Out of my Element

If you're willing to stay in a hotel for a night or two then your options are unlimited.

From Borganes you can easily explore the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, which is not to be missed.

From Borganes you can also see all of the Reykjanes Peninsula (the area the airport is on). Exploring up to Gardur and Reykjanesbaer and Grindavik is a good day's visit. Adding on a stop at the Blue Lagoon would also work well on that day.

From Selfoss you are well located to do the Golden Circle. You are also close to the two big Southern Waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. You can also spend a day exploring towards Vik, making sure you visit the Sólheimajökull glacier (down a terribly rutted Route 221, make sure you drive through the first parking lot to the second lot!), as well as Dyrhólaey and Reynishverfisvegur.

From there you should plan to spend 1 or 2 nights near Hofn, so you can see Jokulsarlon and Vatnajökull National Park (the small road just past 998 gets you very close to the glacier). You can also spend a day exploring the East Fjords from Hofn.

Akureyri is a good base to explore the North and Northeast parts of Iceland. Myvatn (and the baths and the caldera) is a great take. Husavik for Whale Watching. Namaskard for the bubbling mud pots.

I haven't visited the Westfjords yet, but I hear they are spectacular. Also haven't been to Grimsey, to cross the Arctic Circle and to see what is supposed to be a very nice fishing town/island.

Happy to talk more specifics if you'd like.

Jamoldo

Bumping this up since my trip has ended.

Quick summary.

Day 1 - slept in until 1pm since I got in at around 4am from London and was exhausted. Walked around town, went to one of the famous swimming pools. Pretty awesome. Arranged for a rental car the next day and was assured there were no automatics. Rental guys gave me a map and pointed out since I was alone I could go further east post Gulfoss to see some awesome scenery and 2 more waterfalls. I was set. Had some beers at Microbrew and a hot dog from the famous stand.

Day 2 - picked up car, stalled about 100 times (neutral to first is hard after a 14 year gap between driving sticks, rest was easy). Planned to go to Golden Circle. GPS did not have Gulfoss of Geysir but did have a nearby village, Reykholt. Drove for 3 hours. Where are the busses and tourists? Stopped to get lunch. Ooh random cart selling produce with an honesty box. Bought some stunning strawberries. Looked at map. Yeah, Iceland has 2 Reykholts and mine was North and west of Reykjavik rather than east (where I wanted to go). Oops. Decided not to hit Golden Circle and explored beautiful western Iceland. Hit up Reykholt - significant for literary reasons, nothing really there, Husafel and the falls near there, some random lava formations, an isolated, random fishing town, Akranes that seemed deserted (did see the supermarket though - solid selections), and played soccer goalie against a 10 year old on an empty field at Borgarnes after visiting the settlement center museum (kind of cool). Drove back to Reykjavik. Dinner at Icelandic Bar next to Dill. Authentic and tasty, fun staff and good beer selection.

Day 3 -ponied up and took a bus tour of the Golden Circle. Tomato greenhouse was kind of cool. These guys are really efficient! Geysir was what it looked like but the little hike up the big rock for the panoramic view was the best part and seeing the countryside. Gulfoss was beautiful. The area where the tectonic plates are active was pretty amazing to see. Air BNB hostesses threw a birthday party for one of them and invited me. Party started at 7 and ended 11 hours later. The mayor of Reykjavik may have showed up at 2-3am. Everyone very nice. Hit the club at 430am. I left at 530 or so. Hostesses got back around 6.

Day 4 - slept in but had to clear out since next tenant was coming. Had a lobster roll from a cart near the bus stand for lunch and ice cream from Valdis. Missed the bus to Blue Lagoon, and connection from BL to airport would not have given me much time there. Flew out.

In other words although short, the trip was awesome. People were really nice, scenery beautiful, food very expensive but good. Need to go back again.

Thanks everyone for the tips and ideas.

EerieVon

I can´t believe someone said 5 days is enough to go around the island! Yes it is if you don´t mind driving at least 5 hours a day and basically viewing Iceland through your windscreen.

5 days I would base myself in Reykjavik and do day trips, either with a travel group or rent a car and go yourself. Things to see..

1. Snæfelsness peninsula - you could drive round that in a day and be back in Reykjavik in the evening.

2. Westman Islands. Two hour drive to the ferry port and a 30 minute crossing.

3. Golden Circle.

4. Reykjanes peninsula including geothermal site of Krysuvik

5. Vik. Someone said a long day trip to Vik and I would recommend that. It would be a long day but worth it.

Feel free to message me for more advice.

iluvcruising2

We were in Ryejavik, Iceland as part of an overnight cruise stop. It took the cruise ship two and a half days to sail from Southampton, UK. We were most eager to disembark once we got to Iceland.

As there were 6 in my party, we decided to rent a car to drive ourselves around. The car rental company, Enterprise, was located some distance from the port. Good that they picked us up from the port.

We drove a bit of the Golden Circle Route. It was quite a surreal drive, as the geography of Iceland was very barren. Very little vegetation, at times I was not sure if I was on earth. We were told that the climate just couldn't support many trees. We were here in June. Can't imagine how cold this place would be in Winter.

The highlight of the Golden Circle was Gullfoss. Well, coming from Singapore, we do like waterfalls.

