- Location
- Minnesota
- Name
- Chris
I thought it may be nice to share a bit about the recent trip I took, if for no other reason than to document it for myself. But perhaps something here can help others in planning their own trip, or maybe it’ll just be an enjoyable behind-the-scenes read.
Background-
I began planning this trip over 2 years ago, when no one had yet heard about the Corona virus. I originally planned a mid-summer trip, where I would rent a camper van from ‘Happy Campers’, and drive across the entire ring road, sleeping in the camper as I went. I planned for about a week on the road, where I would sleep during the day and drive at night (while it was still bright out). With sunset around 11:30pm and sunrise around 2:30am, I’d get two golden hours back to back, and ideally experience less crowds by traveling at “night”. I had saved dozens upon dozens of stops and photo opportunities along the way in Google maps. It all sounded great...until March of 2020 came and brought the plans to a screeching halt.
Two years later, although travel restrictions really hadn’t begun lifting yet, international travel was slowly coming back. I had also recently moved from California to Minnesota, and in Minnesota you have to ‘use it or lose it’ when it comes to your banked vacation time. In California, I consistently just continued to accrue vacation time faster than I could spend it. I was faced with losing almost 2 weeks of vacation time if I didn’t take it by April 11th. So what’s a guy supposed to do? Well, quickly plan a trip to Iceland of course! Should only need a few adjustments, right?
But things have changed. Renting a camper van in the tail end of winter sounded miserable. Potentially trying to traverse the entirety of the island this time of year didn’t sound much better. As it was, I was well aware that I wouldn’t be able to see some of the saved places I had marked for a visit due to impassable roads, although I wasn’t quite sure yet where I may encounter them (For future reference, go here Travel Conditions – Safetravel). So time for a change of plans. Thankfully I had acquired quite a bit of credit card points between Chase and my Hilton Amex, the latter helping to make the decision to more simply rent a hotel in Reykjavik, use it as a base camp, and use a rental car to go as far as I dared and back in a day.
So time to start booking. I was able to book a round trip flight and a rental car (some nonsense subcompact front wheel drive Toyota) completely with Chase points, and book 8 nights at the Canopy downtown by Hilton. My points covered about 4-5 nights, and I paid a little under $700 for the remainder. All the remaining expenses would be food (expensive), gas for the rental car (more expensive), and miscellaneous. All in all, not too bad. I feel I’m ahead of the game so far.
I’m even hopeful. Hopeful that I had just happened to book at the perfect time. Hopeful that I’d have the island to myself. I booked before Iceland lifted travel restrictions (I expected to have to take a Covid test prior to departure, but did not have to). Iceland only had restrictions lifted for about a week or so before Russia invaded Ukraine. It wasn’t long after the invasion that gas prices, and consequently flight prices, sharply rose. Between these two factors, I was hopeful I’d have easy travel, on empty planes, to an empty country. Would I be right?
The Departure - Monday
I imagine some of the reason my flight was easily covered by credit card points was two fold. One, the flight was not ideal. Two, I was most likely booked in the worst class of service possible. Both were mostly true. Although during the summer months I have a choice of carriers for nonstop flights directly from MSP to Reykjavik, during the winter my options were limited. The best option was an 11.5hr layover in the rat infested Boston Logan (I saw numerous rats, including inside the AirFrance lounge). I spent three days adjusting my sleep schedule to try and prepare for the very long day of travel. I awoke at 1:30am so I could drive my car to work, where I could park for free, and get a Lyft to the airport. It’s much cheaper than getting a Lyft from my home, which is further away. I arrived at work around 3:15am, and was soon being shuttled off to the airport so I could meet my 5:30am flight. All went smoothly, short of checking in for my flights. Jet Blue was my carrier to BOS, and Icelandair my carrier to Reykjavik. I was able to check into my Jet Blue flight, and even purchase seats with extra legroom. At this point, I’ve still been unable to check in or select seats for Icelandair. I’m sure this has to do with the class of service my credit card paid for. I guess I’ll figure it out when I get to BOS and can speak with a gate agent. After all, I’d get there at 9:00am local time and have 11.5 hours to try and sort it all out.
Now unfortunately I have trouble sleeping. This day wouldn’t be anywhere near as long as it was shaping up to be if I could sleep on a plane or even just at the airport. But here we go.
Once landing at Boston, first order of business is some breakfast. Then the second order was lunch. Then the third order was dinner. Than the 4th order was selecting seats with the gate agent. Thankfully, as I was hoping, it was a pretty empty flight. I had all 3 seats in a middle row to myself. Enough to lay down in, and check my eyelids for light leaks, as I certainly wasn’t sleeping.
My Priority Pass allowed me to spend a large chunk of time waiting somewhat comfortably in the AirFrance lounge, enjoying free food and drinks. Also free rats.
Once on the plane to Reykjavik, it quickly become apparent you’re traveling to a foreign country. Messages lead in Icelandic, not English. This was all new to me, as this was my first use of my passport, and first international travel to a country that wasn’t exclusively English speaking. It’s also where the first panic attack of the trip would strike. I used to deal with anxiety disorders in my youth, but it’s been sometime. Why? Why now? And about what? Worried that my baggage wasn’t on the plane? Worried about flying over the ocean? A growing lack of sleep? All of the above? Another reason? Thankfully I had something on me I could take that helped to mitigate this, and I uncomfortably laid across 3 seats for the following 5 hours.
