I wanted to share with you some of our favorite products we bought (and ended up needing) on our trip to Iceland!

Travel Smart

During our 24 hours of traveling, there were a few things that stuck out as useful!

First, our backpacks!

Being able to walk through with something on your back rather than hanging on your side feels so much better.  Brandon’s bag even had a locking feature for the main pocket to avoid pickpockets while in the airport lines. It was great peace of mind to know we could lock important things (like laptops and cameras) away if we needed to. My backpack didn’t have the built-in locking feature, but all. the. pockets! The biggest plus to both our bags was the external USB port to charge your phone on the go! It came in handy more than once, and it leads me to my next must-have:

Portable battery chargers. These babies were my FAVE. They’re compact, can charge two devices at a time and you’ll get multiple phone charges with one full battery pack.

We also each had our Passport Wallets which come in handy while traveling!

Last thing, power in Iceland works a bit differently. We ended up buying these adaptors and they worked like a charm, plus you could also plug into the USB!

Rain-Proof your Wardrobe

Whether you’re caught in the rain (highly likely) or just exploring waterfalls, you’ll want to be prepared and rain-proof! We loved our raincoats plus along the cliffs they were great windbreakers. We also bought water-wicking hiking socks, and I bought these rubber hiking boots and these rubber sneakers!

We both loved our raincoats, they were super light so we stuffed them into the bottoms of our backpacks until we needed them. You can find them both on Amazon, mine’s here and here’s Brandon’s!

 

Pack for the Unpredictable

The weather while we were there in August was definitely a lot warmer than we thought it was going to be when researching what to pack. The weather in Iceland can change very quickly from hot to cold, so since we ended up with warmer (but windy) weather our cold weather stuff wasn’t used. BUT it easily could have been! Luckily, we were advised from multiple sources to pack light layers, and it ended up being great! We still stopped while in town to get some lighter clothing but we always kind of rely on the fact that if we forget to pack it, we’ll most likely be able to find something somewhere!

We were also advised to pack hiking pants and rain pants, which I didn’t (hello leggings) but Brandon did buy these hiking pants, which were nice and lightweight, but ended up being a one-time purchase that he most likely won’t wear again.

While maybe packing for winter, remember the lagoons! They’re warm (even though they’re outside) so packing a swimsuit is a must if you’re going to explore the hot springs and lagoons. We visited the Secret Lagoon and LOVED it.

Remember the Light

Keep in mind that if you’re a light-sensitive sleeper, you may want to pack a mask, but luckily our flat had pretty good blackout shades.

That’s It!

I mean, obviously we packed way more for our trip but they apply to all trips we take. Though I will say the normal water bottles we pack came in really handy in Iceland, because the water is so fresh and it’s all self serve, everywhere! You can walk into a cafe, go to their water station, and refill that bottle right there! Your normal makeup, chargers, clothes, underwear, etc. but the above is specifically what we bought for Iceland, and I do foresee us going back some day!