Destination Unlocked

Welcome to Destination Unlocked with me, Daniel Edward.

Destination Unlocked is the Chatty Travel Podcast where a local expert helps

you unlock their corner of the world.

Today we’re unlocking Reykjavik, the gateway to Iceland’s waterfalls,

geothermal pools, and all that gloriously unpredictable fire and ice drama.

My guest is Valur Heiðar Sævarsson, founder of Your Friend in Reykjavik,

and he’s packed this episode with practical tips from how to explore

Reykjavik to driving the Golden Circle, seeing the Northern Lights and the

truth about Iceland’s famous food, including those hot dogs with everything.

If you are planning an Iceland trip or you’ve always dreamed of it, stay with us.

This is really useful.

So Valur, where are you unlocking for us today?

I’m unlocking Reykjavik, Iceland, or Iceland in general.

Yeah, it’s such an amazing place.

it excites people.

If you are first time ever going to Iceland, chances are,

Reykjavik’s on your itinerary.

What are the main things to see and do there?

Let’s get the main things out of the way and then, and then we’ll go

into some sort of insider secrets.

Well, the main landmarks are of course Hallgrimskirkja church.

that’s kind like, our Empire Plaza and then we have Harpa Concert Hall, which

is another beautiful, beautiful building.

We have of course in the downtown area also, the Reykjavik Harbor, it’s very

picturesque to watch over the harbor and, and over to Mount Esja, which

is like the guardian of Reykjavik.

And if you venture a little further, Reykjavik is the only

capital city in the world that has a Salmon River running through it.

And, a beautiful nature Pearl called Atlia Urdalur, and it’s wonderful,

to go into nature in the middle of a capital city, for example.

We have places like, Laugardalur, a botanical garden and our

beautiful geothermal pool there that I love to frequent.

That’s one thing that you should not miss when you’re in Iceland.

You should definitely go and, and, soak in, uh, the geothermal water as

well as when it’s a bit chilly outside.

That was actually my first introduction to Iceland.

I went to Blue Lagoon, which is the number one tourist

attraction in the whole country.

But coming out of that, which was incredible, my goodness, it was nice.

But coming outta that, I realized how many geothermals spas and lagoons and, and just

naturally heated pools there are around.

There’s one in, in Reykjavik, which is right at the end of the airport runway.

We love our geothermal water and, and, it’s a wonderful

way of relaxing after a good day.

You know, we love to use per capita in Iceland.

Per capita being so few, it’s, very easy for us to have the record number of,

for example, swimming pools per capita.

I have some friends that meet in the pool hot tub and just discuss what’s

happening and I know that the older generation, they like to have a specific

meeting times for discussing the world politics and the local politics.

And it, it can be in the cold, it can be in the summer, we just love our geo pools.

And now the trend is of course opening up all those spas everywhere.

We have one in Akureyri, just opened up last year, called Forest Lagoon,

and, and it’s just something that you should plan for is definitely

a visit, preferably more than one.

Blue Lagoon is great, but it’s a bit touristy.

I love to go to the local swimming pools, go to the place like Laugardalslaug.

Do like the locals.

Is there an etiquette that people need to know for those local type pools?

The, the spas are, obviously, they’re all done up as a full tourist

experience, but the local pools, it is people’s real day-to-day life.

So are there things that people ought to know if they are a tourist visiting?

Yeah, of course.

You know, some people have been horrified that we like to shower

naked before we go into the pools.

We think it’s just, uh, a part of, uh, being hygienic and, and, uh, cleaning

up before you go into the local pools.

But there are usually stalls or you can, you can, you can go into the

bathroom if you feel uncomfortable but we, we like people to clean

up before they go into the pool.

That’s, uh, kinda like a key thing.

How about talking to people in the pools?

Do you greet people or is it only if you see a friend that

you know that you would say, hi?

Well, I think it just varies.

It just depends.

Some people like to start asking questions and Some people like to

just be on their own; just think about their life or whatever.

and, uh, don’t like to be disturbed.

Some people are open for a chat.

It just depends.

A lot of people turn up in Iceland for the first time on a cruise.

That’s a big part of the tourist market for Iceland, certainly Reykjavik

gets a lot of overnight stays.

