learned at the Lava Centre the day before that the two plates are spreading apart, making Iceland grow 2" per year! To see it in person the next day was just really cool! The parking lot is very close so you could do this in as little as 10 minutes but it's a HUGE park if you want to spend hours hiking and exploring, you can. It's only 45 minutes from Reykjavik so this could be its own day trip if you have time, but we crammed it into the larger half Golden Circle trip.

---

REYKJAVIK ACTIVITIES: ​

Reykjavik is a really cute town! The main street is lively with lots of shopping and restaurants, really nice to walk along and explore, wide variety of architecture and colorful buildings going on which I really loved! But it's not a huge city. I would have been content with a single day in the city and the 2 full road trip days, but having 5-6 days gives you much more flexibility and more of a slow travel vibe. I found Reykjavik the perfect place to have as our base camp, so you can go about leisurely if you have extra time, or book last minute tours (or rental car) out of the city.

Perlan Wonders of Iceland Museum:
Perlan's observation deck has THE BEST view in town (see below)! You can buy tickets for just the observation deck OR an all-inclusive museum ticket, the latter which we were gifted in exchange for including them in our vacation coverage. It is an amazing museum with lots of hands on exhibits and ways to learn about the science behind this amazing land of Fire & Ice! Their manmade 100m long Ice Cave was one of the highlights of the trip for me - made with 350 tons from Iceland's Blue Mountains and is kept at a frigid 14°F (-10°C)!! I also really enjoyed their Northern Lights show in the planetarium, but several in our family slept through that one since we went on our first day in Iceland after flying overnight with no sleep... oops!

​​​Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral:
Perhaps the most iconic building in Reykjavik - you can pay to go up top for a great view from their tower, but we just went inside for free and listened to beautiful pipe organ), and our kids had fun on the swings outside!

Whale watching tour with Reykjavik Sailors / Special Tour:
There are MANY whale watching tours running but Reykjavik Sailors had the best pricing I could find, definitely a splurge for us but totally worth it - we had a great trip! It was a nice big boat with TONS of seating inside (great for the 45 minute ride to and from the bay, if it's cold weather), drinks and snacks for purchase, free wifi, life jackets (required for kids under 12), nice bathrooms, and a great deck on top for viewing. We saw soooooo many whales and even a few playful dolphins. I was nervous about my son and myself getting motion sick but 99% of the ride was shockingly smooth and we all did totally fine!​

Public geothermal swimming pool (Sundhöll):

If you have time, this is a really local experience that is fun for the whole family! Supposedly the indoor/outdoor public pools are where Icelandic people go to hang out regularly, all year round, and it seemed very much the case when we went!! Maybe bars and restaurants aren't as popular because alcohol is so expensive?? I digress...

We went to the Sundhöll Reykjavíkur because it was very close to our hotel, but if you have time I think Laugardalslaug looks even more fun for kids (it has a huge water slide!) Kids are free, it's about $10 per adult. They have lockers and you just take the little key with a wrist band, they even had footies to cover your shoes so you didn't get the locker room dirty where people are walking around barefoot, and they had floaties for non-swimmers. You bring your own towel and swimsuit, scrub down (naked) then suit up and go enjoy the pools! They're geothermally heated - the pools were gloriously warm, the hot tubs were amazing, and ours even had a cold plunge (which my husband did, how!?!?!). They had an indoor pool that was being used for kids swim lessons, so we stuck to the many outdoor pools and it was such a unique experience. No cameras were allowed in the pool area so I don't have any photos or videos of that but we had a great time!

Grotta Lighthouse:
We drove since we still had our car but it's walkable from Reykjavik. It's a really cute lighthouse! Check the tide times though (they're listed there but it'd be better to know before hand so you can plan your day accordingly) -  you want to have enough time to walk out and not get stuck out there!! This is a popular (dark) spot to come out at night to see Northern Lights for those who can't get out of the city.

Árbæjarsafn / Arbaer Open Air Museum:
This is another one we squeezed in because we still had our car and wanted to use it LOL! They provide a tour guide and you can learn a lot about Iceland's history, I highly recommend it, though younger kids may find it a wee boring.

Smáralind / Smaralind Shopping Mall:
This was another one we randomly added to our free day with a car. I love going to grocery stores and shopping malls in foreign countries, don't you!? One big plus about this one is they have a Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur store in the mall, where you can try the famous Icelandic hot dog without standing in line for an hour and eating outside in downtown Reykjavik with the rest of the tourists LOL!! Don't try to pick and choose your toppings, you need to go all in with the standard which includes onions, fried onions, ketchup, lamb/pork/beef hot dog, remoulade, and mustard! SO YUM!!!

​​​There are tons of activities and museums and day tours you can do in Reykjavik, and tons of excursions that will pick up and drop off there. So do your research and figure out what are musts for your family - do you want to hike a volcano, explore a glacier, do the FlyOver Iceland ride, visit the Blue Lagoon (it was closed due to volcanic activity while we were there), see the Lava Show, take a walking food tour or book a bus tour out to see the Northern Lights? Viator is a great place to book your tickets and tours, and don't forget to install the Rakuten extension** so you can 10% cash back on Viator purchases!!

---

WEATHER / WHAT TO PACK:

​In winter and spring, pack for super cold weather with some base layers. Inside is nice and warm but outside can be brutal. You need a WARM winter coat, hat, gloves, snow boots or waterproof hiking boots. I recommend my magical combo of sherpa lined leggings and wind/waterproof pants**. This fleece lined hat and neck gaiter** also did me goooood!! There are places you can rent gear in Iceland, but it's expensive and probably only necessary for those coming from warm places who do not already have a warm coat and boots. If you're coming from northern US or Canada, you'll be fine in your winter gear. To save money on your flight, just wear all your gear on the plane ;) No joke, we did, and it saved us from having to purchase a second checked bag!! You can bring a travel umbrella if you want, but we brought ponchos instead so we didn't have to worry about wind. In the end, we didn't have any rain the whole week we were there, only got a bit of snow while boarding our flight home!! Got really lucky!!

