Iceland

[RepentBirthingPersonFucker]

I am hoping, covid permitting, to go to Iceland next year. I know several posters have been/chatted about it so am looking for advice please
What is the best time of year to visit?
We are thinking 3 night, could stretch to 4 if needed. Friend wants to see the northern lights, she is aware its not guaranteed, I want to swim in a hot pool
Neither of us wants to drive so I'm thinking we need to stay in Reykjavik and book a tour?

I found food ok. Visited with elderly relatives on pension/low income so planned food carefully. Ensured hotel had breakfast included, took snacks with us (cereal bars etc). Lunch we maybe spent £8-10 each and dinner around £20-25 each for a meal and a soft drink!

We had a layover that was supposed to be 2 hours but there was a hurricane and it was 12.

The airport was fab, but it was eye watering my expensive, bottled water was £6, we spent something like £200 in the airport, obviously trapped and couldn't look for anything else but be prepared! Looked beautiful though and I'd love to go on a holiday.

I think we were lucky to go at a time when prices had come down and they went up again sharply not long after. It was fairly expensive but not eye watering. I did buy a load of Icelandic wool and reclaimed the tax at the air port so that was a bargain.

It’s snowing in Reykjavik at the moment
My son said that the roads are very icy
He’s not hired a car, using buses if need be
Seen the whales…said 2 of them
Northern lights trip scheduled this evening has now been moved to Saturday due to the weather
He said a coffee was around £4 and a meal around £30

Marking a place on this thread. We’re going to buy tickets to Iceland this weekend to visit a friend.

My son is back home now…he actually lives in Cairo..so quite a difference in temperature
He went on a boat trip on Friday for the northern lights but it was too cloudy and he didn’t see them
Did glacier walk and blue lagoon
He said he just bought a coffee at the blue lagoon and it was around £3.50, so not as bad as he was expecting
Lots of lovely gift shops in Reykjavik and he’s bought souvenirs for us all
Not seeing him until end of January now, we’re having a belated Christmas (although it’s still earlier than Christmas 2020 which we had in July 2021)

Anyone have experience of Iceland with a toddler? Is it madness to even contemplate it?

I loooooooove Iceland.

The Blue Lagoon is a bit naff and expensive even by Iceland standards. It's really nothing special.

The Reykjavik municipal pool is far nicer!

My other top tip is to book accommodation early. There isn't much, so it gets booked up quickly.

I would highly recommend the public swimming pools.
They aren't expensive and so so clean.

We went in August 2020. We were supposed to go in April but everything was cancelled of course. In the end it was for the best as we had pretty good weather all week. No Northern lights though.

We spent a week there to avoid too much driving every day.

We chose to stay in apartments most nights and self drive so that we could have our own schedule rather than be rushed.

We stayed 3 nights in Reykjavik, 3 nights in Vik and the last night in the Northern Lights Inn close to the Blue Lagoon and airport.

Day 1 was Reykjavik. Unfortunately on a Monday Hallgrimskirkja was shut but it was nice on the outside! We went to Perlan which set up the rest of the trip really nicely. It is Iceland in a nutshell.

Day 2 was the Golden Circle and Secret Lagoon

Day 3 the DC snorkelled in Silfra early. Strongly recommend Tröll Tours for this. We then drove to Vik via Kerid crater and lots of waterfalls.

Day 4 we went to Reynisfjara beach which is stunning, watched puffins then did a glacier hike, again with Tröll who were great.

Day 5 was a boat trip on Jökulsárlón Lagoon right up to the glacier. It is a very long day's driving there and back.

Day 6 was a drive to Reykjanes peninsula via the Lava Centre, a trip into a Lava Tube and then on to the Blue Lagoon.

We kept our plans very flexible due to potential bad weather. We booked the trips while we were there.

We ate in a few nights to keep the costs down. But then there was a nice craft beer place in Vik where DH's beer was about £20 IIRC!

Plus point of self drive was definitely the cost and being able to stay as long as we wanted eg at Geysir and Kerid Crater and have a walk without being rushed. The downside was missing out on lots of the facts and tidbits that a guide can tell you.

Finally we didn't actually get any currency. Absolutely everything was cashless.

Sorry. That was long and self indulgent but i loved Iceland. I had wanted to go for 25 years before i actually got there and it did not disappoint.

I went 4 years ago and it was one of my favourite holidays ever. We stayed for 5 nights in Reykjavik in an air bnb and hired a car. I took a load of food with us (pasta, tins etc) so had to hardly buy any food as we were on a real.budget.
We went whale watching twice as didn't see anything the first time (or second) but get free tickets if we go back (we will!).
We went to the blue lagoon after whale watching in the morning then spent 1 day driving to Vik, then another day doing the golden circle and also went to an outdoor pool. Night swimming was a real.highlight for the children. We all had a brilliant time - saw waterfalls, glaciers, geysers, black sand beaches, volcanoes, the country is amazing and so atmospheric.
Someone asked about toddlers. I am not sure about that. There are no safety barriers at any of the natural attractions so you would need to be extremely vigilant- huge cliffs with 200m drops etc without even a fence or warning signs. I was quite on edge at times with my boy who was 8 at the time.

Loved the blue lagoon
Loved going ice-mobiling on a glacier - one of my favourite moments, ever
Had some fabulous meals out, was incredibly expensive, even by Australian standards
Highly recommend!

Went there in early 2000s.

Puffin is an interesting dish. Better as a mains than starter.

@ShangPie

Anyone have experience of Iceland with a toddler? Is it madness to even contemplate it?

I've raised two toddlers here and it's a brilliant place to live with them. For visiting, I would think it is probably not the ideal destination.

Most of the best things about Iceland are outdoors and many involve long periods of driving and/or hiking. And toddlers do not get enthused about waterfalls or mountains in my experience. They enjoy the outdoor pools with the slides, but not really anything else that distinguishes Iceland from other countries. I mean you can take them to a beach to look for shells or to a playground and they have a good time, but you don't need to come to Iceland for that. There are some lovely museums, especially Árbæjarsafn which is always a hit with little children in my experience, or the Húsdýragarður, or the rabbits in Elliðaárdalur. You can certainly have a nice time with a toddler. But it's mostly things that are similar to what you can probably do in your own area anyway.

It's such an expensive place to visit that I don't really think it's worth it to come with all the constraints that you have when you're with a toddler. It's better for older children, especially those who have the maturity and personality to enjoy hiking and generally being outdoors in less than perfect weather.

I also remember that my son was terrified of geysers when he was 3. He wailed the whole time we were there. That might just be him, though!