Captain's Log

Launch Week 2025: learn about our new tours!

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 22:41:35 GMT

“Travel for nerds, you say?” Yes! Because every great journey deserves a few epic side quests. And do we have some side quests for you! Read below to learn about all our new tours and what's to come for Iceland's newest private day tour company, Sidequest: Iceland .

It's our official launch week! It's been a long time coming, and we're so glad you're here with us.

We cannot wait for all the things we’re planning to launch in the coming months (DnD or board game weekends, adventure photoshoots, bookclub retreats, downloadable games and puzzles for your roadtrips, the list goes on) but for now, we are so stinking proud to introduce Phase One of the Sidequest: Iceland inaugural year.

What is in this first phase of the Sidequest: Iceland roll-out? A handful of our finest, unique private day tours that we can offer. Science explaining tours, story telling tours, culture revealing tours. With local experts who know how to create engaging, educational moments.

Science tours: side quests to the heavens and the earth.

Since it’s midwinter, we will first introduce our Ultimate Aurora Hunt tour . This is probably the ONLY tour in Iceland that starts with an out-of-the-vehicle meet-up to talk about the science and plan an actual hunt for northern lights. Your scientist guide will walk you through where to look for the best data, how to read the data, and when is the best chance of catching a light show that night. And, if the terrestrial and solar space weather look bad, you will get a 90% refund of the trip, a flyer with all the data sources, and exclusive access to our northern lights forecasts for the rest of your trip. We don’t gate-keep science here!

Next, is the tour that started it all: The Volcanology Tour . The past five years here in Iceland have leaned very heavily into the fire of this island’s Fire and Ice slogan. This is the perfect tour for anyone who wants to learn more about the volcanic activity that is ongoing on the Reykjanes peninsula and walk away from their trip to Iceland with an informed, rational understanding of these current events. We will discuss the geological forces of nature that fuel Iceland these volcanoes, and take a first-hand look at the effects of these eruptions. On this tour, you will see new lava fields, old hydrothermal areas, and affected infrastructure. From the fiery Lava Show to molten baked goods, this tour will be hot.

But, however, if you want to learn more about the overall geology of the island and see amazing examples of active tectonics under our feet, then The Geology Tour is for you. You will traverse the Golden Circle with a geologist and see many of the postcard sites most tourists see, but soaking in deep scientific knowledge and maybe even soaking in beautiful geothermal nature baths too! This trip hits the Golden Circle highlights but also allows you to choose your own adventure in the second half. We believe tailor-made journeys are the ultimate side quests.

And finally, The Geothermal Tour is our most unique on the market tour. You will learn a lot about local geology but also about the infrastructure and science that harnesses the geology to bring energy to Iceland. Iceland leads the world per capita in geothermal energy usage, both in electricity and direct heating. In this tour, you’ll visit the natural sites where water is boiling on the surface as well as the infrastructure sites where water is boiling in reservoirs. Together with your guide who worked in the energy industry for over a decade, you’ll explore the myths around Iceland’s use of geothermal waters while also seeing some unbelievable ways it's being used.

But wait, there’s one more! We want to give something to our customers who maybe don’t have enough time or funds to devote to a full day tour yet still want to talk to a local scientist. We understand and we have you covered. The Geology Express Tour stays in town in Reykjavik and visits the site of an ancient volcano (now a museum and cafe) to give an amazing overview of Iceland’s geology. Perfect for curious minds but tight timelines and/or budgets. Included in your tour cost is a ticket to the Perlan Museum.

City Tours: urban side quests still count for XP

We have a couple of fun, unique city tours around Reykjavik that are for those nerds who like stories, history, culture, and food. Or maybe just don't like long car rides or being outdoors. We know you’re out there! And we want you to know you can still experience Iceland without doing those things.

Our Town Tea Tour takes its meaning literally and figuratively. We start with some warm tea to drink (or coffee, or hot chocolate; pick your poison) and then we follow that with some spicy hot tea (read: gossip) about the city and its denizens. We’ll talk celebrity sightings, weird crimes, unbelievable history, and quirky art. We also end this tour walking back down main street, where we can shop for some tea or any other souvenirs you might want. We love giving shopping and eating recommendations (support local!). And because we are a geeky little tour company at heart, we will gladly also talk about any other cool science stuff: winter conservation efforts of water fowl in the city, why sunrise and sunset in winter are so elongated and so pink, or the evolving geomorphology of the city’s coastline. Got nerdy questions? We got even nerdier answers.

