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 This thread is pretty old and some of the recommendations may be out of date.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.

Can anyone describe fermented shark for me? How it tastes?

Ds says it smells bad, is rubbery and doesnt have much flavour.

WE are thinking of going next summer, but taking the car and camping.We would cross to Amsterdam then drive to Denmark and spend about 5 days there and then get the ferry to Iceland and about a week there .Then make the long journey home.
We have 4 children, 3 of which are teenagers , so using our own people carrier and camping gear would offset the huge ferry fare of about £2500!!

I was considering that route until I saw the £2500 price tag!!

Troble is it would cost us that much to hire a car big enough in Iceland sad

Queen, what if you contacted a school trip company and asked them to do you an economy tour package? Would that work?

We are a family of six as well, but I have told DD she can't come as the car hire would probably be too expensive!! She is 27 though.

Queen, we should all go together ... with 12 people it's practically a school trip anyway Any other takers? A MN school trip to Iceland??

Bejaysus, it's more than £600 to hire an Aygo for a fortnight. OMAG.

Tbh compared to the cost of the day trips that's good value. DH and I did 2 full day 4x4 tours and it was £800.

I think you have to accept that Iceland is never going to be cheap. You can cut corners but its never going to be a budget holiday. It's a holiday of expierences.

If you do take your own car you can have a fantastic time but you will miss out on a lot of amazing places in the interior ( unless of course you have a big 4x4 wheel drive!) as regular cars are restricted to the orbital road.

£600 for a car is not bad. We paid around £700 last year for a Grand Cherokee and it was great. Just becareful crossing rivers!

I wasn't expecting cheap, but at the moment it's looking like a holiday there in budget hotels will cost more than taking the family to New York! Am I wrong?

Maybe the compromise is to go for 5 days/ a week rather than a fortnight. We only went for 5 days but crammed in loads of stuff.

I've never been to NY so I've never worked out costings.
I can give you a rough guide to what we paid though for 2 teenagers and 2 adults.
Accomadation in hostels once a shared room ( we couldn't make it to the town we were heading for so took anywhere) between £110 and £200 a night.

Meals out were around £120 for burger and chips 3 x beer and a coke. We tended only to eat out at night and got the rest of the food and snacks from Budget. ( like Aldi or Netto) and about 3 lunch times.

Flights was about £900

Fuel was £250
Around of drinks was about 40 quid.
We took our own sleeping bags so that saved quiet a bit.
These prices are from August 2013.
I can't think of many incidentals that we paid for. parking was free except in Reykavik. The waterfalls, mud fields, geysirs and volcano walks were all spectacular and free

I'm hoping to go back next year.

Maybe it could be cheaper if you based yourself in hostel or hotel in one place and just concentrated on that locality. You won't have as much fuel costs, may not need a 4 wheel drive.

Once I got there I knew I just had to roll with the prices to be honest and not sweat it. To me there is no point going on holiday and watching every penny.it just makes a miserable expierence for everyone. It took me 6 months to save for it but it was worth it. ( it wasn't our main holiday as we had been to Austria in the February - now that WAS expensive!)

I made a mistake with the costings! ( for the better)
3 beers and a coke was about £16/17. We would have 2 or 3 rounds at night so that's where I got 40 quid from.

To be honest a lot of the prices were similar to some of the ski resorts we stopped in. I was paying near enough the same amount for burger and chips or a round of drinks in the Fench Alps in Febrary!

Blimey! I just noticed that I had compared skiing in both posts!!

It's probably cheaper to go to Iceland than skiing.

I went on a group holiday there 17 years ago and it was amazing, the lagoon with the icebergs in was the highlight for me, also walking through still warm lava fields in the NE. Oh and seeing the trail of destruction from a massive volcanic eruption under one of the glaciers the year before. Oh and the waterfalls, and the geysers. Would love to go back one day.

I am currently thinking about home swaps. Anyone done this?