Image: Courtesy Mountain Taxi
For northern lights, our Icelandic travel agent Auður Ösp of I Heart Reykjavik told us that it's always better to go with a smaller group and vehicle. The bus tours are the cheapest but you might end up with 400 people and it's just not as nice. She also likes the super jeep tours since they can take you to areas the buses can't (and therefore you won't be surrounded with the aforementioned 400 of your fellow travelers).
Auður was right, we had a private tour for eight, and that made it really special.
We drove outside the city and made a few stops, looking for the northern lights.
We caught a glimpse a few times, then stopped at a secluded lake, and started to see bands of green coming us from the horizon. We sampled some local schnapps called Brennevin, and they was a treat.
After the stop at the lake, as we were driving through the darkness, our driver, Gisli Pall, thought he saw something in the sky, safely pulled off the road, and told us to all get out quickly!
We did, and then the real show started.
The Northern Lights in all their glory. Dancing green and purple lights, going in and out, moving across the sky, and painting a ribbon above us.
Our group was exclaiming with joy about what we were seeing. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
Image: iPhone attempt at capturing a bit of the northern lights.
Image: Our driver, Gisli Pall
This video shows what it looked like: