Iceland Adventures: Storms, Glaciers, and Grumpy Guides

Snowflakes are falling outside my office window, tempting me to hit the trails for some cross-country skiing. But today, my heart is set on sharing the whirlwind adventure of our recent group trip to Iceland with you. From the chaos of delayed flights due to an unexpected storm to the breathtaking sights of the Golden Circle and the colossal glaciers, Iceland offered a canvas of experiences that were both challenging and exhilarating. Join me as I recount our journey, complete with tales of our unique guide, Thor, whose grumpy charm added a quirky twist to our travels.

Looking ahead, I'm thrilled to announce a new collaboration that promises to elevate future trips, ensuring they align more closely with the Hike Like a Woman spirit we cherish. Our Iceland trip taught us valuable lessons, and we're using this knowledge to enhance upcoming adventures, including our much-anticipated Kilimanjaro climb. As we gear up for this epic trek, I'm in constant dialogue with our community, tackling challenges like keeping water bottles from freezing on summit night. Let's embrace the thrill of exploration together, and thank you for being a part of our adventure-loving family!

Learn more by visiting our website at https://www.hikelikeawoman.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

I am sitting in my office right now recording this podcast episode. I'm looking out this big window and these gigantic snowflakes are just dropping from the sky and I want to go outside and I want to go play in the snow, maybe do some cross-country skiing this afternoon before I go pick my kids up from school. But instead I am here with you and, even though I wish I was outside skiing, I'm also so excited to be able to chat with you today. There's a lot that's been going on behind the scenes here at Hike, like a Woman, and I just want to give you a quick update. I got back from our group trip to Iceland last Thursday, so I want to talk a little bit about our group trip to Iceland, tell you how that went, maybe give you some thoughts on things I would do differently and things that I plan on doing differently the next time we take a group trip to Iceland. Right now I'm also in our Slack channel for our Kilimanjaro group that's headed to Kilimanjaro in August to climb the most amazing epic mountain in the world, I think personally. So we're having a conversation about how to keep our water in our water bottles from freezing on summit night, which was something I experienced last year and just kind of forgotten about. So I'm watching the snowflakes, thinking about summit night on Mount Kilimanjaro and thinking about Iceland. I have, like all these cold, icy, wintry thoughts going through my mind. But thank you for being here, thank you for being part of Hike Like a Woman, thank you for tuning in on Tuesday mornings to listen to the podcast, thank you for being part of our community, thank you for watching our YouTube channels and, most of all, thank you for booking trips with us. I love when I get to meet people in person who I've only connected with online in the past, and group trips really provide that opportunity for our community to come together, to share an adventure together, to meet each other face to face, and it's so amazing.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So let's talk about Iceland. If you followed along on Instagram or Facebook and you were watching behind the scenes of our Iceland trip, you know that we went on a whirlwind adventure of Iceland. I'm not sure how many kilometers we drove, but it was a lot. It was a lot like three to six hours of driving every single day. We started in Reykjavik and, thankfully, everybody was able to make it. There was a massive storm that blew in to Iceland just as everybody was supposed to land, so we had a lot of delayed flights, but eventually everybody made it into Reykjavik. We toured along the southern coast. The Golden Circle is a pretty popular tourist route. We did a portion of the Golden Circle and some other stuff. We drove up to this massive, massive glacier that covers 8% of the landmass in Iceland. Then we backtracked all the way back to Reykjavik, hung out in Reykjavik for a few hours and then we went to the west side of the country and we toured along a beautiful peninsula.

Speaker 1: 3:41

If I could just sum up our trip to Iceland in a few words, it would be waterfalls, hot springs, black licorice and Thor, our guide, who was also our driver, who I don't think he really liked us. I'm not really sure why the company that we use decided to put a group of women with kind of a grumpy 62 year old man. But anyway, thor, if you're out there listening, which you're not, thank you for putting up with us all week. And in the future I hope to be able to have a much better relationship with the guiding companies that we're using so that we can be a little bit better about making sure that the guides we use are like in sync with the Hike, like a Woman vibe and spirit that we bring to each trip. So I know that problem is going to be fixed in the future because right now I'm actually working with a brand new company to design our trips in 2026. And I'm very excited because I will be working really closely with a trip planner and then also guides so I can prevent any weirdness that might occur with guides in the future.

Speaker 1: 4:57

So that was our trip to Iceland in a nutshell. It was an amazing experience. I learned so much about Iceland the culture, the history, the geography, the geology. I come from some strong Scandinavian roots and I always love hearing about the Vikings and Viking stories and the differences between the real Vikings and what is portrayed on the TV and on media, and I just think it's really cool and I'm really excited to go back to Iceland. I can't wait to take my family back to Iceland and I can't wait to lead another hike like a woman trip back to Iceland. I can't wait to take my family back to Iceland and I can't wait to lead another hike like a woman trip back to Iceland. Right now we're thinking about maybe winter of 2027. And this would be a trip that would involve less driving but hopefully more time at some of the places we visited, and I'd love to do an ice cave excursion. So a couple more years and I think we'll be headed back to Iceland. And if Iceland is on your bucket list, I just learned something that I want to share with you.

