On a lot of people’s bucket list is Iceland. Fair enough. Iceland is almost like a completely different planet with its awe-inspiring landscapes.
While the mountains and hills of Iceland captures a lot of imagination, what’s under the water is just as cool.
Located in Þingvellir National Park, Silfra is one of the most famous dive sites in Iceland. This is where the story starts. Snorkeling between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, through century-old, crystal clear glacier water.
I had an opportunity to get a behind a scenes look at DIVE.IS’ Midnight Sun tour. This tour takes place only during the summer season where you are snorkeling in the evening.
Sometimes we read online reviews and we still can’t visualize what to expect. I’m hoping this post will provide a visual journey of each step of the tours and my own personal experience with DIVE.IS.
Quick housekeeping note that while DIVE.IS supported us with this tour, opinions expressed in this blog are wholly my own.
Our very first interaction with DIVE.IS was being picked up from Reykjavik. Our guide, Deyan, came out to introduce himself.
Silfra is about an hour away from Reykjavik. You can either opt to meet at the dive site or get picked up at one of a couple locations in the city.
To be honest, we were nervous about the tour. We read the FAQs and we read the information sent to us. But how it all turns out in reality, we didn’t know what to expect. Deyan coming to greet us and to pick us up became the first step to make us feel at ease.
If you do a tour with DIVE.IS - get a pick-up if you can. You can drive there yourself, snorkel or dive, and then be on your way. It can be a simple, transactional tour. But it’s a better experience if you... dive into it.
The drive with our guide was one of our favourite parts of the entire tour. Deyan pointed out landmarks for us, the history of the Þingvellir national park, and the areas that marked the tectonic plates.
These facts gave context and weight to where we are. It became much more than a snorkeling tour. It became the difference between, “I snorkeled in water” and “I snorkeled between two tectonic plates, how cool is that”. If not for Deyan, we would have never have known that we stood where Alþingi, the national parliament of Iceland and one of the oldest parliaments in the world, was founded.
And that’s pretty cool.
Getting ready.
After arriving, we were led to the heated changing rooms to get our initial gear on. The one thing we were worried about was being wet outside of the water. The changing room was dry and warm, and it’s those little details again that makes the difference.
The knowledge.
A big part of the tour wasn’t just snorkeling. It was about learning more about the environment we were in. When I’m travelling, the most important thing to me personally was understanding the country I’m exploring. The understanding of the why and the how.
Deyan took the time to go through where we are, where we are going, and why it’s important.
The suit-up.
Deyan and Ramko (our other guide) very patiently helped us with every piece of equipment. There was even a wooden platform for us to get dressed in a clean environment.
Each suit was carefully inspected, our guides never rushed us, never skipped a step. For diving/snorkeling, it’s all in the details.
Details keeps us safe and warm, and we felt that. The guides made us laugh and feel at ease, as we prepared to brave the cold waters of Iceland.
10:30PM - In the water, it was definitely cold. But not as cold as we thought. Tips by Deyan helped.
Even at 10:30 at night, the sun was still out. The benefit of the Midnight Sun in June. Underwater, the lighting as perfect even as it’s raining above water.
During the day tours, there are multiple tour groups operating in the same space and it can be busy. But this Midnight Sun tour, we were the only ones there. We felt this freedom to enjoy where we are. I don’t think we could have had this experience during the day tours. We really felt like we were the only ones in the entire park.
As we wrapped up our snorkeling and arrive back at camp, you would think we would be in bad spirits. We just came out of cold water, it’s still rainy, it’s still cold. But we weren’t. Even at the end, everything is done properly by our guides. The same patience at the end as at the beginning.
Snorkeling in Silfra was a one-in-a-lifetime experience and I highly recommend it while in Iceland if you can.
If you need more information, feel free to email me and you can also look on DIVE.IS website.