If somebody who’s visited on a cruise ship then says, I wanna go to Iceland,

I wanna stay there, and I wanna base myself there for a few days, a week,

where is the best place to sort of base yourself to get the most out of

Reykjavik, but also so much nature.

I prefer to just stay in the city center.

With all due respect, public transport is not great in Reykjavik.

To get around to some areas, it, yeah, it takes a quite a bit of walking, you

know, hour, hour and a half, so, uh, I recommend for people to have a base like

in, in, in the city center of Reykjavik.

There are plenty of, of good hotels in the city center.

But then I would also recommend, if you have a week, stay for a couple of days

in the South, because, for example, one of the most, uh, wonderful places to

visit the is the Great Glacier Lagoon, Jokulsarlon, or the Diamond Beach.

And it takes five hours to drive just one way, and then

five hours back to Reykjavik.

So I would recommend to stay at least one, maybe two nights

in the South, so you don’t have to, well, spend the day driving.

Do the South Coast all the way to Vik possibly on day one, then stop around

there, then on day two, go all the way to the Diamond Beach, uh, Jokulsarlon

and then possibly drive back to Reykjavik or spend another day on the way back.

And is it the best idea to just rent a car or are there bus networks, that

even though they might not be the fastest, are also reliable enough that you can say,

okay, on a Tuesday I’m gonna take the bus down, and on a Friday I’m gonna come back?

If you’re not doing day tours out of Reykjavik, or multi-day

tours out of Reykjavik, then I would definitely recommend self-driving, so

you can control your own rhythm a bit.

You know, I love this waterfall.

I wanna stay longer here.

Like I said, the bus system is, is okay, but I would rather self-drive and, uh,

be able to stay longer, stay shorter.

It also depends, you know, is it in the winter?

Is it in the summer?

Okay.

In the summer it’s easier, but in the winter you have to be

accustomed to, you know, icy roads.

You have to be accustomed to quite a lot of wind sometimes.

So you have to take that into account.

What is your actual driving skills?

And one side note on that.

Please don’t just park on the side of the road.

If you see a, a beautiful horse, uh, it, it can be very, very dangerous.

So please don’t stop on the middle of the road.

there’s some definite, safety points when it comes to somewhere

as remote and, extreme as Iceland.

And I think that’s what calls people towards it, right?

The land of fire and ice.

But also there’s gotta be some sort of awareness of, wait,

this is a land of fire and ice.

And that comes with some safety precautions.

What about the volcano?

Yeah well, volcanoes are active in Iceland.

So, fair to say, every four or five years it’s been a volcanic eruption,

and now it’s been very frequent there in the southwest corner.

Fortunately it’s been, in a pretty safe, area, there’s one town that has evacuated.

and three houses went under a lava flow, at one of the eruptions.

But, in general, we are just very used to it.

It’s just part of nature here in, in Iceland.

If you’re self-driving, you need to look at the weather forecast.

You need to be aware of what’s happening.

There are some cases of people driving on a regular car into

the Highland roads, which are not accessible for, basic city cars.

What kind of adventures are you heading for?

You need to think.

I had the most amazing excursion, onto one of the volcanoes.

I can’t remember which one actually.

and we went in the ATVs, like the quad bikes.

It was incredible.

We call some of these eruptions, tourist eruptions because they are, they

are located in a nice area where you can, maybe drive up on a hill to watch over

the, uh, eruption from a safe distance.

yeah, Some of these eruptions are just, uh, beautiful to behold.

these eruptions and just, uh, you know, I was one meter from the

lava flow and it, it was beautiful.

Sometimes there are some fun pictures of, of people, uh, you know, going towards,

volcanic eruption, Icelanders being so crazy, but of course we, we try to adhere

to, okay, what, what is happening here?

Is there, is there a possible, uh.

gas, Is it possible that, uh, you know, if it’s in a valley, the

gases from the volcanic eruption can be very, uh, dangerous.

You can die.

And People are sometimes being just going on their sneakers and think it’s will be

easy, but it’s actually a four hour track and, uh, over a lava field that can be

treacherous and, and things can happen and, and wind and chill and so forth and

so You need to ask the right questions and make sure that you’re safe, and when going

and visiting a, a live volcanic eruption.

That side of Iceland doesn’t sound like it’s for beginners.

In some cases it is, and especially if you get just, expert help.

There are volcano buses now; we are talking about experts here

that have done this before.

