Our day started bright and early with a taxi ride to Blue Car Rentals to pick up the 4×4 that would take us along the south coast of Iceland over the following few days. Ella found driving in Reykjavik city to be mildly stressful – it turns out Icelanders have a rather relaxed view on using their indicators (they pretty much never do) but before long we had left the city and were on our way towards the Golden Circle.

The Golden Circle is one of Icelands most popular tourist destinations, consisting of Gullfoss waterfall, Strokkur geysir and Þingvellir National Park. It can easily be achieved as a day trip from Reykjavik or as a stop along your Icelandic road trip.

I wasn’t all that excited to head back to Þingvellir (it’s beautiful but I just didn’t feel a strong urge to return) and we had seen a tomato greenhouse turned restaurant all over our feeds prior to our trip and decided to make a little pit stop there before heading on to Gullfoss.

Now one thing that you must know about my wife is that she loves food. She especially loves to eat things that she’s never tried before, things that are considered ‘unusual’ and anything experimental.

Friðheimar exclusively grows tomatoes and though the most popular thing on the menu is the tomato soup (and it does slap) they are also well known for offering some more unusual items.

In addition to the aforementioned tomato soup, you can also enjoy tomato beer, tomato wine, tomato coffee, tomato ice cream and even tomato cheesecake!

Fair warning, if you post a photo like this next one without context, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll get messages from people asking if its weed – I got at least a dozen, lel.

After a delicious tomato-ey lunch, we were off to Gullfoss.

Gullfoss isn’t the biggest or most powerful waterfall in Iceland, but it does put out an enormous amount of water. In the summer months as much as 141 cubic metres of water is passed by these falls each second.

As an added bonus, Gullfoss is seriously gorgeous.

My biggest hot tip though – if you are visiting in winter, get yourself some $40 crampons and thank me later. This whole area becomes a veritable slip ‘n slide and without my little spikes I would have been going arse up the entire time.

Our last stop of the day was Strokkur geysir.

Now, if you have visited this area before, I don’t think you need to go back. I remember when I visited in early 2013 and our tour bus was the only one present, we were there for an incredible cotton candy sky sunset and it was amazing. Nowadays it will be packed with tourists, many of whom see roped off areas and think that the rules don’t apply to them and that its totally okay to trample around in these areas. Maybe we just visited on a bad day but I honestly don’t think it needs to be revisited.

Now, sometimes you just gotta splurge on an amazing hotel stay. For me, Panorama Glass Lodge was that splurge worthy stay.

These glorious tiny homes were the first glass roofed accommodations in all of Iceland and they are still the most famous. Located about halfway between the Golden Circle region and Seljalandsfoss, they are the perfect place to stay when road tripping the southern region of Iceland.

They are not staffed – and that is a good thing. You will be emailed a code 24 hours before your booking and use that to access your little hideaway. It means that other than occasionally seeing your neighbours in passing, you have complete privacy.

The views from the lodge are incredible and even if you get completely unlucky with weather like we did (100% cloud cover, lel) you won’t be disappointed.

Each of the lodges is teeny tiny but stocked with everything you need. A ridiculously comfy and cosy bed, a small kitchenette stocked with basics (although you should absolutely bring groceries with you), a bathroom with heated floors (heavenly) and even an outdoor hot tub!

I am here to tell you that the outdoor hot tub is insanely good. Even in the frigid winter temperatures it is kept perfectly hot and the views are amazing.

There is even a glass fronted sauna although this will be shared with your neighbour. The way that it works is that each lodge gets pre appointed time slots to use the sauna, so during one of your time slots you can simply wander down and enjoy.

The main reason that people come to one of these lodges is to try and spot the northern lights, and although we didn’t see them during our stay (check out the clouds in the next photo) our two nights there were still utterly perfect.

Stay tuned for more of our epic Iceland adventures!

THE LOWDOWN

Friðheimar: This restaurant is absolutely worth a stop (unless you are one of those people who hates tomatoes) and though bookings aren’t essential they are preferred. Click here to learn more
Gullfoss: This spot is absolutely incredible. Parking here is free which is an added bonus!
Panorama Glass Lodge: Staying here is absolutely a splurge. We stayed in the ‘Alva’ lodge and this stay will set you back a whopping €590 per night but I will say, if you can afford it, it will not disappoint! Click here to learn more
Remember: If you plan to visit in winter, do yourself a favour and buy some crampons in advance!