Iceland South Coast Highlights: 2-Day Itinerary Guide

This is just our first day in Iceland and it's already a dream. Unreal. My Iceland dreams are like complete. All I was hoping for was a rainbow with a waterfall. So if you've never been to Equatia, this is a really good one to do. Yeah, I honestly don't know how that's not on more lists. Way underrated. Good thing I brought my hiking boots. Iceland's most voluminous waterfall. We literally just went around a corner and now there's no snow. That was crazy. Here come some horses. Alright, parking here is 700 ISK. Let's leave this on the dashboard. It's good for 24 hours. Let's go. These waterfalls have plenty of bathrooms, which is really nice. An easy little two minute walk up the path and we're right here at the waterfall. I see the rainbow. All I was hoping for was a rainbow with a waterfall. Ta-da! We weren't going to get it, but we did and I'm so happy. A little wet in here. We're going up the path. See if we can get behind the waterfall. So pretty. Man, this is cool. That is a powerful waterfall. Alright, let's head back. It's a little treacherous, but man that's fun. That is worth it. So fun. So cool. Highly, highly recommend this stop. What do you think? Really cool. It is cool. I cannot describe that. I don't know. But that just... No words. Alright, come down this path, cross the bridge, see how far we can convince the kids to go. It looks like this is the end, but it's not. There's another waterfall 300 meters this way. So keep going. I have a feeling this is a bad idea. This rock has surprisingly good grip for how wet it is. Yeah, that one is not for kids. Those rocks, they would have fallen in in a heartbeat. We're exploring this river while Ethan checks out the waterfall. Man, I can't believe how lucky we are on this day. It was such a gorgeous day. How was it? It was really cool. I got a second where nobody was there for like a minute or two. Oh, that's awesome. That whole stop took us about an hour to see all the waterfalls. We're going to head back to the bathrooms, then jump back in the car and head on to Vy. Stop at another waterfall on the way. Here we go. Yeah, we saw this little cave as we were driving down the side of the road. It's not on our to-do list, but it looks cool, doesn't it? It's called a Rosteleur. Oh yeah, we gotta make a wish. Another cave over here. The sign said this was probably a smithy. This is cool. Apparently, there's like 90 of these all over South Iceland on different farms, and 41 of them have been declared protected sites. Yeah, you should make a stop here. Check it out. There's Skogafoss. That little cave thing was like two minutes down the road over here. It's so pretty. This is cool. So for this one, you can walk right up to the bottom of it. It's like a two or three minute walk from the parking lot. Or you can hike up to the top. It's five or six hundred steps to the top. Still going. This is quite the trek. Kai, I think that's the last step. You did the whole thing. He doesn't even care. Alright, we're still going. What's up here? The top of the waterfall. Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga. This waterfall is massive. I'm getting up closer and closer to it. You can just see how big it is. Woohoo! Oh, the camera's so wet. I'm getting pelted with mist. Can you see this mist coming across here? Right at the edge of the water. Oh, we're covered in water already. It's like it's full on raining right now. Okay, I gotta get out of here. Oh, my legs are soaked. This is just our first day in Iceland and it's already a dream. You've seen pictures of this. And to be here in real life is just... Man, this is bucket list. This is so cool. You gotta do this. I feel so lucky right now. So Skogafoss is right over there. We are actually gonna go to a different waterfall over there. We're gonna park here at Freya Cafe. And the trail is right over there. This canyon is awesome. This is basically a 15 minute walk through this canyon straight to the waterfall. Which you can also go behind. This is pretty. This is really pretty. So this ground is a little slippery. Just beware of that. We're doing just fine in sneakers. Kai's got boots. Yeah, so this is Kavernafoss. Way underrated. Definitely pair this with that trip over to Skogafoss. Check it out. Oh, there's another trail down here. Let's do it. Ah, yes. This is our view of the rainbow. Refraction! We've got a rainbow. I honestly don't know how that's not on more lists. No, especially with it so close by. And then the Skogafoss Museum is right where we parked. You should definitely just do all of this. It looks like this is for excursions. You can hike up onto the glacier. Walk up there. Explore. This is more serious. Not just hang out, go to a viewpoint, and check it out. This is for real. We don't have the proper equipment. So we're not going to go on the glacier. Alright, we came up to the top of Derholy Drive-Up. You can hike up, but honestly, just drive up to the parking lot here at the top. Because then you just walk right out of the parking lot and you have this incredible view. Look at this! I'm by myself right now because Baby's sleeping in the car. So we're taking turns checking it out. Seriously, that view is ridiculous. This, I've heard, is called Endless Black Sand Beach. Which makes sense. Totally forgot there was an arch here. That is so pretty. I came out here just for the views and for the lighthouses up here. Yeah, this is definitely worth a stop. That's probably the biggest arch that I've ever seen. That's crazy. So much bigger than Cabo. So there's