Soaring to the Top of Reykjavik

Fly me to the moon… or at least to the top of mt. Esja. This is how you can go soaring to the top of Reykjavik and enjoy a breathtaking view of the Icelandic capital area.

Sometimes you just get really lucky. This happened to me one Friday afternoon just before last Christmas when I happen to met Eva from Norðurflug – Helicopter.is – in the Iceland Travel office. We made some small talk and then I said to her: „hey, I need to go one of your legendary helicopter rides one day.“ She sprang to action and told me that there might be an opening on the the Reykjavik Summit tour at 15:00 that day. Just a few minutes later she called me and she told me that there were indeed two seats free so I decided to invite my daughter to tag a long. We were at the offices of Norðurflug at Reykjavik Airport just 45 minutes later.

I was really impressed with the pilot. He told us that we were going to the summit of Mt. Esja but we would have do exactly as he told us when we landed. „If I tell you go the helicopter at the top of the mountain you must do so right away,“ he said. We all agreed of course. The reason is the fickle Icelandic weather and the pilot´s dedication to safety.

We took off from Reykjavik airport, it was cold, still and a clear sky. A nice break from the rather tedious wind and rain we have had in December. It is just so incredibly cool to be in a helictopter. I always feel a bit VIP in an helicopter and the view of Reykjavik, the bay and the islands there was just incredible. Heading towards Mt. Esja was impressive as you could see the mountain in its winter and ice hue loom ahead. The pilot landed smoothy on the summit and to my surprise started handing out ice cold bubbly. Everybody cheered, took the pictures of the incredible view up there and of course the pilot took everybody´s picture. So he doubled as a waiter and and a photographer!

Being up there on Mt. Esja in the winter was just like being on a glacier, but it took only 10 minutes to get there! But obviously all good things come to an end, all of a sudden, the pilot told us it was time to go as the weather was coming in. He decided upon a bit of theatricals when turned the helicopter towards Reykjavik high above an impressive canyon and our stomachs fluttered a bit. We were treated to another wonderful view of Reykjavik on the way back. And impressively, it started snowing a minute before we touched down. The pilot had judged the weather to perfection.