East Iceland’s Best Stops for a Road Trip

If you plan to spend some time in East Iceland, you will be surprised to find fewer people and lots of interesting things to see. There are fabulous waterfalls and areas to see Icelandic horses as well as puffins. In this post, we’ll introduce you to East Iceland’s best stops for a road trip. We start this adventure, leaving from the beautiful Vestrahorn mountain. If, like us, you are low on provisions at this point, it’s good to stock up.

Get Groceries in Djúpivogur

When I was looking to see where there were grocery stores along our routes, Netto in Hofn appeared to be the only one nearest our route until we got to Egilsstaðir in East Iceland. It was slim pickings at the Netto. But when we stopped in Djúpivogur for a WC and for fuel, I walked into the store at the N1 and was flabbergasted. Unlike other N1s, this one was fully stocked like an actual grocery store. It’s apparently called Kjörbúðin. It had lettuce, whereas the Netto in Hofn did not. I suspect this store is stocked because there aren’t many alternatives in the area, but people do live here. If you’re staying at a guest house or someplace with cooking facilities, remember to get some food to cook.

There’s only one fuel pump at this N1, which some reviewers found to have a faulty payment card reader. There is a WC, but you have to go outside and downstairs to use it. There is another public WC nearby.

This is a cute little town! I took a few photos.

Explore More Waterfalls and Beautiful Views

There are many waterfalls in the East. We had to narrow down to the ones we could get to most expeditiously. By this time on our trek, I was feeling a bit run-down. We planned to see Gufufoss and Fardagafoss and then run up to a puffin viewing area called Borgarfjarðarhöfn. But the hike up to Fardagafoss did me in, and we opted to check into our guest house to get some rest instead of seeing puffins. Besides, I had two more puffin viewing spots on our itinerary.

This is also where we left the Ring Road. Up until this point, we’d followed the Ring Road the whole way. In the East, this means you’re winding your way around fjords constantly. (It’s this way in the West, too.) To reach Egilsstaðir and our guest house, as well as the next few waterfalls, we had to turn off the Ring Road and take Route 95 north. We didn’t realize ahead of time that this would involve a 43+ km ride on a graveled, potholed road. I’m sure it was quicker because we weren’t driving around all the fjords, but it was an arduous journey, especially when we encountered drivers who were uncomfortable navigating such treacherous terrain.

Appreciate a Short Walk to a Pretty Waterfall

We got to Gufufoss in the early afternoon. Unfortunately, that meant the sun was up high and right behind Gufufoss, not great for photographing the waterfall. It’s a nice place to have a picnic, but there are no services and only a small parking lot near the falls. I got a few pictures. The one on the left I took with my camera. The one on the right, I took with my phone. You can see the wind was blowing the water all over, and with the sun, it only obscured the beauty.

Get in Your Daily Workout on a Hike to Fardagafoss

We arrived at this trailhead in the late afternoon. It was warm, and the sun was still high in the sky. We posted our route for this trail on AllTrails. Its elevation gain was a little over 500 feet, but it felt like a lot more, probably because I felt run down. I just went a little slower than usual. It was a nice hike, with multiple falls along the way. Getting to the top waterfall was a little bit of a trick, especially if you have any issues with heights. There were chains to hold onto while you wound your way down the mountain to the falls. There’s a free parking area, but no WCs here.

Here’s what the trail and waterfalls looked like.

Ride an Icelandic Horse and/or Head to a Puffin Viewing Area

We had our up-close-and-personal adventure with Icelandic horses when we went to Ófærufoss on our journey along the south coast of Iceland, so even though taking photos of them had been on my list, and the places on my list were in the East, we opted to skip this visit. But if you want to take a ride, there are five horse rental places in East Iceland along Highway 95, which is on the way to Egilsstaðir, the largest town in the East.

Horse Rental/Riding Sites

All of these places also offer accommodations.

Stora Sandfell Horse Rental has a campground, cottages for rent, and has horses to rent.

Gíslastaðir offers a farm stay in a cottage, book through Airbnb.com, with riding tours for guests.

Tina’s Horse Rental: you can book their cabin on Airbnb.com, or for horseback rides, contact Tina on WhatsApp at 00354-8665783. They also have two apartments for rent in Egilsstaðir.

Geirastaðir Horseback Riding Tours has overnight accommodations in a cabin or in their home. They offer riding tours for guests.

Finnsstaðir Horse Farm & Holiday Home has campsites and two houses that can be rented, and you can take horse riding tours.

Visit Puffins at Borgarfjarðarhöfn

This activity applies only to summer visits. Puffins can be found in Iceland from late May to the middle of August. But June and July are the best times to see them. Since I was not feeling up to it, we skipped this one. We did see them in Dyrhólaey, Grimsey Island, and Látrabjarg.

Choose a place to stay near or on the way to Hengifoss

In all of Iceland, if you’re going in the summer, it’s important to book your stays well in advance, like a year in advance. The same goes for renting a vehicle. But East Iceland does not have as many options to stay overnight as other places. Because of this, people have built add-on guest houses or cabins, which is fine. But again, there aren’t as many. You also have to make sure you look for “private bathroom” because some places rent rooms that share a bathroom. We did book everything a year in advance, but then we made some changes, and that meant moving where we were staying in a couple of areas. One of those areas was in the East.

Stay at a Guest House

The above-listed horse rental places all have some type of accommodations. The reviews for all of them are outstanding. So, if you can book well ahead of time, those are close to Hengifoss and close to the largest city, Egilsstaðir. They are good options.

We stayed at a place called Setberg House. This was a nice, cozy place that had an oven, a stove, a refrigerator (with freezer), and a microwave. It did not have great blackout blinds. So, we used our eye masks. The view from the property was stellar. Here are some photos of the guest house and the view.

Visit Hengifoss and other Waterfalls

This was the best-equipped waterfall area in all of Iceland. There was an easy parking lot, with parking instructions and an ATM-like pay terminal; flush toilets with gender-neutral rooms, a visitor’s center, a café, a food truck, and a moderately elevated hike with multiple waterfalls. We saw no tour buses. Drones were allowed. We’ve posted our route on AllTrails, which will take you to all the waterfalls, including the ones that many people miss because they’re in a hurry and don’t take the side trails. And, here’s what I wrote in my Google Review: This place was amazing! The trail is uphill, no matter which side you start from. We went clockwise starting from the left. It’s steep, but if you take breaks to see the other waterfalls along the trail, it’s easy to get to the end. Just allow about three hours to see them all. You can walk all the way up to the base of Hengifoss. We did not. Hubby sent up his drone to get some video. I thought the last waterfall, which we got from the east side, was the prettiest.

And here are some of the photos we took of the whole area, the trail, and the waterfalls.

Conclusion

In this post, we have introduced you to some of the gems of East Iceland. We had the best weather there. It was 70 degrees Fahrenheit. We were lulled into a false sense of wonder, especially because of the weather here. Soon, we would experience dark clouds, lightning, and thunder. If you’re interested in seeing what prompted the change, check out our post about the Westfjords. Or, if you’d like to visit Mývatn and northern Iceland, check out our post about that. If you’re wondering about driving the Ring Road in full, you can see what that was like in our Ring Road post.