a trail that runs down over this way against a view of the other Black Sand Beach. I am going to try and run it. We'll see what happens. See how long it is. It's a lot longer than it looks. This peninsula is deceptively wide. So this trail is all the way down there all the way out over there. And look, there's people all the way on the cliffs here. So that would be cool. Go stand out there on the cliffs. Get the nice view of Black Sand Beach over there. I'm going to run back so Ethan can come out and explore the area. And then we'll keep heading up the coast. In case you're wondering, you cannot go into the lighthouse or up to the top of it. It's all roped off. We should get rid of this camera if there's something on it. Yeah, it's been there for ages. It's really annoying. Today is blinking yellow. Medium hazard. Watch out for those sneaker waves. There's an arch over there. It's cool. Kai's already climbing on the rocks over here. So I know it looks super easy but it is a little bit intimidating because they're not straight up. They kind of lean out from the wall. So as you're climbing up they're all slanted down. I'm watching out for those sneaker waves. Welcome to Veek. I can drink. We just left Veek, filled up the car have all the snacks and we're ultimately heading out to Diamond Beach. But we're hitting a bunch of stuff on the way. It's two and a half hours out two and a half hours back so there's a ton of driving so make sure you have a ton of snacks and activities for the kids to do because it's a long... You're going to be in the car a lot today. Okay, stay on the path. I think it's like a kilometer to the farthest viewpoint. There's an arch over here, Kai. Look at this. So this is probably a good time to tell you I never color grade anything on this channel so this is what it looks like in real life as opposed to something like this which you might see on another really aesthetically pleasing channel. I want to show you what this actually looks like in real life so that when you get there your expectations are met. This is still incredible. It is not quite as green and vibrant and saturated as I've seen on Instagram and other places. But still an incredible view awesome canyon. I've never seen any canyon like this before so definitely come check it out. The sun came out as we were eating our PB&Js in the car so I'm going to run back up and see what the canyon looks like in the sun. A fly got in the car and then he flew out. Crisis averted. Great. So these bathrooms are closed in the winter but the trail is open. We spent about an hour there. Just sort of timing wise so you know. And now where are we headed? We are headed to a glacier. There's a really big glacier and these little glaciers that come off of it that have these viewpoints. So we're going to stop at a few of them but we're going to stop at one right now. Takes about an hour from here. So we're going to drive for an hour, hit that and then we'll go another half hour to Diamond Beach and then work our way back and do some more stuff on the way back. Okay. See you there. Side trip. You can't tell in the video but that is massive. It is very majestic. Word for it. So up ahead of us is where the ice fields are at. You can see some of the glaciers coming off the sides of it. I honestly don't know how we lucked out with this kind of weather. This is unreal. So what do you see? Glacier. Is it a small one or a big one? Big one. Are you excited? Mhmm. So it's a 10 minute walk to the glacier at least to the viewpoint. Really easy. So once you're up here you've got lots of trails to walk around and go explore the different parts of the glacier. You're not supposed to walk on the glacier but you can walk on the icebergs. So we're going to go hop on an iceberg over here. Alright, Kai. Do you want to get on an iceberg? Yeah. Come on up. That can break. Probably won't. But you're on land. Ooh. So they do break. How are you doing over here? I'm going to take a picture. Whoa. I'm sinking in the mud. This is great. That was an easy hike to a glacier. Really pretty glacier. This whole glacier goes along this way for quite a distance. So you can hike along the side of it and get lots of different angles. So if you've never been to a glacier this is a really good one to do. Alright, so we spent about 45 minutes there playing around at the glacier. And then we're going to head over to Diamond Beach now. Takes about a half an hour to get there from here. And we are excited because it's still sunny. So we made it. We're at Diamond Beach. We're heading down now. We just found out that there's two sides of Diamond Beach. So you can be on the far side over there which we just found out does not have any diamonds. So come back over on this side across the bridge which is an amazing view of the icebergs and the lagoon plus the glacier. So cool just across that bridge. But now we're here on Diamond Beach. So we've been blessed with really nice weather which I guess is unfortunate for the little icebergs here on the beach. So they're not as big as I was anticipating because the ones you see on Instagram and blogs and stuff those are just massive. Of course they're going to take pictures of the biggest ones. But it's still cool. I've never seen this many icebergs just kind of washed up on the shore. Like that just doesn't happen. Like on an ocean, you know. I'm used to seeing them at the edge of a lagoon or the lake at the bottom of a glacier but it's just something really interesting to see them up on a beach right next to the ocean. It's cool. You've got to check this out. I like