Iceland/Northern Lights/Short Break Ideas

[benderinabun]

Me & siblings want to buy DParents something special for their upcoming Golden Wedding Anniversary. They have everything & travel a lot so struggling a bit for ideas. Budget is £1000 max between us. Pretty sure they've not been to see the Northern Lights- is it worth it? Can we do it in budget? Any other suggestions? TIA

Being realistic you will struggle to do Iceland on £1000. We are going in November and whilst the flights are cheap, everything else costs a fortune. I haven’t been there myself but my Dsis went to Amsterdam recently and loved it.

I priced up for November for my DS (adult price) and I with BA. Three nights, hotel inc breakfast and two trips (northern lights and whale watching) flights and transfers came in at just under £1100.

I meant to say, I priced it up just two days ago.

Look at flights to finnish lapland, pretty cheap from London and better chance of seeing the Lights than from Iceland.

I wouldn't recommend going anywhere with the sole purpose of seeing the Northern Lights. It might be cloudy and if that was the whole point of the trip your parents might then be very disappointed and see the entire thing as a waste of money.

Its do-able if you shop around. We went for 4 nights to Iceland..stayed in a nice hotel just outside reykjavik (staying outside saved us £200) but there was a bus every 20mins that cost the equivalent of £2.40 pp pd into the city, which was only a 10min bus ride. In our deal we got flights, transfers, hotel + breakfast and a northern lights tour for £600. We then paid £65 each by booking a golden circle tour via viator before we went (rrp 140 each).. food etc is expensive out there if you want sit down meals all the time.. but eating on the go is really reasonable.

On that budget for my folks i’d do this www.belmond.com/trains/europe/uk/belmond-british-pullman/about

It’s like the orient express but affordable

Thank you everyone, lots to think about!