"Sun Voyager" sculptureAfter a wonderful trip-of-a-lifetime to the Galapagos earlier this year, we decided to do another bucket list trip of a very different sort - traveling the Ring Road around Iceland. Our friends, Hilda and Paul, who also happen to be our son’s in-laws joined us for the trip.

The Galapagos and Iceland couldn’t have been more different: one was on the Equator, the other close to the Arctic Circle; one was on a yacht, the other in a camper van; one focused on wildlife, the other on dramatic landscapes, and on and on. However, they did share the commonality of volcanic activity and lots and lots of lava.

VestrahornAs our means of transport in Iceland, we chose to rent an Urban Plus camper van from McRent - the same vehicle we had rented in our earlier trips to the Alps and Spain. The camper was 6-meters long, but each of those meters was used very efficiently - big queen-size bed across the back, bathroom with shower, dinette, refrigerator and stove, and lots of storage space.

Iceland is an expensive country though, so the van cost considerably more than the ones we rented in Germany and Spain - $300 per night rather than around $115.

Kirkjufell all to ourselvesI spent weeks pouring over Iceland travel guides and watching YouTube videos before finalizing the itinerary for a 15-day trip around the Ring Road. You can’t see it all in a 15-day period, but I was going to give it a try.

So off we went, camping and seeing so much of the incredible beauty and variety that Iceland has to offer - from literally thousands of waterfalls everywhere you look, stunning mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, steam rising from geothermal areas, lovely quaint fishing villages, street art, puffins, and sheep. Iceland has become a very popular place for tourists, so it was great to be able to get off the beaten track for most of our trip and experience the real Iceland.