Is 5 days enough for Iceland? We're planning a trip there in September and then Normandy, France.
OT: Iceland
- Thread starter ClassOf02v.2
- Start date
Is 5 days enough for Iceland? We're planning a trip there in September and then Normandy, France.
Depends on where you want to stay and how long you stay. The cheapest AirBnB options where we wanted to travel to were in the $80-100/night range, and the legit hotels were frequently in the $150-250/night range for tiny rooms and very few amenities. There wasn't much in the way of "nice hotels" outside of Reykjavik and maybe Akureyri. One couple we met stayed at a hotel near Lake Myvatn for $250 a night, and they said it was essentially a Pod storage unit with a bed and a dresser and a mini-bathroom with standing/corner shower - since it was pretty remote and an hour away from anywhere to get food, they ate in the hotel restaurant and paid another $180 for a mediocre dinner. We stayed in one hotel near Vik for $160 that had a queen bed and about 18 inches of space around that bed to the walls - with a tiny bathroom and the smallest shower I've seen outside a hostel. We stayed in 4 AirBnBs and 2 hotels, and the AirBnBs were far nicer than the hotels for about 60-75% of the cost.
As I mentioned above, gas is around $7/gallon, and the ring road itself is just shy of 850 miles if you're looking to do the whole loop (plus any trips off the loop to see any sights). I think we spent something like $450 in gas for the week we were there. We drove to the places we wanted to see instead of paying for excursions - so I can't speak to the cost of day trips and whatnot.
Entrees at the restaurants we looked at ranged from $30-80, and alcohol was expensive (e.g., $10 beers/$15 drinks). A six pack of Einstock at the duty free in the airport was >$20. I think we only had maybe 2-3 drinks on our whole trip. We would buy groceries when we could. Regular groceries weren't so bad, and we came to love skyr, but certain "staples" we looked at went for really high prices (e.g., pound of bacon was like $20). We asked one family that we were renting an AirBnB from what a good restaurant would be, and they said they didn't really know because they never eat in restaurants.
Iceland's economy relies primarily on tourism, geothermal, and fishing. They definitely get a large chunk of change from tourists passing through.
If you're planning to base out of Reykjavik and do day trips from there, I'd say yes. Tons of awesome stuff near there, and you could do a bunch of full day and half day trips and hang out in the city at night.
If you're looking to do the whole ring road around the island, then no. We did that in 6 days, and were hard pressed to both make distance between stops and spend any time seeing the sights. For anyone looking to do the whole circuit, I'd say a minimum of 7 days to not feel like it's the amazing race.
September's a great time to go - that's when we went. September 25th or so is when there's 12 hours of daylight (and about 1.5 hours of twilight). So plenty of time to do stuff during the day, but also real darkness in the middle of the night to get a chance to see the aurora borealis.
This is good advice. Home base for us was Reykjavik and we did excursions from there each day. 5 days was the right amount of time for that. What that means those is we saw lots of Reykjavik and about 2/3 eastward along the southern shore. Didn't see any of the north, but it was enough in my opinion for the Iceland experience.
Our cost was about $1600 per person (give or take) which included roundtrip flight from EWR, hotel (new modern Center Hotel Midgardur - small but clean in a great central Reykjavik location), and four excursions: guided city tour of Reykjavik (4 hrs), Blue Lagoon (6 hrs), Golden Circle tour (8 hrs), southern shore waterfall/glacier/black sand beach tour (9 hrs).
We did end up spending quite a bit more between shopping, dinners, and yes, drinking. Most people at bars & restaurants appeared to also be tourists. Overall it probably ended up being about $4500 for a couple, maybe a little less.
Help me out...just watched the Iowa game and I'm PISSED!
How much did the whole trip cost you per person?
Thanks
MO
For two of us to do 7 days/6 nights with a rental car around the island, including airfare, tours/hot springs/etc, it came to around $4500K. We prepared all of our own breakfast/lunches from groceries, and half our dinners, to save money - and didn't drink for the most part. If we'd eaten out for dinner each night, it would have been over $5K.
Visited in 2003 before the country became a bit of a tourist hotspot. I totally agree with Pinehurst, tell most of your friends the place stinks and then plan your return trip.
One tour I would recommend begins in late spring. It’s a dolphin/whale watch tour. The difference between the Icelandic tour and one that you would do in Cape May though is that our captain dropped a fishing net and dragged it on the bottom for about a mile.
Cranked it back up, dropped it on the deck, and fresh scallops and sea urchin that you could eat to your hearts content were in front of you. Tour guides broke out the bottles of white wine and everyone on the tour went to town feasting on the freshest seafood you ever experienced
One tour I would recommend begins in late spring. It’s a dolphin/whale watch tour. The difference between the Icelandic tour and one that you would do in Cape May though is that our captain dropped a fishing net and dragged it on the bottom for about a mile.
Cranked it back up, dropped it on the deck, and fresh scallops and sea urchin that you could eat to your hearts content were in front of you. Tour guides broke out the bottles of white wine and everyone on the tour went to town feasting on the freshest seafood you ever experienced
Last edited:
Vandalen,
Don’t know if your schedule is tied up around school years, but if not, look into traveling to Iceland during its shoulder season which is around mid May. There are quite a few Brits that travel over from the UK for weekend trips, but generally, the rest of the mass of tourists don’t begin showing up until June. You’ll get slightly better deals on accommodations if you can travel before the crowds show up. It’ll make the tours far more enjoyable too. Weather in May is brisk. Pack appropriately and you’ll be ok.
For the hackers on this board, there are golf courses and some really good ones. Don’t have to worry about trees because there aren’t any in the entire country, but this one place has a $hitload of water. You can check out Brautarholt Golf Club. About $150 will get you a cart, rental clubs and green fees. That’s the nearest course to central Reykjavik. Amstel Light, back in the early 2000s used to host an annual midnight golf outing at this course.
Fishing is fantastic too. Salmon fishing is done in the rivers. That starts up in June. Trout and Arctic char season begins in April. Cost depends on whether you fish on public or private property.
Don’t know if your schedule is tied up around school years, but if not, look into traveling to Iceland during its shoulder season which is around mid May. There are quite a few Brits that travel over from the UK for weekend trips, but generally, the rest of the mass of tourists don’t begin showing up until June. You’ll get slightly better deals on accommodations if you can travel before the crowds show up. It’ll make the tours far more enjoyable too. Weather in May is brisk. Pack appropriately and you’ll be ok.
For the hackers on this board, there are golf courses and some really good ones. Don’t have to worry about trees because there aren’t any in the entire country, but this one place has a $hitload of water. You can check out Brautarholt Golf Club. About $150 will get you a cart, rental clubs and green fees. That’s the nearest course to central Reykjavik. Amstel Light, back in the early 2000s used to host an annual midnight golf outing at this course.
Fishing is fantastic too. Salmon fishing is done in the rivers. That starts up in June. Trout and Arctic char season begins in April. Cost depends on whether you fish on public or private property.
Last edited: