Day 7 - Travel Day to Egilsstaðir, Iceland - September 6, 2025

Ben
Sep 8, 2025
3 min read

We have a lot to see today and quite a bit of driving so we hit the road early! Our first stop was Lake Mývatn, they have filmed a ton of movies here in the winter when it is frozen over. Fast & Furious, Game of Thrones and Star Wars to name a few! We then walked across the street to grab some ice cream even though it was FREEZING! I got mint chocolate chip and Taylor got banana chocolate chip, they were so good!

Things to Do in Northeastern Iceland: Sulfur Springs and Waterfalls

Next we were off just a few minutes down the road to Dimmuborgir, also known as the “Dark Castle". There were multiple short hikes to choose from, and of course we picked the difficult one that went off the paved trail. This was a super unique stop since the lava field was formed by a volcanic eruption 2000 years ago that formed some really cool arches. This is also an area filled with folklore, legend has it that the formations are the ruins of ancient castles, inhabited by evil trolls who were turned to stone when they tried to defy the laws of nature.

After a short off-road drive we ended up at Grjótagjá Cave, a very famous filming location for Game of Thrones. This cave consists of a natural geothermal hot springs that used to be a popular swimming hole. There were scenes from Games of Thrones filmed in the water here but due to the recent volcanic activity in the area the water is now too hot to enter. I'm proud of Taylor for being brave enough to climb through this tiny little hole with me to get into the cave!

Now for the worst stop of the entire trip, Hverir. This was a natural geothermal area that had multiple sulfur hot springs. The entire area REEKED and I mean absolutely REEKED of sulphur, it was as though I jumped into a vat of rotten eggs. I couldn't convince Taylor not to go, but the stop was short and enough is said.

We continued on our long drive with a bit of a detour to Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in all of Europe! On the hike over we saw a sign to Selfoss 600m away so we headed there first! It was absolutely worth it and can very easily be missed, we had no idea it was there. Back at Dettifoss the wind was whipping the water around so it made it very cold, but very worth the stop.

We finally made it to Egilsstaðir as the sun was starting to set and grabbed a very quick dinner at a local restaurant, Glóð. The food was ok but we were so hungry we scarfed it down, Taylor got the vodka rigatoni and I opted for the tagliatelle with shrimp. We were ready to be laying down for the night!

We finally got to our hotel for the night, Gistihúsið - Lake Hótel Egilsstaðir. This was the first place we stayed that did a wake up call if the northern lights are visible in the middle of the night! We also noticed this was the first place we have seen in all of Iceland that advertised skiing. We got to the room and noticed the shower in the bathroom was very odd and soon learned that a normal shower got the entire bathroom floor flooded, but at least it wasn't sulfur!