And last but not least is our Cocktails and City Tales Night Tour. Too many clouds for northern lights? Too windy to be outside for too long? Want to embark on some shenanigans? Well, then this your tour! We will bar-hop to three different local bars with famous cocktails and discuss Reykjavik’s interesting and clickbait-worthy nightlife and dating culture. We will dispel myths and reveal truths while sipping on some of the city’s most entertaining drinks. This tour includes a ton of cultural tidbits and three drinks per person, but bar snacks and rounds of shots are extra.

So, which side quest are you going to go on first?

Sidequest: Iceland Origin Story

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 21:50:49 GMT

Lore drop time.

Gather ’round, travelers, and let us tell you how we came to be. Before we were a company - before we had quests to offer or stories to share - we were just a tale waiting for a bard. Our beginnings weren’t forged in a boardroom but in the lived adventures of a curious soul who crossed continents, chased starlight, filled notebooks with ideas, and treated maps as best friends. From those experiences, we, Sidequest: Iceland, slowly took shape like a legend unfolding. And like all good stories, ours starts not with a grand arrival, but with an unexpected journey.

Our tale starts like many do: with a little chaos, a little courage, and the slightly unhinged belief that there had to be more magic out there. There was not a moment of confidence or a wizard with firework. There was no visionary investor deck or perfectly timed market entry. There was, however, a woman, not a hero or influencer, but just a person with an idea. She had endured a few years of set-backs. A medical scare and loss of hair; jobs coming-and-going and literal robberies happening; bizarre breakups and never-in-a-million-years moments. And through this all, the late nights on a tiny sofa with a very unimpressed cat, the world's longest Notion list, and countless no's, a conscious, stubborn decisions to choose joy and authenticity. To build something of her own.

And, thus, Sidequest: Iceland was born.

The Spark (eh, doom scroll) that started it all

Our tale starts, not with a crone's prophecy or the flick of a D20, but with TikTok. Somewhere between a Game Changer clip and a romantasy reenactment, a realization hit:

“Wait. Nerd culture isn’t niche anymore. Nerd culture is culture. It can be cool to be uncool.”

Fantasy readers, science lovers, D&D players, geology enthusiasts, romantasy girlies, Viking reenacters, board-game goblins, sci-fi binge watchers, casual meme philosophers — they weren’t hiding in basements anymore. They were building communities. They had disposable income. They were proudly, joyfully themselves. And suddenly, all the stray puzzle pieces — the love of Iceland, the deep science background, the years spent traveling (and working in travel tech), the untouched nerdy manuscripts, the longing for authenticity — snapped together with a satisfying (ASMR, some would say) click.

In the before time: from campfire dreams to practical magic

Initially, the dream was enormous: an entire themed adult summer camp in Iceland. A place where people could raid the snack bar like it was a tavern, discuss their hobbies with like-minded campers, trade fan theories under midnight sun, roll dice, make crafts, and/or go on hikes, and make friends the way kids do at sleepover camps of Hollywood lore.

But this idea was too big to tackle at once. Every great quest requires a training montage and breaking the mountain into stones. So the idea was deconstructed, studied, and reforged:

Start with what can exist now.
Build toward what can exist later.
Let it all stay fun and on-theme: truly authentic.

Our Science and City tours have come first - easier to launch, deeply meaningful, and rooted in real expertise. Small groups. Private experiences. Deep dives. Moments that feel handcrafted, not manufactured.

Through this business journey, Sidequest was being shaped. Not by venture capital or titan of industry coming to help, but by one founder building a website at 1AM with her cat as the sole employee of the month. By crying in the shower. By filming content in wind that aggressively disagreed with. By “will anyone like this?” whispered in another moment of anxiety.

And, critically, by watching one too many tourists get herded on rigid timetables and seven massive buses at one northern lights viewing location, far too close to city lights. And etched into our brains is the story of one young woman traveler who was injured, told by her guide that they could not stay, and left alone at a waterfall to await help. These moments burned into the heart of the company. Travel should never make you feel disposable. Travel should feel special.

