What We Expected vs. Reality

Before arriving in Iceland, we had built up a lot of expectations. Some came from travel videos, some came from friends and acquaintances who had visited, and some came from the countless hours I spent researching and planning the trip.

The interesting thing is that most of those expectations turned out to be true.

We expected Iceland to be beautiful, and it was. What we didn’t expect was just how beautiful it would be.

There are certain places in the world that seem almost too dramatic to be real. Iceland was one of those places. Waterfalls poured off cliffs, glaciers stretched to the horizon, volcanoes rose out of the landscape, and expansive lava fields covered in moss looked like something from another planet. More than once, I found myself looking around and thinking that it felt like we had somehow stepped into a movie.

We expected Iceland to be remote, rugged, and otherworldly. It was all of those things. What surprised us was how accessible it felt at the same time. Nearly everyone spoke English, the roads were generally easy to navigate, and despite being an island in the middle of the North Atlantic, it never felt intimidating.

At the same time, there was often a subtle “lost in translation” feeling. Before arriving, I assumed that because everyone spoke English, navigating the country would feel almost identical to traveling within the United States. That wasn’t really the case. Sometimes it was entering a restaurant and not knowing whether to seat ourselves or wait to be greeted. Other times it was trying to interpret a road sign that made perfect sense to an Icelander but seemed completely foreign to us. At grocery stores, there were checkout screens with instructions written only in Icelandic. At the airport, some signs and procedures felt less intuitive than what we were accustomed to at home.

No buildings allowed?

None of these things were major problems. In fact, they often became part of the adventure. Icelanders were generally polite, helpful, and welcoming. At the same time, there seemed to be an expectation that visitors would figure things out for themselves. There wasn’t always someone standing nearby ready to explain every detail. In many ways, that was refreshing and served as a reminder that we were visitors in someone else’s country.

We expected Iceland to be expensive, and that expectation proved to be completely accurate. Even with careful planning and a fairly conservative approach to spending, it was hard to escape the reality that Iceland is one of the most expensive destinations in the world. Restaurant meals, snacks, and everyday purchases often came with a bit of sticker shock. Looking back, the prices were probably one of the few things that matched our expectations exactly.

We expected the nearly endless daylight to be one of the most unusual parts of the trip. That also proved true. Having almost twenty-four hours of daylight was fascinating, but it also made it surprisingly difficult to settle into a normal routine. It never really felt like bedtime because it never really got dark.

The Icelandic midnight sun. Photo taken by Becca on June 11, 2026 at exactly 11:57pm (or 23:57 as they would say in Iceland)

We expected this to be our greatest family adventure to date, and that expectation also turned out to be true. What I didn’t expect was how quickly we would run into the limits of time. Every day seemed to present more possibilities than we could realistically fit into a schedule. There was always another waterfall, another scenic overlook, another hiking trail, another hidden corner of the country worth exploring. Iceland left me with the feeling that even twelve days was not enough.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was how Iceland made me feel. I expected to be exhausted, and I was. The long days, constant movement, and endless opportunities for exploration made this one of the most active trips we had ever taken. But it was the good kind of exhaustion—the kind that comes from being fully engaged, spending all day outdoors with people you love, and being constantly surprised by what is around the next bend in the road.

I expected Iceland to be unique and unforgettable. The reality was that it exceeded every expectation. It wasn’t just a beautiful destination. It was a place shaped by weather, isolation, geology, and time—a place that somehow felt both remote and accessible, wild and comfortable, foreign and familiar.

Most of our expectations were met.

The reality was even better.