Trying to book a trip to Iceland….

[VillageFete]

Hi,

Looking ahead to booking a surprise trip to Iceland next year for my partner’s 40th. Jan/Feb/March/April are out of the question as our baby will be too young to be left, so will need to be Summer onwards, however i’m reading that the optimal time for Northern lights is late August to end of March - any recommendations on what month to go next year?

Also, those that have been, did you book a package holiday? I’ve looked on TUI so far. Ideally i’d like transfers included.

My partner will definitely want to do Northern lights tour, Blue Lagoon and Golden Circle tour. Any idea where is best to book these tours, or do some package holidays include them?

Any help appreciated, i’m lost with it all!

We did an Icelandic folklore walking tour In Reykjavik. Nice way to spend 90 minutes and saw a bit of the city outside the very centre.

We booked a tour with Iceland air a few years back, went in Nov, saw all the things you are looking for, think it was four nights.

Go October or March stay at the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica and drive to where you want to go.

If not, go to the Blue Lagoon straight from the airport then onto the hotel, quick buses to the centre and trips will pick up from the Hilton. We drove and it was so much better, could head out as soon as we got an aurora alert.

We went in January a few years ago, stayed in Reykjavik and saw the northern lights. We booked the tour for the first night with Reykjavik excursions and then went out for 3 nights in total until we saw the lights. We also did our golden circle and southern Iceland tour with them on mini buses and they were great.

We did blue lagoon and paid (significantly) more to do the spa - if you can afford it I would HIGHLY recommend. We were pretty much the only people there, we had a private part of the lagoon and we swam round to the main part and it just wasn’t a patch. It was expensive but worth it.

Also we are not usually guided tour type people and I was quite worried about all the tours we booked (on 3 of our 4 days there plus northern lights in the evening), but actually it was full on but we loved it.

We debated driving but were so glad we didn’t as it snowed constantly while we were there and must have seen 20-30 abandoned cars at the side of the road where they had drifted off the road in the snow and got stuck.

Late August, September or October. I would recommend avoiding November to February unless it's for something specific like NYE. It's often very stormy in this period and added to that the limited daylight is a bummer and restricts what you can see.

The autumn gives a good balance of daylight and darkness, with reasonable chances of decent weather. Autumn is also prettier than late winter / early spring. Go before the snow, when the grass is still green. Spring is brown and soggy and the landscape, while still beautiful, is at its worst. Early autumn also gives you the chance to go to more places as much of the country is inaccessible as soon as the first snow falls in the highlands.

We went in early August and had the advantage of decent weather but the disadvantage of no Northern lights. I've since heard that late August or early September is a good option.

It's really easy to book everything yourself with EasyJet and Booking.Com. We booked a couple of activities with Troll Expeditions who were excellent and a bit cheaper than others.

Obviously the Golden Circle is a must. We self drove (which is fine in the summer) because we knew we'd want to stay in each place longer than a tour would allow.

DC really enjoyed snorkelling at Silfra and a Glacier hike. The melted glacier water is delicious.

We loved Blue Lagoon and also the Secret Lagoon which is very different.

If you can make it to Vik then there are some impressive waterfalls en route and Reynisfjara beach with its basalt columns is spectacular. There are puffins there too.

We stayed in apartments as Iceland is vv expensive so we could make breakfasts and packed lunches and just eat out in the evening.

Yes it can be expensive to eat out etc. We stayed at the Grand Hotel in Reykjavik and they had an amazing buffet breakfast which kept us going all day (and a pleasant short walk into town along the shore). We also got a pizza one evening (it was a cheap deal on a Tuesday) and sat on the shore and ate it on a lovely evening.

This.

I don't think it's possible to 'do' all of Iceland in one trip because the different attractions are good at different times of year so when is good for the northern lights isn't great for touring around etc because of the long hours of darkness and poor weather.

I'm interested in Iceland for next February or march - ds wants the cold!

Is it worth just staying in Reykjavik or booking other hotels? We'd probably have a week and would want to do snorkelling / a bit of the south golden circle etc.

We did a 3 night tui package in January and loved it. Stayed at the Alda hotel which is 10
mins walk into Reykjavik.

Without Tui’s heft as a travel company we wouldn’t have got there as all other flights were cancelled on the day due to weather (eg easyJet, Ryanair). This would have meant we would have lost any non cancellable things we had booked. We flew later as there had been a hurricane and we were held for a while before disembarking as the winds were still strong - surprisingly good landing though!

we did the golden circle tour booked via tui and I can honestly say it was one of the best days of my life for the things we saw and the friendly, knowledgeable guide’s info. We had booked blue lagoon with tui that evening and it fitted together well with drop offs/ pick ups - I’m sure we could somehow have done it cheaper but the ease was worth paying for. Sitting in the warm water with the snow coming down is something I’ll never forget.
We booked the lava tunnel tour through via tour as we had seen the next day was rainy. In the afternoon we went into Reykjavik. There are lots of good places to eat there.
alcohol is very expensive so a good tip is to take out a bottle of duty free if you drink. We took a small raspberry gin and had little nips of that! Iceland make a wonderful birch liqueur which is well worth picking up at the airport going home, the same company make a lovely blueberry liqueur a wish I’d bought more bottles.

Whenever you go, make sure you have the right gear. It was -20° when we went and I wore Rohan winter lined trousers and coat- I was toasty. Good walking boots too.