The Choice to Change the Narrative

So, we decided we wanted to try our hand at this. Sidequest was built on a simple vow:

No buses.
No rigid scripts.
No “you have five minutes here, please do not wander.”

Instead:

Flexibility.
Deep storytelling.
Choose-your-own-adventure routes.
Breaks for bakeries.
Detours for rainbows, sheep-crossings, or mysterious glowing clouds.
Media-rich explanations (graphs, lore drops, interpretive dance if necessary).
Guides with credibility who genuinely want to be involved in your experience.
Your hobbies are our passions.
And the belief that every traveler deserves to feel like the main character — not one face in a crowd of fifty.

Behind it all stood one truth that guided every decision: Adventure doesn’t have to be dangerous to be meaningful. It just has to be yours.

A company built from courage, community, too many bullet point lists and millennial jokes, & a little Nerd Magic™️

Sidequest: Iceland wasn’t born from stability. It was born from late-night doom scrolls and upheaval — illness, career endings, financial scarcity, and the kind of fear that only exists when the future is both uncertain and entirely yours . But from that struggle came clarity:

Iceland isn’t just a destination. It’s a story.
Nerds aren’t a niche. They’re a powerful, joyful, passionate global community (that we are a part of!).
Travel shouldn’t be passive. It should be playful, curious, wildly individual.
Authenticity isn’t a branding choice. We are just being ourselves because we do not know any other way.

And so Sidequest: Iceland stepped into the world — a little scrappy, a little nerdy, deeply rooted in integrity, and determined to build something that felt like a home for others who love wonder, knowledge, and whimsy. It’s a love letter to the seven year old version of our founder, who didn't always feel seen or included, and wanted to not just see the whole world, but learn everything about it and meet everyone possible.

Sidequest: Iceland today

Sidequest: Iceland was founded on the belief that travel should feel like your favorite story - immersive, meaningful, and filled with the things that light you up inside. Not just views, but experiences. Not just itineraries, but side quests.

Let's talk brand for a second. Our logo and the entire ethos of the company was inspired by the Icelandic concept of " ævintýri. " This hard to pronounce word means adventure and also fairytale, encompassing aspects of wonder, storytelling, and journeying. And we want to honor and respect our Icelandic roots. At Sidequest: Iceland, we create tours and events that bring the meaning of ævintýri to life.

We believe in:

✨ Travel that embraces your special interests, not ignores them.
✨ Adventures that feel personal, not mass-produced.
✨ A world where everyone feels included, and free to be themselves.
✨ Storytelling over sightseeing, always.
✨ Travel that your inner child would lose their minds over, struggling to pick which quest to do first because they all look ridiculously fun.

Sidequest: Iceland is built by nerds, for travelers who crave something deeper than cookie-cutter, big bus excursions. We are here for the dreamers, the book lovers, the science buffs, the DnD players, the quiet geeks, the bold adventurers, and everyone who wants their trip to Iceland to feel like a story worth telling and that there’s always something more to learn.

This is our origin story.
And we can’t wait for you to join the adventure.

Best time to visit Iceland: we have the data so you can reach your travel goals

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:28:16 GMT

We worked with several Icelandic and international agencies to link together data-backed assessments, all so you can time your trip to Iceland with science-informed information and experience the island how you want.

The team at Sidequest: Iceland gets asked frequently about when is the best time to come to Iceland. Of course, we always say that depends on your travel goals and tolerance levels for weather and people! We have drafted this handy chart to help those planning a trip consider the objectives of their trip and weigh the variables.

And yes, because we are nerds, we did in fact work with Ferðamálastofa / Icelandic Tourist Board , Veðurstofa Íslands - Icelandic Met Office , and NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration data as well as local specialists to make sure we were capturing an up-to-date (and safe) picture of Iceland's tourism and weather conditions.

Want the most daylight to maximize what you can squeeze into a day?

The midnight sun season can be an extremely unique and exciting season to experience. Yes, the sun does set in Iceland, but for several months a year, it will not get dark. Some people find this unsettling, but many locals find this gives us energy and extra time to enjoy our wonderful country. If experiencing light 24 hours a day sounds appealing, visit Iceland between mid-May to late July. But remember! Because of this constant daylight, there are no northern lights during this time.

