Using Flybus in Iceland: How to Plus A Mini Review

Posted on July 29, 2019

In January 2019, my sister and I spent 48 hours in Iceland on our way home to Minnesota, USA from an extended stopover from Oslo, Norway. Before heading out on this trip, I booked the Flybus to and from the hotel we stayed at, which was the Icelandair Hotel Marina.

The Flybus is a convenient idea because it’s a simple way to get from Keflavík International Airport to Reykjavik city without having to utilize a taxi, ride share service, or find your own way. Their marketing mentions it’s only a 45 minute bus ride from Keflavík International Airport to the city of Reykjavik, which makes it an attractive mode of transportation. While this is true to get into the city, it actually took about two hours for us to get to our hotel.

NOTE: This post is to ensure you are informed of how the current process of using this service works, so as to avoid any surprises or inconveniences that my sister and I encountered on our trip.

The ride is, yes, actually (technically) 45 minutes from the airport to the main bus station for Reykjavik Excursions, who partners with Flybus. From the main bus station, you are then given a color-coded card and asked to walk to the parking lot on the other side of the building (not a far walk at all) and find your respective bus. Unfortunately for us, we were given the incorrect color card, which brought us on a more “scenic route,” if you will.

For preparedness reasons, here are 10 steps for how to go about being transported from KEF to your hotel, and information I wish I had prior to our trip:

Arrive at KEF and follow signs to “Exit to Iceland”
1. You may need to declare items in customs prior to exiting this portion of the airport
2. If you don’t know if you need to declare your items, it never hurts to ask 🙂
Once through customs, follow signs to Flybus/busses
With your email confirmation (either electronic or printed), head to the Flybus/Reykjavik Excursions counter. NOTE: There are two Flybus/Reykjavik Excursions desks—one is more dedicated to the Blue Lagoon; feel free to use this desk if you want to go to the Blue Lagoon before heading into Reykjavik.
1. Once at the counter, the agent will scan your electronic/printed email confirmation and give you a color card to use once you get to the Reykjavik Excursions/Flybus main bus station.
Head to any of the Flybus busses just outside the doors of the desk, and proceed to give your larger/carryon size luggage to the handler, who will put your luggage under the bus.
Hop onto the bus and find a seat. The bus driver will look at your email confirmation here as well.
When the bus is completely full (meaning, every seat is taken), you will set off on your 45 minute journey to the beautiful city of Reykjavik. Next stop: the main bus station.
You arrive at the Reykjavik Excursions/Flybus main bus station: exit the bus, grab your luggage and meet inside the station.
Go to the counter with your email confirmation (again, either electronic or printed is okay), receive your physical ticket, and proceed to the other side of the bus station and hop on the transfer bus with the matching color to the color card you were given at KEF (note: these busses are smaller).
Double-check with the bus driver that you are on the correct bus as it could be possible that you were given the incorrect color card (this happened to us and added time to our transfer).
Hang out on the transfer bus until you reach your destination. Transfer busses take around 15-45 minutes to drop everyone off. This timeframe changes depending on how many people are on the bus/how many people are at different hotels or hostels.

While this transfer and extra time wasn’t a massive problem, it was pretty inconvenient to NOT have been made aware of this prior to arrival. Which is why I’m bringing it up to you! Had we known it was going to be two hours from pick up to drop off, we would have planned to eat a meal before leaving the airport or pack snacks (we finished our other snacks already on the plane), but since we thought it would only be a 45 minute bus ride, we were definitely not as prepared. Please also note that the coach busses (either before your transfer busses or after, depending on if you’re heading to or from the airport), for understandable reasons, wait to leave until they are completely full. This would have been helpful to know for planning and timing purposes as well.

Overall, the service itself is so awesome, as there are few other options to get to Reykjavik from KEF. It was nice to be able to book online and reserve our seats prior to arriving. My biggest and really only issue with Flybus was the lack of explanation of process: making it sound like you get brought directly from KEF to your accommodations, which, yes, is the 45 minute ride. However, they fail to point out that the 45 minute ride starts after a long wait to get the bus filled up, and then you’re brought to a bus hub, where you then wait, get reassigned to a new bus, and then ride with a bunch of new people to maybe be dropped of first out of the group, last out of the group, or somewhere in the middle–all which takes an extensive amount of extra time. Transparency was key here, and was just missed by the company. Otherwise, I would highly rate this company and its service.

International, Itinerary, National Parks

48 hours in Iceland

Posted on April 14, 2019

Did you know, Icelandair has a really cool option where you can stopover for up to seven days for free? This unique feature allows you to have what is essentially an extended layover in Iceland at no additional cost.

So, you decide to take the leap and extend your vacation to include the free stopover option–this is great! But, you only have a quick weekend, or two nights, to explore this country as fast (or slow) as you want.