But, like I said, if you’re self-driving, you just need to be aware of what can,

and, and how it, aware of your safety and not just, go blindly towards the lava

flow and think everything will be okay.

Whilst we’re on the topic of, of nature, what are your thoughts

on doing a Golden Circle tour Is that something that is a, a must do?

The Golden Circle tour is the most famous, tour out

of Reykjavik for a reason.

You see so much in a little amount of time.

You see the beautiful waterfall, Godafoss, you see the Geiser, the one

all Geisers are named after, you see the beautiful National Park, Thingvellir.

And, and possibly more.

Possibly more.

This is one of the things we, at Your Friend in Reykjavik, always put, like, uh,

one of the first things that you should do is, is uh, experience the Golden Circle.

You can do it in a short amount of time.

You can do it, uh, down to six and a half, seven hours and you can do it in a

longer version, we have like food stops along the way and try to introduce food

and drink into the nature experience.

Definitely recommend to, to do that.

I wanna talk about food given that you’ve touched on it.

But before we do that, tell me a bit more about Your Friend in Reykjavik.

I started as a private tour guide, start doing like a food tours and city

walks and beer tours and stuff like that.

And, gradually I needed to clone myself and make more friends.

So now we have scheduled walking tours, uh, varied like from Reykjavik

Folklore Walking Tour to, Sweet Tooth, introducing licorice and ice cream and

different, Icelandic, unique flavors.

And, and then we have a storyteller event in the evenings where you can

go and meet up with a storyteller for, for a hour and a half and

just listen to Icelandic stories.

And so then we do private driving tours, multi-day tours,

transfers, you, you name it.

We, we do it.

It’s genuinely a passion project in regards of just like introducing Iceland

to the world in the best way possible.

We have over 5,000 five star reviews, so we are doing something

right and long may it continue.

What’s the top tour that you do?

It is definitely our Reykjavik Food Lovers Tour; it’s like a

wonderful way of getting introduced to Iceland, one bite at a time.

You’re going to various restaurants and you’re learning about how we survived

on this rock for this millennia.

Yeah, it’s a wonderful tour.

So it’s takes about three hours.

After a day, you can do a food tour at from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM or something.

Everybody needs to eat, and why not do it in a perfect company

with a, a local storyteller?

I think that just sounds so good.

Traveling through the plate is one of my favorite ways to travel.

I’ve gotta ask you this.

It’s from Hillary who wrote in on Facebook about your hot dog obsession and

what’s on with this one with everything?

Baejarins Beztu Pylsur.

Yes.

Yeah.

long before hamburgers and pizzas arrived in Iceland, this was the first fast food

establishment in Iceland I remember fondly when I was traveling, so I, I was born

and raised in, this small island off the south coast called the Westman Islands.

And, uh, when we traveled to the big city of Reykjavik, then that was kinda

like a must thing to do to get one of the hot dogs from Baejarins Beztu Pylsur.

So it’s a family run establishment su started with a small hot dog

stand in in the downtown area.

1937 if I remember correctly.

So you go to the hotdog stand and, and get a one or two with everything and

everything is, uh, fried onion, raw onion, sweet mustard called pylsusinnep

or hot dogs mu mustard, ketchup that’s actually made of apples and, uh,

remoulade, which is like a, uh, mayo based with, a little bit of radish and stuff.

It’s a, it’s, it’s a, it’s a mixed sauce, but this is “eina

med ollu”, one with everything.

Also the hot dogs are mostly made out of, out of sheep, lamb.

They are not the beef hot dogs that maybe people are so familiar with in

the US and more and that also gives them a unique flavor; it’s always

tempting to have one with everything.

I love Icelandic lamb.

That is the best lamb.

Absolutely delicious.

The reason is, is that they’re free grazing half of the year up,

up in the mountains eating, you know, mountain lichen and grass.

And so they basically spice themselves, they marinate themselves in these spices

and, uh, it gives them a unique flavor.

That’s kind of like our Sunday dinners, good leg of lamb with all the, all the

trimmings it’s done as a roast, some people do it like, uh, just barbecuing

it, uh, but more often in the oven.

But of course, if something is Iceland in a bowl, if something

is like the dish of Icelanders, that’s the Icelandic lamb soup.

Definitely.

