Self-drive itinerary was well planned though the distances between stops are longer than they look on the map, plan for tired evenings. Gullfoss and Seljalandsfoss more than made up for it.

The Vik to Akureyri stretch took us nearly five hours and it started raining just as we reached Godafoss so we barely stepped out of the car, quite a letdown after building it up in our heads the whole drive.

Dimmuborgir felt like walking on another planet and the mud pots at Namaskard smell terrible but are unforgettable. Eight nights was just right to cover Reykjavik, Vik and Akureyri without feeling rushed.

Dimmuborgir was all twisted lava arches, like wandering a film set left out in the cold.

Reynisfjara's black sand and basalt columns left us speechless, my wife kept saying it looks fake. Loved that the itinerary gave us freedom to stop wherever we wanted on the drive instead of rushing between checkpoints.

Gullfoss and Reynisfjara were faultless, though the guesthouse near Vik gave us a room over the car park with a rattling heater that kept my wife awake half the night.