ICELAND - hot topic
 

Hi, I will be going to Iceland and driving the Ring Road counter-clockwise with an Icelandic Airlines package in early July. Please, any tips both good and bad. Looks like it will be a wonderful experience - and the hardest part will be what to see and what can't be packed into an 8 day visit.

Thanks for your suggestions,

sbagal

I would highly recommend contacting Hafsteinn G. Einarsson at the City Centre Booking Service in the Reykjavik Tourist Information Centre... address: Aðalstræti 2, 101 Reykjavík (www.icelandtoday.is, Tel: +354 590 1511, Fax: +354 581 1716), right next to the Hotel Plaza.

I just returned from there, and you're going to love it. I stayed mainly in Reykjavik, which you can cover on one day. When you stop by the tourist center they will give you a booklet with a self-guided walking tour of the city, complete with places to stop and take in the local foods and sights. I would also recommend joining a tour group for a day's journey through the Golden Circle; trying to see this on your own would be next to impossible given the underdeveloped roadways. Make sure you stop at a geothermal pool, and make it a point to stop at the Blue Lagoon on your way to the airport via the FLYBUS and schedule a relaxing massage. Schedule the massage in advance (like tomorrow!) and try to get something after 12pm, in case the bus arrives late to the lagoon. The bus will pick you up no later than 10:30 and will drop you off at the airport around 2:30pm.

The Hotel Plaza is a great place to stay, centrally located, and a stones throw from the two main shopping streets in the city.

If you enjoy walking in breathtaking natural surroundings, Thorsmork is incredible. However, you will not be able to cross the rivers along the way in an ordinary car or SUV. I went as part of an organized tour (either this one or one very similar) with really cool mega hummer type things.

The walk through the gorge is mostly flat and fairly easy. Our group included several senior citizens. You can also do some walking in the mountains, which can be as strenuous as you please; some of the slower old-timers skipped this hike for a picnic lunch, and had just as good a time overall.

Iceland can be a rather expensive place to get food. Hopefully you like either fish or lamb, the two main local products. The ubiquitous gas stations often provided my favorite economical local lunch: sandwiches of the delicious locally grown cucumber and smoked silungur, which I tentatively identified as arctic char, on the local dark, molasses-rich bread.

I thoroughly enjoyed Iceland. My major quibble: there is absolutely nowhere to get breakfast on your way into Reykjavik from KEF. If your flight lands before noon, get something to eat at the airport and take it with you.

Do the Golden Circle on your own
 

I disagree about not being able to do the Golden Circle on your own - we did it in March, and there was LOTS of snow on the roads. In summer, it should be a breeze. You can pick up a cheap car in REK, and hit Dingvellir, Geysir (Strokkur) and Gulfoss all in one day easily, and the routes are well marked. We enjoyed the freedom of the car...we could stay as long as we wanted and avoided the crowds for the most part. On the way back, we stopped in Selfoss for dinner. We kept the car an extra day and drove ourselves to the Blue Lagoon - it's cheaper than the expensive bus tours. For a little bit extra you can drop the car back at Keflavik Airport, which is great if you have an early morning flight, as it avoids the hassle of the bus and the bus station. Driving in REK was easy...same side of the road as the USA. The only thing is that (like most other countries) the cheapest cars will be manual, so you might want to brush up on that.

Enjoy Iceland!

All you need to do to turn a great trip into a frustrating one is make a wrong turn and end up 30 minute to an hour off course.

Plus when you do the tour, every one in your party can equally enjoy the sights. You're not limiting the drive to concentrating on the road.

The tour groups and Flybus are the way to go. It costs money, but it's WELL worth it!

Well, it all depends on what you're looking for I suppose. The car worked well for us (and was exceedingly cheaper than the tours), but it probably depends on how comfortable you are with independent travel. We tend to dislike bus tours, especially all day ones, and every Icelander we met recommended the car rental. We did do one organized tour (the Northern Lights Tour) as it was something you couldn't do on your own, and it was a dismal failure in our opinion. The people on the bus were obnoxious, and it was way overpriced. So, you can decide for yourself, but these are just my thoughts for what they're worth.

Lake Myvatn area - must sees?
 

Thanks for the discussion and practical travel tips. That sandwich sounds great and glad to know they are pretty available at gas stations since it looks like eating places get further and further apart as we leave the main city.

We will be using a rental car in a package with Icelandic Airlines that provides the "Ring Rider" round the island route with a new "famr stay" B&B/hotel every day. Stick shift car preferred and wonder if they also have diesel. What were the gas prices like?

My reading indicates the Lake Myvan area has the most interesting geologic features to see - what are the must sees in this area, what hints to try and see as much as possible when we have our time up there?

