brian_in_dc
Jan 5, 06, 11:44 pm
OK, so this is my first trip report, so please bear with me.
Gathered up three of my single 30-ish friends and convinced them to hit Reykjavik for New Year's Eve, after we Googled it and found out it would be a cool place to be for Dec 31st. Whoa, we had no idea what we were in for.
First things first:
Dec 29th, 2005
BWI-KEF
Icelandair Flight FI642
Coach Seat 4A
Boeing 757-300
Roundtrip airfare: US$348 + taxes = US$494, purchased in October 2005
OK, so as a UA 1K who's 6'4" and used to Economy Plus or exit rows for all my long haul flights, I was having nightmares about having to squash into a 31" pitch seat in the steerage section of a 757-200 for more than five hours over to Reykjavik (plus, you're supposed to get a whole nights' sleep what with the 5 hr time change).
For my first flight on Icelandair, I was pleasantly surprised. Checked in about two hours early at BWI -- asked if there were any exit rows or bulkheads. "No, they're full." "What about anything towards the front," I asked. The check-in agent paused and shouted down to someone about whether or not someone had left seats in row 6. At that moment a man who seemed to be the manager answered back, "leave row 4 open" but then came down, saw me, and said "He's tall - give him 4A." SCORE!
As I had read here on FT, Icelandair's 757's have moveable divides between Saga Class and Economy Class, and so they divide the front section based on how many Saga Class seats have been sold. There are some 8 rows of business class seats, but in the case of our flight, the divider was placed behind row 3, meaning that rows 4-8 were business class seats with economy class service.
Fine by me! More legroom, and more width. This was UA Economy Plus on steroids. My two travel buds who don't read FT were stuck in 27F and 27G wedged between screaming toddlers and reclining pax in front of them. Five hours of pure hell, they said. Needless to say, they didn't enjoy hearing about my business class seat.
I couldn't comment much on Icelandair's in flight service as I zonked out for the flight and declined the meal. I can say that the video screen was not viewable from seat 4A, but who cares.
Arrival in KEF
Keflavik Airport is a US Military Base and a commercial airport. The international flights land in a nice modern terminal that looks every bit of what you think of when you imagine Scandinavia. If you're staying in Reykjavik for a few days and you wish to drink alcohol, it's a good idea to pick up some items in the Duty Free shops at KEF since stuff in town is so bloody expensive.
We took the FlyBus from the airport to our hotel, which involved a switchover at a downtown bus terminal from a large coach to a minivan for the last leg to our hotel. Total one way cost: ISK 1100 / US$17.74.
Hotel: CenterHotels Klöpp. What a great hotel. Rooms were small, but location was perfect and the staff was very helpful. Stunning young blonde woman checked us in at 8am and got us early check-in for our rooms which was very welcome. At $100/night, the hotel was a great value for Reykjavik, the most expensive city I've ever traveled to (and I've been to a lot).
Reykjavik is a beautiful little town, with no high-rises; very walkable, very manageable, and having a neat Scandinavian, utilitarian feel to it. Of course, we had a lot of darkness during our trip, coming to 64ºN latitude a few days after the Winter Solstice. Sunrise was just after 11:00am, so it was pitch black until just after 10:00am every day.
My friends and I came to Reykjavik for New Year's but also to check out its legendary nightlife that draws in partygoers from all over. And hey, if we should happen to cross paths with one of the ladies who's helped cement Iceland's reputation for Nordic beauty, so be it :) ! They've had three Miss Worlds in 50 years, in a country of just over 299,000 people.
Fast forward to Dec 31st, New Year's Eve... Went to an expensive dinner in town, then headed to one of the city's famed bonfires. The cab ride was 7 minutes and cost about ISK 2200 (US$35), ouch. Welcome to Iceland. But the bonfire was wicked cool. It was in a public park in a residential neighborhood next to the water. It appeared to be largely unsupervised! We had liquor containers with us as that's not against the law in Reykjavik, and so did most of the Icelanders, who like to drink.
Went from the bonfire on foot to the center of town in preparation for the fireworks. At about 11:15pm these began all over town... all individuals lighting their own fireworks - only the firepower they had access to was similar to that which most cities put on for 4th of July in the U.S. Unbelievable. It felt like the city was under bomb attack!
See video: video (http://media.putfile.com/Iceland-065-1) (1 minute, 6.5 MB - shot by my friend on his digital camera)
Like the bonfires, no one was organizing the fireworks display, it was simply spontaneous, and breathtaking. At the city center, kids, families, etc. were all lighting up rows of rockets and participating in the mayhem. So much so that we had to steer clear of falling cardboard shells. Exhilerating!