Short video of Gullfoss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C17B2X_eBA

Short video of the driving back to port from Gullfoss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-cPJceA6z4

We also took a drive through town, and visited the famous Cathedral. Overall, a very interesting experience. Quite out-of-the-world for us tropical creatures.

I have documented this visit in far more detail on my blog, starting with this page.

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogsp...reykjavik.html

TRRed

I am looking at a 5 day trip to Iceland the last week of Nov. More interested in northern lights, photography, etc. with a self-drive plan than city life. Obviously Ring Road is not an option. Thoughts? Suggestions? Tour companies or agents to check out? Many itineraries discussed in this forum are focused on summer or shoulder season travel, so probably not too applicable to late November.
Thanks,
TRRed

Out of my Element

South Coast is more likely to be snow free than North Coast, but it is still likely to snow when you're there. Vik is a good place to base a stay but a bad place to look for N.L. due to being the rainiest city in Iceland, so either stay a few miles away, or prepare yourself for a short drive each night to look for the lights.

qmiro

I have been to Iceland twice in winter. It's a great place.
Whatever you do, don't miss out on having dinner at Dill. It's the equivalent of NOMA for Iceland--you can get a seven course meal with wine for $150 which may sound pricey. But the amount of food you will have, and how innovative it is will certainly be worth it.
Blue Lagoon is great, especially on your way to or from the airport--I did it twice on the way to my inbound flight back to the US.
Make sure you hang out at Kaffitar in the middle of the main shopping street. On a weekend it's really busy and you can very easily talk to locals who will be really friendly and give you all kinds of tips.
While in Reykjavik, go to one of the public swimming pools. I went to this one: http://www.visitreykjavik.is/laugardalslaug
You can easily get there by taking a public bus from the downtown area. Ask at the tourist center. Entrance fee is about $3 and you can rent towels and even a swimsuit there. It's awesome even in winter. Lots of outdoor hot tubs, water slides, saunas and steam rooms. And it's all spotless clean.
Last, if you stay up late or wake up in the middle of the night because of jetlag, head to http://www.hlollabatar.com/ right in the heart of downtown for a tasty and filling sandwich.
Also: Fish and Chips is great and inexpensive. http://www.fishandchips.is/
You will have a great time.

kamel123

I've been to Vik in Summer, and between the strong winds, heavy rain, and black beach, it felt like we had reached the end of the world. For sure an experience, but can't imagine what it's like in November...

If you have just 5 days, I would consider staying in Reykjavik as a base and doing daytrips.

Otherwise, two hotels relatively nearby that advertise being good locations for watching northern lights are http://www.hotelranga.is and http://ioniceland.is/, but I haven't yet been to either.

iluvcruising2

We visited Iceland this June as part of cruise stops. We had 2 ports, Reykjavik and Akureyri. Both ports, we got off the ship, picked up a rental car and drove ourselves around. It was a very beautiful place.

Gullfoss was very nice, Godafoss was much more intimate and we spent quite some time there, as you can see in this short video clip. I think it makes a lot of sense to rent a car to drive around.

Godafoss waterfalls
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul-y9C6ko0Y

TRRed

Thanks all. Ideally I would like a few nights in a place reasonably easy to reach (maybe a couple of hours driving) from Reykjavik, away from city lights, where going to see the N. Lights was more of a walk down the path to a clearing than doing a bus tour.

Out of my Element

Kirkjubæjarklaustur is about an hour east of Vik and should have better weather conditions (less rain and clouds) than Vik. I am not familiar with lodging there, but it is also very well located for seeing the waterfalls, glaciers and black sand beaches of Southern Iceland, as well as Jokulsarlon.

The south coast is much more likely to have roads free of snow and ice than the north, with fewer mountain passes to worry about as well.

IcelandairCS

The Snaefellsnes peninsula is excellent. It is about a 2 hour drive from the capital.

Enjoy Iceland

mstraveler

Planning a trip to Iceland in August to drive the ring road for 10-12 days. Husband wants to rent a camper so we don't have to have the trip planned in advance and can just play it by ear.

How difficult is it to get hotels during this season? Is it possible to just travel and stop early in the day (3-4 pm) and find a hotel? Or is it so much the tourist season that we would need to have lodging pre-booked and the itinerary planned?

[I am trying to have a rebuttal to the camping for 10 days idea :-)]

Out of my Element

We did the ring road from 8/14 to 8/24 last year. Booked the trip in March through an agency that arranged the car and hotels. As of the day we booked the trip, there was only one available date in all of August to do our tour in order to get hotel rooms in each part of the country (other than Reykjavik, which has lots of rooms). We had requested "non shared bathrooms", which limited the options a bit, but it was still tight to get the trip booked, working 5 months in advance.

Many towns have only 1 hotel, and some of those hotels have under 20 rooms, so you could easily find yourself 100 miles or more away from lodging if you play it by ear.

It's not hard to put together an itinerary yourself (or get help from someone who knows their way around) and to book the hotels yourself in advance. Start by taking a look at the map, divide the country up into 200 mile or so chunks, and start making reservations. They all speak English, they all have e-mail . . .

mstraveler

Thanks Our of my Element. Exactly what I needed to know. And what I suspected. I will send you a PM about the particular travel company you used, although I have almost always planned trips like this myself.