What's the best way to do Iceland?

[Tipsntoes]

I'd love to go but it's breathtakingly expensive and I gather even more so once you get there.

Is there a secret way to do it that's a bit more cost effective?

If I accept it's going to be £££, does anyone have any recommendations?

We hired a camper van with friends & had a driving holiday for 2 weeks. We kept the van hire cost down by going in the last 2 weeks before the tourist high season started. Also we were self contained so cooked all meals in the van & stayed in campgrounds or free camped occasionally if the campgrounds weren't open.

jenny much cheaper to hire a car. There is public transport in the city but you most likely can get about by foot unless you are quite a way out. The Golden Circle is a hell of a lot bigger and longer than I thought it would be and I would have found it boring on a coach - and down to Vik and the waterfall down there is a separate (longish) dive. The Blue Lagoon is quite near the airport so most people go there on the way to or back. I LOVED The Blue Lagoon. It snowed while we were there.

I don’t drive, Piggy! Just a question of whether it’s a location I’ll have to go to with a friend or whether it’s doable on my own. I definitely want to get out into the countryside though so it sounds as though a car is preferable.

Camper van sounds fantastic actually.

I'd definitely say you need a car to get about (or camper van!)

Not in Reykjavik itself though, which is a great place!

easyJet and a hostel. Alcohol is very expensive so try to avoid it. Self cater if possible so pick a hostel with kitchen facilities, then just eat out once a day.

I'd recommend a camper van too. We went 15 years ago in May, booked cheap easyJet flights and hired a 4 wheel drive camper for several days. We just did our own itinerary, travelling around the island, camping wherever and returning to Reykjavik on the last day. Bought food in the supermarket and cooked it ourselves. We had about 22 hours daylight - it never got completely dark. Apart from the possibility of seeing the northern lights, I can't see why anyone would go in winter - you'll only get a few hours daylight so not much good if you want to be able to see the scenery.

@gingerclementine which airbnb did you stay in? Sounds amazing. Would love to go with my family one Christmas

You can manage without a car for a short trip as there are organised excursions to a lot of the major sights near Reykjavik like Geysir.

If you stay in a hotel, pick one with a good breakfast buffet! We reverted to student days by absolutely loading up at breakfast and that took us through to early evening with just an afternoon snack no problem.

We found food was similar or slightly more expensive than the UK (we are used to London prices though), alcohol was extortionate, excursions OK prices, souvenirs and Icelandic crafts quite pricey but very good quality. If you knit, yarn is good value!

Hahaha student days . My SDH has never outgrown that attitude to hotel breakfasts!

We found it expensive in that there are no cheap alternatives - so prices may be similar to Waitrose, but without an Asda alternative being available, if that makes sense.

Eating out is easily £25 a head for burger and chips, and a beer out is minimum £7.

That said, it's doable. Do a supermarket shop at Bonus (there's one on the main shopping street, and several bigger ones round and about) to stock up on breakfasts and snacks. Avoid 10/11 as this was the most expensive shop.

Hiring a car was cheaper than airport coaches and excursions for two of us, and gave much more flexibility to spend time where we wanted to. We didn't need a 4WD for the Golden Circle in winter, though the weather was relatively mild when we were there. On street parking in Reykjavik was also surprisingly reasonable.

But some beer/wine at the duty free on the way in (and spot all the locals stocking up with trolleys full!)

If you go self catering, you could pack some basic foods in your bags - pasta and sachet sauces, instant porridge etc.

The local pools are brilliant - we chose not to do Blue Lagoon (I had been before, DH wasn't fussed), but the pools more than made up for it. We also found Fontana Laugurvatn reasonably priced (and lovely!) as a spa treat.

There's lots of places on AirBnB, although we ended up with somewhere through Booking.com. Most of central Reykjavik is pretty walkable.

Rainbow the one we stayed in is no longer an airbnb. I know because I hunted it down for ages for a friend I'd recommended it to and finally discovered the owner now lived there permanently. But there are loads of nice ones near the centre of Reykjavik.

Ds and gf did airbnb but found eating out eyewateringly expensive, even catering for themselves was not cheap. A tiny packet of mince was £15 . They did take out dry pasta etc in their suitcase, just in case.
They had a brilliant time but ds said it was the only place he has been wortied about enough money to eat.

I think he may have booked some of the trips from home before they went.

Tours can be expensive we did the husky sledging which was the highlight of the trip but it was £200 per person. Glacier walk and caving was also quite expensive. Staying in Vik to explore the south was a bit more reasonable.