We spent the rest of the night at a local club. Youngsters PM me if you want details on Reykjavik nightlife.
Next day we went to the famed Blue Lagoon, the giant geothermal pool. We did an excursion from Iceland Excursions (http://www.icelandexcursions.is/) which cost about ISK3000 (US$48) which included the roundtrip busride and admission to the Blue Lagoon, but not the rental towel. Blue Lagoon is a real crowd-pleaser with the warm water and serene setting. It was neat to have it be sleeting and 37F outside, but be nice and warm in the water. Only trouble was running into and out of the pool...
Took a day of rest, then we wanted to do an excursion to see the nature outside Reykjavik. The prices for the guided bus tours were very high -- US$100, which for three of us would be US$300. We figured the money would be better spent on a rental car. We were right... So we rented from Budget, whose agent in Reykjavik was useless, but nevertheless we got a 4DR Kia w/ automatic transmission for ISK5306 (US$85) per day, this was cheaper because we reserved it online with Budget's USA web site. Add $50 to replace the half tank of fuel we emptied and you have a total cost of $135 for the daytrip, but divided amongst three people - not bad.
We hit the "Golden Circle" of attractions - the former Icelandic rural parliament site Þingvellir, Geysir (the geysers), and Gullfoss (gigantic waterfall). Navigating the wintry, desolate roads of Southwestern Iceland was fun, but challenging. But having the car was great and offered us a chance to do these sites at our own pace. These were very worthwhile sites to see.
After a dip in one of the Reykjavik city pools that night, we headed home the next day.
Jan 4th, 2006
KEF-BWI
Icelandair Flight FI 643
Seat 8B
Boeing 757-200
Took the FlyBus back out to KEF from Reykjavik. Checked in right away and mentioned that the station manager had managed to get me a seat up front on the way over, could they do the same?
She offered 8A, which I thought would be a business class type seat because it was on the way over. Turns out though we had an equipment swap for our flight coming over, from 752 to 753. Now, we were returning on a 752.
Got on board...looked for my seat. It didn't exist! Row 8 had only two seats, an aisle and a middle, and was directly next to the main exit door. The seats were labeled 8A and 8C. These were normal economy seats, but with add'l legroom. Flight attendant told me to just take 8C; but then someone showed up. I moved over to 8A. No problems.
In flight service was basic... IFE included a movie and various programming. Ironically, the 752 models have nicer LCD screens hanging underneath the rows of seats on each side, whereas the newer 753's just had normal TVs hanging from the ceiling in the aisles. The meal offerings were fine, standard. The one dreadful detail about Icelandair's 752's is there are only 2 lav's for the entire Economy section - stuffed in the back of the plane. That makes those last few rows dreadful seats as there are always several pax queued up for the lavs.
In absence of a SeatGuru map for Icelandair, I would recommend - anything in rows 3-9 if you can get it...that's the best. The exit row 9 with no one in front would also be a nice choice. There's another exit row 16, but not sure how that one compares.
Arrival at BWI was my first international arrival to this airport, as I normally take UA into IAD, ORD, etc or AA into MIA. BWI's international terminal was seemingly built with an expectation that they'd attract a lot of international traffic, which they haven't. On the days of our flights, there were no more than six flights; few of them widebodies. In any case, they have a nice, modern arrival area and there were three Immigration officers working. Plenty of Customs people. Baggage reclaim took forever - almost a full 45 minutes for them to offload the 752.
Interesting thing while waiting for baggage - a Customs agent asked me to carry a small nearly empty laptop bag through customs as a test for a new drug-sniffing dog that she was training. I carried it and he spotted it right away. Good dog!
Overall - a great trip... I'd definitely go back for New Year's another time; or perhaps in the summertime when it's warmer and light all night.
OVERALL PROs
-Cheap to fly there, cheap to sleep
-Well organized tourism infrastructure
-Friendly people
-Very unique setting
-Beautiful people and trendy, party-like atmosphere
OVERALL CONs
-EXPENSIVE...We joked amongst ourselves a new tourism slogan: "Iceland: home of the $30 burrito." It was that bad. No decent meal could be had for less than about $40 per person without drinks. Taxis were outrageous. Beers at bars ranged from $8.50 to north of $11 (for a bottle of Corona!).
