Stu still had lots of holiday to use up so we wanted to go away somewhere in the February half term for 5 days. The previous year we went somewhere warm – Malaga, so this year we opted for cold! We had visited Iceland for a summer holiday a few years back so thought it would be nice to visit in winter when it was cold and snowy. We took an early morning flight from Heathrow and as we approached Iceland everywhere was white.

^{Beautiful views from the plane!}

On arrival at the airport we did not make the same mistake we did a few years ago – we visited the duty free for wine! Wine is very expensive in Iceland and the only shop you can buy alcohol – Vínbúðin – isn’t open every day of the week!

We then made our way to the car rental office where we picked up our massive truck which was fully kitted out with snow tires.

^{A very icy carpark – looking for our hire car}

We had booked an Airbnb on the outskirts of Hella which was just over one and a half hours away but we had a few hours before we could check in. I had seen on google maps that we were close to a lighthouse so we decided to pay it a visit.

Garður Old Lighthouse was built in 1897 and is on the northern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsular. We arrived and there was blue sky, with frost on the ground and it was absolutely freezing – but beautiful.

We wandered up to the lighthouse and there was also an old fishing boat that we were able to explore – I think it was part of the folk museum.

^{The old fishing boat – Holmsteinn GK 20}

We then returned to our car, did a quick supermarket shop and made our way to our Airbnb. The drive was stunning – everywhere was white and we arrived at our cabin at about 4pm.

^{Inside our cabin and views from the balcony.}

Our cabin was lovely – it had 3 bedrooms, an outdoor hot tub which was covered in snow and was so warm thanks to the geothermal heating! We went for an explore around the grounds as none of us had ever experienced this amount of snow – or the freezing temperatures!

^{Exploring the grounds with a 5pm sunset!}