Hertz Presents the Ultimate Iceland Road Trip: Day 6 – Exploring the Northwest
The sun came up slow over the Northwest, washing the ridgelines in pale gold. We were already moving.
The day started in Stykkishólmur. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t try too hard — colourful houses, a harbour that actually smells like a harbour, good coffee if you know where to ask. We walked along the waterfront for a while before the road pulled us away.
From Stykkishólmur we headed out onto the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. The drive does something to you — the landscape keeps shifting, fjord giving way to lava field giving way to open coast, and then suddenly Snæfellsjökull is just sitting there on the horizon. A glacier capping a volcano, shrouded half the time in cloud. Jules Verne sent his characters down into the earth here, and standing below it you understand the impulse.
Our first stop was Arnarstapi, where the cliffs drop straight into the Atlantic. The basalt formations along the shore are genuinely strange — stacked columns, sea arches, rock worn into shapes that look almost deliberate. The wind was sharp. The waves were loud. We walked the coastal path and didn’t say much.
Next came Djúpalónssandur. Black sand, rounded pebbles, and the rusted remains of a shipwreck scattered across the beach. There’s no dramatic presentation — the wreck is just there, slowly becoming part of the shore. The whole place has that quality. Remote, quiet, indifferent to visitors in the best possible way.
By mid-afternoon we needed a break, and Landbrotalaug delivered. The hot springs are small and low-key — no infrastructure, no entry fee, just warm geothermal water sitting in a hollow near the road. We soaked for longer than we planned.
The drive back was quiet. There’s something about a full day in the Northwest — the scale of it, the way the landscape doesn’t soften for you — that takes a while to settle. By the time we reached base, the light was going orange and nobody felt like talking much. Good tired.
One day left. We had no idea what to expect, which at this point felt exactly right.
