what I packed for iceland

Well this post is long overdue. I kept meaning to write it, but as soon as I sat down all I wanted to do was talk about Fall! What can I say, it’s my second favourite season and sometimes you have to run with the passion while it’s there.

But let’s back up a couple weeks shall we, and meander down memory lane back to my trip to Iceland. Oh, Iceland. Such a beautiful place. But so hard to pack for. I vividly remember a moment when I started laughing to myself because I had rain boots, a bikini and a cashmere sweater all crammed up against each other. It was tough trying to predict the weather!

In the end, I packed:

What I definitely didn’t need to pack – the shorts. It never got warm enough for me to want to wear them. Even the day we ran the half marathon (I wore capri leggings). What I wish I had packed more of – the long sleeve tops. I only packed two, but most days I found myself wanting to reach for them to wear under a big sweater or on their own. They ended up being worth their weight in gold as far as layering goes and I wish I had brought more options.

I also wish I had opted to bring a pair of flats with me. While Iceland was notoriously rainy this Summer, we lucked out with mostly sunshine during our visit so I ended up wearing my sneakers a lot more than I anticipated. My rain boots were great for when we were visiting places that were wet (ie. the waterfalls, the glacier lagoon, etc) but for walking around Reykjavík I wish I had a cuter alternative to my beat up runners. I was worried that I didn’t have a pair of waterproof hiking boots but we didn’t do anything too crazy outdoors and in the end didn’t need them.

I also packed several sweaters of varying coziness levels and would highly recommend doing that. On rainy days I wanted to bundle up in my wool or cashmere sweaters, but on sunny days I only wanted something light. I also found that my raincoat doubled as a great windbreaker, so I never found that I was missing out on one while I was there.

All in all, I thought I did pretty well. While what your packing totally depends on when you’re visiting Iceland, I think in general plan for lots of layering and you can’t really go wrong!