Iceland tips/recommendations (not the shop)

[Limbolanding]

I’m going to Iceland in a couple of weeks and I’m doing the final bits of planning and booking - we were thinking of doing a golden circle tour and ending the day with a couple of hours at the blue lagoon (obviously volcano activity pending!)

For anyone who has been, would two hours or so be enough time to properly enjoy the lagoon, or should we be factoring in a longer time there? And is the golden circle tour as amazing as it looks? Slightly worried about it being a lot of time on a coach but also the waterfall and Kerid crater look incredible.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be much appreciated!

No, it won't. It's not that kind of eruption.

But yeah the Blue Lagoon is definitely not going to be open any time soon.

That’s good to know Puffinshop - what makes them different I wonder? Will have to do some research… in the meantime I hope the volcano doesn’t cause too much destruction for the citizens in the immediate vicinity - whilst it’s an awesome sight from afar I’m sure it’s absolute terrifying for the locals.

Well you're visiting at an exciting time now the volcano has just erupted

Iceland is incredible. My top tips are:

Don't spring for a room with a view. It's too dark for there to be any point.
Either budget A LOT for food, or avoid it being the focus.
Check out the weather for driving. If you can self-drive the golden circle tour you'll get way more out of it than spending time getting on and off tour buses to their schedule, plus there's hardly any traffic.
Ditto for northern lights tours. In spite of a forecast for overcast skies, our tour went to the same spot every night. Better to go yourself or to take a tour that goes to the best spot by weather.
I recommend going to Hveragerdi - you can do an easy walk to a hot spring in the hills, there's a visible rift in the supermarket floor, and an actually cheap restaurant (by Icelandic standards) with a soup I still dream about. It's called Skyrgarden.
Don't get excited about skyr, but be prepared for a local to bang on about it.

We spent about 6 hours at the blue lagoon but also had lunch. Booked tickets direct with the blue lagoon for the bus from the train station. It runs every hour I think

There's an app which shows where is doing 241 deals and at what time for eating and drink which was helpful.

Sturdy warm boots. Decent thermals etc for the cold.

If you're going to do northern lights tour do it earlier in your trip as often they go out again if you don't get to see them.

Don't be alarmed if the shower stinks of egg. Most hotels use the volcanic water as heating systems.

We went back in 2013 so maybe a bit different now. But I absolutely loved it.

We enjoyed the Reykjavik food tour, you go round in a small group to various cafes and restaurants to try different food. It wouldn't really be suitable though if you have children with you though, it's more of an adult thing

@Puffinshop when do you think the best time to go is, both for seeing the landscape and with a chance of seeing the northern lights?

You'll be lucky to do that in one trip because they're at their best at different times of year.

September or October is probably your best bet but until the days start getting shorter (and colder/more stormy) it's still probably too early for the northern lights.

But you'll want to go more than once anyway......

We went for 4 days and didn't run out of things we wanted to do in Reykjavik let alone Iceland.

We bought a bottle of cava and a bottle of coffee liqueur on the way out of the airport and then had a beer or two with our evening meals.

It was a bit expensive but not ruinously so, but helped by only ever having one course and not having wine, cocktails or the more expensive steak and fish options. But we tend to eat like that at home,we're not '3 courses and wine' people.

I also don't eat much in the evening so the local soup or a starter portion of the fish in sauce on icelandic bread was perfect.

If I was going in January I'd plan to see the northern lights and buy a city pass for a couple of days and go to as many of the museums as possible and a couple of the local pools.

Then you can go when there's more daylight for the landscape tours.

We went the first week in September and saw the northern lights about 3 times, we we quite surprised and would go that time of the year again.

Yes, late August to early October is the best time to combine some of the best of what Iceland has to offer. You can see northern lights any time it's dark, it doesn't have to also be horrible weather.

If you want to see the highlands, which are really the jewel in the crown of the Icelandic landscape, it has to be summer.

I believe the key is water, in Icelandic eruptions anyway. Eruptions underneath glaciers or under the sea are explosive eruptions and always produce ash. Something to do with the way the lava and the water interact, I'm not fully sure of the mechanics. Eyjafjallajökull is a glacier so it was an explosive eruption. The kinds of eruptions that have been happening since 2021 on Reykjanes are called effusive eruptions where lava just flows directly up to the surface and there's no ash.

Don't get excited about skyr, but be prepared for a local to bang on about it.

😆This is so true. Agree with everything you said @thecatsthecats

Also, prepare to hear a lot of genealogy info from your guides. Icelandic dating is very interesting!

And similar to NZ, they want you to be safe, so lots of stories about people wandering off and dying.

And I cannot recommend the penis museum highly enough. I spent twenty minutes giggling at the invisible goat penis alone. Second only to Froggyland in Croatia as museums go.

I found the Penis Museum quite creepy because the guy who collects the penises was there sort of staring at us. He is a weird guy. He made himself a tie out of whale penis skin.

Ah thanks, I have it in mind for a couple of years time when dd goes off to uni, to stave off the empty nest shock, so that timing should work well, I’ll fly out as soon as I’ve packed her off then!

My favourite way of going to Iceland is to sail on the 2 day ferry from Denmark that also stops at the Faroe Islands. It sails into the small eastern fjord town of Seyðisfjörður (used for the ferry sequences in the Icelandic thriller series "Trapped" for those of you who have seen it).

I remember the first time sailing into the steep-sided fjord that leads to Seyðisfjörður over 30 years ago with the puffins and seabirds swooping into the water right in front of the ferry to catch fish.

We're going to Reykjavik next months. How did this compare price-wise with others and did you take the included transport to get there or arrange something (cheaper)?