Iceland in December - tips please

[CrazyCatLady159]

Hi!
Going Iceland in December for 4 days. Have hired a car so will be doing the golden circle, chasing the northern lights & have booked the blue lagoon for our final day before heading back to the airport.

Does anyone have any tips / food places etc that we haven't thought of
Thanks!

Want to add to the recommendation not to drive in Iceland unless you are a very good and experienced off road driver. We had a car booked when we went, my OH is a confident driver, we live rurally and he drives a big truck thing but he cancelled the car hire when he saw the roads! Hire cars abandoned everywhere! Road closed signs everywhere when outside of Rekjavik, we did have severe snowfall when we were there however. Enjoy it's a beautiful place.

Also I'd recommend this place for dinner. And cheaper beer at happy hour!

bryggjanbrugghus.is/

I went in March a few years ago and the driving was scary. South Coast had a few inches of snow. Roads around Reykjavik are heated I think, so driving there will be fine. Maybe the golden circle too? They have a really good road website where they update the traffic, weather and closures.

Road.is is the website

There's a pancake cafe at the bottom of the street leading up to the church, tucked away in the corner. It was amazing.

Bars are open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and 1am the rest of the week. Lots of cool ones to check out. We liked Bastard (micro brewery that we only went into for the name), Dillon's (they had live jazz on upstairs the night we went), which is a must visit if you like whiskey. Boston, next door to Dillon had a relaxed and local feel to it, more of a locals boozer than a gastro pub.

In the bookshop on Laugavegar there is a coffee shop upstairs. Reasonably priced tea and coffee in a relaxed environment, good for watching Reykjavik go by.

Coffee shop

Driving in Iceland was fierce even in July and you will probably have to take out lots of extra insurance for the hire car.
Iceland is a beautiful, unique, other worldly country but is so expensive.
If you drink stop up at Reykjavik airport on duty free in arrivals. Alcohol prices are similar to here in that shop.

Visit the Secret Lagoon as well as the Blue Lagoon. I loved both and blue Lagoon is a must imo. But the secret lagoon is so different. Just a basic large natural pool with hot springs pumping into it. There's a bar. You can have a drink and then just swim and flat or sit on a rock. We went after dark (not hard in December and watched the stars and the steam floating up. It was other-worldly.

Other tips - the municipal outdoor pools in Rekjavik are so cheap they are almost free. Highly recommended. We loved the big one near the coast with a very long slide and mini pools where you can play floating chess. There was also a brilliant hot sausage and onion place around the corner that DH found, in a little row of shops.

Climbing Hallgrimskirk tower is good fun. Great photos.

Spend time hanging out in Rekjavik. They are so friendly. We wandered into a record store and spent half the day there. the owner brought us coffees and chocolates and put on music we liked and we sat on his sofas reading and sketching. It felt like being with good friends for the afternoon. Another place roasted its own coffee and the (very handsome) young owners gave DC a tour of how all the machines worked and let them operate some. Everywhere you go people smile. It was so lovely.

We had a fantastic meal at a restaurant called Resto. Bit pricey but the food was incredible. Best meal I've ever had for a fraction of top London prices.

The only off-license in Rekjavik is actually reasonably priced - same as UK> We were amazed. Given how expensive booze is in cafes there. if you drink, I recommend buying wine or beer there instead of at dinner and just have a night cap or an aperitif.

I agree about Golden Circle driving. Too dnagerous and many roads are closed. I'd book a tour (there's a great one that includes the secret lagoon.)

Thanks for the tips everyone!

These photos look amazing!!!!
I've wrote down all the places everyone has said so I can pitch some ideas to the others

As I already said, I've booked the hire car and I'm going to be driving; especially as it's not just myself who will be driving; I've booked the full insurance etc; so I appreciate everyone's opinions that they wouldn't drive - but I'm going to and if I decide not too then I can always fall back on tours at the worst way.

sorry to jump in.....can anyone reccomend any tour companys that would organise everything in Iceland for us? not very confident about doing it all myself ! thanks

I wen last December .

Take snacks . Food is expensive, pop some alcohol either in duty free.

We did secret lagoon it was lovely.

Also went into the glacier , that was spectacular but very cold ( unsurprisingly)

Plenty of thermal socks .

We did the northern lights on a boat.

We booked all our tours through hotel reception . Guy was really knowledgeable.

Also you can buy a ticket on plane to take you to hotel this was the cheapest way of doing it I think.

You don have to do it yourself reception will be able to go through options . Eg mini bus , coach . We did the golden circle on mini bus far more personal and glacier on coach .

Tour guides are highly trained there so you will be fine whoever you go with. They use a Sats lire bus station so everyone is collected from their hotels then put in the relevant bus .

