Iceland Winter Elopement: Daisy & Josh

Day 1:

Iceland is remote, rugged, spectacular, isolated, beautiful, stark, and brimming with a magic that is not easy to describe, no matter how many times I try. This relatively tiny country bordering between the Atlantic & Arctic oceans looms large in many peoples’ imaginations, drawing millions of visitors each year to discover its of the nature and beauty.

Daisy, Josh, and I were lucky enough to be some of those visitors in February 2024. Yes, that’s right - February. The astute reader may be thinking “But Tom, why would you possibly think it’s a good idea to go to Iceland in the winter? It is named ICEland, after all!” Well, having already visited Iceland once previously in the height of summer - where I witnessed near record high temperatures in the mid-70’s on the South Coast - I wanted to have the opposite experience, and wanted to explore what eloping in Iceland in the winter would look like!

I wanted to see snow. I wanted ice, I wanted bitter wind, I wanted a chance to glimpse the Northern Lights during Iceland’s famously long winter nights. In short: I wanted adventure.

So I went, and brought along a few friends - 2024 North Carolina wedding clients Daisy & Josh. Note: Daisy & Josh did not technically get married while in Iceland, so this may be better described as a “pre-wedding intimate celebration of love” or something - but, for the Google and SEO Algorithmic Gods, we’ll go with “Iceland Winter Elopement”.

D&J are local to Raleigh and flew out about a week before me, taking the chance to work remotely from Reykjavik and explore the city. Reykjavik is a small city of only about 125,000 inhabitants, but it is bustling and vibrant with coffee shops, bakeries, breweries, and of course the famous Icelandic hot springs and spas. Even in winter, Reykjavik is a happening place, and Daisy & Josh were able to easily pass a lovely week in the city.

I was scheduled to join Daisy & Josh on a Saturday morning, for about 3 full days of photographing and exploring before we all caught the Monday night flight back to Raleigh. Nature had other plans, and I was delayed by bad storms in Iceland for a full 24 hours.

This is potentially part of travel anytime, but certainly part of traveling to Iceland in the winter. We are at Mother Nature’s mercy. So, I anxiously waited for my flight the following day, and plotted some new possible locations for us to make the most of our shortened time together. I landed in Reykjavik in darkness, in cross wind, a snow storm, and had probably the softest landing of any flight I’ve ever flown. God bless the Icelandic pilots.

February sunrise in Iceland is around 10am, so I headed from the airport to Daisy & Josh’s hotel in Reykjavik to scoop them up (along with my pal Liam Good who joined us from Toronto to take video of the trip) and head out into the wild.

Once we cleared the city, we dipped into the valleys east of Reykjavik, headed for the mighty waterfalls of the South Coast. Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall that you can famously walk behind during summer. In winter attempting such a feat would be a one-way ticket to the afterlife, so we stuck to the paths in front of the waterfall. This was one of the coldest stops on our trip, as the waterfall was still in the mid-morning shadow of the nearby cliffs, and the cold air settled in around us.

Onward to Skogafoss, perhaps Iceland’s most famous waterfall (and one of Europe’s largest), where we enjoyed espressos and warm coffees in the hotel restaurant, and took photos in front of the waterfall (where we were lucky enough to see a rainbow slicing across the mist). We got lucky here at Skogafoss - the sun was out, and although the temperature stayed below the freezing line, we were relatively warm, all things considered. A quick outfit change for the couple in the hotel restaurant restroom and we were off to Reynisfjara, perhaps more commonly known as Black Sand Beach.

Reynisfjara is one of the most beautiful and most dangerous beaches in the world. The sand is truly black, although in the pre-sunset glow it appeared orange and gold, and sea stacks rise up out of the turbulent waters off the coast. It is breathtaking and gorgeous and wild, and I have loved each of my visits to this iconic beach. The danger stems from the “sneaker waves”, so named because they can sneak up out of nowhere. Facing south, there is no land between the South Coast of Iceland and Antarctica, so the waves travel the length of the globe, gathering power and speed as they go. Tourists have died here before, although typically because they ignore the very clear signage marking where on the beach is safe and where may be more perilous.

Lucky for us, we encountered no such waves, and instead were greeted with absolutely wonderful evening light, some of our best light of the entire trip. We concluded the first day of our Iceland winter elopement with some sunset photos along the road to Dyrholaey, a huge cliff overlooking the Black Sand Beach. We had originally planned to visit the top of the cliff, but even with our 4X4 Land Rover rental, we found the road treacherous and so we stayed in the valley.

We slept that first night at the Black Beach Suites, a wonderful set of hotel suites near Black Sand Beach, and after a beer and dinner in nearby Vik, we were treated to the Northern Lights on our drive back to the hotel. We stood in the parking lot, the night colder than ever, and watched the Lights shimmering on the horizon for as long as our bodies could stand.

Day 2:

After a few hours of sleep, Daisy, Josh, Liam & I headed west back toward Reykjavik and the airport. Daisy, Josh, and I were on the 4:45PM flight back to Raleigh that day, so we left well before dawn, so we could reach some of our preferred photo spots before the 10am sunrise. After stops for pastries and coffee, we reached Lake Kleifarvatn around sunrise, where we were met with absolutely spectacular views, brutal winds, and one of the coldest experiences of my life.

Daisy & Josh were absolute troopers, heroes indeed - Liam & I scouted photo locales while D&J stayed warm in the car. Once we were set, the four of us would hit our spots, Daisy & Josh snuggled as much as possible, and then back to the car for warmth.

After Lake Kleifarvatn, we headed south on the Reykjanes peninsula to where the craggy coast meets the Atlantic at one of the most southern parts of the country. I loved the landscape here (you may recognize it from the Eurovision Will Ferrell movie), and I’m so glad that the change in our original travel plans led us to this spot.

We sadly parted ways with Liam, who was staying on a few more days to explore the country, and Daisy, Josh & I headed to the airport, where we indulged in one more Icelandic hot dog before our flight home.

If you are thinking of having a winter elopement in Iceland, or just visiting Iceland in winter in the general, I’d love to chat with you about our experience and how you can make your time there the best time of your life!