Iceland day trips

[Tiggermad]

Visiting Iceland next March. Staying in Reykjavik.
can anyone recommend what trips to do for the 3 days ?
wed like to do Circle tour but can’t decide Blue Lagoon or South tour ?
There for 3 nights but it’s only really 2 full days.

When we went we hired a car so we could see things at our own pace. Also meant we could go out of Reykjavík after dark to look for the Northern lights. There is an app that tells you when the are likely to be visible. The golden circle is really good. There is the Sky Lagoon in Reykjavik which was also really good.

South coast! Far far better than the golden circle in my opinion. I suggest a golden circle tour that includes either the secret lagoon or similar. Then a south coast tour.

forget the Blue Lagoon.

enjoy! I adore Iceland- our 9th trip coming up in February

We did the shorter golden circle tour one day (think it had 3 stops, about 5/6 hours) and sky lagoon another day (really nice and would definitely recommend). Both booked with Reykavik Excursions. The Perlan museum and Lava show in Reykavik were both good too. Alot of Reykavik can be covered on foot, it’s fairly small and easily walkable.

We liked the Super Jeep tour. You won’t get good weather in March so choose carefully. Blue Lagoon can close due to geothermal activity. South Iceland has black volcanic beaches but there’s other areas that make more sense. Snaefelness peninsular for example.

We did golden circle tour which stopped at secret lagoon, much nicer than Blue as less commercial. Also did south coast which was amazing, wanted to do the tomato place but couldn’t, and had some time in Rek, wander around, cathedral etc.

Watch the episode of 'Travel Man' which does 48hrs in Iceland.

We went in Dec, just pre covid so appreciate things might have changed.

The Blue Lagoon is between the airport and Reykjavik, so rather than make a specific trip, we went en-route to the airport before we left. They had luggage lockets and were set up for this.

There is likely less snow in Mar, but we used Grayline coaches to do the Golden Cirlce trip, northern lights and Blue Lagoon. DH and I have travelled a great deal, and a coach tour is normally our idea of hell! We were staying on a main shopping road in Reykjavik and didn't fancy driving in the heavy snow nor trying to find parking, so on this trip, the coach was very easy. I can't comment on the south tour.

We did walk around Reykjavik itself. I enjoyed the National Museum of Iceland, sun voyager sculpture, church and strangely the penis musuem. All this and more was easily done in 1 day.

We did a Golden Circle food tour a few years ago. It was excellent and, given the amount and variety of food we got, good value. It included a visit to the greenhouses for tomato based snacks and a traditional Icelandic house for authentic traditional food as well as a dairy for ice cream and a full lunch.

I would also highly recommend the brewery tour. It’s much more than just a look at a brewery, it explains the history of alcohol in Iceland. DO NOT drive to it! It involves a lot of drinking.

Fly over rekyjavik is ace. It’s next door to the lava show. Golden circle tour with kerrid crater. The crater is unbelievable.

We only had just under 3 days in total, and did it on the cheap, and knew we would have to come back to do it better for longer because the distances are great for tours unless you want to be up with the larks and back late. A few things that helped

• we bought a Reykjavik pass, we were at the Hilton as Diamonds (excellent btw) as we knew it was slightly out of town and we mainly got the bus around (great) and then walked in the fairly compact city centre
• we booked in advance a car to take us from KEF to town as we knew we did not have much time, it was 90 euro, I don't love transfer buses and rather than pay for the airport fly bus (fine apparently, but £50 for two) and then have to get to the hotel itself, felt it worth the money. We actually got the local bus back to airport because we had time, which was OK, but stops everywhere
• On the pass we did Videy Island, which we liked, would not suit all
• Very lucky to see Christian Marclay's the Clock film in National Gallery of Iceland, went twice actually
• Did other main sites (cathedral, museums and sites in town etc.)
• Really enjoyed public thermal baths ( I think Laugardaslaug) near hotel and included in pass, as are about 7 others. Helped that we were there in June and it was hot day but it was a place full of locals, not insta tourists. The thermal pools are hot.

Airport is actually quite nice and it was an easy trip from EDI with a great flight home over the South of Iceland and then over the Scottish Highlands. We ended up staying in airport Marriott, due to early departure, which we spent over £230 on (even then you cannot walk to airport, but fair enough shuttle bus) and although nothing wrong with it, it was soulless, expensive, small room, and there is very nothing nearby (there is a LIDL about 20 mins walk but it would be a grim one in anything other than glorious June) Hope this helps x

When were there the Blue Lagoon tour from our cruise ship was fully booked. So we took a taxi to and from the Sky Lagoon. It was a fantastic experience. Here is the link: https://www.skylagoon.com/is/
When we got back and compared notes with other travellers who had done the Blue Lagoon trip it seemed that we had the nicer time and better experience.
Iceland is fantastic and I’d love to go back! It’s not cheap!!