-Weather: it was quite dreary while we were there, but didn't mind
Trip photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/brianhopman (Click on "Iceland")
Gathered up three of my single 30-ish friends and convinced them to hit Reykjavik for New Year's Eve, after we Googled it and found out it would be a cool place to be for Dec 31st. Whoa, we had no idea what we were in for.
First things first:
Dec 29th, 2005
BWI-KEF
Icelandair Flight FI642
Coach Seat 4A
Boeing 757-300
Roundtrip airfare: US$348 + taxes = US$494, purchased in October 2005
OK, so as a UA 1K who's 6'4" and used to Economy Plus or exit rows for all my long haul flights, I was having nightmares about having to squash into a 31" pitch seat in the steerage section of a 757-200 for more than five hours over to Reykjavik (plus, you're supposed to get a whole nights' sleep what with the 5 hr time change).
For my first flight on Icelandair, I was pleasantly surprised. Checked in about two hours early at BWI -- asked if there were any exit rows or bulkheads. "No, they're full." "What about anything towards the front," I asked. The check-in agent paused and shouted down to someone about whether or not someone had left seats in row 6. At that moment a man who seemed to be the manager answered back, "leave row 4 open" but then came down, saw me, and said "He's tall - give him 4A." SCORE!
As I had read here on FT, Icelandair's 757's have moveable divides between Saga Class and Economy Class, and so they divide the front section based on how many Saga Class seats have been sold. There are some 8 rows of business class seats, but in the case of our flight, the divider was placed behind row 3, meaning that rows 4-8 were business class seats with economy class service.
Fine by me! More legroom, and more width. This was UA Economy Plus on steroids. My two travel buds who don't read FT were stuck in 27F and 27G wedged between screaming toddlers and reclining pax in front of them. Five hours of pure hell, they said. Needless to say, they didn't enjoy hearing about my business class seat.
I couldn't comment much on Icelandair's in flight service as I zonked out for the flight and declined the meal. I can say that the video screen was not viewable from seat 4A, but who cares.
Arrival in KEF
Keflavik Airport is a US Military Base and a commercial airport. The international flights land in a nice modern terminal that looks every bit of what you think of when you imagine Scandinavia. If you're staying in Reykjavik for a few days and you wish to drink alcohol, it's a good idea to pick up some items in the Duty Free shops at KEF since stuff in town is so bloody expensive.
We took the FlyBus from the airport to our hotel, which involved a switchover at a downtown bus terminal from a large coach to a minivan for the last leg to our hotel. Total one way cost: ISK 1100 / US$17.74.
Hotel: CenterHotels Klöpp. What a great hotel. Rooms were small, but location was perfect and the staff was very helpful. Stunning young blonde woman checked us in at 8am and got us early check-in for our rooms which was very welcome. At $100/night, the hotel was a great value for Reykjavik, the most expensive city I've ever traveled to (and I've been to a lot).
Reykjavik is a beautiful little town, with no high-rises; very walkable, very manageable, and having a neat Scandinavian, utilitarian feel to it. Of course, we had a lot of darkness during our trip, coming to 64ºN latitude a few days after the Winter Solstice. Sunrise was just after 11:00am, so it was pitch black until just after 10:00am every day.
My friends and I came to Reykjavik for New Year's but also to check out its legendary nightlife that draws in partygoers from all over. And hey, if we should happen to cross paths with one of the ladies who's helped cement Iceland's reputation for Nordic beauty, so be it :) ! They've had three Miss Worlds in 50 years, in a country of just over 299,000 people.
Fast forward to Dec 31st, New Year's Eve... Went to an expensive dinner in town, then headed to one of the city's famed bonfires. The cab ride was 7 minutes and cost about ISK 2200 (US$35), ouch. Welcome to Iceland. But the bonfire was wicked cool. It was in a public park in a residential neighborhood next to the water. It appeared to be largely unsupervised! We had liquor containers with us as that's not against the law in Reykjavik, and so did most of the Icelanders, who like to drink.
Went from the bonfire on foot to the center of town in preparation for the fireworks. At about 11:15pm these began all over town... all individuals lighting their own fireworks - only the firepower they had access to was similar to that which most cities put on for 4th of July in the U.S. Unbelievable. It felt like the city was under bomb attack!
See video: video (http://media.putfile.com/Iceland-065-1) (1 minute, 6.5 MB - shot by my friend on his digital camera)
Like the bonfires, no one was organizing the fireworks display, it was simply spontaneous, and breathtaking. At the city center, kids, families, etc. were all lighting up rows of rockets and participating in the mayhem. So much so that we had to steer clear of falling cardboard shells. Exhilerating!
