So about this place called Iceland then.

[BoffinMum]

DS1 is thinking of studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at university and it has been mooted that we go to Iceland for our family holiday next year. However this is all I know about the place:

1. Beer is expensive.
2. It's near the Arctic Circle and there are no nights in the summer.
3. It smells of fish.
4. There is a cool sounding thing called Great Fish Day in August we probably want to go to.
5. People wallow in geothermal pools a lot.
6. Bjork.
7. Magnus Magnusson of Mastermind was from there.
8. They have a national gene database.
9. They had a banking crisis.

10. They eat whale and herrings.

I will have DCs aged 17, 14 and 6 and a DH who sleeps in every morning. We have hiking gear and we are used to Alps. We like wild swimming.

Any suggestions as to how best to organise things to make sure everyone has a lovely holiday? 1 or 2 weeks. Flying from a London airport probably.

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Planning a trip to Iceland? This thread is pretty old and some of the recommendations may be out of date. For a handy round-up of Mumsnetters’ advice on when to go, what to do, where to stay, and how to save a few pennies along the way, take a look at our guide to Iceland holidays. MNHQ.

We went in March twice and the weather is not dissimilar to the west of UK, wettish and a bit windy, with sunny spells i don't think Reykjavik gets really really cold either, a bit like here. We took the same clothes as we would wear in the Lake District, waterproofs and walking boots.

There is a geothermal beach in reykavik where the water in the sea is at 20°c in the summer. It's used by locals rather than tourists and is inexpensive - you can hire towels. You can get the bus from the city centre.

Supermarkets sell sweets at half price on Saturday. Across this country. How cool is that?

The ring road is great. But if you can hire a vehicle to take you inland a bit for some camping that's even better.

Everyone knows everyone. If you want to hire a car you can go through the big firms at the airport or ask at ypur hotel and the manager will know a friend who does car hire (and practically anything else)

Eating out is expensive. Buying from supermarkets is a much cheaper way to each but do look at individual prices before putting stuff in the trolley as some imported food is much more expensive than you would expect. Buy duty free to take with you!

Don't go to ice bars in central reykavik unless you want to be royally ripped off.

Skyr is wonderful. And cheap. Other icelandic cuisine can be a bit ahem specialist.

In the summer you can get an Iceland camping card which is a very economical way to tour, particularly if you are doing the ring road. If you are camping you can easily hire a tent and camping equipment. (Just ask the first random Icelander if he knows where you can hire stuff and he'll have a friend who hires camping kit... I'm only partially joking)

Before you go, learn how to pronounce the alphabet. Everyone speaks English but it really helps when you're trying to get around.

The black volcanic beach at vik and the rock formations nearby are like nothing else on earth - well worth a visit.

The bus tours are a bit odd but better than nothing if you don't have your own transport.

Thanks for those tips Jim, I'll be using them when I go back next year.

Sounds a bit like Germany in that the local swim in all sorts of wild swimming places and you have to work out where they all are.

Bit perturbed about the driving. Happy to hire a jeep but what if we have a car problem in the middle of nowhere?

I think we will also learn some Icelandic before we go. It will be good for DS1 anyway.

Anyone seen that brilliant series, The Night Shift, by the way?

If you go into the interior on your own you might get in trouble but if you're in holiday season then lots of people go camping so you won't be far away from help. And if you're on the ring road and the car breaks down then it won't be hard to get help.

If you want to learn icelandic there is a free online course that's quite good and you can buy a book and cd to teach yourself too. It really surprises locals if you attempt to talk icelandic!

Actually I would say it could be an issue if you did break down in the interior if you are in the more remote places. We travelled for hours from the Highlands heading to Asjka without passing a soul In either direction.

Also you can get the usual car damage insurance but not ( or certainly not at a reasonable price ) engine damage due to water. There is a particular way to cross a fjord ( point car down water, keep traction but don't go to fast otherwise you create a bow wave!)once water gets in the engine, your knackered!! Bloody nerve wracking IMO!

On our way out of Akureyi a car had broke down and some one had stopped. We stopped to help as well. We were english, the people who had broken down were Russian and the other people helping were French. We just about managed to get them to a campsite!!

We went a couple of years ago with our DD who was 16 at the time. Loved it. Would definitely go again.

Can't add much to what has already been said except:

• Agree with whoever mentioned "Discover The World". They organized our trip and we found them very knowledgeable and great at tailoring things to suit what we wanted. Can definitely recommend them very highly.

• Go in to the duty free at Reykjavik airport before leaving that bit of the airport as it is the last chance you will get to buy alcohol at anything resembling a reasonable price.

