As a traveller in Iceland, I knew I couldn’t just stay in Reykjavik. As beautiful as it is, the country’s real soul lies in the places you venture beyond the town.

Neither my friend nor I have a driver’s licence, but we did hop on bus tours fairly often to get this amazing perspective of Iceland.

*Northern Lights, photo courtesy of our tour guide*

The first tour I did was a late-night excursion about forty-five minutes outside the city to hopefully catch a glimpse of the northern lights.

I was honestly super excited to go on this trip because if we were lucky enough to actually see the northern lights (a phenomenon that isn’t guaranteed every trip), I wanted to get some great photos.

It’s great to get some cool shots when you’re in a new country, but it’s more important to enjoy what you’re doing. So I put the camera down and spent the evening with other travellers, admiring the aurora borealis.

It was a very cold night, but we watched the lights for at least an hour or two before taking a bus back to our hotel.

Fun fact: for those who haven’t seen the northern lights before, they show up as green or purple in photos, but in person, they are mostly dancing shades of grey!

The following day, I went on a tour of the Golden Circle. Basically, a tour that hits three main landscape stops every tourist wants to hit: the Geysir in Haukadalur Valley, Gullfoss waterfall in the Hvítá river canyon, and Þingvellir National Park – a rift valley where two tectonic plates have separated.

This was another bus tour well-worth the money spent. Our tour guide spent all day with us, taking us to each location and letting us spend enough time there to admire the landscape, take some good photos, and visit a gift shop (or bathroom) before hopping on the bus and heading to the next location. It was also a great way to sit down and enjoy the scenery as we drove past.

The Geysir spouted insanely high every 6 minutes or so, and it was fun just to see the geothermal hot spring surprise everyone in the area. Gullfoss waterfall allowed for a more close-up experience, as we hiked down the canyon and then up closer to the water.

Þingvellir National Park (pronounced ‘thing-‘) was a fun one — that’s where a lot of ‘Beyond the Wall’ shots of Game of Thrones are filmed!

I did get some good shots, but as with the northern lights, I mostly spent the time taking in the incredibly awe-inspiring trip.

Another fairly touristy thing to do, but it was on my list nonetheless, was visiting the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. Blue Lagoon is in a lava field near Grindavík, between the KEF airport and Reykjavik, so most people visit as they arrive in Iceland, or on their way back home, but we took a bus trip very early one morning during our stay. At first I was irked that we’d gotten tickets for a 7:00 a.m. arrival time, but once I was sitting in the water, I regretted absolutely nothing.

Iceland was pretty cold the week we visited (around 5-10 degrees Celcius), but sitting in the geothermal pool, watching the sunrise was easily my favourite part of the trip.

I was also pretty happy that I’d brought along a waterproof GoPro. It was kind of funny watching all of these tourists holding their phones above their heads to grab good photos, praying they didn’t drop them in the water. Tiptoeing around and clearly not relaxing or enjoying where they were.

I was able to swim around and submerge the camera, and take amazingly non-filtered, gorgeously blue shots like the one below without concern. The in-pool bar and waterfalls just added to the relaxation and beauty of it all. I can’t wait to go back to Iceland and bring my partner just so we can share this experience together.

I’m really happy that I was able to get out of Reykjavik for a few days, put the camera down and soak up some of the amazing views and adventures that Iceland has to offer.

It helped me to understand that yes, as a photographer you want to take lots of beautiful pictures, but the most rewarding part of travelling is trying new things, seeing new sights, and getting out there.