Enduring the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland

I always wanted to do a hut trip in Iceland. So, back in August of 2016, we signed up for a 4 day Trek on the world famous Laugavegur Trail. At one point, National Geographic labeled this hike as one of the 20 best hikes in the world. I would have to agree – the hike itself was pretty spectacular – when we could actually see the trail!! A crazy storm hit and we ended up hiking in wind, rain and sleet for at least 2 days while we were there.

We used Trek Iceland to guide us through the 35 mile adventure. I would rate this outfit pretty low – only because our guide was not very effective – we always felt we were an imposition every time we asked a question. He also could not handle our group of close to 20 – too many people for one person to handle for sure. I really cannot fault him for that – chalk that up to a poor business model. He had no clue how to cook so we ended up cooking all of our own meals (well, I don’t cook, but our travel friends helped a ton!). To top if off, his girlfriend was guiding the camping group so we would bump into them in their single sleeping bag at night. That was fun.

In the huts, we essentially slept RIGHT NEXT to one another. As my friend Nick described it, “Think of Orange is the New Black for personal space.” I would not have minded any of this, except for the fact we paid a lot of money for the trip. If I had to do it all again, I would stay in a tent!!

Here’s the thing…I am whining about the experience, but in the end, we talk about this trip ALL THE TIME and laugh about the situation. For that I am grateful. Also, our trip mates were INCREDIBLE people and of course, we keep in touch with several of them via Facebook.

You can see from the images below, the scenery, when it was visible, was truly magical. We hiked through verdant green valleys; crossed rivers (several times); passed by geo-thermal activity; peered over deep canyons; endured rain, sleet, and snow and saw the beauty of rainbows after the storm.

And of course, it was fun to hike over hills covered with Obsidian and to reference our favorite show, Game of Thrones!

Enjoy!

PS. All images are mine, with the exception of the cool shot with the line of people in the steam from the thermal activity – this is Nick’s :-).