Also we found a supermarket in Reykjavík called bonus . It’s a cheap supermarket if you need to pick up bits

We hired a car and it was really easy. Just make sure you know how to drive in snow and pelting rain. The hire car company gave us a satnav pre-programmed with all the tourist spots as favourites because the Icelandic alphabet can make entering place names tricky. There was a built in commentary in English once you reached the Golden Circle so it told you about everything you were seeing as you drive. It told ghost stories and the famous Sagas which was very eerie in the gloomy light passing little villages.

I've never been to the blue lagoon- there's a thermal pool and spa just outside of Reykjavik which is far nicer and costs around £20 instead of £40+ for the blue lagoon. But I really recommend using the public swimming pools- they are as cheap as the U.K. and have naturally heated outdoor pools and hot tubs with varying temperatures.

I agree with PPs about the northern lights tours- they are excellent and they will constantly check the forecast and get you to the best place.

Highly recommend www.rokrestaurant.is/ for dinner. Lovely atmosphere and great food. It's up by the Church.

We went in December and hired a car and found it fine. We stuck to the main tourist routes and allowed plenty of time for journeys.

Laugurvatn Fontana is a gorgeous, gorgeous spa. I found the Blue Lagoon overcrowded and not particularly exciting.

The public pools in Reykjavik are lovely and well worth a visit.

Bonus is the cheaper of the supermarkets and useful for stocking up on bits and pieces, but still expensive compared to UK. But alcohol in the airport before you leave - there’s a big duty free in arrivals that’s always full of locals

Eating out is essentially £25 a head minimum for even a fairly big standard meal. There’s a food hall I can’t remember the name of on Laugurvegur that is cool.

At Thingvellir make sure you make time to explore the bottom. Most of the tours only stop at the top and don’t give very long. It is truly my favourite place on Earth.

On road parking in Reykjavik is surprising easy and relatively cheap.

I adore Iceland!

This is the website that forecasts the aurora en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/

Tours can be good but run regardless of the forecast. The lights are less frequent than people would have you believe. We were there a week and the activity was low to minimal every night. We saw nothing.

That time of year you’re looking at 10am-3pm for ‘daylight’.

Went in 2015, tour called into the glacier (langjokull) was the best thing I did. I think it was quite expensive but it was like being on another planet. At the top of the glacier there is a chapel carved into the glacier which is beautiful. When we reached the top it was a blizzard and I’ve mever felt cold like it. It felt like needles hitting your face. Iceland is amazing I’d love to go back.

@Backintime4breakfast you can do it all at any hotel reception. They will advise on tours and book anything you want. For the coach tours they send out minibuses to all the hotels to bring people to the coach station and they will drop you back at the hotel afterwards. We found that even taxi drivers are very happy to point things out to you and give you facts about the country.

We drove in February and it was fine. And I loved the Blue Lagoon! It's popular for a reason!

One thing you may read about is the plane wreck on the beach that you can visit. Just a warning - it is a very long, monotonous walk to get there (and back) and it was hugely overcrowded when we went so impossible to get any photos without other people in. So you may want to give that a miss unless you are desperate to see it.

In general you will have an amazing time just driving around. The scenery and weather are so varied that there is always something beautiful to look at.

Agree with everyone else that food and drink are super expensive. Take your own gin for a G&T before dinner each evening

We are going 8-13 th December , my Icelandic friend has warned us not to hire a car, it will be stressful and possibly dangerous for us to drive there in December

We have booked a golden circle tour for one day - 10 hours small group

We are having a day ourselves in Reykjavik combined with a 6pm trip that goes to a thermal bath and hopefully u can see northern lights again small tour.

Also a day out on glacier to go on snow mobiles

Wow! Thank you everyone - I forgot I had started this and come back to it with loads of replies

Clothes wise - is it really freezing? Any tips for things I might forget to take?
I'm looking into getting a good quality parka coat as the one I have now isn't waterproof or keeping me dry in the UK!

Again, thank you, everyone for all the little tips!

You will need thermals, hat, scarf, gloves and warm socks and waterproof boots. It was cold in July, it must be freezing in the winter.

Don't book northern lights tours until you get there. If the weather is poor you don't get a refund. I went for 3 days in January and none of the tours ran because of the cloudy conditions.

Download the 'appy hour' app....it directs you to to all the happy hours and makes eating and drinking that bit cheaper.

Most restaurants have lunchtime specials.....same menu as the evening but much cheaper.

Enjoy! Reykjavik is fabulous.

It was -20 when we were there, it took your breath away it was so cold. Most of the pavements outside the v centre of Rekjavik weren't cleared so you need good waterproof boots, I bought little grips for the bottom of mine which were a godsend. We were stuck for an extra night when coming home due to the airport being closed due to high winds, not sure how typical the weather was when we were there