While there are so many combinations of itinerary options on how to spend 48 hours in Iceland, I wanted to share with you the itinerary my sister and I used in January 2019, when we took advantage of the Icelandair stopover option on our way back home to Minnesota, USA from Oslo, Norway.

ICELAND DAY 1: HOURS 1-11

This is more like a half a day, really. We arrived at Keflavík International Airport in the last third of the day, just after a late lunchtime. We reserved our spot on the Flybus a couple of weeks in advance. The Flybus staff were great to work with, and so helpful with any questions we had. The total time between when we got off our airplane to when we arrived at our hotel was around an hour and a half, give or take. We bussed as a large group of around 50 or so from Keflavík International Airport to the Flybus hub in Reykjavik. Given Reykjavik is 49 kilometers from Keflavík International Airport, the ride took around 45 minutes. Once we reached the Flybus hub, we divided into smaller groups of maybe up to 10, and were shuttled from the Flybus hub to our final destinations–hotels, hostels, etc. My sister and I shared the bus with approximately three other visitors, and were the last two people to be dropped off. Our second shuttle driver was so fun and helpful with directions and recommendations for our short stay. He even tried to teach us a few Icelandic words! Mostly, how to pronounce the street names. I need more practice.

Our hotel was situated on the harbor, tucked between the cityscape industrial look of apartments and restaurants and the beautiful sculpture walk that follows the Reykjavik shoreline. The view out of our hotel was stunning, including the most beautiful, rustic old ship being restored, dwarfed by views of mountains in the distance. An eco hotel, Icelandair Hotel Marina was modest and refined. Only blocks or a short shuttle ride from all of our “must see” locations, it was the perfect accommodation for our stay, and at a great price.

Once we were situated into our room, we opted for the in-hotel restaurant, Slippbarinn. We highly recommend the two dishes we shared: the sourdough bread with dip and chicken flatbread, which had a flavorful peanut butter hummus, pesto, roasted seeds, and my favorite—avocado. Yum.

Given we arrived at our hotel late afternoon and ate a late lunch/dinner, we opted to chill the rest of the night until our next outing by having some hot chocolate in our cozy room. Around 8:30pm, our Reykjavik Excursions bus rolled up (this company does it all). Seeming to be a theme, the two of us who were going on this excursion from this hotel were picked up by a smaller shuttle, then brought to a bus hub to meet with a larger group of about 50 folks who also purchased this adventure. After about an hour’s bus ride, we arrived at Thingvellir National Park. Beautiful park—I’m sure of it. This national park was the destination to see one of the most magical sights, the northern lights. Aurora borealis. Polar lights. Pure magic on a 20 degree (Fahrenheit) night.

The good news is that there was hot chocolate on the bus. The bad news is that it was extremely cold and windy. The great news is that the northern lights showed themselves, which is not necessarily a nightly occurrence, and we could see them with our eyes! Fascinatingly, you can’t see the northern lights with your eyes super well, though. In fact, they don’t look at all like what you see in the pictures! This is because of how your camera picks up and processes the lights when you take that photo. To your naked eye, they appear to be somewhat dim and milky in color—the same color your cereal bowl milk looks like when you finish your Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Unfortunately, my Nikon didn’t make it on this trip, and unfortunately again, iPhones aren’t great at capturing the northern lights due to their inability to shoot in manual mode. HOWEVER, fortunately, our guide allowed me to take a photo of his photo to share with you all (below). Also, in the one area where Android wins (hehe), Android phone users can shoot in manual mode and pick up the northern lights! Lucky ducks.

We stayed in Thingvellir National Park for around two hours, staring in awe at the sky. Not only were the northern lights dancing around, but the stars were so magnificent. You could gaze into the deep, dark sky for hours and get lost in its magic.

Our ride from the national park to the bus hub was so peaceful. If any discussions were happening, they were solely focused on the sky and what we had all experienced. I maybe fell asleep. Once we transferred from the large bus back into the smaller shuttle buses, things got interesting. It was around 1:00am, for whatever reason, our shuttle driver dropped us off about six blocks from our hotel. Why? Not totally sure, but it was weird. Luckily we had rented a pocket Wifi unit from Wifivox and were able to find our way back to the hotel. We learned that night that Iceland, or at least this part of Reykjavik, doesn’t shovel their pedestrian walkways.

DAY 2: HOURS 12-36

Our one and only full day in Iceland! We woke up around 5am, ready to take on the day and explore all of Iceland! Just kidding. We woke up at like 9am, missed breakfast, and were only barely awake due to not getting back to our hotel until close to 1:30am. BUT, we had some delicious pastries and coffee from nearby coffee shop, Reykjavík Röst. We had a full day planned, consisting of two places and two places only: Perlan – Wonders of Iceland and whale watching. Actually, we knew we for sure wanted to go to Perlan, but we stumbled upon a responsible whale watching tour group and couldn’t say no! We had originally planned to wander around the city, but I’ve heard that seeing a whale in its natural habitat is a once in a lifetime, magical experience, and, after seeing one in real life, we couldn’t agree more.

