Iceland

[Anonymous]

Planning to go with my son. What us the best way to do this. Iceland air tour. Rent car. Just going for 5 days.

[Anonymous]

Hey, I literally just got back yesterday!
Renting car is a great idea. We (my friend and I...didn’t bring the kids) camped...which was also a great idea since most of what we wanted to see was Mother Nature. The airfare may be cheap, but gas, food, and lodging are expensive. So be prepared for that. Most campsites were in the range of 1500 isk per person per night. The weather changes every five minutes. Bring rain gear and good hiking shoes! Don’t bother with an umbrella. Happy to answer more questions. You can do the Golden Circle in a day or two.

[Anonymous]

PP again. We used a Rough Guide to point us to things we wanted to see.

[Anonymous]

Also, decent coffee is 300 isk per cup at the grocery store (Kronen chain) Decent coffee is everywhere.

[Anonymous]

thanks. probably not going to camp this time. thrilled to know there is decent coffee (but there always is in the nordic places!)
looks like we need to book different hotels, since driving around the island is what you do? or can you use reykjavik as a home base.

[Anonymous]

Hotels were crazy expensive - we were there last summer. AirBnB anywhere other than Reykjavik, and probably even there.

My favorite part was the Glacier Lagoon and that's too far from Reykjavik to make it a day trip with a lot of time in the lagoon area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:thanks. probably not going to camp this time. thrilled to know there is decent coffee (but there always is in the nordic places!)
looks like we need to book different hotels, since driving around the island is what you do? or can you use reykjavik as a home base.

In that case I’d book different hotels, as it’s a lot of hours in the car, potentially. When we didn’t camp (2 out of 10 nights), we went the guesthouse route. How old is your son?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:thanks. probably not going to camp this time. thrilled to know there is decent coffee (but there always is in the nordic places!)
looks like we need to book different hotels, since driving around the island is what you do? or can you use reykjavik as a home base.

In that case I’d book different hotels, as it’s a lot of hours in the car, potentially. When we didn’t camp (2 out of 10 nights), we went the guesthouse route. How old is your son?

Son is 13.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Also thinking about Iceland in August. (Sorry to hijack.) Thinking about renting a camper van. Any thoughts on what driving a larger vehicle would be like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Also thinking about Iceland in August. (Sorry to hijack.) Thinking about renting a camper van. Any thoughts on what driving a larger vehicle would be like?

PP that just got back. DO IT. They look amazing and folks said they were comfortable. We were in a tiny Hyundai, which worked fine (and we even slept in it a few times when we didn’t feel like dealing with the tent). The camper vans were pretty ubiquitous. There are some gravel roads, but if the Hyundai could do it, I’d think the camper vans could as well.

[Anonymous]

It’s also worth noting that several hostels are co-located at campsites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Also thinking about Iceland in August. (Sorry to hijack.) Thinking about renting a camper van. Any thoughts on what driving a larger vehicle would be like?

PP that just got back. DO IT. They look amazing and folks said they were comfortable. We were in a tiny Hyundai, which worked fine (and we even slept in it a few times when we didn’t feel like dealing with the tent). The camper vans were pretty ubiquitous. There are some gravel roads, but if the Hyundai could do it, I’d think the camper vans could as well.

Can you give a sense of what your per person daily budget was? I know food and gas are very pricey!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Also thinking about Iceland in August. (Sorry to hijack.) Thinking about renting a camper van. Any thoughts on what driving a larger vehicle would be like?

PP that just got back. DO IT. They look amazing and folks said they were comfortable. We were in a tiny Hyundai, which worked fine (and we even slept in it a few times when we didn’t feel like dealing with the tent). The camper vans were pretty ubiquitous. There are some gravel roads, but if the Hyundai could do it, I’d think the camper vans could as well.

Can you give a sense of what your per person daily budget was? I know food and gas are very pricey!

I can try. We really did things on the cheap... grocery stores for packaged meat, bread, and fruit (no joke, I didn’t really eat a green vegetable for ten days...NOT my norm), camping for the most part. My travel companion also packed MREs. No kidding. Roughly 1000 ISK for a couple of cups of decent coffee (Starbucks VIA got super old super fast). The good news is that even though gas is expensive, the car was very fuel efficient. 1 ISK to USD is about 103 or so. The advice we got was to fill up when we could when we got to the half tank point, especially outside the Golden Circle as we headed to more remote parts. A half a tank was about $50 or $60, I think. Take note however that using our US issued bank cards for gas purchases meant that a hold was put on there in addition to the gas cost that was then eventually refunded. This surprised us a couple times. We didn’t do too much that had an entrance fee. A couple things here and there. Whale watching will set you back 9-10k ISK.

Museums were all about 1500 isk or thereabouts per person, as were camp sites. There were a couple of places we camped where we didn’t pay anything (because we discovered the site wasn’t open until June after we got there and we slept there anyway because we were exhausted). I have to say the campaistes were all well appointed with decent facilities for the most part, and we were happy to pay whatever the fee was if we could find someone to give it to. Guest houses, which we booked online, were about $80 or so for the two of us per night. Shared bathroom, etc, but a lovely little safe room.

[Anonymous]

Another random note: if you find yourself needing contact lens solution, you can’t find it in the grocery store. You need to go to a pharmacy, and we didn’t find any that were open on weekends. I found this interesting, because I swear you can get everything else at the grocery store including underwear and yarn.

[Anonymous]

...sorry, more budget notes! We pre-booked the basic package at the Blue Lagoon that was about $67 USD per person. We also went to the Secret Lagoon, which was about....I forget. Maybe 2000 ISK to get in. Beer and cider there were I think 600 ISK a piece. Fish and chips outside he Secret Lagoon, that melted in my mouth and I will dream about for the rest of my life, was 1800 ISK.