It's time to plan holiday for 2016. Where are you going this year? 

This year, I'm going to visit Japan's most famous skiing hub & hometown of Shiroi Koibito 白い恋人 aka White Lover cookies ...... drum roll ...... HOKKAIDO!!!



Yellow markers are those popular places among tourists, red markers are those places that I'm going to visit.



* I'm not a shopaholic so I guess this amount is more than enough
** I will usually settle my breakfast at café or convenience store which can save quite a bit, some hotels or ryokans listed here their room rate include breakfast and dinner
Hokkaido is segregated into 4 areas.
Central Hokkaido including Sapporo, Otaru, Niseko, Noboribetsu
Northern Hokkaido including Asahikawa, Furano, Wakkanai
Eastern Hokkaido including Abashiri, Kushiro
Southern Hokkaido including Hakodate

My itinerary focus on central and southern Hokkaido which most of the tour groups depart from Singapore also do the same in winter time. Northern Hokkaido is another popular region to visit during spring/ summer time when you will see a lot of flowers.Central area is very popular among tourists and definitely a must-not-miss-destination in anyone's Hokkaido itinerary in all seasons. 

Click here to read day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 6, day 7, day 9 & 10 trip report

Day 3

We engaged a local Icelandic photographer Páll Jökull Pétursson. He drove his 4WD brought us exploring south Iceland in 2D1N. The reason why I would like to engage an Icelandic photographer is because being a local, I expect this photographer knew where to see Iceland's famous and classic landmarks at the right timing under the right amount of sunlight, also there are some place where only the local know how to access to it. Pall did a fantastic job on this.

The weather continue as bad as yesterday, sometimes it was raining heavily, sometimes it was so windy that the wind was strong enough to blow me away. Just another gloomy day.




Foss á Siðu

Waterfall along ring road near Kirkjubaejarklaustur. This is a very small waterfall, what makes it noticeable is probably because its location which just right beside road number 1.

No entry further so this is the nearest shoot I could get.




This is the place where Hollywood movies Batman, James Bond, Tomb Raider were filmed. Series Game of Thrones scenes were also taken here.


You can take boat tour if you want to get closer look of the glacier, Ice Lagoon Boat Tour.


Diamond on black sand beach.



Soft moss

Thick blanket of woolly fringe moss covers the whole area.


It's SOFT moss. Despite been raining the whole day but the moss was not wet at all when I touched it.



Dinner in Kirkjubaejarklaistur

As the weather was bad and cold and wet, we decided to end our day early.

We had dinner in a restaurant in Kirkjubaejarklaistur. Kirkjubaejarklaistur is a small town, not much restaurants there but this is a great restaurant.

Icelandic fish and chips. The fish was formed into a tofu like shape, very unique.




Here is our Iceland trip video.


Interested to visit Iceland? Check out my itinerary and click here to read day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 6, day 7, day 9 & 10 trip report

Click here to read day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 6, day 7, day 9 & 10 trip report

Day 4

Today is the last night in Iceland. We were heading back to Reykjavik from Kirkjubaejarklaistur, we need to spend a night in Reykjavik since we were taking early flight the next day.

There are many attractions along road number 1, just pay attention to the road signs. One tip for you, typical Singaporeans always say, as long as got queue, I also join in the queue. In Iceland, as long as got crowd, I follow too! So if you see any tour bus or few cars make a stop somewhere, just follow them!





Laufskálavarða

A quick stop along road number 1. Travellers supposed to pile stones to make a cairn which would bring good luck on the journey. I have seen something similar when I was in Bhutan.




Just as the name, the beach is completely black. You will also see crystal ice on the beach from Jokursarlon. That's Reynisdrangar at the far end.



Beautiful unique basalt rock columns


Vik

Pall drove us up to a hill which somewhere near a petrol station in Vik, we could overlook black sand beach from the top of the hill. We went up with Pall's 4WD, you definitely need a 4WD to go up, it's uphill, steep and not possible to go up with a 2WD.

Baa baa black sheep.


Dyrhólaey

Dyrhólaey is one of the classic attraction sight along road number 1. view from the top. The track is not too bad for a 2WD, I guess, I have seen many 2WD drove up there.



Light house

There is a toilet up there but it did not open when I was there in October. I think it only open during peak season.


DC3 plane crashed site

It's a great place for photo shoot especially with blue sky, snow scene or aurora borealis even better. It is not far from black sand beach, you should make a stop to this place along road number if you are moving between Reykjavik and Vik. The journey is about 20km from Vik, you should see a not-so-obvious gate on your left from Vik towards Reykjavik. Then you will see this signboard (see picture below), follow the marker along the way, you should see the plane wreckage after 4km drive. I have seen 2WD car drove all the way but some 2WD may park their car beside signboard and walk 4km instead.


Skógafoss waterfall

A magnificent waterfall in Iceland. It's a short walk from car park. Don't forget to wear raincoat if you want to get closer, you can walk up the right side of the waterfall to the top. You can even go behind of the waterfall, walk behind the water curtain. It's very interesting. This place can be crowded and it's always crowded, so getting a picture without bunch of tourists is difficult unless you be there early or late in the evening.


First aurora show we saw for this trip

We reached the airbnb we stayed in Reykjavik at about 8pm. The first thing I did upon reaching there was rushing to the courtyard and took aurora pictures. I was so happy to see this as finally I get to see aurora after my second visit to northern Europe.


The show lasted a few hours. Amazing.





Here is our Iceland trip video.


Interested to visit Iceland? Check out my itinerary and click here to read day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 6, day 7, day 9 & 10 trip report