12 - Hot river hike

Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River is a definite must-visit if you're planning a visit to Iceland. You can come here by public bus (which costs around €11 for a one-way ticket), or even better, by car (45 min drive). I had heard from a local that it is better to get here as early as possible, as it is pretty well known among tourists so if you get there early, you'll have the hot river to yourself in stead of sharing it with 30 others ;). We left at 07:30 in the morning from Reykjavík and arrived at around 08:45 to the nearest town. We still had to walk about 50 minutes from this bus stop to get to the beginning of the hike to the hot river, so we did a lot of walking this day! (I did 36000 steps in

total that day which is around 26 kilometres). At the start of the hike, there is a nice little café. It wasn't open when we got there but on the way back it was. We started the hike and it took us around 1,5 hour to get to the hot river area. It was a more difficult hike than I had imagined, especially with the thick snow and strong winds but it was definitely worth the hike! As a reward you get to spend a lot of time chilling in the hot river at the top and I even rolled in the snow! I was really glad we got there early because as we left and started to walk back down, we encountered many tourists who had the same idea as us. I will add some pictures below to give you an impression of the walk! I would recommend bringing your swimsuit (duh!), a towel, an extra pair of socks, lots of layers. water and some food. Also, you'll need good hiking boots when coming to Iceland (preferably waterproof) and if you're not such a great walker, walking sticks aren't a bad idea. I hope you enjoyed this short blog and if you ever decide to visit this place, please let me know what you thought of it!

Love,

Camille