it. So most people stay back there by the bridge in the parking lot right where the beach starts. But we're actually finding icebergs all the way up and around this. And they seem to get bigger as we go down this way maybe because people haven't been messing with them. But there's definitely fewer people. Nobody's out here. Nobody's out this far. Okay, so this is crazy. Isa and I were taking turns because she was feeding Leo and I was out there with Kai. And now she's out there with Kai. And I'm just hanging out in the car waiting for them to come back. And I guess the tide's just changed because all of a sudden this march of icebergs just kind of floats down the river here. There was nothing in the river and then all of a sudden they just started. This is so cool. It's so wild. I've never seen this many icebergs so close together. So we came across the bridge. There's a parking lot here with these epic views of all the icebergs. Look at this. Look at the size of that glacier in the back. That is unbelievable. What do you think? It's so pretty. This is amazing. Look at this cool little cave in the one here. Do you see this? Yeah. The tunnel? It is hard to leave this for sure. This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I've never imagined this many icebergs all just hanging out right here in the lagoon. It's so, so cool. Yeah. Definitely worth it to come all the way out here. We're back in the car. But right in the middle of the screen you can see a seal. Kind of hanging out. Last time crossing this bridge. Now we've got icebergs on this side too. We stopped at a little lookout just along the lagoon. Another seal playing in the water. Tell you what. It is hard to manage your time well here because everything is just so cool. You don't want to leave it to go on to the next thing. But the next thing is going to be amazing. So, yeah. The more time you can spend in Iceland the better. Seriously. This place is awesome. You guys can't get over this mountain in front of us. This looks like clouds. But that is mountains. It's so big. We're heading back but we're making some stops along the way. This looks like an amazing glacier. Six minute drive down that crazy gravel road. Couldn't film it because I had both hands on the wheel. This looks pretty cool. Yeah, I actually like this one better than the first one that we stopped at. The hike is shorter. The glacier here is bigger and wider and prettier. There's tons and tons of icebergs along the beach here. You can climb around them. And no one's here. I don't know if it's later and there's less people here. But honestly, I think most people go over to the Jökulsárlón and they skip this one. Maybe it's because of the gravel road. But if you've got four wheel drive like we do, it wasn't bad. It was just I had to focus on the road so I couldn't film it, you know. But this, I love this one. This one's cool. Check it out. So this is the trail to Skaftafall Glacier and also Svartafoss Waterfall. And we're going to go up to the waterfall. You have to pay for parking. It's about $7.50. $7.50. 1000 ISK. It is 1.9 kilometers. Google thinks we can do it in 29 minutes. You need a lift? Okay. So we're a little over halfway there. You can see the trail keeps going up here on the right. For those stones in the middle over there, you can see the top of Svartafoss. That's where we're headed. We see it. And there's a bridge. So we're going to go down and cross the bridge. We didn't have hiking boots. No, we didn't bring hiking boots. We were far underprepared for Iceland, Kai. This is a bumpy trail. Lots of rocks. Oh, that looks intimidating. It's much smaller than that. Yeah. That's really cool. I've never seen a setup like this for a waterfall. These kind of rocks and the way it comes out. Nice design. I like it. 10 out of 10. Good job, mother. So from the parking lot, that took us exactly 46 minutes. And we stopped quite a few times, too. Yeah. And we are with a bike. That was much smaller than I expected it to be. Even coming up to it, it looks like this big waterfall. And it's kind of small, comparatively. When you go to Skogavoss. It's a really, really beautiful hike. So if you want to do a little nice hike, this is great. But if you want to stop here just to see the waterfall, comparing to Skogavoss and the other ones that you've seen here in Iceland, probably lower your expectations a little bit. Lower expectations. It is really cool, though, the basalt columns. Yeah. The basalt columns are very unique compared to the other ones, I think. Yeah. Based on what we've seen. Okay, we'll see you back at the car. Okay, so we're on the way home. We have about an hour and 40 minutes until we get there still. And it is one minute until 9 p.m. We've been on the road for about 10 hours now. Obviously still a lot more to go. We're going to make another stop on the way because we've been out this long. Might as well. So we are at the lava fields. These lava rocks are covered in moss. A beautiful sunset. And our mossy lava rocks. This is cool. This is the largest lava field in the world. I believe it. It took us over a half hour to drive across this thing. This is a turnoff with a road that goes through the mossy lava fields. This is so cool. This road is not on the map, so I'm not going to take it because I don't know where it goes and it's kind of late. But that is awesome. So, 10 o'clock. The sun is set. We're still about an hour away from Beak. And we're going to end the video here and then go home and sleep. So, thanks for coming along with us on this road trip. And we'll see you later.