So that’s root vegetables and, and our delicious lamb, and cook it

for as long as possible and until the ingredients gel together.

That’s our comfort food.

That’s our winter food.

That’s what I had in a pub in downtown Reykjavik, where

I also tried, whale, which I think is just a tourist thing now.

And shark, oh, what was it called?

These little cubes of fermented shark.

Another local delicacy.

I couldn’t hack that one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s a, it’s a bit of a, acquired taste and you probably just got a mild version.

Yeah, these Greenland Shark, if you catch a Greenland Shark, uh, It is

so full of ammonia, so that’s why you need to ferment it for a while,

so it’s basically not poisonous.

This is maybe a little bit of a dying breed, to be honest.

You know, it’s more the older generation.

And, we have a food festival in, February called Thorrablot, where we meet up

and eat the old traditional foods and drink a little bit and have a merry day.

But today this is not something that’s maybe regularly found in,

in, uh, in a fridge of, a normal Icelandic family, to be honest.

but I, but I enjoy it.

But, it’s more just to, have fun with my guests.

It’s offered on the food tour, of course, it’s offered as a traditional thing to,

to try out, and people can do it or not.

That’s, up to them, but it’s a part of, uh, being an Icelandic Viking.

I’m all for trying things.

I think if you don’t try it, you never know.

It wasn’t for me, but I’m still pleased I tried it.

Where can people find out more and book your tours?

It’s your yourfriendinreykjavik.com.

We are also on Facebook and, uh, Instagram and, and other social media.

But, our main page is your yourfriendinreykjavik.com and

yeah, we have all these tours and private tours bookable there.

I really do recommend checking out yourfriendinreykjavik.com.

They’ve got daily walking tours around the city in addition to all

of the special themed ones, and all of their tours are capped at

12 people, which is a great size.

Enough people to chat with other tourists, pick up some of their tips

from what they’ve done so far, and small enough that you can always hear

your guide and ask any questions.

By the way, if you’re enjoying this conversation with Valur from Your Friend

In Reykjavik, there’s lots more like this to check out at destinationunlocked.com.

And if you’re so inclined, please consider subscribing so you can easily

find the Destination Unlocked podcast whenever you’re planning your next trip…

All of our episodes feature an expert local guide or top

traveler, and we just chat.

We just see what we discover.

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show, and why not share it with a friend?

Right?

How about a little quiz?

You can play against Valur.

Question number one: Reykjavik’s most famous hotdog stand?

It’s Baejarins Beztu Hot Dog, of course, uh, like we discussed.

So one easy point.

The concert hall of glass on the harbor.

What’s that one called?

Ah Harpa Concert Hall and it’s won several architectural awards, you

know, reflecting the Northern Lights and, and the sea and, and so forth.

It’s a beautiful building to visit.

Iceland hosted the Summer Olympics… never, but a single event

What was that event?

This one’s harder.

This is a, this is a tricky one.

1992.

Yeah.

I gave you a clue in the question.

It changed the sea front

. Sporting event?.

Uh, we have, of course, Reykjavik Marathon there.

That’s, um, by the seafront, if you are so inclined to have, uh, joined

that, usually in, middle of August.

But, uh, I am just, I’m just baffled by this question.

It’s a bit of, an unfair question.

The answer is the Barcelona Olympics.

apparently.

the Barcelona Olympics, ’cause they, they ended up totally reshaping the waterfront

in Barcelona with these sort of artificial beaches and stuff, apparently that

inspired Reykjavik’s modern beach culture.

The only reason I snuck that question in is to say that, next week’s episode

is going to be about Barcelona.

I love that city.

Question four: the famous Women’s Day Off first happened in which year?

1975, if I remember correctly.

You do remember correctly.

Yeah.

There’s a great movie that you should look up.

It’s a documentary.

It’s called The Day Iceland Stood Still.

You can watch it if you, fly with Iceland Air, and uh, I think

it’s available in some, channels.

It’s about that period when people were shocked that almost all women in Iceland

just, uh, had a strike and they, they basically stopped working, they stopped

babysitting, they stopped making food.

It was just a wonderful, wonderful way to show how important

women are in the society.

It’s just a lovely documentary and I really recommend it

the Day Iceland Stood Still.

It’s an annual event and it starts, at a different time based

on how much the wage gap is.

