Brit bags 19-hour Iceland holiday for £36 for lagoon spa day and Northern Lights
A travel loving Brit soaked in the relaxing lagoons of Iceland and basked in the glory of the Northern Lights during an extreme day trip.
Robert Watson decided he would make the most of his partner being away for business for the day not by heading to the pub or doing some deep frying, but by making for the airport and heading north.
The trip was on the outer limits of what can be achieved in a day, Iceland being just shy of three hours by plane from the UK and 1,870km from Luton Airport.
Robert had just nine hours to see the sights of the country during his whistle-stop tour, which he made while the recently erupted volcano in Grindavík’s threatened to blow its top and potentially ground air traffic.
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Robert was lucky enough to see the Northern Lights (robbiewatson/Instagram)
Robert was very impressed with the Hallgrimskirkja Church (robbiewatson/Instagram)He managed to pack his day full of sight seeing, including a trip around the capital Reykjavik, lunch and a long afternoon spa session in which he was pampered through a seven step ritual.
"During this trip I had a mini tour of Reykjavik and then had a spa afternoon at Sky Lagoon. It was fantastic! Not many people would dare travel to Iceland for such a short time – it’s on the more extreme end of Extreme Day Trips," Robert told the Mirror. "The snowy weather also added to the ‘extremeness’ - fun to navigate by car as you can imagine. Also at the time the volcano near Keflavik Airport was due to erupt - so a bit of risk of whether I would get home should it happen whilst I was there."
Robert caught an easyJet flight from Luton at 6.25am and touched down at 9.35am. He had to be back at the airport for the return leg at 7.10pm that day.
In the Icelandic capital he took in the iconic Hallgrimskirkja Church, including the tower and enjoyed himself padding around the snowy winter streets.
"I drove from Reykjavik Keflavik Airport north towards Reykjavik itself. This took about 45-50 minutes along one main highway," Robert explained.
"Arriving around 11.15am, I parked down a side street near Hallgrimskirkja Church. Parking was free as it was during the weekend. I visited the church, which looks iconic outside and inside. I paid for a ticket to take the elevator up to the top of the bell tower which had views out in all directions around the city.
"Afterwards I walked down Skólavörðustígur - the main boulevard down from the church towards the city centre - and saw Rainbow Street. There are lots of shops and cafes in this area to visit if you have time, and cute Icelandic buildings to photograph."
After buying a hot dog from a street vendor, Robert walked to the architecturally impressive Harper Concert Hall. "As I walked back towards my car I strolled along the sea front which had views out towards snowy mountains in the distance," he added.
A 15 minute drive from Reykjavik city centre is the Sky Lagoon, which opened recently following the tourism success of the Blue Lagoon. For £85 Robert got access to the lagoon and a ‘7 step ritual’ experience, which involves a a misting chamber, a salt scrub room, a steam room and a cold plunge pool
"The lagoon is man-made but well designed. It’s one of those places, like the Blue Lagoon, which is nice to visit once to say that you’ve done it, but it’s purely a touristy destination with ample people scrambling around to capture the perfect photos of them in the lagoon," Robert said.
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"It’s a well designed lagoon, with towering rocks, a waterfall, ledges to relax on, and an infinity edge looking directly out onto the sea. It was a snowy and windy day, so the hot water was lovely. A top tip from me is to wear a woolly hat to keep your head warm."
Throwing caution to the wind, Robert treated himself to a drink from a swim-up bar, which has a three-bevvy limit per guest. In line with Iceland's reputation for being pricey, it set him back £9.80.
He left Sky Lagoon at 4.30pm and drove to Keflavik Airport, dropping the hire car off at 5.40pm - in plenty of time to catch his flight. While a 90 minute delay put a bit of a dampener on his day, the astronomical display he was treated to more than made up for it.
"As we reached cruising altitude the Northern Lights appeared on the left side of the plane. The cabin crew dimmed the lights, and as there were a couple of empty rows, people were all able to move across and have a look," Robert said.
"I’ve been to Iceland three times, and Lapland once, and this was my first time seeing them! A memorable flight, for sure. We arrived at London Luton at 11.30pm, and I was back at home just after midnight. Perfect."
In total, the day trip cost him £232 including his flights, car hire, fuel cost, and tickets to the Hallgrimskirkja church tower and Sky Lagoon.
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