YYZ1313

They're in this situation because they relaxed things too quickly. And they have a very high vaccination rate.

txp

Yes, and I would also add that the COVID vaccine check at KEF was quite perfunctory. Who knows if all CDC cards presented were legit?

Truly I thought during June that we were all ready to put COVID behind, not only in Iceland but throughout the western developed countries. The numbers had dropped to a minimum and everyone was reopening. The delta variant is a major setback. It seems that we need to wait for vaccine boosters to target that specific variant.

We may have to wait till summer 2022 for things to get back to "normal."

travelmad478

? We’re in Iceland right now and there are no masks or requirements we’ve heard about. Left Reykjavik three days ago, traveling counter-clockwise on the ring road, and currently near Kalfafell.

txp

Here is what I could find on the topic:

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/iceland-reimposes-covid-19-restrictions-as-cases-surge.html

https://www.icelandreview.com/society/breaking-domestic-restrictions-reimposed-in-iceland/

Safe travels on the ring road, particularly on the segment between Akureyri and Reykjavik. It's a narrow two-lane road without shoulders and with heavy traffic. **Always** watch for oncoming traffic. Lots of unexperienced drivers who want to overtake at the worst possible places (before a curve, when approaching a hilltop, etc.) We drove almost 5,000 Km in Iceland and I had about three or four close encounters when I had to brake (and in one case pull to the right as much as possible) to avoid a head on collision. Ironically, the unpaved, unbridged F roads are a lot safer that the ring road, particularly the ring road on the west side of the island. The east side is OK, very light traffic.

travelmad478

Thanks txp. We have seen more masks today on restaurant staff but it’s not been enforced on customers.

Re: the road, did you mean the ring road on the west side of Iceland or the east side? We’re driving up the east side now (currently in Egilsstadir, tomorrow night in Myvatn) and will be driving across the north side from east to west. Then back down the west side to Reykjavik. So far I haven’t been bothered by any of the driving. We had one fairly harrowing mountain pass today on an unpaved road through a dense cloud, but it only lasted about five minutes.

solomita

One quick update to the United EWR check-in requirements: They were not satisfied simply by seeing the barcode from Iceland, because they can't scan it and get any data from it. They wanted to see the full email confirmation so that they could verify that the barcode belongs to you.

EWR premier international check in was a mess. People just piled up in irregular lines behind check-in machines, all of which were guaranteed to be unable to check in most of us, because humans had to verify paperwork for most international departures. So you get up to the machine, do the full check-in, then it lights up red lights at the top, then you wait for a rep to come over to you and finish the process.

txp

The ring road is fine in the east side of the island (and more scenic). I am familiar with the mountain pass you mentioned and with the very short unpaved segment.

It's on the west side that there was traffic (at least when we were there), particularly the segments between Akureyri to Reykjavik and between Selfoss and Reykjavik. We drove clockwise. Since you are driving counterclockwise, the most challenging part is likely to be the drive from Akureyri to Reykjavik, particularly if it's on a Sunday (as was the case for us).

The main problem is that every now and then you get a driver who drives significantly under the speed limit (say 75 Km/h) creating a huge line of impatient drivers behind, all wanting to overtake the slow vehicle. Not everyone is super careful when they overtake the slow vehicle, and the risk for head on collision is real.

The segment between Akureyri and Reykjavik should really be four lanes, or at least three lanes with intermittent passing lanes. Absent that, they should install some shoulders so that people have a way to escape head on collisions. Currently, the only way to do so is to drive off the road, which is challenging because all their roads seem to be elevated three feet above ground.

Kmxu

Just to update. We did not take PCR test and had the CDC card and antigen test result checked at ORD gate. The checking line was long. It would be quicker to do the doc check at United Club. However, my colleague did it at EWR United Club and had to explain the requirement to UC agent. United website was/is still misleading. Some passengers took both tests on my flights. At KEF, they only scanned the “valid certificate” barcode and checked the CDC card, not COVID test result.

travelmad478

OK, I will keep that in mind, thanks. We are taking several days to get back from Akureyri to Reykjavik and large chunks of that trip won’t be on the ring road, so we may not be as challenged by it as you were. (Of course, we will have our own challenges by doing some driving in the Westfjords!) I am also well used to driving in places where, shall we say, reincarnation is a common belief and life often appears cheaper than it does in the US. I will report back!

travelmad478

An update on driving the west side of Iceland: no problems whatsoever going from Myvatn to Hofsos (drove that yesterday) or from Hofsos to Flokalundur (drove that today). Not a lot of that was on Rte. 1, but the sections of Rte. 1 that we were on were completely unremarkable in terms of driver behavior. Honestly, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the roads, especially the unpaved sections—I was prepared for a lot worse. Google Maps drive times were spot on. And the detailed paper map that we’re using, which is a few years old, led us to believe that even more mileage would be unpaved, vs. what we encountered. There’s clearly been a lot of roadwork done in Iceland in the last 5-6 years.

travelmad478

Flew home to the US (KEF-EWR-MSY) yesterday after two weeks in Iceland. All in all a great trip. We did have to mask up indoors during our second week, when Iceland re-instituted its indoor mask mandate, but since 98% of our activities were outdoors, it really wasn’t a big deal. We ate in restaurants for only about 1/3 of our meals—we tend to do breakfasts and lunches on our own by buying food at the supermarket anyway, and in Iceland the astonishingly high cost of restaurant meals made that even more compelling of a choice!

I commend the Icelandic health system for making the COVID test process (the one we needed to get on a plane to the US) extremely well-run, seamless and easy to navigate. You schedule and pay for your test appointment online, show up at a central test center, and all your info is already loaded into a system that runs on quickly scanned barcodes. We waited about 5 minutes in the fast-moving line to get our swabs, which were being administered by 3-4 nurses, and had our test results emailed to us less than an hour later. (Rapid tests are fine for the US requirement.)

txp

This is such an unfortunate reversal of fortune. The country with the lowest number of covid cases in the EU/EFTA now has one of the highest. Those of us who were fortunate to visit in July were really lucky.

travelmad478

Indeed. I don’t think the current caseload would stop me from traveling there now—considering that I live in the absolute worst place in the US for cases currently, Iceland would be a step up!—but the plane flights and the added testing requirements would put me off. I do feel very lucky that we got our trip in when we did. It might be a long time before we get another overseas vacation, or even a domestic one, for that matter.

Kmxu

If one does not spend much time in the area around reykjavik, your riskiest place is the boat ride to view the iceberg. There are not many people that you will encounter anywhere else in Iceland.
Anyway, I will go back to Iceland in the future after the first visit in late July.

txp

I feel exactly the same way.