Last summer, I wrote a “what I packed for Iceland in August” post but Iceland is very different in February and I have an extra variable this time: I went with the cheapest flights I could find and guess what? No hold luggage! I don’t think I’ve ever been to Iceland without hold luggage! A part of me believes it can’t be done – not by me, anyway. Winter packing for Iceland? Where do I start?
I’m not a light packer. I went to Iceland last April with a 70l duffle bag and a 45l backpack and I still had to sit on the bag to get it zipped up on the last day. Fair enough in the summer, I took my camping stuff with me but what on Earth did I take in April that I needed so much bag? Well, I’m minimising this time! For winter! When you need a ton of warm stuff!
First up, the luggage itself. The main carry-on bag is my Osprey Farpoint 40, the carry-on bag beloved of many a travel blogger. I don’t think it uses its 40l capacity terribly well but I like its suitcasey-ness and that I can lay things out in it rather than pile them in and then I don’t have to dig and delve – I can just open it up and see the stuff.
And I get a personal item – in order to maximise my allowance, I… well, I made a bag. It took weeks. Lots of jabbing the needle into my fingers, lots of bad words and an hour and a half of sewing unpicked because I hadn’t turned it inside out correctly before I started sewing. The lining is blinding orange ripstop nylon, left over from making a tiny tube-pencil-case-shaped washbag (and stuffsacks for my waterproofs; and a waterproof lining for my snackpack and and and and) with custom pockets for my Kindle & tablet and an inner zipped pocket for small things. The outer is green nylon, left over from some tent customisation, and less painful on the eyes and it’s all supported by a pair of straps made from some rainbow webbing. I ordered 5m to make a harness for my bedding roll and six months later, the company realised they hadn’t sent it and hastily did so. Except they had sent it, but no one had triggered the dispatch on the system. I checked and double checked order number and payment out of the bank. So I had 5m spare. The only things I had to buy for this were the two zips, the one that closes the top of the bag and the little inner one. It’s precisely to the specifications for Icelandair’s personal item, 40x30x15cm. My boss suggested I name this bag, Hermes-style. I’m working on it.
Don’t tell them but I’m also taking my tiny bee bag for my passport, earphones and anything else I want to keep really close. That’s going to be hidden under my clothes.
In order to minimise what’s in my bag, I’m wearing as much as possible. One pair of footwear, my mountain boots. Heavy lined winter trousers. I think thermals underneath will just be too hot, sadly. A thermal top under a t-shirt under my favourite lightweight hoodie. Then I pick one jumper to wear the entire week – that’ll be my 66° North Vik jacket – and pop that under my heated coat. Add hat, scarf and mittens. Not pictured: my mountain boots and my heated coat. If you’re really interested, they both got blog posts of their own!
In the bag goes a small packing cube of underwear and also one of my hats because I’ve got the space and I’m going to use it. Then I’m taking two pairs of thermal leggings, a second pair of trousers, two more thermal tops (three for six days seems excessive but I’m doing it) and another t-shirt. That lot fits into a large packing cube. Pyjamas go into the clothes cube. Then I shove my packable down jacket into the suitcase wherever it fits. Last but not least in wearables is an orange stuffsack containing my waterproof trousers and a lightweight drawstring laundry bag for separating clean and dirty (not everything ended up in the same picture as the paragraph describing it. For example, see my bits-and-pieces photo for the jacket and laundry bag).
Swimwear, goggles & a travel towel go into a drybag. Two swimsuits – one on, one drying. That’s a plain functional navy Decathlon suit with legs and the cute Bluetits polar bear one. I’ll use the Blue Lagoon’s towels and maybe Fontana’s, so one travel towel should be plenty.