Want the best chance to see the northern lights?

Most websites will tell you to simply "come in the winter" if you wish to catch an aurora or two. But not we nerds here at Sidequest: Iceland. There's a more scientific answer to this, in fact. Best auroras happen around the annual equinoxes (late September and late March) because of the orientation of the earth's magnetic fields as the planet orbits the sun, making our magnetic field more vulnerable to solar winds. Additionally, the weather tends to be better around these times of years, especially in the autumn, so we always recommend a fall season aurora trip to Iceland.

Want to avoid crowds but still have lots of daylight to enjoy activities?

April through early May can see the least number of tourists here in Iceland but still be quite bright during the day. In April, you can still catch very late night glimpses of the norther lights, too. There's usually less chance for snow storms then, and the roads can fairly clear. By late April, many trails start to become passable (although not the back-country or river crossing ones). And in April, you can still safely access ice caves.

Want a snowy holiday to Iceland?

There are so many exciting things to do in Iceland in the snow. Don't be scared! Sidequest: Iceland loves snow-shoeing in the Highlands on a golden sunny winter day. The snow also provides great light reflection for nighttime aurora photos. And who doesn't love a cozy cafe and hot chocolate as the snow comes down? Well, the good news (or bad news, depending on your perspective) is that it can and has snowed during every month of the year here in Iceland at some point. As of writing this, Reykjavik just received the most snow ever recorded for an October just before Halloween here. Most of the time, however, if it does snow in spring (May or June) or autumn (September or October) it will rarely stick on the ground for long. For an authentic snowy experience, visit Iceland in January or February. Skiing, both downhill and cross country, ice caves and glacier walks, snow mobiling, snow elf making, and dog sledding are all at the peak of their season then.

Want to frolic in fields of wildflowers?

You CAN do this in Iceland! I think most of us have seen the social media posts with the fields of purple lupine. These flowers are not native to Iceland and were introduced to try to stop soil erosion. However, as an invasive species, the flowers took over, and now every year there are more and more along the roads and trails as cars and hikers help the plants' seeds spread. These flowers are very weather and temperature dependent, so the start to sprout after a bout of warm weather. And will bloom first at sea level where it is warmer, and will bloom in the mountains or highlands later in the summer. On average, though, they will start to grow in May and be fully bloomed by mid-June. Want that perfect photo in a field of purple lupine? Aim for late June - mid July.

So, Sidequest: Iceland, when do you recommend people visit Iceland?

We tell our family to come visit in September. Good weather, auroras, fall colors: what's not to love? In the early month, almost all hiking trails are still open (yearly weather dependent), longer daylight hours, and greenery still everywhere make it an ideal time. Later in the month, the fall colors bloom, the days are still long, it's peak northern lights time, and there's a slight dip in the number of tourists. Our favorite!

The Sidequest: Iceland Adventurer's Guide to Iceland

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:03:11 GMT

We curated a guide from our myriad of travels and highlighted all of our favorites! Come for the hotel recommendations, stay for the snúður and side quests.

If you’ve spent any time with us at Sidequest: Iceland, you know we’re big believers in two things:

travel should feel like an adventure , not a crowded chore, and
the best stories start where the guidebooks end .

So after years of showing guests our favorite places, answering DMs about “where should I go?” and “no really, where do you go?”, and watching travelers light up when they stumble into a café or hot pot they didn’t even know existed… we decided it was time.

We built a guide.

Not a guide, but our guide — equal parts insider intel, geeky enthusiasm, cozy chaos, and genuine local love.

What Makes This Guide Different

Most guidebooks are written from a polite, neutral distance. This one? Not so much.

This guide was pulled directly from our lived experience - 10+ years of exploring Iceland, a career in travel tech, and a deep, borderline unreasonable love for cafés, hot pots, and backroads. It’s filled with the places we actually go, recommend to friends and family, and rave about over coffee. It’s not exhaustive , not formal , and absolutely not trying to cover every waterfall, restaurant, or hotel in the country.

Instead, it’s:

The stuff we swear by
The places we return to
The gems people don’t know about until they do
The things we want visitors to feel excited, confident, and curious enough to try

It’s a guidebook built from real life — and maybe a few Snúður (cinnamon buns).

