Iceland - anyone been with children?

[swedishmum]

We're thinking of going next weekend, staying in Reykjavik and hiring a car. Any recommendations?

Or without children? We're going on Friday for a long weekend.

I've been! But ages ago, and with no kids.

How was it? Where did you go?

Oh, and DS1 really wants to go there. There's a great enormous swimming complex in the east end of Reykjavik. Car rental is really expensive and kinda not worth it unless you want to hike.

And there's a great Argentinian restaurant in Reykjavik.

FAbulous restaurant in Reykjavik called Jonathon Seagull or Livingstone Seagull or somethink like that. A while since I was there, but it was great!

Blue lagoon, obviously. All the geysers too.

I sometimes go with the kids if we run out of milk, there is one quite near us.

It was fantastic. We went whale watching, saw geysers, big waterfall, volcano, craters, blue lagoon (wonderful) and stood over the crack in the tectonic plates between Eurasia and America. Weather was superb. The food was ridiculously expensive though - fine for a couple of days but with 4 kids would have resorted to starving them! Stayed in a tourist Radisson (Park Inn) which was a little way out of town but we had a car. At least the breakfast buffet kept them going most of the day.

(MrsSpoon...I was going to post similar...! )

Yeah, the food is very pricey (and bad) and the booze is also quite expensive.

Pizza 67 is survivable, and fast food places aren't dire. Oh, and a nice vegetarian restaurant.

What sort of whales did you see? Where did you catch the boat, I thought you had to go up near Akureri (sp) to get one? (We only saw dolphins in Iceland.)

That crack in the plates is way cool.

Which high waterfall? The one near Geysir, and that town full of smelly greenhouses? There's a tall one near there, and a wide one in the east (and little ones all over the place).

We saw minke whales and got the boat from the harbour in Reykjavik. DD1 saw about 12. I spent half the time downstairs with the toddler as it was too rough to be safe with her up in deck. The waterfall was Gullfoss near Geysir and it was spectacular as it was still partly frozen.

We had a fantastic but v expensive meal at a fish restaurant (Tvea fiskar) - adds up now the kids are older! I thought the Blue Lagoon was great value at about £30 for all of us (6) and it included lockers, shampoo, mud for your face (plus they gave kids Easter Eggs). Also hotel was good - £60 per room including breakfast. Rooms were big and we had 3 per room.

LOL HM, was feeling very norty last night.