The land of fire and ice. You can see the northern lights, visit a massive geothermal spa and explore the golden circle tour all in under 3 days.
I thought I’d collect a few photos from my latest trip to Iceland and share them with you guys in one place.
Photos of Iceland in Winter
My trip to Iceland started off touring around the Golden circle. The tour was did was actually called ‘the grand golden circle tour’ but it really followed the same path that most of the tours that go there do.
We started by going to a crater which had become a lake. The lake has actually frozen over for Winter but you get the idea. I think it might have looked better during Summer when you can actually make out the water:
Then as the tour moves on (and it’s more or less the same routine for all the golden circle tours), you get taken to some waterfalls. The waterfall we first stopped at was called ‘Gulfoss’.
It was such a beautiful place, and possibly even more beautiful because it was frozen up and the surroundings were covered in snow and ice.
There was another waterfall we stopped at which was slightly less impressive but still AMAZING and that’s the ‘Faxi’ waterfall seen below.
The northern lights were something that EVERYONE wants to see when they go to Iceland. I was surprised to learn that not everyone who goes on a tour actually SEES them because they’re quite random at the best of times.
Lucikly we saw them on our first night tour and I got awesome pictures of them even on my Sony RX100VA (a compact vlogging camera) as seen below.
As I said though, not everyone actually got to see them. There were some people on the tour we were on who didn’t see them for 4 nights in a row, and were pretty relieved when they FINALLY saw them with us!
This sculpture below is a metal boat statue called the ‘Sky Voyager’ and I loved it because it gives perfect views of the coast and mountains on the other side, AND it’s free, and not many things in Reykjavik are free as you’ll discover:
The Blue lagoon shown below is probably one of the most beautiful spas (or places in general) I’ve been to in my life. Crisp snow capped mountains and boulders line a very warm geothermal pool in the middle of nowhere. It doesn’t get much more relaxing than this.
There were people from all parts of the world all floating around and sharing smoothies and stories. Amazing.
The pathways were covered in snow in Winter (of course) and it made for the most beautiful pictures of even simple things. This crispy footpath was so nice to walk on!
There were lots of roads in Iceland and many of the didn’t have anyone driving on them. Not sure what it was but when we went, everyone was super quiet, which meant we had many roads to ourselves.
In the (near) centre of Reykjavic was this enormous and stunning cathedral. It’s official name is Hallgrímskirkja cathedral.
Of course we went to the very top and got some photos from up there! This is the view from the top of Hallgrímskirkja:
The snow and ice led to even trees and a random path being really interesting and cool to take photos from. This is me standing by some trees.
It really is hard to take a bad photo in Iceland especially in Winter. Here’s some of the geothermal geyser site we visited. The geyser area is a part of Iceland included in the golden circle which has naturally occurring hot steam explosions from the floor!
Even the airport we flew into had interesting little statues and things outside it, just randomly there. I know airports usually have some sort of statues but I thought these were really cool! Especially covered in snow.
There was also a rainbow glass statue at the other side of the main airport carpark which reflected the light in the snow beautifully.
This shot below is actually the area just OUTSIDE the Blue Lagoon which has a few lakes which weren’t part of the lagoon.
An interesting fact about the Blue Lagoon is that it’s actually just a runoff from the geothermal power plant nearby, but they’re making money from it all the same!
While waiting for a bus one day I found myself taking pictures of this statue. I’m not sure what it means or who it’s of, but it looked very striking against the sky!
Everywhere I went in Reykjavic and Iceland was stunning. This scene was no different. It’s a part of the Golden Circle tour, and by now you’ve realised there’s no order to these photos whatsoever.
This is another one from the circle tour, near the end of the day. It’s of a partially frozen lake scene.
The photo seen below is of the golden circle tour in Iceland, but specifically, it’s the part where we walked around the national park; Thingvellir national park. We were able to stand on and walk across the worlds tectonic plates, and walk fro the European to the asian tectonic plate.
And last but not least, a sunset which is always one of the prettier things in Iceland. Vast flat landscapes with snow and mountains at the edge, combined with a very close bright looking sun make for great photos.
How to travel Iceland
I’ve written several travel guides and posts on Iceland over the last few weeks, the most important and useful ones can be found here:
- How to see the Blue Lagoon properly: And avoid the tourist traps that get you to spend more money
- How to photograph the northern lights (This is NOT as easy as it would seem unless you know what you’re doing)
- The best things to do in Reykjavik in WINTER (A complete guide to traveling to the capital city in Winter when most things are frozen)