Perlan – Wonders of Iceland has a free shuttle from Harpa, making it so easy to get to from our hotel–just a quick ten minute walk and a 10 minute shuttle ride! We even had a few minutes to spend exploring the inside of Harpa and their gift shop before the shuttle arrived. Perlan was an awesome, interactive museum for those who would love to learn more about the geology and history of the country. We could have spent hours wandering around, reading, playing, and exploring. Perlan has a really cool (HA—get it?) ice cave exhibit as well, allowing you to wander through and learn about the natural ice, glaciers, and what the patterns mean. Here you can learn and feel the interactions with volcanoes, earthquakes, and tectonic plates. Built atop one of the tallest hills in Reykjavik, Perlan offers breathtaking views of the city and country. Binoculars were installed outside to capture a stunning glimpse of the mountains and water in the distance.

Mom kept suggesting that my sister and I should go on a whale watching tour on this trip also. Initially hesitant as we weren’t sure if this was the best idea, based off of the negative stigmas an activity like whale watching has, we decided to do some research. We were delighted to find that nearby Elding Whale Watching tours were ethical, responsible, and sustainability focused. According to their website, “Elding also is the first environmentally certified whale watching company in Iceland and is now the only Earth Check Gold Certified whale watching company in the world.” Wow. What an experience. Have you ever been whale watching? If not, add it to your bucket list. It’s definitely back on my bucket list–I could be out on that boat all day if it meant to just grab a quick glimpse of those magnificent creatures. Being it was winter (January after all) and cold, the tour company offers free use of their waterproof and extremely warm overalls. I would definitely recommend not skipping on that–even though everyone matched and looked like giant red Oompa Loompas, boy was that extra layer of clothing necessary when you’re out on the cold, windy body of water.

We departed on the 1:00pm tour with our guide, Otto. There were maybe 75ish other people on the tour with us; however, it never felt like there were that many due to the amount of space on the vessel. There were multiple decks to observe from, all with great sight lines to the water and land in the distance. My sister and I had just ordered our lunch from the canteen, when suddenly the guide exclaimed “Oh! We have a beautiful humpback whale!” The lady working the canteen said she would hold off on making our lunches so we could have this experience of a lifetime, and we ran outside. About two or three minutes later, we were able to see the whale! What a beauty. It was so exciting to learn about the sea life and whales and history of whale tours and Iceland coming from such an enthusiastic and energizing guide. I wish I could describe the rush we got by seeing this whale doing its whale thing, frolicking around the water, eating and just being amazing. It was so cool to see the birds swarming around the water, a sure sign the whale is going to breach the water to blow some air or show its tail. I wish I could explain how refreshing the fresh air, mixed with wind and excitement from the other passengers felt, and how great it was to step back inside to actually eat that lunch you ordered 45 minutes ago and think about what you just saw.

But I can’t.

There aren’t great words.

Just feelings.

We had dinner at RIO Reykjavik. It’s not that I didn’t like the place, but after seeing a whale, I just was thinking about that and not as much about how amazing the tacos were… so you’ll just have to grab a bite there yourself. Actually I had the chicken tacos (but they aren’t just regular chicken tacos like we have here in the United States), and it was the best darn chicken taco I’ve had in my life. It got to the table and I scarfed that thing down so fast I didn’t even get a picture of it! I’m sorry! But not sorry.

Day 3: Hours 37-48

Sigh. The last remaining hours of our time in Iceland. Literally we just spent the morning pulling ourselves together, grabbing a quick breakfast at Slippbarinn, and making the journey back to Keflavik to catch our flights back to Minnesota. The first Flybus shuttle picked us up around lunchtime, and we made the connecting bus back to Keflavik International Airport in time for our 3pm departure. We had a long evening ahead of us, as we then had a six hour flight to Boston, MA, followed by a two and a half hour flight from Boston, MA to Minneapolis, MN. Luckily this gave us enough time to sleep on the plane before jumping back into reality once we got home 🙂

Have you been to Iceland? Where would you go if you only had 48 hours to spend?

International, Canada

Dinosaur Provincial Park

Posted on September 9, 2017

Day 1

We arrived at Dinosaur Provincial Park around 6:15pm, roughly about 11 hours after leaving Turtle Mountain Provincial Park in Manitoba. Dinosaur Provincial Park is part of the Badlands in Alberta, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were especially excited to explore because we heard you could come across fossils at pretty much any given point you were in the park.

Upon arrival, you drive down into what feels like a mini (mini is not correct–it’s massive) Grand Canyon to get to the campground and trailheads. You’ll drive past (and feel free to stop!) a parking lot atop the badlands offering a breathtaking view. The Red Deer River runs through this park also, which can you catch a glimpse of from the view. We didn’t have a canoe or kayaks with us, but there is a launch on the west side of the park.

