For those of you who regularly read this blog, you know that I’ve been looking forward to going back to Iceland, having stopped in Reykjavik for 36 hours on a layover to my study abroad program in the fall of 2016. Three years ago, I didn’t have near enough time to travel to all of the areas of Iceland that I’d heard so much about. I promised myself that I’d come back, and when I mentioned this to my Dad, we decided to make this a Father/Son trip.

The last blog post, Preparing for a Backpacking Trip to Iceland, outlined what it took for my Dad and me to prepare for the trip. Now, I’d like to tell you about our epic trip in August!

Icelandair

We flew Icelandair just like I flew back in 2016. I confirmed their policy of not serving peanuts on board the airplane. I didn’t ask for any announcement to be made, and pre-boarding wasn’t necessary for me since I had plenty of time to wipe down my seat and tray table. They do sell food on board, but I really wasn’t worried about it since we took an overnight direct flight from Denver to Reykjavik. I figured that not many people were going to eat. And if I had a seatmate who pulled out peanuts or my other allergens (tree nuts, sesame, fish or shellfish), I wouldn’t have had any problem asking him/her to please put them away.

On our flight home, an announcement was made asking passengers to not eat nuts during the flight, so there was someone else on board with an allergy. It was nice to know that they would make that announcement!

Eating Out at Restaurants

Once we arrived in Reykjavik, we got our rental car, our backpacks that we had checked as baggage, and we went out to eat brunch. We ate out a few times in our two weeks in Iceland, and in general I can say that restaurant food is very expensive. After all, most foods have to be imported into the country. Their specialty is lamb, which was a staple on almost every restaurant menu. There are sheep everywhere on the island. One restaurant even had the sign, “Free Range since 876!” – the year that Iceland became a country. We did have lamb one night in a ‘gastropub’ which is kind of a mix between a bar and a restaurant. It was delicious!

Having been in a Scandinavian country in 2016 – I did a research project in Copenhagen, Denmark for a month prior to studying abroad – I knew that breads were going to be difficult for me to eat because of my sesame allergy. Iceland was no different. The bread provided in restaurants, and those that we found in grocery stores all contained or stated “made in a factory” with sesame. Their bread is kind of bland, so sesame and other seeds are used to add flavor. So, no bread for me!

Iceland also has a great fishing industry. My Dad had decided prior to our trip that he wasn’t going to eat any fish while we were camping or in a restaurant, since I have such a severe allergy to fish having had anaphylaxis in the past to one bite of trout. Every restaurant we ate at also had fish on the menu, but the ones we chose (and believe me, we only ate out about five meals the entire vacation), didn’t have fish as the main item on the menu. I was able to find waffles for our first brunch in the country, which were delicious.

All of the wait staff in the restaurants spoke English very well, so I didn’t have any difficulty communicating about my food allergies and how to keep me safe from cross contact. Many of the wait staff were from different countries, and were temporary summer workers. It was great to find out where they hailed from – Czechoslovakia and Denmark were the home countries of two of our waiters.

One night we went out for hamburgers, which were great. When the bill came for $50 US dollars, we realized that cows weren’t habitants in the country, so the meat had to be imported causing the price to be so extremely high!

Most restaurants had a local favorite, Smørrebrød, on their menu. This is an open-faced sandwich cuisine popular across most Scandinavian countries, and many have fish on top. Of course, with the bread also being unsafe, the combination of two of my allergens meant it was definitely not the meal for me!

Food for Camping

We brought Mountain House freeze dried foods for all of our dinners at the campsites which could be prepared in about 10 minutes using a JetBoil and boiling water. These meals saved us money on food, and also made it easy at our campsites to prepare dinner when it was windy or rainy. By the end of the trip, we realized we bought too many Chicken & Rice meals and were begging for some variety… but at least it made dinners easy throughout our trip! 

For breakfast, lunches and snacks, we went to a grocery store every day or two and purchased fruit, vegetables, Skyr (an Icelandic yogurt that was wonderful), wraps that were safe, ham, bacon, cheese, Ritz crackers, etc. Mainly we were purchasing foods that didn’t have many ingredients and/or weren’t processed. Iceland is in the European Union, and the labeling was very good. Some labels were in English, and when they were in Icelandic, I had my Google translate app that allowed me to take a picture of the label and get the ingredients translated. I did look up the Icelandic names for all of my food allergens prior to the trip so that I could be prepared to read those on any label. Once we found a safe brand of wrap, for example, then we’d always look to purchase it in the next grocery store as we traveled around the country.

We rented two gas stoves, two coolers, and a table from a camping store in Iceland, but we brought many other items with us like our sleeping bags, tents, pans, plates and utensils in our backpacks. A few mornings when the weather was being difficult to be able to cook an omelet, we opted for fruit and Skyr instead and hit the road to see the sights.

Sleeping in Hotels and Airbnb’s

We stayed in a Hotel the first night we arrived in Iceland. It was kind of a funny situation in that I booked the room and neglected to notice that there was only one queen sized bed, and not two twins as I had assumed from the picture. So, my Dad and I got to be really cozy the first night in Iceland!

I have filters in my searches for hotels and Airbnbs to ensure that the places I stay have no pets, but that really wasn’t an issue in Iceland. We didn’t see any tourists with their own pets, however there were some dogs owned by store owners, but we didn’t see any in the Airbnb’s and hotels we stayed at.