Thanks again and welcome to the discussion - I really appreciate the individual tips - and how hard was it to sleep during all the long daylight. I have a webcam on Iceland and still cannot believe it is as bright as day at 11pm at night!

Also more menu tips greatly appeciated and some Icelandic words that are helpful to know.

sbagal

Our car was unleaded, although gas is expensive. I think it cost me around $70 USD to fill up our Corrolla, and it was only 3/4 empty. Fortunately, the rentals are small and get pretty good gas mileage, and you're not really doing much city driving.

Food costs are quite high, and alcohol is outrageous. I would bring a couple of bottles of wine duty free if you have any hopes of consuming! We usually split a large sandwich or a couple of appetizers. The fish was good, but very pricey. Supermarkets seemed significantly less so you can probably load up there, and coffee-shops were also a good deal.

As I said, we were there in winter so we didn't have the long days, but you should be able to cover a lot of ground in the summer!

Useful links
 

I am sure you will have a great time.

Iceland is a fantastic experience, and while it is expensive, it is well worth it, IMHO. A lot has been said here, so I just wanted to add a few links that I believe you will find useful.

If, in your searching, you have not run across the Iceland forum on Trip Advisor, here is a link. There is a lot of useful information on a number of varied topics concerning Iceland.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum...2-Iceland.html

We have been to Iceland many times, but our trip last month was our first experience at driving in Iceland outside of the Keflavik/Reykjavik area.

Driving the ring road is straightforward, as is most driving in Iceland. Good signs and markings. But to see some of the sights, you will end up on gravel roads which can be quite different. Most all your trip will be on well kept, paved roads, but driving from Thingvellir to Geysir will have you on a gravel road, as I am sure other segments of your trip will be as well.

Here is a link to driving in Iceland, with useful tips on some aspects of driving that are rather unique to Iceland, such as sheep on the road, which happened to us. The video is useful, but I think they go a bit overboard on the dangers of gravel road driving. It is not that bad if you watch your speed.
The information on Icelandic road signs in the brochure is very helpful.

http://www.umferdarstofa.is/page/english


Also make sure that you have good maps for your entire journey. Perhaps you get something better with the package deal than you get when you just rent a car, but I found that a really good map is a necessity if you are going to leave the ring road for any distance. Good maps are available at several bookstores on the main shopping street in central Reykjavik.

Enjoy your adventure, Iceland is a fantastic place to visit.

We did Iceland on our own in April; the main roads were all clear then. We had hired a 4x4 which we never really ended up using. There aren't many roads in Iceland, and they were well marked, so I wouldn't worry about getting lost. We didn't do the complete circuit as we were there only 4 days.

here was our itinerary
day 1 - Arrive KEF 9:45. Early lunch in Keflavik town, drove around Reykjanes peninsula via Hafnir, Bridge between Two Continents, Grindavik, Seltun. We passed by the Blue Lagoon, but planned to come back later. Arrived in Reykjavik around 3 PM. Went to Saga Museum, Hallgrimskirkja church, Laugadalur thermal pools that evening.
day 2 - Drove east along Route 1, stopping at Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Reynisfjara (basalt columns near Vik), Skaftafell Park, and Jokulsarlon (Iceberg lagoon), then drove back to Kirkjubaejarklaustur. This was a LOONG day, as we were originally only going to drive as far as Klaustur, but we arrived at 2 PM and the weather the next day wasn't looking so good. We decided to drive onto Jokulsarlon (~1.5 hr each way) and back that day, as it was already staying light until 10 PM. This was probably ~500kms of driving! Once past Vik, there's lots of nothing, no real towns until you get to Hofn.
day 3 - Rained all day, drove back to Reykjavik
day 4 - Golden circle tour; drove via Thingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss, then drove to Blue Lagoon (another long day, they're in opposite directions!).

In all we covered over 1250 miles! (Further than Reykjavik to London). Gas was expensive, $90 everytime to fill up the tank.

Food is expensive, period. We mainly ate in gas stations, or bought fruit/snacks/drinks in grocery stores.

What does "expensive" actually mean?
 

Thanks for the great links and your own personal travel details. This is really helping because even with 8 days it still seems like a lot of country to enjoy and too little time when doing the circle RingRinder self-drive tour. I especially like learning about the actual driving times, because it is hard to tell just from the distances on the map.

$80 to fill up a gas tank is an unpleasant reality these days for larger vehicles in California, so the sticker shock won't be so great, but this will be a much smaller car in Iceland so this let's us know how pricey things in fact are there.