Though having a mostly neutral color pattern, the beauty of this provincial park was incredibly unique. After checking in at the office, which is inside the Cretaceous Cafe, and setting up camp at site S-30, we knew we just needed to start exploring right away. Before setting off, we were bombarded with horrendous mosquitoes. (Don’t let them stop you from visiting though, just be prepared with a lot of bug spray.) I think we fully bathed in bug spray about 4 times before exploring. Anyway…

Biking was only allowed on paved and gravel roadways, which is pretty typical and definitely makes sense. The trails and roadways are clearly marked with great signage, which definitely avoided any confusion. Don’t forget a bike lock so you can park your bikes and hike some of the trails along the way.

The sun was setting, so we opted to only bike around 2 miles. From the south campground, we followed the road north toward the public loop road. We followed this for about .75 miles before deciding we wanted to save this loop for the morning. So instead, we changed direction and headed toward the north campground. This road took us past the play park, amphitheatre, circled back past the visitor centre, and finally back to our campsite. But, not before stopping at the John Ware cabin first. We listened to a 4 minute audio recording about John, but the gist is that John Ware was a cowboy in the Carolinas who was born into slavery, left for Texas after the Civil War, became really good at riding and training horses, and is most known for bringing cattle to Alberta for the first time. He had a really interesting backstory and left a legacy that is well worth the listen. You’ll have to go and listen to the rest of it yourself! Or read in one of the many books about him, but it’s best to just go and visit 🙂

Learning about John Ware’s cabin closed out our short adventure for the evening. We decided to have some dinner with a fire to wind down. Dinner this night included burgers and beans. Because the mosquitoes were so bad, we didn’t have dessert, and we cut our night shorter. Once our last log on the fire burned out, we went into our tent early to play games before bed. We played one of our favorite road trip games, Love Letter (I’ve mentioned this game what feels like a billion times before). Eric also taught me a new came, Convoy. It was good, but not Love Letter good, haha. After games, we were soothed to sleep by the faint guitar music someone was playing a few campsites down.

Day 2

Wow. This park is amazing. We were so busy from the moment we woke up to the moment we went to bed that I barely took any notes!

Breakfast today consisted of the usual yogurt and granola bar. Though late for us to be on the move, we left on our bikes at 10:30am. Taking the Public Scenic Loop Road, we brought our bike locks knowing we would be hiking at most of our stops. Bikes are not allowed on the hiking trails, so they must remain on the paved or gravel driving roads I mentioned earlier. We went on some longer hikes throughout the loop bike ride:

Hike 1: Badlands Trail

This is a loop trail (our favorite kind of trail!) shorter in length at just under 1 mile. Though short, this trail is worth the stop for the fantastic views!

Hike 2: Trail of the Fossil Hunters

This is an out-and-back trail, and only about .5 miles long. Though very short, it was a fun little trail with lots of information! It was really cool to see the quarry site, and don’t miss checking out the fossil display at the trailhead! Just before this trail, between Trail of the Fossil Hunters and the Badlands Trail, be sure to stop at the fossil houses!

Hike 3: Coulee Viewpoint Trail

I should tell you that, before the Coulee Viewpoint Trail, we wanted to hike the Cottonwood Flats Trail (1.4 mile loop). Unfortunately we couldn’t due to how intense the bug situation was. Visiting here in the spring may be better for this trail. Anyway…

The Coulee Viewpoint Trail is not on the scenic loop. This is a .5 mile loop interpretive trail. To get there, you need to start at the visitor centre, so we finished the scenic loop and decided to continue here to check off all the trails at Dinosaur. This trail may be short, but it really packs a punch as it has some REALLY steep terrain. Trekking poles and my inhaler would have definitely been useful for this one.

Back at the Campground

Back at the campground, we had a super late lunch of chili and chips & salsa. Around 3:00pm, we made our way to the visitor centre to check out the gift shop. Once we were in, we noticed a huge dinosaur skeleton in the middle! There was also an interactive map of the park that would light up the different trails to show their route. In retrospect we should have stopped here first so we could see this map beforehand (we had a printed map, but this one was just so cool!).

This was one of the coolest visitor centres we have ever seen. We learned so much about the history of the park and area, and feel like we barely scratched the surface. Next time we visit, we’re hoping to get a guided tour of the preserve, which is actually what makes up a majority of the over 18,000 acre park (only accessible as a park ranger or through special programs). The museum and gift shops were both amazing. We bought a magnet and some snackies, of course.

Day 3

This Canada road trip was pretty quick moving, so we got up early and headed west toward Calgary. Next up: Banff National Park.

But first, I’d love to share the rest of our photos with you: