I recently traveled to Iceland for an adventure and learned some unexpected items about life and travel. With Iceland being as far North as the Arctic Circle, daylight hours are shorter, around 4 hours per day in winter.  It was the strangest thing for me to see a pitch dark outside at 10:00 am. Going to bed, and waking up to darkness felt surreal. On the other hand, summer is said to have a midnight sun with 24 hours of daylight. Anyway, I digress. Let me share with you some lifechanging lessons I learned.

3 Lifechanging Lessons I Learned in Iceland

1. Give Your Time the Attention It Deserves

I only had 4 hours of day light to work with. The tourist attractions I chased could only be seen in the day. Iceland is exceedingly isolated, with virtually no street lights. If I wanted to see the Geysir, Waterfalls, and go snorkeling in Slifra, I had to do an entirely new level of planning my days.

Aside from actually leaving my home earlier, I STILL had to work out how many attractions I would see in a day. Attractions aren’t very close in Iceland, they can take hours apart to reach. You also have to remember, I only had 4 hours of daylight to work with. Rather than stress myself out trying to see everything in a day, I forced myself to only devote one day to seeing each attraction I planned to see.

In Iceland, traffic congestion isn’t an issue, it is technological connections with GPS systems, and distance between each attraction that forced me to implement new time management strategies. Most importantly, I have learned that time is not to be assumed. As Dave Ramsey says “if you don’t give your money attention, it will give YOU attention in a bad way”. The same is true with time. Had I ignored, and wasted time waiting to begin my day when the sun rose, I would have missed out on enjoying the geological wonders that I saw.

2. Always Make an Extra Effort

Just because Iceland is touristy, doesn’t guarantee that everyone will understand English. Most gas station attendants, restaurants, tour guides etc… did speak limited English, but I occasionally ran into some who spoke absolutely no English.

First off, I find it polite and helpful to learn BASIC words prior to departing for your trip. I personally find it rude and unfair that we collectively make no effort to learn the language of the land, yet we expect others around the world to speak OUR language. So, pretty self-explanatory. I made an effort to learn basic Icelandic.

3. Take Calculated Risks

The dangerous weather and driving conditions in Iceland made me think outside the box and be flexible. I always checked the daily forecast. While it said not to expect snowfall until the evening; I decided against taking the 2.5-hour road trip to see Vik because of how treacherous the roads will be, and the fact that it will barely be visible by the time I arrived.

Instead, I decided to try something closer to home, which was to explore Reykjavik. Because the weather is so unpredictable, I didn’t want to risk taking a longer trip, away from my hotel accommodation, and possibly into an accident. I still enjoyed myself, before the snow hit. Yet I was able to return to safety more easily. It was a better choice for me to go see Vik, Iceland in a few days when it was sunny, with no snow.

With only having a week to spend in Iceland, and most of the days having snowy weather in Iceland; I was left to take advantage of the sunny, clear weather while it was here because heaven only knows how long it would have lasted. When the opportunity came to take the trip to Vik, I jumped on it!

With unpredictable weather in Iceland, you’ve got to learn to take an opportunity as it comes, be flexible, manage your vacation time effectively, and really be smart about the risks you take.