Sounds ludicrous to bring sunglasses to a place with only few hours daylight in winter. But it is not. PIC Javier Medina
W hat on earth should you pack for a winter holiday to Iceland? That´s always a popular question on travel forums and more so now that most airlines charge an arm and a leg for any baggage.
The answer is pretty straightforward if staying longer than a couple of nights and doing more than just getting drunk in Reykjavik city. You jam-pack your suitcase with the warmest clothes you got. Wooly stuff is always a tough opponent to Icelandic weather. It helps also if you pack rain gear of some sorts.
But don´t worry about clothing if taking any special tours like snowmobile tours on a glacier. While warm stuff will help you are almost always provided with adequate suits for such activity. Key thing here is that it´s better to bring loads of clothes which you can either take off if too hot or not use at all than finding yourself shivering to pieces each time you go outside. It´s not so much the cold. Temperature in wintertime Iceland is not as devilish as many expect but the winds will get you anytime. Those are cold bastards indeed.
Last but not least; bring sunglasses. We know that sounds quite lunatic bringing the ole´ Ray Ban along into deep dark Atlantic winter. But those might well come in handy if you plan to travel outside of the capital and want to see clearly. You see, there is high probability of bright white blinding snow covering most places where dark eye protection will give you rather better view than not. Also a reason, although the chances are quite low, but in between the darkness sunshine does sometimes creep in. Those times the sun is quite, quite low on the horizon and will blind very easily too. Driving under those conditions can be pure horror and lot worse if you do not have any shades. Last but definitely not least, the fact that good sunglasses will cost quite a bit more locally if you decide life is hopeless without one.
Ergo; a good reason to pack those shades too.
