4 Things You Absolutely Must Look Into Before Booking Your Trip to Iceland
Iceland is fantastic. I don't think I have many other words to describe the place. It was surreal. The moment you arrive you feel as if you have landed on another planet.
I have dreamed of Iceland since the moment Emma & I attempted to go- about three years ago now. Emma was working as a flight attendant for Delta, and lucky me, chosen to be her registered travel companion at the time. Emma had a few days off in August, and I was a week away from beginning the school year. It was perfect.
We packed. We planned. We flew to JFK (NYC). We get stuck. Turns out an earlier flight was cancelled, and our flight became overbooked. No more seats on standby. We needed a game plan. We went to the screens and said, "OK, we are packed for cold weather, we have three days, where do we go?" And before you know it, we decided on Dublin and ran to the gate with just a few minutes to spare. Dublin was a dream. But that is a whole other blog post. This is about Iceland.
Flash forward about a year and a half later, and Iceland was still on my mind. Being a teacher provides me with a ton of opportunity with time off to travel, so Spring Break was the perfect time to finally make this happen with my travel buddy/teacher bestie, Nicole.
Thankfully Iceland has become a bit more popular lately and seems to be a little more accessible. Many people have reached out for advice and I continuously tell them the same things.
1. Food - Because this should & needs to be its own category, always. Food is expensive in Iceland. Like, $50 burger expensive. The best piece of advice I can ever give to someone in regards to this trip is to literally pack as much of your pantry that fits into your suitcase. I’m not exaggerating by any means. Pack snacks, lots of them. It's so hard to find small grocery stores or markets around the city centre, and if you do it's going to be very very expensive. For example, a tiny loaf of bread plus a small jar of peanut butter and plastic baggies cost us over $35, and it didn't last us long at all.
*Side note: Peanut butter isn’t allowed to be carried on to planes. So don’t try to bring that part with you*
So if you are able to fit anything extra in your personal item bag, I would highly suggest bagel thins, any bread, a plastic butter knife, some baggies, and any small snacks that will suffice for your lunches. You will thank me.
2. Drinks - Related to the above, but also totally separate, is the drinks category. We didn’t do much drinking in Iceland due to the amount of physical activities we had planned, however we knew we would want to explore the night life and go out to meet the locals one or two evenings. We are so, so thankful that we packed a handful of the tiny $1 shot bottles from the liquor stores. You can bring Mio or Crystal Lite from home and mix with water (Iceland has some of the freshest drinking water in the world, FYI). We drank a few of these while getting ready, and splurged on ONE $15 pint of beer while out with our new friends. Our wallets were definitely thankful for deciding to bring those.
3. Transportation - There are many different options or combinations of transportation methods while in Iceland. These are simply my thoughts and opinions based on our experiences. Typically when traveling, I try to stay on a budget, which usually keeps me away from large tour companies and groups. I love to explore things on my own and be free to spend my time as I wish. However with our Iceland trip, we knew we would be facing difficult weather (March, think ice). We proceeded with caution and decided to book a few tours. I prefer the ones where you hop on a van and they take you to several stops and give you a set amount of time to explore before getting back on for the next destination. These are a bit more “free” yet still pick you up and take you exactly to your location. We found these common & easy to book in Iceland. More to come on that..
If you plan on visiting the Blue Lagoon, I highly recommend you go directly upon arriving at the Keflavík Airport. If you go online to their website and book your tickets, you should find a place where it asks if you prefer to use their transportation. Choose this option. It will give you specific directions on where to find the shuttle upon arrival. Visiting the Blue Lagoon directly after arriving was one of our best moves. This is more so a spa than you really think. The thermal bath & showers are exactly what you will need after a long travel day. Included in your ticket will be your transportation home. When finished enjoying the Lagoon, you will hop on your shuttle which will take you directly to your hostel, hotel, or guest house.
We booked a tour group for the golden circle (Gullfoss, Thingvellir National Park, Geysir Geothermal). We didn’t have to follow any annoying tour guide, so this was exactly like I explained above and really perfect for what we were looking for. If you decide to book this, be sure to find one that includes the Keriö Crater.
We rented a car for one day and one day only. It was plenty. We have heard that if you book in advance you will get a better deal, but we booked the day before at one of the visitor information centers. Automatic is more expensive than manual of course, and sometimes they are almost out of those as options. So if you plan on traveling during a popular time, I would suggest booking in advance. On the day we had our rental car, we drove all the way down to Vík, AKA the ‘black sand beach’. Along this route were several waterfalls such as Skógafoss and Seljalandfoss, and we spontaneously hiked a glacier (it was so unmarked that I don’t even know the name of it. It honestly felt pretty dangerous... but therefore awesome).