It’s a wonderful way of just reminding Icelandic society and hopefully to be

a, a beacon to others in regards that, the gender wage gap should not exist

and how we can maybe make that better.

That’s a fascinating day.

I’m gonna watch that movie.

Thank you.

Final question In our quiz, this is just a true or false question: most

Icelanders regularly eat whale meat.

That’s a false question.

As we discussed earlier, , whale meat is not as consumed as it once was.

We have a saying in Iceland , if you’re extremely lucky or something great

happens to you, you win the lottery.

It’s called hvalreki, hvalreki.

Could you guess what that means?

Hvalreki.

Uh, luck of the whale.

Well close to it.

It’s a beached whale.

The farm that, uh, the whale was beached on, that was a great sign of luck.

It was like meat to survive the winter and even more.

So.

It was a a great thing to happen.

We started wailing in the late 18th century, and have been

doing that on and off since then.

But we don’t consume a lot of whale meat at all.

Apparently it’s about 2%, , currently.

So it’s really low.

Minky whale steak is a very good steak.

It’s like a cross between lean beef and tuna.

But, mostly if it’s caught it’s, uh, shipped to countries like

Japan, for example, and, and more.

If somebody’s planning their first trip out to Iceland and they don’t

speak Icelandic, how are they gonna do?

Is, is English pretty widely spoken?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Everybody speaks English.

When you are growing up, you were watching, uh, cartoons in

English with maybe with Icelandic subtitles or something like that.

Everybody is fluent in English.

Uh, and usually, you know, two or three languages.

That’s one of the things that Icelanders can be proud of.

You know, we are studying Danish because of our Scandinavian brothers , and then

we learn French or Spanish, sometimes in, in high school and so forth, German.

You don’t have any problem communicating with Icelanders if

you have the basic of English.

I found it the easiest country to communicate with people and, and not

just in Reykjavik all over the country.

I’ve been able to chat with people very easily.

If you do want to use a few local words, how would you say hello in Icelandic?

Very easy.

Hallo.

or godan dag.

“go on dying”

yeah.

good day.

Let’s go on dying.

It doesn’t, yeah, go on dying.

doesn’t, sound very, uh, very friendly, but.

Go on dying.

Uh, how about please?

Yeah, please.

Uh, well that’s something that Icelanders have a hard time learning: please.

But, uh, but, uh, uh, vinsamlegast, vinsamlegast.

Vinsamlegast.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, please.

is is not a, you know, that’s, uh, the old Viking culture or

whatever you wanna call it.

There’s not, there’s not a lot of,

please.

There’s no need for please.

As you know, you know the origins, uh, you know, of Iceland is

like the Norse Vikings on the way to Iceland, they dropped on the British

Isles, asked the women there politely to go on a cruise with them to the

north, and they just happily obliged.

And that was the birth of the Icelandic population.

That’s one way of telling it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

You know, truth by the victor.

Yeah.

Thank you is takk.

Takk, takk fyrir.

And goodbye?

How would you say Goodbye?

Bless, bless.

Bless.

Bless.

That’s nice.

I like that one.

And importantly, how would you say one hot dog with everything please.

Ein med ollu, takk.

Ein med ollu takk.

In Reykjavik, I want to ask you about, the city cards.

This is for Dave.

You’ve got a great city card that sort of covers a lot of, attractions in one?

Yeah yeah the Reykjavik City card has a one day, two

day and three day, uh, option.

And, with that you have access to all the public transport, the bus

system, which can work, uh, you know.

pretty pretty well in the, in the city center and, and, then you have

access to the, uh, most of the swimming pools, you have access to museums,

uh, you know, from Reykjavik and more.

So, yeah, I think it’s, uh, a well worth it if you are gonna explore Reykjavik.

Christiane asked about the darkness, and this is something

which I, I’m no good at it in London when it comes to the winter and

in Iceland for winters, you really have to get used to the darkness.

What do people do to thrive through winter?

Well, considering that in the middle of winter, we maybe have like a

four hours of daylight, uh, in the, so yeah, darkness is something that you

need to be accustomed to and get used to.

What do we do?

You know, if you think about it, it’s incredible how many

Icelanders are creating something.

Again, per capita, you know, a number of musicians that have done great things,

Bjork and Sigur Ros, and Of Monsters And Men, and Kaleo and, and more – Sugarcubes.