• Blue Lagoon might be expensive but if you have limited time (we were only there 4 nights) and can't get to any similar it is bloody good fun.

• We saw the penis museum! Didn't go in but gobsmacked 16 yo DD took a photograph to show her friends

Big pack of goodies from the Travel Agent has arrived which is impressively inspiring! Although the pictures of singed sheep's head look a bit like a Mafioso dinner party. Apparently these heads make a good packed lunch. I would like to see the reaction if I sent DS3 into primary school with that in his Spiderman lunchbox, I tell you.

We went a couple of years ago but in winter so only 6 hours of day light. Fantastic place, great food (don't leave without trying Icelandic lamb OMG tis amazing). I quite enjoyed blue lagoon we did it on the last day and you can arrange to be pick up by coach from your hotel, dropped at the lagoon, leave luggage with coach and then be picked up and dropped at airport.

We went on organised 4x4 trips which were eye wateringly expensive but saw some amazing things.

Iceland air was a great to fly with too.

I would love to take the dc's there one day.

Funny you should say that. I have to say I am nervous about driving around, so the idea of organised tours really appeals. We did this in Antigua and if you get the right people taking you they can be amazing and inspiring.

We booked ours through the tourist information centre whilst we were there in Reykjavik and they were so helpful. We did two the first one was a big 4x4 type minibus/monster truck type thing and although we saw some great things I preferred the second one which was a guide with a land rover and there was just five of us on the tour. We were out for ten hours and the guides local knowledge was fantastic (I usually find tour guides a snooze fest!) it felt much more personal and we definitely got to go a bit more off piste as it were and he took a few unscheduled stops if we started pointing out bits we were interested in.

We also did snow mobiling on a glacier which was amazing but tbh scared me shitless cause they kept telling how dangerous it was if you didn't follow the flags as you could drop down a crevice I couldn't see bugger all with the mist and they are harder to drive than I thought they would be.

Oh god, DH wanted to do the snowmobiling!

Maybe you can find a nice standard issue, snow covered mountain rather than a glacier? I don't even look cool in the photos, the big snow suits just make you look like a Michelin man.

Well there need to be fashion considerations.

I don't think fashion considerations come into it once you leave Reykjavik!!

Fabulous place.

Although a PP poster said not to bother with whale watching and I would disagree with that. We went in June 11 years ago and went whale watching (no Mum, not whaling, whale watching - gah) on a little boat and it was AMAZING. We got to see loads of whales and because the boat was small, it could go quickly to where they were.

But it wasn't the whales that were the most amazing. It was the puffins. Seeing a full bellied puffin trying to take off after his dinner is the funniest thing in the whole world. Fact. And did you know they mate for life? Only the men are known for a bit of carousing if the missus hasn't arrived back from wherever they've migrated to for a while. They go round "visiting" waiting women who are happy to entertain them! And they have two rooms in their nests - one for living in and one for rubbish!

I LOVE puffins

YY to Gullfoss, and all the other things mentioned. My mother would still be floating in the Blue Lagoon if we let her. there's also a waterfall that you can walk behind that was amazing.

Your hair does smell a bit from the sulphur in the hot water but you get used to that after a day or so.

Marking my place on this thread as ds wants to be a volcano scientist when he grows up, so Iceland sounds like our kinda place. BUT DH is a wheelchair user. What I'm hearing is there's a lot of driving (fine) and I'm guessing quite a lot that can be seen from the road?

There can be a lot of driving..
As I said in my first post we decided to get an overview of the island and next time we go back concentrate on an area.

However if you don't mind driving there is a lot to see.
Clearly getting up volcanoes and going on glaciers would be a problem but getting close to the geyser wouldn't be (imo)
Just driving round is fascinating. In the north there is the mud fields and there are decking platforms that pedestrians/wheelchair users go on.
As I said driving from the Highlands to Askja is amazing because you can go for hours without seeing anyone in such a strange landscape.

After a while the lumps of lava can play tricks on your mind and this is where some of the myths about trolls have come from!

Don't let being in a wheelchair put your DH off going.

Fabulous country.

I want to see Puffins now. They sound like a bird version of my teenage DS's, with their room for rubbish and room for them.

you can eat puffin too in some restaurants over there.

Noooooooo!!
I was in the Puffin Club you know. It would be like cannibalism.

Although I was also in the Puffin Club, frankly I would rather nosh one than a bloody fermented shark. However, optimally both would be avoided :)

Just in case anyone picks this thread up for information about disabled travel, I found this useful link and this site says it can hire wheelchairs and scooters and whatnot in Iceland, which is very helpful. I do appreciate hiking is probably not an option but compared to many places Iceland sounds doable.

Tbh it didn't taste that great.