In July 2022 I had the great fortune to travel to Iceland with my family! Iceland - the country that probably all travelers dream of! But is it also a dream for all vegan travel freaks like me with its local delicacies of lamb and fish? This and all the information you need if you want to travel to Iceland as a vegan you will find out in this blog post.
Small spoiler in advance... Iceland was an incredibly beautiful dream come true for me as a vegan too!
For our two weeks in Iceland, we rented a car and two different cottages in the west of the island, from which we took day trips. Our first accommodation was a nice Airbnb in the northwest in the small town of Hvammstangi, which is located on the Vatnsnes peninsula. From there we visited this and other peninsulas and some nearby waterfalls, such as the Kolugljúfur.
(At the end of the blog post you'll find a Google Maps list of all the places we visited in Iceland.)
Our second Airbnb was located near Hvolsvöllur overlooking the Vestmannaeyjar Islands, from where we were able to graze some of the southwest. Among other things, we drove to the waterfalls Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss, hiked to the famous plane wreck through a black sand and stone desert, visited the glacier Sólheimajökull and made day trips to the sights of the Golden Circle, where we had also booked a snorkeling tour between the continental plates in the clearest water I have ever seen in the Silfra fissure.
Through this binding to the location, of course, we have seen only a small part of Iceland, but thus we were able to explore the respective region much more intensively than if we had made a round trip and had only rushed from sight to sight.
"Hvitserkur" on the Vatnsnes peninsula
The famous waterfall "Skógafoss"
Vegan Food Shopping & Cooking In Iceland
We had planned beforehand to do a lot of our own cooking - like we always do on our family trips - since it's usually the cheapest and, as a mostly vegan family, also the most convenient way (my two siblings are also vegan and my parents eat about 80% purely plant-based).
Vegan yogurt alternatives
Vegan pulled duck & pulled chicken with fried potatoes
Vegan schnitzels & nuggets
Therefore, our first stop after picking up our rental car was directly a supermarket, more precisely a "Krónan", which should be the biggest and best supermarket next to the "Bónus". We wanted to get only fix a few noodles for dinner and the bulk purchase then make the next day, because we were all pretty tired from the journey, but were first totally surprised by the huge selection of vegan products. There was a whole shelf full of different plant drinks, many vegan spreads and a huge selection of vegan substitutes. We recognized some of the brands, but many of them were not familiar to us at all - we had thought that Germany was best positioned in Europe as far as vegan substitute products were concerned.
The prices also surprised us, although we had already prepared ourselves that it would be expensive. Normal plant milk could not be found for less than 300 ISK, thus mostly from 2.50 € upwards (exchange rate at the time was 1€ : 138 ISK), and other substitute products were also more expensive than in Germany. Compared to non-vegan products, however, there was not much difference in price in most cases. Only with the frozen pizzas, which we treated ourselves in the further journey, the difference between vegan and "normal" pizzas was several hundred crowns (the vegan one cost 990 ISK ~ 7 €).
The next day we visited the local supermarket, which did not belong to any chain, in the small town of Hvammstangi. We had been told beforehand at the tourist info that there should be many vegan options here as well, and we hadn't been disappointed! Even this small supermarket in the middle of Iceland had so many vegan products - from cheese to yogurt to minced meat and schnitzel - everything that could make our vegan hearts beat faster.
We found plenty of vegan options in all the other places as well - no matter how small they were - and were thus able to create a wide variety of well-balanced dishes every day. The fruit and vegetable selection was also unexpectedly diverse, although most of it was imported, of course.
(cream) cheese alternatives
The waterfall "Seljalandsfoss"
Food shopping and cooking in Iceland are very easy as a vegan, there is a great selection at every corner! However, the prices are quite high, but unfortunately you have to expect that on a trip to this beautiful country.
Eating Out As A Vegan In Iceland
We spent most of our time in Iceland far away from the big city of Reykjavik in small villages and towns. Despite doing a lot of home cooking, we felt like going out for dinner and exploring a bit of Icelandic cuisine on a couple of days. The app Happy Cow, which I always use on my travels to find vegan options, has numerous entries in Iceland as well, so we found many restaurants with vegan options using it.
In Hvammstangi the only restaurant in town, Svájarborg Restaurant, had some vegan dishes on the menu and the soup of the day is probably always vegan as well. In Blönduós the B&S Restaurant even had pizza with vegan cheese (no extra charge!), which was really tasty.
Several restaurants that were not listed in the app also had vegan options, which were (almost) always marked accordingly, as well as often a vegan soup of the day and vegan side dishes. In Hveragerði, for example, we ate at the Mathöll Suðurlands, where there was a small selection of vegan dishes at the various food stalls. The vegan dishes were usually cheaper than e.g. dishes with lamb or fish, which is unfortunately often not the case in Germany.
Cauliflower avocado wrap at Svájarborg
Vegan pizza at B&S restaurant
Chocolate, wild berry and vanilla ice cream
Asian dish at Vegan World Peace
All in all, we got the impression that vegan food is something much more normal here in Iceland than in Germany. Every person we asked about vegan options immediately knew what to do with the word and not once did the question arise what exactly we were allowed to eat and what not.
This was shown very clearly again on the last day of our trip, when we visited the capital Reykjavik. Here, in contrast to the rural part of the country, there were restaurants at every corner, most of which had vegan options and some of them were completely vegan. We visited Loving Hut – Vegan World Peacewhile we were there, a completely vegan restaurant in the city center. Afterwards, we also found vegan ice cream at Valdís. There is also a completely vegan supermarket, Vegan búðin, which we did not visit due to a lack of time.
The only places where we had been disappointed by the restaurants regarding vegan options were the tourist hotspots in the Golden Circle - Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss - however the restaurants there were much more expensive anyway and we could well do without them. In general, we found the less touristy places which we discovered rather accidentally on our trip much more beautiful anyway than the overcrowded typical sights - after all, Iceland really has so much magic to offer on every little spot of the island!
The geyser "Strokkur"
So for your trip to Iceland you don't have to worry at all - as a vegan you will be just fine! There are many ways to eat vegan, even though they do not necessarily belong to the typical cuisine of the country.
If you have any questions about my Iceland trip or other travels, or maybe you'd just like to share your own experiences in Iceland with me, please feel free to message me on Instagram: @hannahsveganworld
I really look forward to the exchange with y'all!
I would be more than happy to receive feedback from you!
Deutsch 
Richtig toller Beitrag😍 hab richtig Lust auf Essen bekommen😃. Und die Bilder😍 Island ist jetzt auf jeden Fall auch ein Reiseziel von mir geworden☀️
Lieben Dank <3 Da musst Du unbedingt hin!
Find ich super👍
Dankeschön!
Klingt alles so schön! Die Bilder sind der Hammer!
Danke Dir! Es war auch unglaublich schön!