I have to mention that when we rented our car they asked us if we wanted to purchase a WiFi box. I initially laughed at this idea given half the fun is using an old fashioned map. Nicole insisted and I am so glad I listened to her. The way home gave us an unexpected white out in the pitch black night. Nicole had never driven in snow so we quickly switched drivers. I hadn’t driven in this kind of weather in a longgggg time, but at least I was somewhat familiar. If you have driven in a white out you know what I’m talking about. The road was not only unseeable, but filled with black ice. We were driving up a mountain with no guard rail on the side, and the wind felt like it was going to knock us right off of it. I can honestly say it was one of the top scariest and life threatening moments of my life. It’s hard to even explain. Reading this back I’m realizing I’m not even explaining it well enough, but the only way to describe it was that I felt like I was struggling to keep the car from tipping off the tiny mountain edge without being able to see. I had Nicole FaceTime audio my dad to make sure I remembered all the rules of driving on black ice. I knew what I was doing but I needed confirmation. It had been so long! For this reason I am so grateful we had not only our WiFi box but also insurance. Ha! It gave us comfort. The internet was also helpful when mapping out multiple natural destinations that weren’t necessarily given addresses. We had to research these while trying to find locations. So that’s that. Another reason I’m glad we didn’t have to rely on ourselves the entire trip!
If you decide to rent a car during your stay in Iceland, I highly suggest you still purchase a Northern Lights tour instead of trying to do this on your own. The tour guides are professionals and they drive to certain locations based on the radar. There isn’t one exact spot to locate them, but they can only be seen from certain locations (if that even makes any sense...). It depends on the evening and the radar. We literally followed the radar and chased the lights and drove until they decided it was a good place to stop. We warmly sat in our bus as the guides stood outside waiting to notice the spectacle. They hurried us outside as soon as they were spotted. It was worth the money. If the lights can’t be seen on a night of your trip, they let you go again the next night, and every night until you find them. For this reason, it is important that you schedule your Northern Lights hunt on your first night in Iceland. We spent around 40 USD and booked it at one of the visitor centers upon arrival. No need to book in advance.
Oh!! Back to renting a car. Gas is SO confusing. You need a prepaid card thing. If you use a credit card or a debit card, they will charge your account a $300-$500 hold every time you go. Seriously! We didn't know this and we freaked out. I'm not sure the details about the prepaid cards but if you google "gas in Iceland" you will read lots about it. Please don’t make the same mistake as I did, and if you do, don’t panic when you see a huge hold because I’m warning ya. 😉 It will come off eventually anyway.
4. Mapping it out - The days aren’t necessarily in order, but here is how we squeezed it all in within a short week:
1. Fly in on red eye, early morning transportation to the Blue Lagoon. Spend morning and afternoon here, transportation to city centre (75.79 USD, entry + shuttle fee). Immediately find visitors center to inquire about Northern Lights expeditions. Book if weather is behaving. Check in to hotel, hostel, or guest house (we stayed at Bus Hostel Reykjavik, 54.65 USD per person, per night). Get ready for Northern Lights tour.
2. Wake up and explore Reykjavik. Walk along the water, observe the beautiful streets (It was winter, so not a whole lot to do here at this time). Splurge and enjoy the local cuisine (except the whale, don’t eat that). Find a happy hour. Make new friends. Go out on the town. Eat a crepe (a $20 crepe, may I add).
3. Get up bright and early. Go on a Golden Circle tour (book this at least 24 hours in advance, we used BusTravel Iceland, 55.50 USD). Take it all in. This will be the whole day.
4. Rent a car. Drive down the coast to Vík. Stop several times along the way. Enjoy Iceland in it’s natural beauty. Don’t die on the way home in a snowy ice storm.
I am definitely missing some things. We were there for more than four days. But I covered the major ones (to get back to the airport, take FlyBus, 14.45 USD from the bus terminal or 18.51 USD from hostel).
Iceland was fantastic. I would love to go back again in the summer months. The Northern Lights are only seeable in the Winter, so I’m glad I went when we did. It honestly felt like a different planet upon arrival. That’s the only way I can explain it. You will have to see for yourself!
Make sure to watch my Go Pro video from our Iceland trip. Find it in the videos section of my blog or click here. Let me know what ya think.
xo,
Jenn
