Spain and Iceland 2017 Trip Summary

Skogafoss Waterfall - Iceland
Inside Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Spain
Gullfoss Falls, Iceland
The Secret Lagoon, Fludir Iceland
The outside of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
Girona Spain

TRIP DETAILS

Trip length (including travel days) - 15 days

Time of year - September

Countries visited - Spain, Iceland

Cities/Locations visited and time in each:

  • Barcelona (Spain) - 4 nights

  • Mallorca (Spain) - 3 nights

  • Madrid (Spain) - 2 nights

  • Reykjavik (Iceland) - 2 nights

  • Hella/Vic (Iceland) - 2 nights

PATH WE TOOK

Fly from Denver to Philadelphia to Barcelona

Bus, Walk, Taxi, Uber, Subway throughout Barcelona

Rental car for 1 day to explore the coast north of Barcelona (Costa Brava / Girona)

Fly from Barcelona to Mallorca

Rental car in Mallorca

Fly from Mallorca to Madrid

Ex-pat friends living there drove us around Madrid

Fly from Madrid to Iceland

Rental car in Iceland

Fly from Iceland to Denver

HIGHLIGHTS

Our highlights from the Spain part of the trip: Visiting with our ex-pat friends, Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, the Free Walking Tour we took to orient ourselves to the city and learn its rich history, and the food!

Our highlights from the Iceland portion of the trip: Waterfalls around every turn, a natural hot spring river, Spencer wading into waist deep glacier-melt rivers to determine if we could drive through them, Off-Roading (on the legal F-Roads).

WHY WE PICKED THESE LOCATIONS

We had been wanting to get to Iceland due to the extreme landscapes and some of the activities available there (off-roading, hiking to waterfalls, natural hot springs) and also because it’s a direct flight from there to Denver!

When we started planning our Spain trip (since we had friends living there at the time), we realized that Iceland could be an easy layover on the way to or from Spain, and it ended up working out perfectly!

OUR NOT-SO-FAVORITE THING

We visited in September which is definitely “shoulder” season. We had heavy rain and clouds all day, every day in Iceland, and some cloudy/rainy days in Spain as well. So if we were to go again, we’d go during the prime summer time to try for the warmest, clearest weather, OR, in the prime winter time to try to see the Northern Lights (in Iceland).