A Quick Tour of What’s Inside

�� Reykjavík: Cooler Than You Think (though not as cosmopolitan as this emoji)

Your journey starts in the capital with our favorite:

cafés and bakeries (we have Opinions™️)
restaurants , from Icelandic home-style soups to high-end small plates
brunch spots, wine bars, happy hours, and rooftop mischief
neighborhood pools, museums, galleries, and hidden corners
locally-run shops and studios , many hosted by women or foreign-born creators
annual events , from Light Festival to Airwaves

Think of it as Reykjavík’s ultimate side quest menu — curated so you can unlock your ideal version of the city.

�� “The Countryside”: It's why you're here, most likely!

Iceland outside Reykjavík feels like an entirely different universe: fewer people, more waterfalls, and a lot of gas-station snacks. Inside you'll find:

Our favorite road-trip eats (chaotic but honest)
Scenic, quirky, or unforgettable stays — glamping domes, cabins with boats as hot pots, boutique hotels nestled in fjords
Where we’d actually send our friends , depending on region

It’s the kind of intel you usually only get from someone who lives here (and has stayed at more places than most locals).

�� Favorite Hikes (for Every Energy Level)

Whether you’re the “short scenic trail” type or the “22 km between glaciers” type:

Classic Reykjavík-area trails
Reykjanes volcanic routes
Backlands adventures like Fimmvörðuháls and Laugavegur
Secret viewpoints, seasonal tips, and where you’ll actually find lupines

This section reads a bit like someone’s personal hiking notebook — because it basically is.

♨️ Hot Pots, Nature Baths & Lagoons. #foundersfavorite

Yes, the Blue Lagoon and Sky Lagoon exist. No, that’s not the whole story.

We give you:

geothermal rivers
glacial lagoons
floating huts
neighborhood pools
Westfjörds hidden gems
a full list of our “not-hot-yet-but-wait-for-it” spots

If you leave Iceland without pruning fingers, that’s on you.

�� Aurora Chasing, Simplified yet scientific

Where to go, what weather you need, and why you should never book a boat-only photography tour. We also tell you the best places in town and in the wild — and yes, we’ll still take you if you want an astrophysicist guide.

�� Waterfalls You Haven’t Heard Of

All the ones we love that aren’t Skógafoss or Gullfoss (even those are great, too).

�� Hidden Gems & Side Quests

This is Sidequest’s beating heart.
Here you’ll find:

our favorite towns (Borgarfjöður Eystri, we promise we will. be back)
beaches of every color
underrated volcanoes
science expeditions
walking tours for hyperfixations
the infamous Yoda cave
a rainbow-colored natural scavenger hunt

So Why Did We Build This Guide?

Because Iceland deserves a guide that matches the way people actually travel now: Curiously. Playfully. With enthusiasm. With humor. With a willingness to wander off the map. Because travelers deserve a resource that isn’t copy-pasted from the same 10 stops on every blog.

Because you deserve to know about that café, hot pot, or weird little museum that might become your favorite memory (okay, so we did not include the Penis Museum, but you should go if you care about memories).

But mostly, we built this guide because we love this place , and we love helping people experience it in ways that feel personal, unexpected, and unforgettable. And if that means giving you 30+ pages of our favorite hikes, eats, cabins, towns, and side quests? Well… happy adventuring.

Have we sold you on the guide yet? Fill out the form and we'll send you the guide.

Our Founder: a tale across the stars and continents

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:00:13 GMT

This could be a villain origin story, depending on your perspective (we are side-eyeing you, 9-5 jobs), or a hero's arc. After 55+ countries and multi-annual trips around Iceland's ring road, our founder has a few key takeaways from all those travels.

Every great trip deserves a few epic side quests.
Spontaneity brings whimsy and adventure to every trip.
Incorporating what you love into your trip makes it extra special.
Authentic, deep-dive experiences makes the fruit of travel that much sweeter.

These are the foundations of Sidequest: Iceland.

Every company has an origin story. Ours just happens to start with a kid blasting John Williams soundtracks on a bootlegged cassette tape while writing Star Wars fan-fiction years before AO3 ever existed.

Sidequest: Iceland wasn’t born from a boardroom, an investor pitch, or a brainstorm session with ten consultants in a fishbowl meeting room. It was built from the very real, very nerdy, very winding life of our founder, Jessý —and all the passions, travel memories, and obsessions she collected along the way.

