I had always heard about the lagoon experiences in Iceland and it was on my bucket list to go try it out. I went to the Sky Lagoon which opened April 30, 2021. It is a thermal spa minutes from downtown Reykjavik.
Sky Lagoon has the Ritual, which is a seven-step journey based on generations of Icelandic bathing culture.
7 STEPs:
Soak in the Lagoon and slow down –also visit the slightly hidden in-water bar!
Cold plunge and cool down –I was worried it would be too cold for me, but I loved this part so much. I lasted counting to ten!
Sauna with a Sky view –the largest piece of glass in Iceland allows a full scenic view. TIP: turn over an hour glass and try to stay the whole time
Cold mist –This room allows you to recharge and refresh your senses. TIP: sit on the bench. Taking your feet off the floor makes it feel less chilly.
Body scrub: The Sky Scrub was a perfect next step. TIP: not on your face!
Steam: inhale the heat and let the scrub soak into your skin
Shower & return to LAGOON! Here you rinse clean and return to the lagoon pool. I felt revitalized and ready for sparkling water at the bar! There are alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
I loved the private changing facilities on the Sky Pass and the easy to use lockers. There are plenty of towels so you do not need a robe or slippers as the floor is warm. There are plastic bags available for your wet swimsuit and they have hairdryers and soap and shampoo in the showers.
YES! I have hooped on a train, in a jail with dancing prisoners, at Denali Alaska and now in a LAGOON! Also on several cruise ships! Where should I HOOP next?
This immersive film experience is a cross between 4D, IMAX and actually flying past giant glaciers and fast running fjords. This journey whisks you to the most remote and hard to see scenery. I also loved learning about the history of the country through the long house, the trolls and the storytelling!
Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have over 1.7 million views.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)