The beautifully confusing Icelandic language while on the plane -
Next stop, Reykjavik. I’d be arriving at about 520am local time, which felt like 120am for me. I’ve been up for 24 hours.
Welcome to Day 1.
Background-
I began planning this trip over 2 years ago, when no one had yet heard about the Corona virus. I originally planned a mid-summer trip, where I would rent a camper van from ‘Happy Campers’, and drive across the entire ring road, sleeping in the camper as I went. I planned for about a week on the road, where I would sleep during the day and drive at night (while it was still bright out). With sunset around 11:30pm and sunrise around 2:30am, I’d get two golden hours back to back, and ideally experience less crowds by traveling at “night”. I had saved dozens upon dozens of stops and photo opportunities along the way in Google maps. It all sounded great...until March of 2020 came and brought the plans to a screeching halt.
Two years later, although travel restrictions really hadn’t begun lifting yet, international travel was slowly coming back. I had also recently moved from California to Minnesota, and in Minnesota you have to ‘use it or lose it’ when it comes to your banked vacation time. In California, I consistently just continued to accrue vacation time faster than I could spend it. I was faced with losing almost 2 weeks of vacation time if I didn’t take it by April 11th. So what’s a guy supposed to do? Well, quickly plan a trip to Iceland of course! Should only need a few adjustments, right?
But things have changed. Renting a camper van in the tail end of winter sounded miserable. Potentially trying to traverse the entirety of the island this time of year didn’t sound much better. As it was, I was well aware that I wouldn’t be able to see some of the saved places I had marked for a visit due to impassable roads, although I wasn’t quite sure yet where I may encounter them (For future reference, go here Travel Conditions – Safetravel). So time for a change of plans. Thankfully I had acquired quite a bit of credit card points between Chase and my Hilton Amex, the latter helping to make the decision to more simply rent a hotel in Reykjavik, use it as a base camp, and use a rental car to go as far as I dared and back in a day.
So time to start booking. I was able to book a round trip flight and a rental car (some nonsense subcompact front wheel drive Toyota) completely with Chase points, and book 8 nights at the Canopy downtown by Hilton. My points covered about 4-5 nights, and I paid a little under $700 for the remainder. All the remaining expenses would be food (expensive), gas for the rental car (more expensive), and miscellaneous. All in all, not too bad. I feel I’m ahead of the game so far.
I’m even hopeful. Hopeful that I had just happened to book at the perfect time. Hopeful that I’d have the island to myself. I booked before Iceland lifted travel restrictions (I expected to have to take a Covid test prior to departure, but did not have to). Iceland only had restrictions lifted for about a week or so before Russia invaded Ukraine. It wasn’t long after the invasion that gas prices, and consequently flight prices, sharply rose. Between these two factors, I was hopeful I’d have easy travel, on empty planes, to an empty country. Would I be right?
The Departure - Monday
I imagine some of the reason my flight was easily covered by credit card points was two fold. One, the flight was not ideal. Two, I was most likely booked in the worst class of service possible. Both were mostly true. Although during the summer months I have a choice of carriers for nonstop flights directly from MSP to Reykjavik, during the winter my options were limited. The best option was an 11.5hr layover in the rat infested Boston Logan (I saw numerous rats, including inside the AirFrance lounge). I spent three days adjusting my sleep schedule to try and prepare for the very long day of travel. I awoke at 1:30am so I could drive my car to work, where I could park for free, and get a Lyft to the airport. It’s much cheaper than getting a Lyft from my home, which is further away. I arrived at work around 3:15am, and was soon being shuttled off to the airport so I could meet my 5:30am flight. All went smoothly, short of checking in for my flights. Jet Blue was my carrier to BOS, and Icelandair my carrier to Reykjavik. I was able to check into my Jet Blue flight, and even purchase seats with extra legroom. At this point, I’ve still been unable to check in or select seats for Icelandair. I’m sure this has to do with the class of service my credit card paid for. I guess I’ll figure it out when I get to BOS and can speak with a gate agent. After all, I’d get there at 9:00am local time and have 11.5 hours to try and sort it all out.
Now unfortunately I have trouble sleeping. This day wouldn’t be anywhere near as long as it was shaping up to be if I could sleep on a plane or even just at the airport. But here we go.
Once landing at Boston, first order of business is some breakfast. Then the second order was lunch. Then the third order was dinner. Than the 4th order was selecting seats with the gate agent. Thankfully, as I was hoping, it was a pretty empty flight. I had all 3 seats in a middle row to myself. Enough to lay down in, and check my eyelids for light leaks, as I certainly wasn’t sleeping.
My Priority Pass allowed me to spend a large chunk of time waiting somewhat comfortably in the AirFrance lounge, enjoying free food and drinks. Also free rats.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Once on the plane to Reykjavik, it quickly become apparent you’re traveling to a foreign country. Messages lead in Icelandic, not English. This was all new to me, as this was my first use of my passport, and first international travel to a country that wasn’t exclusively English speaking. It’s also where the first panic attack of the trip would strike. I used to deal with anxiety disorders in my youth, but it’s been sometime. Why? Why now? And about what? Worried that my baggage wasn’t on the plane? Worried about flying over the ocean? A growing lack of sleep? All of the above? Another reason? Thankfully I had something on me I could take that helped to mitigate this, and I uncomfortably laid across 3 seats for the following 5 hours.
The beautifully confusing Icelandic language while on the plane -
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Next stop, Reykjavik. I’d be arriving at about 520am local time, which felt like 120am for me. I’ve been up for 24 hours.
Welcome to Day 1.
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