You, you know, you name it.

Uh, and if you consider that we are only just like, uh, size of Coventry, the total

population is around 400,000 people that, uh, that, that includes the immigrants.

Then, uh, you know, it’s a, it’s a pretty amazing, we have great writers.

You know, the greatest number of, of Nobel writers per capita.

One.

Halldor Laxness.

and, and, and, and, yeah.

And just, you know, a lot of creativity.

Using the darkness in good ways, but it’s not all good.

We are also the highest users of Netflix accounts per capita,

Is there also a weird thing when it comes to the

summer and your days are so long?

Yeah, that’s also something that freaks people out that, uh,

this, the sun doesn’t really go down.

You are just, uh, so to have like, uh, curtains that can darken your room

so you can sleep and, and so forth.

And people playing midnight golf.

The midnight sun when you are basically out, well, drinking, partying,

whatever, and, and the day never ends.

So it it can be, it can be a little bit disturbing for many people, but again,

that helps also, if you’re exploring Iceland, then you can just, you know,

you have the long day to just explore and explore, explore… uh, while in the

winter you maybe have a more limited, view of being able to see some things,

if you wanna see it in proper daylight.

But then again, we have the, then we have the Northern Lights also in the

winter, which, uh, you know, that’s something that people, people enjoy.

And, uh, even though, you know, I see it very, very frequently, so

it’s not as, uh, not as novel as for some, but they can be beautiful.

Is there a place that’s best for seeing them?

Do you need to leave the city?

In most cases, yes, because the activity needs to be stronger

if it’s to be visible inside the city because the light is basically,

you know, disturbing your vision.

So we need to go into a dark area and of course, be free of

clouds, you know, you need to be able to see the Northern Lights.

On on, uh.

The national weather Forecast, there’s a forecast for the all the lights

where the cloud cover is, is not, so you can be able to see them and

also the strength of the activity.

Uh, so I really recommend for it to go outside the city.

Yes.

Uh, but there’s also places like you can go to Grotta Lighthouse, just, uh,

uh, to the west of, uh, of Reykjavik and, uh, possibly see it there.

Uh, if the cloud cover, if it’s okay.

And certainly a lot of hotels, where I’ve stayed anyway, they, they offer

a service where they’ll phone you, you can ask them to phone you if there’s activity,

and then you see people running upstairs to the top of the hotel or whatever in

their dressing gowns or in their pajamas

If I would have to choose one place, I love to see the Northern

Lights in, Thingvellir, the National Park: part of the golden Circle for, it

takes 45 minutes to drive over there.

It’s just a wonderful background to the Northern lights.

You know, have dinner and then drive over there or, get a, a scheduled tour

with us or our partners and do it.

And, uh, so just go there around 8:30, 9:00 and you know, hopefully

the lights will show it, show themselves around 10 to 11.

And do you have any tips for getting the best

photos with the Northern Lights?

Because really that’s what you wanna take home with you.

You practically need, uh, some, some kind of stabilisation, like a tripod

or something like that , because you’re, you, you have to have long exposure,

like a 20, 30 second exposure to the light, so if you are moving around

or you are wobbly or whatever, then the, then the picture is, is blurry.

So that’s the key thing.

Just, uh, have a very steady, you know, put it on a stone or something.

Just put it so it’s completely steady, put it on long exposure,

and then how it’s set up.

It’s, it’s a lot depending on the system that you’re using.

So actually it’s, it is worth, if you’re going to Iceland to try

and see the Northern Lights in the winter, it’s worth looking up your

camera online and and are asking

how am I gonna get the best shots for this?

’cause the settings change.

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

And you can, you can go to the, the, there’s a Northern Light museum downtown

that helps you set up the camera, for example, but definitely just,

uh, get the, get the, get the right settings for your camera to get them

at the optimal, at the optimal photo.

Oh, I’ve only seen them once and I didn’t get good pictures,

so I should have done that.

I’ve borrowed everybody else’s pictures afterwards.

Alright, I’ve got my quick fire round for you to wrap us up.

We’ve got six questions and we start with this one.

What is your top thing to see or do?

Thingvellir National Park.

It’s important for various reasons.

Uh, it’s a beautiful National park where you can see the two tectonic plates,

drift apart, you can see the chasms.