Don't forget to pack a bathing suit for visiting a geothermal pool or two, a waterproof phone pouch** for your phone if you want to take photos in the pool, and consider a tripod if you are serious about setting up for some amazing northern lights photos.

​Of course you'll also need sunglasses, phone and charger and TRAVEL ADAPTER because they use different plugs (type C/E)!! We brought 2 because between the 5 of us we had a TON of devices. This Lencent travel plug adapter** folds in and has 4 outlets, 2 USB and 2 USB C, and this Trond adapter** has 3 outlets and 2 USB. They use different voltage (230v), which is fine for most phones and laptops and tablets have a wide range (110-240v) and will be fine, but triple check all electronics before bringing - hair dryers, sound machines and things like that will NOT be ok.

---

Iceland Travel Tips
aka things that surprised me about Iceland:

• Food is expensive! Be prepared! Having an apartment or hotel and visiting the grocery store is a fun experience to "live like a local" or at least save money and time on breakfasts before heading out for the day. Kronan and Bonus (the pink pig logo) are affordable and located all over. Also helpful to get over the sticker shock at restaurants: keep in mind that tax is included and tip is not expected. So that's like 20-30% right there that's already in the menu price!
• Alcohol is even more expensive. My husband indulged in a few drinks but the rest of us had a dry week. If you need to stock up your hotel room, I've heard the cheapest option is the duty free shopping just before you exit Keflavik Airport!
• The water stinks, but it's GOOD water! It smells like sulfer right out of the tap, you'll most notice when swishing your mouth after brushing your teeth LOL! But we filled our water bottles and glasses straight from the tap, it's GREAT water!!
• Iceland is the first non-English speaking country I have ever visited where we did not run into a single local who didn't speak perfectly fluent English. I was absolutely shocked! So, if you're someone who gets nervous traveling abroad, wanting to take an organized tour because of potential language barrier, it is NOT a problem in Iceland. All the signs, menus, people, everything everywhere that we encountered was no problem for English speakers.
• It seems to be more or less a cashless place. We didn't exchange any money or use cash, not once. We used just our American credit cards (Visa & Mastercard, leave AmEx at home) and Debit Card (needs a PIN) for pumping gas. SO easy!!
• Driving was SO peaceful and chill (when we went anyway, I can't speak to the summer touristy season). But also... there are LONG stretches of absolute nothingness, which means gorgeous landscapes but they made me a wee bit of nervous to think what would you do in an emergency? How would you even know if there was an alert of a nearby volcano erupting imminently? And at night, omg, SO dark. SO SO DARK!! Which is great for aurora hunting but also a bit unnerving.
• The sun never rose high in the sky! It always felt like 8am or 7pm. It must be something to do with the latitude, they're SO far north, or a spring thing? I'm not really sure but it felt SO weird to me!
  
• Free WIFI was widely available. I had considered bringing a hot spot or pay for AT&T's International Day Pass, but in the end I didn't need to! I was able to get free wifi at every restaurant and attraction as well as the airport and our hotel and other random places. My husband kept his cell service turned on because he needed to be available for work texts and calls, but otherwise it honestly wouldn't have been necessary. Service also seemed pretty consistant. I'm used to going hiking in the US and having NO service, but I don't think we ever lost it in Iceland. 

---

NORTHERN LIGHT TIPS:

• Best months are September - April because you have enough hours of dark night time.
• If you have a car, you can check the Aurora forecast and cloud map and go out on your own - that's what we did on our last night with the car and were able to find them, though they weren't strong enough to see with the naked eye on that night, we captured them with long exposure on our phones. Driving out to a very dark area in the middle of the night when the KP index is high will be your best chance, that said, we captured them one night from the balcony of our hotel in the city. So you just never know how lucky you will get!
• If you don't have a car or just want to go with a professional guide / Aurora Hunter, book a Northern Lights tour** and do so early on your trip because you can usually rebook for free if they can't find them. Prices vary greatly depending on size of the group, and what's provided. Some will even give you hot cocoa and will take professional photos for you!
• Equipment - holding your cell phone with a steady hand on long exposure (3 seconds or so) will give you decent results, that's what I did. But if you want stunning results, bring a camera you can adjust settings manually on: shutter speed of 5-10” seconds, ISO between 1600 - 6400, aperture as low as possible (F1.4 – F2.8).
• Ask around!!! Join Facebook groups, I found members in Aurora Alerts Iceland group helpful! Ask concierge at your hotel if they have a notification system in place if the lights are dancing. I think there are some subscriptions you can sign up for via text, we didn't do this though. Download some apps, too.  I liked this Aurora Alerts app which includes KP index (strength of 1-9 with higher being stronger and better) and BZ (when the nT goes negative, there's a better chance), as well as weather and other important factors. This post on Fstoppers goes into detail about KP, BZ etc etc if you want to learn more about how to predict the Aurora.

---

PHEW! Did I warn you I was going to give you ALL you need to know about planning a spring vacation to Iceland or what!??! 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions??? Leave them all below! We honestly LOVED Iceland and the whole vibe of this vacation SO much we are already trying to figure out when we can go back, definitely looking to go during summer next time because I want to see it all gloriously green and full of puffins and flowers!