One night, about halfway through the trip, we got rained on all night. Then the next day, we got soaked visiting a waterfall. All of our camping gear was wet, and all of our clothes too! In the moment, we were entirely miserable and ready for a night to dry off, so at the last minute we decided to get a hotel room. The cheapest room we could find was $260 US dollars, and we were grateful to find it! We needed it for our physical comfort, but also for emotional comfort after being wet and freezing.

The only other time we stayed at an Airbnb was the last two nights before we left to come back home. So most of our nights were spent camping, sleeping on air mattresses and enjoying the quiet solitude.

WiFi in Iceland

We purchased a mobile hot spot through our rental car company, which was great. Even when we only had 2G, we could at least communicate by calling using cellular over Wifi if we needed to make a call. Most of the time we had 4G. Cell service was available throughout the country. There are also many Wifi hotspots in Reykjavik, the capital city, but we rarely found one while in smaller towns around the country. 

Seeing Iceland

We spent our days in our rental Toyota RAV4 driving from one beautiful location to another. We would drive hundreds of miles every day, starting from Reykjavik and traveling counter-clockwise around the island. We camped out on the beach one night, and since the daylight lasted until 10 at night, we got to enjoy the scenery even more. We drove through numerous fingers on either side of fjords around the island and got to see waterfalls everywhere.

We’d get out of the car to hike into locations to see more scenery, and then choose where we wanted to camp at night as long as it was a designated camping site. Many times we were the only campers, which was great.

It was just the best trip ever. My Dad and I laughed, talked and walked throughout the two weeks.

Trip Suggestions for You

If you’re thinking about a trip to Iceland, I’d say DO IT! Here are some suggestions I have:

• Expect to spend a lot of money. Reykjavik is at least $100 US dollars a day. Around the country, you will likely be spending at least this much as you experience the country! Hotels or Airbnb’s will likely cost $300 US dollars a night.
• Learn the Icelandic words for your allergens
• Get the Google translate app on your smartphone
• Get to know some of the staple dishes (like Smørrebrød) so that you can manage your allergens
• Ask for help if you need it. Icelandic people are incredibly nice!
• Have a great time!

In the fall of 2016, our son, Morgan, flew through Reykjavik, Iceland, on his way to study abroad. He was in the country for only 36 hours, so didn’t get a chance to see much of anything beyond the city. He promised himself that he would get back to Iceland to see all of its natural beauty sometime in the future.

The future is now! For two weeks in August, he and my husband, Robert, are going to share a trip of a lifetime backpacking in Iceland! The preparation for this trip has taken almost 9 months to put together, and the food is almost the least of it.

Iceland is part of the European Union, so it wasn’t necessary to fly to an embassy here in the USA to obtain a Visa. Both already have passports, so that box was checked easily.

Both also carry medications, and Iceland has strict requirements of medications being in the original prescription box and the medication must not expired. This has required some work on Morgan’s part.

Morgan is now in the work world, and has his own medical insurance. He needed to find an allergist in the Denver area, where he now lives, to obtain current prescriptions for Albuterol, a steroid inhaler and his Auvi-Q’s. This was a big step because he has only seen one allergist his entire life, and she retired just as he was graduating from college. He wanted to find the same wonderful care he had received from her, and as luck would have it, he found an allergist that had trained with her many years ago! His enormous history in three medical files was copied and sent to this new allergist. Morgan forewarned the doctor that there was 20+ years of appointments, skin prick tests and reactions to pore over. All went well with the new patient appointment, and as a Mom, I’m thrilled Morgan has found a very capable allergist to continue his care!

Since Morgan flew Icelandair previously, and had no difficulties at all, they decided to fly the same airline. Morgan always brings his own food on airplanes, and doesn’t expect to be served a safe meal. They don’t serve peanuts on flights, which is great!

The next step was to figure out what the father/son duo were going to pack to bring with them on the airplane. Robert and Morgan have an annual week long camping trip each summer in the Lake City area of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It is a trip they both look forward to every year. They have all the gear (and then some!) that they would need to camp in the Rockies. However, Iceland is a little different in that they don’t allow campfires. So, they will be renting a camping stove in Iceland, along with tables and chairs. And they will bring jet boils for water heating.

Everything in Iceland is expensive – food, camping equipment and sleeping bags. They will be bringing as many supplies as they can fit in their suitcases while ensuring the bags are under the weight limit. Even frying pans from Walmart will be packed in their luggage!

They plan on purchasing an abundance of their food in Iceland as they travel from location to location; however, as a backup they are also bringing Mountain House brand freeze dried food that just need hot water added. This too will be packed in their luggage. They don’t want to risk trying to find freeze dried food in Iceland, since this brand may not be available. Mountain House is the only brand that we have found that doesn’t have Morgan’s allergens – peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish and shellfish.

In Iceland, camping is allowed only in designated camping sites. The good news is that there are no bugs, spiders, mosquitos or snakes. And the only animals are arctic fox, mice, rabbit and reindeer – so nothing warranting concern for an animal getting aggressive like bears will in the Rockies.

Since Iceland is known for its fishing and a fish-oriented diet, they will be taking extra caution with Morgan’s anaphylactic fish allergy. Morgan can’t even stand the smell of fish, so shopping in stores or markets may get interesting!

This is a trip of a lifetime, and the two are SO excited for this adventure! I will be reporting back with a blog post after they return, and I’m sure the two of them will be providing many pictures and commentary too.