Shopping at Keflavik International Airport, Iceland

Iceland is not exactly a cheap country, but Keflavik airport provides one of the best airport shopping experiences in the world.

There are two duty-free shops in the airport: one upon arrival and one before departure. The shops carry a wide variety of goods, from liquorice flavored chocolates to birch liqueurs…

You can even find Icelandic sea-cucumbers there, apparently popular among Chinese visitors.

The cosmetics section carries unique Iceland skincare products that are worth checking out. I like Sóley Organics, utilizing handpicked wild Icelandic herbs harvested at prime time. Bioeffect is a high end skincare brand known for their serum, receiving raving reviews and numerous awards from beauty magazines worldwide. The active ingredient, EGF, is produced in barley plants grown in volcanic pumice and watered with Icelandic spring water.

Right across from the departure Duty-free, is Pure Food Hall. This is a good place to do last minute shopping on Icelandic food items, such as herbal teas made of Angelica, birch and Icelandic moss, or Icelandic herbal sea salts

Meat-lovers will find their fix of lamb products: rubbed with Icelandic herbs, marinated with blueberries, traditionally smoked, or Icelandic hunters sausage with juniper berries.

You can even find Flatkökur here, which is an Icelandic rye flatbread.

Chef Tyffi from our Food and Saga Tour recommends loading up on these pure and natural Icelandic Cod Liver Oils, and I dutifully followed his recommendation.

While we are at it, my favorite place to enjoy a quick meal before flight is Nord Restaurant

They have tasty salmon/gravlox sandwiches and a pretty decent meat soup.

Last but not least, I just love these little Elves that I couldn’t help but take them home :). They are handcrafted and made with 100% Icelandic sheep wool.

Álfar are elves in Icelandic folklore. Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live. According to these Icelandic folk beliefs, one should never throw stones because of the possibility of hitting the elves.