Iceland in January

[Rowdythree]

We are a family of 2 adults, an 18yo and two pre teens, and have booked a week in Reykjavik in January, hopefully to see the Northern lights. Are there any other must see sights for families in Iceland? Also can anyone recommend a good tour operator for Northern light spotting?

We used this company elding.is for both a northern lights cruise and whale watching from Reykjavik. I’d also recommend The Blue Lagoon, Strokkur and Gullfoss.

Pre- covid, we went there in Dec (no kids though). There were multiple tours available from Reykjavik which were well organised and of various hours long. It was very heavy in snow and I'm glad we didnt decide to hire a car and drive outselves. One day we did Gulfoss- a massive waterfall, like a semi frozen niagra falls, geysir and another stop. There was a longer version of this tour- but those were the main things we wanted to see. From memory, sunrise wasn't till 11am and it set by 2-3pm so bare this in mind- that if you choose a longer tour- you may not see anything!

www.re.is/

We used the same company for a northern lights tour- cant recall the name. You will see amazing, colourful photos of the northern lights- but some of these are photoshopped. What I actually saw with the naked eye- was no where near as colourful as what I had imagined and was really disappointing. When we got home though and saw the photos we had taken, the pics had come out really well and much brighter and clearer than what we saw on the night.

I know you asked about tours, but the following might be helpful.
We went to the penis museum (only one in world) which was rather amusing! Its in Reykjavik itself. Also walk to the National Museum of Iceland which was fascinating. Children under 18 are free.

Even in heavy snow, I saw locals wearing jeans and a jumper! I wore ski salopettes with long johns underneath, ear muffs, gloves and multiple layers under a ski jacket.

The Viking Museum, Whale Museum (in the harbour), the Golden Circle (you can book coach tours), go up the cathedral to the top (amazing views) and the museum about the volcanic eruptions is also interesting.

This is a good Aurora forecast page. You just need the number to be 3 or above, it to be dark and no cloud cover. Check out good settings on your phones or cameras for aurora. Some people are better at seeing them with the naked eye than others when weak especially but if you look for kind of 'silvery wispy milky way type' things then point your camera at them and see if they show up in green. We found they kind of developed and grew over the course of five or ten minutes, then went. Although you are meant to look September to April, away from streetlights and after its thoroughly dark, we saw them in August, in town, surrounded by streetlights when it was only just getting dark. Aurora don't obey the rules...

en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/

There's lots of useful Facebook groups like travel Iceland or similar, so many past tips and itineraries. I don't know much about January so not sure of your best choices, you will have completely different options to us - we did the ring road in summer - Reykjavík (snowmobiling trip), hike to the Fagradalsfjall Volcano/lava flow (recently active), Golden Circle we kind of passed through too quick, Vik (ziplining, black sand beach, glacier kayaking), Diamond beach, Eastfjords, Viti crater, Hverir, Grotagja cave, Godafoss waterfall, Whale watching in Akureyri, the tectonic plate rift in Thingvellir National Park (not thrilling but interesting history) Blue Lagoon. Loved all of it.

Thank you for all the tips and links, they will all be very helpful. Snowmobiling sounds amazing, that's something I hadn't considered, and the museums all sound interesting, particularly the penis museum!

Interesting to read about actually viewing the Northern lights, and what we can expect to see. We even booked our trip by looking at the phase of the moon in order to try and maximise our chances of seeing them, it's good to have realistic expectations though.

@MarmiteCoriander I'm glad you mentioned clothes, because that's another thing I'm wondering about. What level of coldness will we be experiencing, and what on earth should we all pack!?

They’ve been very visible and bright from Scotland the last 2 nights. With the right atmospheric conditions they’re easily visible without fancy lenses.

These aren't the actual boots I wore there, but similar. Gave me grip in the snow, comfy for walking in the city all day and warm enough too.

www.sportsdirect.com/karrimor-glacier-womens-snow-boots-276112#colcode=27611203

When we went several years ago, alcohol was VERY expensive. There was a shop within the airport, on arrival, you can buy duty free though. If you wanted a bottle of the local drop brennivin, wine, spirits etc, its was the cheapest place to purchase- before you leave the airport and cheaper than the shops in Reykjavik.