ICELAND - 2022

When we found out that my husband was being sent to Iceland for work we decided to add on some time and make a family vacation out of it. At the time our daughter was 15months old and this was her first flight and trip out of Canada. We hit all the touristy spots such as Svartifoss, Seljalandsfoss and Vatnajokull. My husband and I had both been to Iceland once before so we knew we wanted to do something neither of us did on our first trips. We were lucky enough to get there shortly before the interior roads closed for the winter season so we rented a jeep and headed to the highlands. Our mission was to hike in Landmannalaugar which is a location in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve on the edge of the Laugahraun lava field. The journey there involved some extremely bumpy roads, driving through a river and a stop to view Hekla, an active volcano. Once we arrived at Landmannalaugar we loaded our girl up in her backpack carrier and headed out. This was by far the most stunning hike Ive ever done in my life. The mountains were like nothing Ive ever seen before, full of striations of colour due to thousands of years worth of geothermal activity. The trail had sections of black rocks covered in beautiful sage coloured Icelandic moss and spots where sulfur created a thick fog. Our daughter slept through the whole thing but we took lots of photos for when she's older so we can show her what she missed.

Our adventure ended with a week in Reykjavik where my daughter and I explored the city while my husband was at the office all day. If you're considering a trip to Iceland with a baby/toddler/kid my advice is DO IT! Iceland is extremely kid friendly. If your visiting waterfalls theres lots of spots to have a picnic lunch and chill out on the grass while you take in the grander of the falls. If your in the city, theres lots of awesome playgrounds and every restaurant and cafe has highchairs and booster seats. The Perlan museum was fantastic and super interactive. You know fruit pouches? Well they have skyr pouches which were super delicious and available at every gas station and grocery store. We also tried to blend in with the locals and visited one of the cities many geothermal heated outdoor swimming pools which our girl loved and as an added bonus we got to see the Northern lights on our walk back to our airbnb.

ICELAND - 2017

Back in 2017 I travelled to Iceland with two of my closest friends. We started in Reykjavik and then headed NE towards the black sand beaches of Vic and the glacial lagoon, Jokulsarlon. We hiked the Skeidhararjokull Glacier at Vatnajokul and ate PB&J sandwiches in our rental car. We didn't shower much and were cold and wet most of the time but didn't care at all. As a geography/environmental studies graduate, this was a dream come true kind of trip. I geeked out on geology and plate tectonics and was constantly reminded how vast, powerful and incredible our planet is.