Iceland

[Jopo12]

I'm hoping to convince my DH that we should go on a trip to Iceland this year. I'd love to hear from others who've been to learn what's worth doing, what time of year is best, whether it's better to book a holiday with tours, or self-book everything individually etc.

What's Reykjavik like to visit? My DS aged 13 isn't a fan of museums or art galleries.

Neither DH nor DS are outdoorsy so wouldn't do hiking or climbing but are likely to try the hot springs.

Thanks for any tips.

DH and I went in Dec pre covid- so appreciate things might have changed a lot now and at other times of the year will be different. We booked our own flights and hotel and then on arrival some bus tours. We only stayed I think 5 days, 4 nights but didn't feel we'd missed anything. Obviously, you can always see more, but I felt we saw the main things we wanted to. In summer, you could likely travel further afield easier.

-Days were short in Dec- sunrise about 11am and setting about 3pm from memory, but the shops stayed open and it didn't feel depressive. The Christmas lights were lovely.
-We did a golden circle bus tour. We aren't the type to ever do an organised bus tour, but they were very well organised and we didn't fancy hiring a car and driving in heavy snow.
-We did a northern lights bus trip one night. The camera picks up far more of the images than you see with your eye which I wasn't expecting
-Also did the blue lagoon en-route back to the airport. Even DH loved it and it was SO relaxing before the flight
-Alcohol is expensive, but when we went, you could buy it from a shop in the airport in arrivals, but before leaving the airport and it was apparently cheaper than buying in Reykjavik
-We do enjoy museums with the national museum and Penis museum being highlights.
-Even just walking around Reykjavik we found interesting. The lake, sun voyager sculpture and walking past the cemetery to the museum. Sounds odd, but with the snow, it felt rather magical.
-We stayed in an aparthotel with a kitchenette, so could have breakfast/snacks etc in our room if we wanted. There was a supermarket not far. Warning, 'Sunny milk' is not milk for tea/coffee but some sort of soured, yoghurt drink 😝

I went last year in June, when it never gets really dark for long Easyjet do amazingly cheap flights from Edinburgh and it is only a 2.5 hour flight from there. My observations. It is expensive and large, so you need to work out what you want to do, and where you want to stay, and how you move about. It isn't like anywhere else, it is un-worldly at times, barren, remote. We pre-ordered a car from the airport (excellent) for about 95e, it is miles out, there are buses but book on, they are not cheap. We stayed at the Hilton Nordica, and whereas it was expensive, I'm diamond and got the brekky and exec lounge thrown in, and the exec lounge was superb, so we had our dinner there. We also got a Reykjavik pass, and although most of the stuff was fine, it got you access to all of the thermal pools in R and I suspect some of these are at least as good as the Blue Lagoon, but just not instagrammable enough or as difficult to get to. We went on the ferry to Videy, which was nice. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, glad that I went, not sure I will go back, I am not sure a 13 year old would find it to their suiting either. We saw Christian Marclay's "The Clock" when we were there, and it left such an impression, we went twice. I liked my time there, and it was unusual, but that really, and don't forget that we only did R really. It did leave a lasting impression though. HTH x

Iceland is amazing, but possibly not if you're not outdoorsy or into museums, that's kind of what it does best. The landscapes are just other worldly.

There isn't one single time of year that's best to visit because it's so different throughout the year, winter for northern lights, summer for long days, autumn, I think for whale watching. If you're not used to it, you might find all the outdoor bathing in winter too cold (the water is warm/hot but obviously it could be icy cold/snowing). Plus not everything is accessible all year round, eg I wanted to visit Videy but the ferries are seasonal so not running when we went.

In Reykjavik, we liked the pond, waterfront, Perlan museum, big relief map of Iceland in the town hall and just wandering around. We also went on the Golden Circle tour and whale watching. The map in the town hall illustrated how, while it felt that we'd seen loads, we'd only actually travelled round a tiny corner of the country, it's not somewhere you can tick off as having 'done' in a single mini break, like you wouldn't think that if you've spent a few days in London that you've experienced the whole of England.

We booked the tours locally, it was all very easy and well organised. A lot of them had a guarantee where if you didn't see the northern lights/any whales, you could go again for free, so possibly don't do what we did and book the trip the day before you left - we didn't see any whales, but couldn't go again as we were leaving for the airport first thing next day.

