You need to be a bit of an adventurous eater, but it’s all pretty approachable. That’s the meal my family remembers.

As far as things to do, the Settlement Center in Borgarnes is excellent to get a sense of Icelandic history. And you do need to see Thingvellir.

I did not make the Iceland Phallological Museum. Maybe next time.

The one other sort of recommendation: if a volcano decides to erupt while you are there, drop everything, pay what you have to to hire a guide, and go see it. It’s an incredible sight and there are not many places in the world to see one. The guide might be superfluous, but considering the gas poisoning potential and the number of broken ankles we saw getting hauled out, we were happy we did it.

Bring bug spray, particularly if you are doing the full Ring Road. Myvatn in particular is full of midges.

It's bigger than you think. Hey-o! No, seriously, it was actually a pretty fun visit in Reykjavik. Though perhaps awkward with the whole family.

-Volcano. There's a volcano just outside Reykjavik where you actually go down inside the volcano. You can hike the volcano or helicopter to the top then go down inside. It's pretty cool.

-Agree the Blue Lagoon is fun.

-If you want an off-the-beaten-path drive into the hinterlands, keep heading NE on '35' from Gulfoss. A friend (who's a local) recommended it as a way to just get into the middle of nowhere and see different terrain. We drove maybe an hour until we decided we were close enough to the center of the country we could turn around. It's a weird recommendation because it's like suggesting someone drive into the middle of the desert for fun. But it's Iceland. So most of the drive felt like we were on the moon, until we were up against a glacier. it was pretty captivating and exciting and inspiring.

-Fludir is nice, and I highly recommend the Secret Lagoon.

-If you're headed further east along the southern coast... Kirkjubaer. We stayed a night in this region and it's sooo beautiful. Just before you get to Jokulsarlon, which is also ridiculous, and possibly the most memorable place for me on the whole trip.

-Make sure you stop at every random waterfall along the way until you get to the point you find the whole concept of waterfalls blase and ho-hum.

-Final point. And I make this with the tone of Jack Black in High Fidelity... you must listen to Sigur Ros during any drive through the country. It's like an experience, man.

We went to the lagoon first thing after settling into our BNB. Hung out for a few hours enjoying all the scenery, water, sauna, etc. Finished up and asked the front desk folks about a good place to eat and they were like, hmmm, "at this hour?" It was 10:30 pm. Sun was at same height as 5pm. So we raced into the city and found a pizza place open late. Was actually pretty good (or we were starving).

Also, go here:

https://lemmy.is/?lang=en

You can pay tribute to the legend and it has a great selection of local craft beers. Nicest people I ever met too.

Enjoy!

On a par with your basic Paris boulangerie, and I’m serious.

As you might expect, the seafood is top-notch also.

Ask where ever you’re staying for recommendations. It’s a small city, everyone knows the good places in the city center.

The Icelanders are some of the friendliest people I’ve met in Europe, on par with Irish, Scots, Dutch, Danes and Portuguese.

That is the hot dog place. It is a little hot dog stand and it absolutely rules. Get their weird remoulade.

I'm sure you're going to do the Golden Circle, right? You have to. The Thingvellir Natl Park, Geysir, and Gulfoss are mandatory.

In Reykjavik, the entire neighborhood walking (not south, it's NW) DOWN hill from the Hallgrimskirka and really the entirety of Laugavegur street is walkable, shops and restaurants and stuff. When you get down to the main road at the harbor end of it, that's where the Harpa concert hall is and right across that busy road is the hot dogs.

(Lebowski bar is on Laugavegur, this whole neighborhood is great. I remember a record shop and we were gonna buy a Bjork album but then we were like "how will we get this back".)

and also the Saga Museum is down at the harbors, which is kind of gimmicky and tells the story of Iceland BUT you get to put on, like, Chainmail and furs and carry a broadsword the entire time you're in the museum.

We also went to the Perlan Wonders of Iceland museum, which has a "glacier tunnel" you can take pics in (which is kind of like an "ice bar", it's just a very cold hallway they put ice on the walls). IIRC it was good but I wouldnt go too far out of my way, the view from the top was the primary driver.

We stayed out in Selfoss but I wish we'd had more time in the city.

Also - the Blue Lagoon is great, their restaurant LAVA was the best thing we had in Iceland. I've also heard good things about Sky Lagoon in Reykjavik but it's new and so we've never been.

Here's a restaurant rec (sort of! and not in Reykjavik!) - Friðheimar tomato farm. All of the food is veggie and most of it is tomatoes. But they somehow make most of the tomatoes that are eaten by Icelanders and it takes greenhouses with extra CO2 pumped in.

Another half-rec for food - at the Laugervatn Fontana you can do geothermal baking! You'll pack up bread dough in this saran wrap pot, and then take it out to the lake where you dig up yesterday's bread. Then you can eat it (it's kind of weird.)

go to Gaeta, think they have various locations, but I visited at Laugavegur 23. Walking around the opera hall and that area in the city center is pretty cool. Can't say we did anything extravagant for food, as our kids were with us, 10 and 13 years old.

There is a famous hotdog place right in the center, like a food truck. Big american influence from WW2.

And you can always do the penis museum! Not in Reyjkavik and you probably have it in your itinerary, but Blue Lagoon is worth it.

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"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." - Yeats