A 10 hour layover in Iceland
On the way to London, flying IcelandAir, I had the choice between a quick flight change in Reykjavik or 10 hours in Reykjavik. I was in Iceland in August 2009 and thought it might be fun to return, even briefly. Reykjavik city center is nearly a one hour drive from the airport, but I knew the Blue Lagoon was much closer, just about 20 minutes from the airport.
We landed at 6am, I was concerned about weather-related delays, since we were flying in January, but had no issues whatsoever and our flight was even early. Keflavik airport is very quiet first thing in the morning and clearing immigration and customs went quickly. It was a beautiful clear dark morning and the sun wouldn’t be rising until about 11am and then would set again before we left at 4pm.
The Blue Lagoon is a total tourist trap, but also really cool, and probably like no other tourist trap I’ve been to before. It does get crowded and needs to be booked in advance. They also offer transport from Reykjavik and Keflavik Airport for an additional fee that can be included with the booking. It’s also not inexpensive, but nothing in Iceland is.
I went ahead and booked transport at the same time as my reservation. I had originally booked the 8:30 bus with a 9am entry, but since we were early, there was no issue jumping on the 7:30 bus and The Blue Lagoon allowed us to enter at 8:00 when we got there. Probably because it was January and not completely full first thing in the morning.
The ticket comes with a locker, towel, face mask and drink via a bracelet they hand you at the entrance. You can also choose to purchase additional masks and drinks.
When we got into the water, it was a beautiful morning, the stars were out and there were not many people in the lagoon. Exploring all the nooks in the lagoon, we watched the slowest sunrise I’ve ever seen, over the hills surrounding the lagoon. There was the smallest amount of light in the sky starting around 9 and then ever so gradually got brighter until the sun was up at 11.
After about 3 hours, we had enough, it did get hot, even though the air temperature was about 30 degrees F. We had a quick lunch at the cafe and then headed back to the airport and on to London.
