The Who, Where, When, What, Why, and How for my very first trip to Iceland. Which I chose to do in winter.

I went with Hey Iceland, previously known as "Icelandic Farm Tours". My companions and I had some conversations about which is the better name. The organization passed my coherent-website + recent-and-decent-tripadvisor-reviews tests. And they were responsive to queries.

I stayed entirely in the west for this trip. "Hey Iceland" booked my Reykjavik hotel for me and set me up with the Heydalur gang, who picked me up two days later and took care of me the rest of the time.

For one of the days on my own in Reykjavik, I booked a half-day hike with Extreme Iceland online. They arrived on time to pick me up at my hotel, like magic.

February. Despite the "dark" winters, this is far enough from winter solstice that the days were not too short. The sun rose at about 9:30 and set at about 6:30 with long, long twilights.

I arrived Saturday morning, jet-lagged and sleep-deprived, then departed the following Saturday.

My packing list.

This is quick becoming a staple of my blog. I packed reasonably well for a typical Iceland winter. But since my experience had minimal snow and not brutally cold temperatures, I probably could have done without the big boots.

I have no idea.

I kept hearing about it (from my coworker, Meetups, etc) so maybe the travel marketers in Iceland are simply doing their job. My original plan was to do one of the short "Golden Circle" tours that hit all the major famous spots. But I liked the idea of going a little off the beaten path.

IcelandAir has direct flights to Denver. Woo! I paid $820 round trip, which was slightly more than average this time of year due to choosing to leave on a Friday.

The planes are small, like a domestic airline. Not a ton of room for bags. But they had a nice variety of free TV and movies, including a silly "How to Drive in Iceland" short, the most notable advice being "We know the Icelandic scenery is beautiful, but don't stop and take photos." I think what they meant to say is "Icelandic roads, for some inexplicable reason, don't have shoulders!" The food was for purchase only, but they had some specialty Icelandic treats and liqueurs.

And off we go...