Just looking through our Iceland pictures makes me so excited to plan our next international adventure. The pictures I’m sharing today are from Northern Iceland. Once we got through the snowy and windy highlands, we reached the beautiful landscapes near Lake Myvatn. This is a great pitstop. We visited Myvatn Nature Baths (which is way less touristy than the Blue Lagoon and cheaper also), we enjoyed the best meal of our entire trip here and we spent an hour just taking in the beauty of Godafoss.

The Myvatn Nature Baths are located right off the Ring Road just east of the lake. The changing rooms are smaller, but have everything you need. It is crazy how close you are to the Arctic Circle and here you are in your bathing suit outside. After a few hours of driving, this was a great pitstop for us. It was only about 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside when we arrived, but the trip from the showers to the water outside isn’t far and the steam rooms are on the way.

We definitely enjoyed the peace & quiet here. There was one tour bus of seniors that were leaving when we arrived, so we had the place to ourselves for the most part.
After soaking, we were super hungry. Our Lonely Planet travel guide sent us to a place near the lake called Vogafjos Cafe. This was the best meal we had in Iceland. It was a tiny restaurant with beautiful views of the surrounding landscapes. The Geysir bread was on our list of things to try – they actually cook the bread in the ground using the heat. We had smoked arctic char, cheese from their cows and Skyr for dessert. I can’t recommend this stop enough. They also have a guesthouse here that I would love to stay at during a future trip.
After an amazing lunch, we explored the south part of the lake and did a little hiking. We also discovered a really fun game of rolling snowballs down a hill. I would love to see this area in the middle of summer, but even with the snow, it was breathtaking. I can definitely say that the pictures don’t do this area justice.

Our last stop before heading towards Akureyri was the magnificent waterfall, Godafoss (Waterfall of the Gods.) This was so different from the tall, skinny falls of the Southern Coast. We sat here for about an hour just listening to the incredible power of this natural feature. The water was such a beautiful color. 

I’ll be back with part 2 soon sharing pictures of Akureyri and Husavik – two towns in North Iceland that we absolutely adored. Until then, I’ll just be day dreaming of this magical place.