Day 9 - Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland - September 8, 2025

We have finally reached the south coast, which means shorter drives! We stayed in Hofn to go to this (very American) diner called Hafnarbuðin. We had the great pancakes and the bacon was also fantastic. No sweet treat with breakfast, just tea!

South Coast, Iceland Things to Do

Our first stop was Stokksnes, a black sand beach with a view of Vestrahorn Mountain. It was very cold and windy but was really cool to see. Adjacent to the beach was a little viking village that was built in 2009 for a movie that never came out. It’s been abandoned since with a few small productions using it for scenes, but was cool to see!

We hit the road on the way to Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon within the Vatnajökull National Park. The icebergs were so cool to see and the colors were remarkable. Unfortunately it was too foggy to be able to see the majority of the glacier but still cool to see the lagoon. We did see one seal that was swimming, I have no idea how he wasn’t cold! There was an option to take a boat out onto the lagoon but we opted to enjoy the view from the shore!

Diamond Beach, Iceland

We then walked across the street to the Diamond Beach, and I mean literally walked the 10 minutes in the freezing cold. This was such a unique thing to see and we were here during the perfect time of year to see it. The beach is at the outlet of the glacier lagoon into the ocean, so when these chunks of ice flow from the lagoon into the ocean, they are met by the waves of the water pushing them up on shore!

The weather was absolutely atrocious so we decided to go to the hotel a little early today and backtrack a little tomorrow if it’s any better. This was the only hotel for MILES and was definitely the nicest place we stayed but actually not that expensive. This bedroom was perfect but the tv didn’t really work all too well. Fun fact rumor was the actress who plays Amy in The Big Bang Theory was staying here at the same time as us but we didn’t see her.

Thank goodness there was a restaurant inside the hotel or I don’t know what we would have done for food! We headed straight there to beat the crowd of tourist buses that were about to check into the hotel. I got the salmon but ended up really regretting not getting the cod after I saw the person beside me but it was still good! Taylor got the cauliflower and said it was okay. We got the chocolate cake but it was definitely our least favorite sweet treat we’ve had so far (except the matcha roll)!

Lots to see tomorrow on the drive to Vik!

Ben :)