The Nerd at the Beginning of the Universe (…or at least the company)

Before “we” were a company, we were just a girl who forced her grandmother to role-play Data from Star Trek and who got genuinely upset when Grandma did not know the difference between a robot and an android. We, the girl, were also endless rounds of Scrabble and Risk, summers spent at band camp and dinner theater, and drawers full of rocks—hundreds of them—collected lovingly and categorized meticulously, despite Jessý’s mother insisting it was “all just gravel.” (It wasn’t all gravel. We stand by this... mostly .)

Our founder wasn't a gamer in the traditional sense, unless Wii Olympics counts (and in our office, it absolutely does). But she was always a storyteller, explorer, and an unapologetic geek with a wild curiosity about how the world works and why it is the way it is. These are the foundations of Sidequest: Iceland.

The Science Years: From Stars to Stones

Our founder story continued at the University of Southern California, where young Jessý dove headfirst into astrophysics and astrogeology. This chapter included projects at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, like determining the substrate of comets, and regular visits to Mt. Wilson Observatory to observe the sun during solar cycle 23 as it approached maximum.

Later, she moved to the University of Kansas, shifting from the cosmos to the Earth beneath our feet. That curiosity turned into multiple degrees in Geology, which opened doors to over a decade of work as an exploration geologist. Four continents; fifteen countries; and rocks that were definitely not gravel.

The Pivot: A Detour Through Paris

At some point, she realized that while science had shaped her, corporate life had drained her. So she did what any emotionally exhausted scientist-turned-storyteller does: move to Paris.

This was almost Emily in Paris before the Netflix show hit the airwaves: A one-way ticket. A new life chapter and new pursuits. Lots of pains au chocolat. Even a stint on a house boat in the Seine (#penichelife). And, in the end, an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship, with projects in digital transformation in the luxury sector, business development in international hospitality, and working on the founding team of a startup in Bordeaux. There were all the makings of a new path, even if she didn’t see it yet.

The Iceland Chapter: A Leap of Faith

Next came the decision that most people call bold, but we call “a small bout of insanity”: moving to Iceland alone, with another one-way ticket, with nothing but curiosity and a few suitcases.

For seven years she worked in tech to keep her work visa, building a career by day and building women- and science-based online communities by night. Then came a long, difficult stretch of mystery chronic illness, one that forced a reevaluation of priorities, passions, and purpose.

And out of that reevaluation came clarity:
She needed to build something that wove together her life’s work and passions. Travel, culture, science, fantasy, community, storytelling, inclusivity, Iceland, and the joy of being unapologetically geeky.

What a Life of Travel Taught Our Founder

After traveling to more than 55 countries—and circling Iceland’s ring road enough times to know which N1 has the best food options—this girl walked away with a few deeply held beliefs about what makes travel truly meaningful.

She learned that every great journey deserves at least one epic side quest —a detour, a whim, a spontaneous decision that becomes the story you tell for years.
She discovered that spontaneity brings whimsy and adventure to even the most carefully planned trips, transforming simple moments into treasured memories.
She realized that the best trips let you bring your passions with you —whether those passions are science, folklore, gaming, geology, fantasy novels, or something wonderfully niche.
And finally, she found that travel is richest when it dives deep: authentic, immersive experiences that teach you something real, connect you to a place and its people, and leave you changed by it.

These lessons shaped her life long before she ever started a company. And they continue to shape the way she dreams, creates, and imagines what adventures can look like for others. Through an education of science, a life in Iceland, several pop culture tattoos and AO3 submissions (she will never give up that username), and over two decades of travel, she hopes to build something truly special for nerds in and visiting Iceland.

Read and learn more about/from our founder (hover for links):

Recent documentary filming about hydrogeology in Iceland.
Interview with Raketta Studio about building Sidequest: Iceland.
Travel firm Stuck in Iceland interview about travel, geology, and Iceland.
The Lava Show podcast appearance, discussing the recent Grindavik eruptions.
A post-MBA interview with Business Because about pivoting careers in mid-life.
An interview with the BBC about happiness and living in Iceland.
Her old marketing blog , her personal photography page on Instagram , and Iceland Geology Facebook Group page.