Also, since many of you mention how "expensive" things are in Iceland, particularly the food. Can anyone please offer some examples of what you remember meals cost. Nice there is no tipping in Iceland because that does add 15-20% costs to US meals.

Also since we will be staying in the Farm Holiday's Bed&Breakfast places - how large are these breakfasts? Possible to cut back to two meals a day here with a large breakfast and an early dinner?

Do they have senior discounts to watch out for - and what age does "senior" start?

This thread is becoming a very good collection of practical information about Iceland travel - everyone's contribution is greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

I'm sure you'll have a wonderful holiday, but just be mindful of the distances. The ring road is about 1440 km and some of it is on narrow and winding roads which makes the driving quite demanding (and slower than you would expect).

Regarding the expensive food and drink (particularly alcohol), do what most locals do and make sure you take your full duty free allowance when you enter the country. Keflavik airport has a duty free store for incoming passengers, which makes things a bit easier.

Best wishes,
Icebird

I have a pocket guidebook that features a page of phrases. I don't have it with me today, but I'll send you the title and author later this week.

We used "Takk" and "Bless" a lot (Thank you & Good bye, respectively). Gott Daginn means "Good Day". Te is "Tea" and Kaffi is, well you get the idea.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/1...el/18ring.html

username: flyertalk
password: flyertalk

excerpt:

June 18, 2006
Iceland's Ring Road: The Ultimate Road Trip
By MARK SUNDEEN
WE lift off from J. F. K. at 9 in the evening, headed toward Reykjavik, and by the time the bars back in New York have closed, we are tucked in lava rock, submerged to the neck in a hot blue pool with sulfurous steam clouds bursting up around us. It's the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and the sky surrounding us never darkens.

The week ahead promises us 168 hours of uninterrupted daylight in which to drive the Ring Road around Iceland. Though it's not a particularly long distance, I already sense that seven days will be about half as long as I would have hoped for. And so we have bolted straight from the airport to the nearby Blue Lagoon.

Here, the phosphorescent saltwater, the bright and flat Atlantic sky and the backdrop of industrial smokestacks give the place an otherworldly feel, which is as it should be: the lagoon is entirely man-made. Icelanders generate power geothermally, boring into the ground for the steam that spins the turbines as it blasts toward the surface; then they recapture that steam as water, pump it to a soaking pond, and charge 20 bucks a head. We are the first to arrive, in the early morning, and by noon the place is packed with Europeans, Japanese and Americans. We crawl between steam cave and hot pot, smeared in a gray silica mud bath.

On this trip last summer, I was traveling with my friends Mathew Gross and Melony Gilles. We lived for many years in a remote nook of the Utah desert where we developed a taste for isolated places and geological oddities. So Iceland was the perfect place for us.

Expensive?
 

I thought I'd add a bit about expenses. Looking at my trip notes:

When there in mid-May, fuel was 125 ISK/liter....if I have done the math right, that equates to about $6.33/gal using the current exchange rate of 75 ISK = 1 $. We had a B class car (small, but not the smallest) and we got 35mpg driving in the country, less in the city with stoplights and all.

A cup of coffee at a fuel station was 150-200 ISK, and it was a small cup. For some reason coffee to go is hard to find, as is breakfast. I can't recall ever finding a restaurant (except for those in a hotel) that was open for breakfast.

Ready made sandwiches at a 10-11 (an Icelandic mini-mart chain) ran about $5, but they did have in-store micros, so you zap it to heat it up. A glass of beer was $7 and a glass of wine $10, which is why, if you want alcohol, you should get something at the duty-free when you land. There is a nice big store with everything right next to the baggage claim belts....a good thing to do while waiting for the bags to show up.

Here is a link to the english menu from a mid-scale cafe in Reykjavik:

http://www.vegamot.is/en/en_menu.asp

My experience is that food and supplies in Iceland cost about 2 times what you would pay here. Some things more, some less, depending on what and where you purchase.

As you will be staying at farm houses on your drive, this is link to a map of Iceland that has many farms, guest houses and such from Iceland farm holidays.

http://www.farmholidays.is/map4parts...d=659&webid=30

A few years ago, we stayed at a cabin on a farm. There is now a small hotel there, along with the farm and more cabins. It would be great to go back to this place, as we loved it:

http://www.hotelfreyja.is/Main_Page/

Do you know where you will be staying each night, or do you have the option of making that decision day by day?

I ran across this account of a ring road trip, and thought I'd include a link, as I found it so well written that I want to go back now.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...eland0508.html

This is turning into a good info thread, as you mentioned. Sorry this is so long, but I just get carried away when it comes to Iceland. Now I really, really want to go back.