Originally the plan was to bebop around Iceland all by myself for the last 3 days I was there, but it turns out that Lara didn't have to go back yet, so she changed her flight to join me! Let me tell you, traveling without that group tour was a completely different experience!
While with the tour everything was planned and we really didn't have to lift a finger...other than to carry our luggage around and traverse terrain. Which was definitely a perk, but on the other hand I sometimes felt crunched for time at certain stops that I might have liked to stay at longer and really take it in. I always seemed to have one eye on a watch. Though I will admit, I love planning trips but was thankful to not have to plan any part of it other than my AirBnb and booking a day tour. It was nice to have the main things taken care of, especially with a crazy work schedule that wouldn't have allowed for me to take the time to plan this stuff out. And we really saw and did SO MUCH in a 3.5 day period, its impressive. We also did things I probably never would have chosen to do, or wouldn't have known to look for, that I'm glad I did. Such as the Fridheimar greenhouse and stables, the glacier walk, and the Folk Museum in Skogar.
On our own we could choose to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. We could have even rented a car, then the world really would have been our oyster, but there was enough to do in town that we didn't need to do it for those few days, especially after cruising around and doing so much the days beforehand. Because of this, the second part of the trip seemed lighter and more carefree, but we also did way less stuff. Aside from the ice cave tour, we just let ourselves have an actual vacation- taking the opportunity to sleep in and take our time with to walk around and explore We had no real agenda. If we saw something and wanted to do it, we did it! It was also neat walking around town where locals were just going about their everyday lives, walking their dogs, shopping, etc without the hustle and bustle of a line of tourists seeing waterfalls or bumping into each other trying to get pictures of geysers, elbow to elbow with others trying to do the same. Granted, its a bit of a dramatic explanation for the time of the year that we went but all of the waterfalls and especially Geysir park were pretty crowded...but I can only imagine some of those places in the summer months and during peak season!!
With so many pros and cons to both, I'm very happy we did the trip like this and I think taking the extra few days to decompress and see the city in a more laid back fashion was a great way to go. Especially after a few days of non-stop sight-seeing.
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