I went in July with my teenage son (don't think I'd go in winter). We stayed at the Grand Hotel in Rekjavik which had an amazing buffet breakfast which kept us going all day (this was 2019). The city is fascinating for walking around - go to the cathedral and the concert hall. I also took him to the penis museum! We went on a couple of coach tours but I believe it's really easy to hire a car and drive yourself around so probably easier and cheaper for you. I love the outdoors and geography etc. We also did Blue Lagoon but there are lots of other pools which are just as good apparently and less touristy.

Currently here! Ive been seven times. We have friends in the north so just stay with them which is an experience no tour can replicate.

its expensive. You’ve got to budget for simple food to cost enormous amounts.

Weve done road trips, local excursions in the north but haven’t done any thing Reykjavik based as like I said we stay with Icelandic friends in the north and drive around. Road trip around the ring road swimming in the sundlaugs - exqusite

We went in May a few years ago. We did a glacier tour (it’s a big manmade one used for research as well), the ice caves have melted by then. The usual golden circle tour. Whale and puffin watching. Reykjavik is nice for a wander. We stayed there and did day tours. I would love to see more of it - a friend has done a driving holiday round the edge.

it isn’t really a museumy place to me - there are a few quirky ones - punk museum in a public toilet, a penis museum. We did go to a whale museum (as well as the punk one)

its expensive. You’ve got to budget for simple food to cost enormous amounts

We mitigated the cost by buying some alcohol at the airport - there's a huge duty free that you pass through exiting arrivals. I paid £12 for a bottle of cava/prosecco and DP paid similar for 50 cl of coffee liqueur. We don't really drink wine with dinner, but found that wine and red meat was the most expensive, which we don't really have normally anyway. Fish soup, Nepalese and tapas were not hugely more expensive than the UK.

Groceries were 50-100% more than the UK. But cheaper to buy nice food from the supermarket than eat out, obviously.

Or if you want coffee and cake, or a coffee shop sandwich for lunch, we found they were actually cheaper than UK chain coffee shops and much better quality. Pizza slices from Sbarro were a good way for a substantial snack that weren't too bad.

A lot of people rave about the hotdog stands but it looked very much like the ones you get from Ikea for about 80 p but cost £6, so gave that a wide berth - I don't really like hot dogs anyway.

But it also helps that the money is unfamiliar (and because it's about 150 Kr to the £, absolutely everything is thousands/tens of thousands of Kr) so there's a tendency to ignore how much it's really costing. The only time I nearly got caught out big time was some fancy salt that I thought was about £6 but when I double checked, it was actually £60 so I'm glad I didn't buy that - I recently got something very similar from Lanzarote for 8 euro.

We went in Feb two years ago as a family of 5. We actually stayed in a really nice hostel in Rekjavik with a kitchen so we could make meals etc.
We hired a car and didn’t do any tours and had a wonderful time. We did the secret lagoon and the blue lagoon and driving to it there was still small parts of the road on fire as we drove to it. We were really lucky as it was close due to volcanic activity. We stepped between two continents did the golden circle stuff and the black sand beaches.

We didn’t get to see the northern lights unfortunately on this trip.

We thought it was going to be way more expensive than it actually was and had a great holiday.

I already posted up thread, but this is where we stayed. It was very central and had a kitchenette in the room. Very handy to be able to heat up snacks from the nearby supermarket.
https://ok.hotelsreykjavik.net/en/

Thanks everyone. The cost of the food and drink is a bit off putting. We might consider somewhere else this year and reconsider it when our son is a bit older.

It doesn't have to be. When I went with my son we had a huge breakfast so just had some snack bar type things for lunch. One day we had pizzas sitting on the shore (it was fabulous weather) - it was a Tuesday and it was a really good deal (maybe buy one get one free). Another day we went to one of the places that have the loafs of bread filled with stew which they they top up if you want which also filled us up.

We went this time last year for 5 days with ds 16 and it was amazing! We hired a car, did the golden circle, went to Reyinafjara and the south coast including waterfalls, bridge over continents, inside the glacier and Hvammsvik hot springs. We also did the lava tube and a volcano hike. We had breakfast included at the hotel which also had a pool and sauna and took stuff with us for lunch from home ( itsu pot noodles!!). We didn’t spend much time in Reykjavik other than evenings. We absolutely loved it, but we’re outdoorsy people. I’d love to go back in the summer.