So you can see the activity.

But it’s also because I’m a history nerd.

So it’s also just so important for us in regards of our Icelandic sagas,

you know, our gift to the world.

You know, for example, the stories about Thor and Odin and all that

all come from these Icelandic Sagas.

It’s so important for us in regards of just like our history, and, uh, yeah,

it’s, it’s just a beautiful place.

Thingvellir is, is what I would tell everybody to go and visit.

And what would be a top tourist trap to avoid?

I would say buying bottled water.

We have the best water in the world filtered through the lava and, and

running straight from the glaciers to just have a, have your own

refillable bottle and just fill it up with the best water in the world.

Your favourite time for someone to visit Iceland.

Wow.

That’s a difficult question.

I would say late.

August, in the summertime, if you wanna see Iceland green, and then

I would say around the Equinox in September to see Iceland slowly going

well into darkness, so you can see the Northern Lights and the lights can

be very strong around the equinoxes.

Late September and late March, and then I would say December for just like

seeing Reykjavik and Iceland Iceland snow covered, like now there’s been a record

snowfall and it just looks beautiful.

Just to see the Christmas lights and explore our Christmas traditions.

I have a traditional, Icelandic Christmas live stream , that will

be on, on the 13th of December where I’m simply walking with a camera

and a, and a gimbal and just talking about Icelandic Christmas traditions.

And this is live streamed on Facebook and I’ve been doing this

And I know a lot of people just, this is now part of their Christmas traditions

to have a walk with me in downtown Reykjavik, just from their living room.

I love it.

So , 13th of December, the sixth year of your traditional Christmas live stream.

I’ll take it.

If somebody wants to get excited about a trip to Iceland, , and they want to

read a book about it, that’s gonna get them feeling in the mood, what book

would you recommend that they turn to?

So there’s a famous book called Independent People by Halldor

Laxness, which tells you a lot about, well, how Icelanders survived.

And different elements of Icelandic psyche.

It’s a, it’s a wonderful book.

Uh, but does it get you excited about Iceland?

I, I’m not sure about that because it can be pretty dark in, in places.

I have a hard time naming something that’s really bright and cheerful.

Everything is, it’s a little bit dark.

Oh, well that works for some!

What would you say is the top food or drink to try?

Iceland in a bowl.

It’s the Icelandic lamb soup.

This is something that just is delicious and, something

that people should not miss.

Icelandic lamb soup or just Icelandic lamb, that should be something that,

uh, people should put on the list.

Then I would say Icelandic licorice.

I love licorice, you know, chocolate and licorice come together like a

Draumur, a dream chocolate, that I think that should not be, missed.

What to drink?

We have wonderful craft beers.

Try some of the proper craft beers by Reykjavik Brewing

or, something that’s unique.

My final question for you.

What is your top authentic souvenir to take home?

Not a mass produced magnet or a cap that you can get from anywhere, but something

which is really and truly Icelandic.

A hand knitted uh lopapeysa sweater.

You know, the Icelandic wool is, is quite unique.

They have like a inner layer, an outer layer, and it’s just

like a symbol of, of, uh, yeah, Icelandic warmth and craftsmanship.

And, something that’s made in Iceland by an Icelandic, you know, it’s not

imported from China, you know, uh, something that’s actually made in hand.

From tradition, and I think that would be the best souvenir in the world.

And they are super warm.

There’s a really nice store called The Hand Knitting Association

of Iceland that’s, uh, in downtown Reykjavik, uh, where you could get

it straight from the woman’s hands

but not on the women’s day off.

Valur from Your Friend

in Reykjavik, thank you so much for unlocking Iceland for us.

No problem, thank you for having me.

That’s all for this episode of Destination Unlocked.

A huge thank you to Valur from Your Friend in Reykjavik for

unlocking Iceland with us.

From Reykjavik landmarks and geothermal pools to volcano safety,

northern lights, tips, and of course, Iceland’s legendary hot dogs.

If this episode has inspired you to plan a trip, do check out his tours.

They’re such a smart way to explore the city with a real local.

And if you enjoyed today’s chat, hit follow or subscribe so you can easily

find your way back for our next journey.

For more guides, interviews, and extra travel content,

visit destinationunlocked.com.

I’m Daniel Edward.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you next time.