What better way to revel in the beauty of Iceland than stay in a tiny house right in nature.  There are hundreds of amazing Airbnbs found all over the country.  We booked 7 incredible free-standing houses for our trip along the Ring Road.  Focusing on tiny houses, cottages, or cabins, there were several great options located in small villages or on farms in the middle of nowhere.  Each house had everything you would find in a studio apartment: a kitchen, bathroom, and large room for living and sleeping.  Cooking our dinners in the Airbnb in each night saved us hundreds of dollars in food costs, especially in a pricey country like Iceland.  Here are the 7 Airbnbs that we booked and our experience spending the night in Iceland's nature.  

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The drive from the Mývatn region to Akureyri was the shortest, even with a detour to Húsavík.  Most of our time was spent on a miserable Whale Watching tour in the cold pouring rain.  There were no whales to be seen.  Our day started to look up after getting to the magnificent Godafoss waterfall.  In Akureyri, the 2nd largest city in Iceland, we visited one of the northernmost botanical gardens and their church upon the hill.

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Our fourth day driving the Ring Road was action packed as we went through the martian landscape of northeast Iceland.  The highlights of this section of the Ring Road include the powerful Dettifoss waterfall, the geothermal lava fields of Krafla and Hevrir, a lava cave steam bath, volcanic craters, lava rock fields, and the gorgeous Lake Mývatn.  It was a long day that ended with a problem with our Airbnb.  

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We spent our third day in Iceland navigating the Eastern Fjords from Höfn to Egilsstaðir.  Most of the morning was spent driving along the coast, making countless stops to take in the scenery or just to let the sheep cross the road.  We had our first and only big uh-oh, getting stuck in sinking sand; rescued by the kindness of strangers.  After several hours of driving along farms and through the mountains, we enjoyed the charming village of Seyðisfjörður.  We also hiked to one of the tallest waterfalls in Iceland, Hengifoss.  It was our favorite, but most challenging, hike we did in Iceland.  We spent the night in a beautiful cottage on a horse farm, surrounded by mountains.

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On our second day on the Ring Road in Iceland, we continued heading east along the south coast towards the fishing village of Höfn.  Only a 205 km drive straight, it took 10 hours with all of the amazing stops in between.  We drove through drastically changing terrains from a lava field covered in moss to glaciers.  We ended the day with an exhilarating snowmobile ride on a glacier while it snowed.  A highlight of our trip, for sure.

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Immediately upon our arrival in Iceland, we loaded up our rental car and set off on Route 1.  Iceland's Ring Road, or Route 1, is the main highway that circles around the island.  It connects all of the small towns dotted around the coast and is the most popular route for tourists hoping to explore the country.  Our first day was extremely ambitious, especially after coming off a sleepless red-eye flight.  Might as well start off the trip with a bang.  We drove counter-clockwise on the Ring Road, starting with one of our favorite region's of Iceland: the South Coast.  Our first day included countless waterfalls, puffins, black sand beaches, and lupines as far as the eye can see.

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