Speaker 1: 6:09

I flew on Iceland Air. It was a super positive experience and I had so much legroom in the economy plus row it was crazy. I could almost straighten out my legs. I'm five foot eight. Tons of leg room. So if you're flying Iceland air, pay a few extra bucks to get an economy plus ticket. But I didn't know that Iceland air has a really cool stopover program. So, for instance, my family wants to really go to London, or we want to go to Scotland and I was looking and you can actually fly Iceland air with, like, let's say, dublin as your final destination. But you can stop over in Reykjavik for like three, five, up to seven days and then fly on to Dublin and it's not that much like it's you, don't? You don't pay any extra money. It's like you just have a really, really long labor layover in Iceland. So the next time my family goes to Europe. I think we're going to take advantage of this stopover program and just stop in Reykjavik for a few days and maybe that just make that part of our thing flying directly from Denver to Reykjavik, doing part of the stopover program with Iceland Air, and then flying on to Europe. So, anyway, if you have a European adventure planned but you've also really wanted to visit Iceland, I would totally check that out and if you do, let me know what you think, because it's something I just found out about and I'm super stoked.

Speaker 1: 7:35

I also want to just share an update. We've had a few cancellations for some of our group trips. Stoked. I also want to just share an update. We've had a few cancellations for some of our group trips. Other ones have sold out. So I just want to let you know how many spots we have open for all of our next trips.

Speaker 1: 7:48

We are headed to Costa Rica in April. This is going to be April 14th through the 20th. This is going to be like an adventure trip. We do rafting, ziplining, an adventure trip. We do rafting, zip lining, waterfalls, night hikes, tarzan swing. We go to La Fortuna and do the Mystico Hanging Bridges, la Fortuna Waterfall. It's a really fun adventure trip. The food is delicious, the guides are amazing. Food is delicious, the guides are amazing. I worked directly with the Pequare Outdoor Center for this trip in particular, because I just really love this guiding company. They're safe, they're trustworthy, they take really good care of us. So we have a couple just a couple spots left for this trip to Costa Rica.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Last year this was a co-ed trip. We're not bringing the boys. This year this is just an all girls trip and if you're feeling kind of like blah, like winter is just dragging on, maybe it's time for a tropical, warm weather adventure in Costa Rica. So feel free to join us. You can learn how to book that trip over on our website, hikelikeawomancom.

Speaker 1: 9:00

We're headed to southern Utah June 19th through the 24th. This is going to be a national parks trip, so we actually start in Las Vegas and we hit up four national parks in Southern Utah. So, like Zion Arches, I can't remember all the itinerary off the top of my head, but we start in Vegas, we end in Salt Lake and it's going to be really fun. We did have one cancellation for that trip to Utah, so if that is on your bucket list for sure, go book it right now and then for our big, big, big adventure this year to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Speaker 1: 9:41

We moved that trip from June until August because I wanted to make sure that everybody has time to acclimate, especially those of us who live here in the Rocky Mountains. Sometimes we can't even get into some of our higher elevation trailheads until July. So that's why we moved that trip back to August and actually in 2026, it's going to be in September, but this year it's going to be August 20th through the 28th we are doing the seven day Machame route, which is going to be amazing, and I got confirmation that the same guides we used last year are going to be the guides that we get this year. I think that John, our lead guide, is the best guide on Mount Kilimanjaro. He has summited over 1000 times and he just knows his stuff on that mountain and he takes such good care of us.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So, kilimanjaro, august 20th through the 28th. And yes, we're like six months out. You have plenty of time to train, to get ready, to go physically, mentally, to get your gear prepped, all those things, and I put together so much information and there's so many resources that I provide women on that group to help everybody feel really prepared to climb that mountain and we are also doing an optional safari. So if you'd like to do Kilimanjaro but go a few days early with us, we are going to be doing a safari the 16th through or sorry, the 17th through the 19th of August. So I'm going in early because I want time to acclimate, I want to do a safari and then I want to climb Kilimanjaro again because it is the most amazing mountain in the world.

Speaker 1: 11:23

And finally we're headed to Patagonia in October. This is our last Hike Like a Woman trip of the year, so we're going to be in Patagonia October 18th through the 25th. We just had a cancellation for Patagonia, so if that's on your list, we've got one space open for you. It's also exciting. I love leading group trips, I love experiencing all of these adventures with so many of you and it's just really, really incredible. So if you want to learn more, head to our website, hikelikeawomancom.

Speaker 1: 11:55

If you want some trip recap of our trip to Iceland, we did a live stream earlier this week over on our YouTube channel and I have some Kilmajaro content going out on the YouTube channel the next couple of weeks. But then, as soon as I get the editing done on some of these Iceland pictures and videos. We'll start sharing our Iceland content on our YouTube channel. So that is what's going on. Thanks so much for hanging with me today. I am going to go outside and enjoy the snow and go do some cross-country skiing around the golf course before I pick my kids up for school. So thanks so much for being here. I will see you next week, cheers.