Anyone know anything about Iceland?

[flowerpot1000000]

DS was chatting about Iceland and how one of his school friends had gone and visited the thermal poos, ice caves, and plateletts he said I'd love to go and see and take in a different country and culture.

So where do I start, any advice on what to do, where to stay?

Food*

We went this summer. Rented a Renault Master camper van from 'GO'.
Drove all around the island, took about 10 days.
Amazing country and scenery. But the downsides are:

Cool weather
The north is quite wet even in summer.
Food is ridiculously expensive
Not much choice if you are cooking for yourself, you can't even find soup in a tin. It's all 'cup a soup'.
You have to love burgers and weiners (cheapest food) and a thousand different sauces
Eating out is very expensive
One can of lager can be as much as £9!! Wine is over £20 a bottle for plonk. We brought our own in the luggage.
Campsites can get busy late at night as some people seem to think that if they turn up late they won't get charged.

Upsides:
Scenery to take your breath away
Very quiet road. Most of the country is covered by one road.
Some good campsites have swimming pools and saunas
Being in a camper means you can make yourself a lunch and a real cup of tea (brought our own), and relax in your own private space.

If you really want to go, save up lots and do the whole country in one go.

Diamond beach is stunning!

Go snorkelling or diving in the Silfra fissure between the tectonic plates, @flowerpot1000000 - it's amazing. I think this is what your DS is referring to. You can touch North America with one hand and the Eurasian plate with the other, and even on the greyest of days the water is stunningly blue. It's INCREDIBLE. One of the best experiences I've ever had.

Thermal springs can eat the Lycra in your swimsuit.

You can stand with one foot on the North American plate and one foot in the Eurasian plate.

The smoked lamb is amazing.

Don’t touch the rotten shark.

Iceland is lovely, we've been four times now to the capital area, isafjordhur and. akureyri but prefer Greenland and northern Norway.

Stock up with duty free at the airport when you land.

Summer in the far north of Iceland!

Sorry the photo didn't work

We did a bus tour, went the blue lagoon and did a walking tour. We loved the local swimming pools in Reykjavik.

If you go winter the days are ridiculously short (sunrise at 11am, sunset around 4pm) so I missed natural daylight.

The price of food is crazy high, but food we did enjoy restaurant meals. See if you can book a hotel that includes half board.

Ive found a deal from Jan to April that includrs...
Superior room, in lovely hotel 4*, four nights (B&B) - with Northern Lights tour, Golden Circle & Secret Lagoon excursion, South Coast tour & whale and dolphin cruise includes flights for £399 per person.

But Im unsure what time of the year to go ... April sounfs good but then Im wondering perhaps longer days so would late July be best???

Driving in somewhere like Iceland is nothing like driving here. It's fairly quite so really nothing to worry about. Would just watch when you plan to go re road conditions.

Our bar bill was bigger than the bill for accommodation ?????

Me " o hello nephew, haven't seen you for ages. How was your visit to Iceland?"
Nephew "Alright, I should have taken a different coat, though. I didn't expect it to be so cold"

Driving in somewhere like Iceland is nothing like driving here. It's fairly quite so really nothing to worry about. Would just watch when you plan to go re road conditions.

Outside of Reykjavik driving is pretty easy - some roads have single lane stretches where you have to pull in to passing places to let oncoming traffic through.

However the weather can determine how easy it is - many of the mountain roads in the North can close at short notice in winter - they can permanent road closure gates so it is obviously a common thing. Roads can also close at short notice for other natural events - for example this year part of the main Route 1 ring road had to close in August because of glacier flooding.

Lunde - Yes you are right that's why I would avoid winter if driving around. We have premiant snow gates on quite a few roads here in the Scottish Borders too!

Thermal poos!

SushiMonster - I had no idea that the Blue Lagoon isn’t natural. Just googled picture of people bathing in front of the power plant

No advice, only here to read up on the highlights! The dds are going on a school trip to Iceland early next year, I’m so jealous It looks so beautiful although I’m not a fan of cold holidays in general.

I love Iceland and have been twice now. We have stayed in an air b&b both times really close to the city centre, would recommend this as food is expensive and can save by cooking some meals, was also so cosy having our own flat. Definitely hire a car, public transport is few and far between, we weren’t 100% confident but it was so worth having our own transport to get around and the roads are so quiet even in the middle of the city, it is no worry at all! We even got our hire car upgraded for free to a 4x4 as it was soooooo snowy when we last went in February 2018.

There are lots of natural hot springs it’s just that the blue lagoon isn’t one of them! The hot river near Hveragerði is amazing (but a bit of a walk to get there)