Shake off your Airwaves hangover with a day trip that avoids the crowds

Whenever Iceland Airwaves blows into town, it’s a certainty that people from all over the world will be riding that same breeze. It’s always an interesting time of year for Reykvíkingur, when the bars are buzzing with fresh faces who shake up the usual Groundhog Day-esque vibe of 101 nightlife.  

Many Airwaves-goers these days are festival veterans — silver-haired indie types who’ve grown fond of Iceland over years of repeat visits and treat Airwaves as a kind of annual holiday-cum-cultural pilgrimage. But each year also brings hundreds of newbies into town — wide-eyed first-timers combining the music festival with a city break, a bar-hopping drinkathon, and an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the famous Icelandic wilderness.  

I was one such Airwaves visitor myself when I first set foot in Iceland with a bunch of friends from London, way back in 2007. We had the benefit of having some local pals — the members of drag-punk band Æla — who gave us great advice to ensure our daytrip to Snæfellsnes was a banger. We drove around the peninsula, pausing for walks at the towering Hellnar sea arch and the wreckage-strewn Djúpalónssandur beach. We stumbled upon the Sönghellir “song cave” and improvised a harmony, listening to the long echoes vanish into the depths of the earth. We marvelled at the tiny fishing villages that line the northern coast, pulling over often to poke around among the turf houses, mysterious bones and half-frozen waterfalls.  

We saw neither the Snæfellsjökull glacier, which was cloistered in thick cloud cover nor another car on the road — it was, mercifully, before Iceland’s tourism boom. It was an unforgettable day with enough fresh air to (almost) enough stave off our three-day hangover. 

Pick your poison 

Snæfellsnes, in retrospect, was one of the more ambitious choices on offer. The round trip involves about six hours of driving — and that’s without factoring in the requisite impromptu hikes, waterfall rambles and gas station burger stops. But if you’re an Airwaves-goer who’s thinking about getting out of town, there are plenty of other options to suit your preferences, energy level and budget.  

If you don’t drive, or want something mega easy and don’t mind being among people, then 1) well done for somehow not succumbing to generalised misanthropy, and 2) good news — there are plenty of simple coach trips you can hop onto.  

You’ve maybe heard of The Golden Circle — a classic day out that trundles around a few epic natural sites not too far from town. It’s nice, but it has also seen the arrival of a lot of new infrastructure in recent years and lost a lot of its charm as a result. You’ll spend a lot of time navigating car parks and gift shops, and jostling in the crowd for a good spot on a viewing platform to catch sight of a waterfall. So while you can’t argue with the majesty of Þingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir, the experience itself may not be quite what you’re after. 

Go west, in the open air 

A good alternative is to hire a car and hit the road. It allows you to be with your pals, have control over the stereo, get off the beaten track and pull over for a closer look when something catches your eye. If you’re crowd averse and want to control your destiny to some degree, this is the way to go. 

The first road trip option I’d usually throw out there is the Reykjanes peninsula. But all the eruptions in recent years have necessitated a load of road closures, so it’s all a bit fucky down there right now. Instead, I’ll suggest heading up to Borgarfjörður — a pretty fjord and valley that’s only an hour from Reykjavík.   

To get there, hit Route One north, take the Hvalfjörður tunnel, then turn right onto route 50 just before the Borgarnes bridge. From there, the roads are few, so if you keep your eyes open you’ll find the good stuff. There’s the Deildartunguhver geothermal spring, the historic hamlet of Reykholt and a spectacular 900m long waterfall called Hraunfossar, where a jewel-blue torrent pours from the side of a vast crust of lava.  

The road winds onwards around the lava field, with views up to the Langjökull glacier on a clear day. The Viðgelmir tunnel is out there, too, with guided underground tours if you wanna get all spelunky and Jules Verne about it.  

On the way back, a dip at the Krauma spa is worth the entrance fee to relax your body and mind in some steamy geothermal water. After that, go for a coffee and cake stop at Kaffi Kyrrð in Borgarnes — a charmingly chintzy little café with loads of divining decks that’ll help you ascertain your destiny for the night (and life) that lies ahead. 

The steamy valley 

If the weather out west is particularly bad, you could also go inland from Reykjavík. Route One south will take you past Rauðholar — a series of dramatic, shattered, bright ochre volcanic craters right at the city limits. From there, it’s only a forty minute drive over the Hellisheiði mountain pass to the garden town of Hveragerði.  

One of the main events there is the Reykjadalur trail — a relatively chill one to two hour mountain hike to a high geothermal valley where you can bathe in a warm river. It is just a mountain river though, so there are minimal facilities, of course — take some cold tinnies and snacks, and bear in mind that you’ll have to expose your butt to the elements to have a dip.  

The town also has a couple of great restaurants to regain your energy — the Ölverk brewery and pizzeria being a Grapevine fave — and if your hike gets rained off, the town pool is like something out of a Wes Anderson movie. But if the skies are clear and you wanna catch sight of some glaciers and black sand beaches and so forth, keep going south on Route One until the landscape gets dramatic — you’ll find what you’re looking for. 

Those are just a couple of relaxed Airwaves day trip options. There are hundreds more, so if none of them floated your boat, check out grapevine.is/travel for more ideas — there’s a years-long archive covering all areas of Iceland, so something’s bound to catch your eye.  

Good luck out there. Drive safe. Try not to become a “Tourist Falls Down Hole” news story that we have to write about. And happy Airwaves!