We spent the rest of the night at a local club. Youngsters PM me if you want details on Reykjavik nightlife.
Next day we went to the famed Blue Lagoon, the giant geothermal pool. We did an excursion from Iceland Excursions (http://www.icelandexcursions.is/) which cost about ISK3000 (US$48) which included the roundtrip busride and admission to the Blue Lagoon, but not the rental towel. Blue Lagoon is a real crowd-pleaser with the warm water and serene setting. It was neat to have it be sleeting and 37F outside, but be nice and warm in the water. Only trouble was running into and out of the pool...
Took a day of rest, then we wanted to do an excursion to see the nature outside Reykjavik. The prices for the guided bus tours were very high -- US$100, which for three of us would be US$300. We figured the money would be better spent on a rental car. We were right... So we rented from Budget, whose agent in Reykjavik was useless, but nevertheless we got a 4DR Kia w/ automatic transmission for ISK5306 (US$85) per day, this was cheaper because we reserved it online with Budget's USA web site. Add $50 to replace the half tank of fuel we emptied and you have a total cost of $135 for the daytrip, but divided amongst three people - not bad.
We hit the "Golden Circle" of attractions - the former Icelandic rural parliament site Þingvellir, Geysir (the geysers), and Gullfoss (gigantic waterfall). Navigating the wintry, desolate roads of Southwestern Iceland was fun, but challenging. But having the car was great and offered us a chance to do these sites at our own pace. These were very worthwhile sites to see.
After a dip in one of the Reykjavik city pools that night, we headed home the next day.
Jan 4th, 2006
KEF-BWI
Icelandair Flight FI 643
Seat 8B
Boeing 757-200
Took the FlyBus back out to KEF from Reykjavik. Checked in right away and mentioned that the station manager had managed to get me a seat up front on the way over, could they do the same?
She offered 8A, which I thought would be a business class type seat because it was on the way over. Turns out though we had an equipment swap for our flight coming over, from 752 to 753. Now, we were returning on a 752.
Got on board...looked for my seat. It didn't exist! Row 8 had only two seats, an aisle and a middle, and was directly next to the main exit door. The seats were labeled 8A and 8C. These were normal economy seats, but with add'l legroom. Flight attendant told me to just take 8C; but then someone showed up. I moved over to 8A. No problems.
In flight service was basic... IFE included a movie and various programming. Ironically, the 752 models have nicer LCD screens hanging underneath the rows of seats on each side, whereas the newer 753's just had normal TVs hanging from the ceiling in the aisles. The meal offerings were fine, standard. The one dreadful detail about Icelandair's 752's is there are only 2 lav's for the entire Economy section - stuffed in the back of the plane. That makes those last few rows dreadful seats as there are always several pax queued up for the lavs.
In absence of a SeatGuru map for Icelandair, I would recommend - anything in rows 3-9 if you can get it...that's the best. The exit row 9 with no one in front would also be a nice choice. There's another exit row 16, but not sure how that one compares.
Arrival at BWI was my first international arrival to this airport, as I normally take UA into IAD, ORD, etc or AA into MIA. BWI's international terminal was seemingly built with an expectation that they'd attract a lot of international traffic, which they haven't. On the days of our flights, there were no more than six flights; few of them widebodies. In any case, they have a nice, modern arrival area and there were three Immigration officers working. Plenty of Customs people. Baggage reclaim took forever - almost a full 45 minutes for them to offload the 752.
Interesting thing while waiting for baggage - a Customs agent asked me to carry a small nearly empty laptop bag through customs as a test for a new drug-sniffing dog that she was training. I carried it and he spotted it right away. Good dog!
Overall - a great trip... I'd definitely go back for New Year's another time; or perhaps in the summertime when it's warmer and light all night.
OVERALL PROs
-Cheap to fly there, cheap to sleep
-Well organized tourism infrastructure
-Friendly people
-Very unique setting
-Beautiful people and trendy, party-like atmosphere
OVERALL CONs
-EXPENSIVE...We joked amongst ourselves a new tourism slogan: "Iceland: home of the $30 burrito." It was that bad. No decent meal could be had for less than about $40 per person without drinks. Taxis were outrageous. Beers at bars ranged from $8.50 to north of $11 (for a bottle of Corona!).
-Weather: it was quite dreary while we were there, but didn't mind
Trip photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/brianhopman (Click on "Iceland")