Next important category: electronics. I now have a travel charging kit. It lives in a round-bottomed drawstring bag (made from some spare Minnie Mouse fabric that I wasn’t going to use for anything else) and contains a three-USB plug with European prongs plus five cables, tied up with matching Minnie Mouse velcro wraps – I have a Lightning cable for my phone, USB-C for tablet and GoPro, micro-USB for camera and Kindle and on this occasion, the weird charger for my GPS tracker and what I think is a mini-USB for my old camera. In fact, now I’ve added two extra wires for this particular trip, I’ve put in a second three-USB plug even though I’ll probably only use the GPS and my old camera once. I’m taking my old camera because it has a Starry Skies mode that I’ve found good for photos of the Northern Lights. I’m not convinced by the setting on my new camera.
The things that go with the charging kit are my phone, my tablet, my GoPro and its Handler and a spare battery, my new camera and its mini Gorillapod and a spare battery, my Kindle, my GPS tracker and an old semi-functional camera and yet another spare battery. I’m also, space-permitting, taking my film camera which I don’t use nearly as much as I should. People rave about film cameras. Mine is an 80s-style family holiday type, with no settings and buttons. I’ve built a little harness out of black electrical tape to block off the flash because there’s no way of controlling even that. It’s so point-and-snap that it hurts but I think it could take some interesting photos. Some of this is going in my personal item and I think the charging kit will go in the suitcase.
The most basic wash stuff. Toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant. I’ll buy a small bottle of conditioner when I get out there but I’ll be swimming most days, so I’ll use the pool soap to wash my hair and not bother taking or buying shampoo. I’ve added an empty 50ml GoToob for purposes I’d rather not divulge to the internet – whatever you’re thinking that’s for, it’s not. Hairbrush. Tiny moisturiser and lipbalm because I’ll end up buying a new one if I don’t take it. That lot all goes in the same sandwich bag I’ve been using since about 2018 – who says disposable bags need to be disposable?
My last category is odds-and-ends. Major odds-and-ends this time: a set of battery-powered heated insoles for Northern Lights trips. They’re powered by AA batteries, specifically, and this means I have to wear the batteries around my ankles on little neoprene-velcro straps which is ridiculous, especially when I’m hurrying into my shoes on the way out of Fontana. I’m going to take my little notebook and pen because otherwise I will buy a new notebook and pen at the airport. My little Petzl eLite – see minimising, I could be taking my tiny Tikka but this one is even smaller and has a red light, which might be friendlier when taking photos of the Northern Lights. I’ve got a folding water bottle – big fan of these things – and a couple of silicon lunch bags. I really like disposable plastic sandwich bags but it’s 2023 and we shouldn’t be using them anymore. Silicon lunch bags seem to have all the convenience of sandwich bags while being reusable (I tried beeswax wraps. We didn’t get on). I have a constant urge to Make Art so I’m going to take a few sheets of A3 sugar paper and not be precious about folding them, some black paper, some watercolour postcards, crayons in black, white, blue and green, a piece of white chalk, a scrap of black charcoal, a big black felt tip pen, some ink sketching pens and my watercolour tin. I shouldn’t, I’ll probably not even use them but somehow I can’t not take them. Passport, wallet (containing cards, EHIC and a handful of Icelandic coins – where have my notes gone? Have I really spent them all?), tablet, sunglasses, and I think I’m done. Paper masks for the plane and a couple of fabric masks simply for keeping my face warm when I’m out in the cold.
Is that everything? Do I need anything else? I’m going to buy an Icelandic book when I’m over there and I’m taking my Kindle so I don’t need a book. I don’t need to take stuff for the sake of taking it. Oh yes. A folding Ikea backpack because neither my big Osprey nor my personal item is really quite what I’m going to want to drag my lunch, swimming stuff and shopping around. My suitcase weighs about 6.5kg and my personal item – not that anyone will weigh it – is about 2.5kg, with my bee bag, which currently contains my headphones and my passport, coming in at a massive 140g. I admit, that’s not counting my phone, my sunglasses or my car keys but for my total weight to come in at 9kg for Iceland in winter is pretty impressive. That leaves plenty of room for me to decide I really don’t need my scarf or mittens on my way and I can shove them into either bag.
