How to plan your trip to Iceland
This article is about an Iceland trip planning on the basis of my 2 trips there. Few pieces of advice, hints and impressions.
Here I want to share my experience of two successful trips to the wonderful country Iceland. First time I went there with two friends of mine in 2018 year in October for 1 week. Second time was with my wife (as our honeymoon) in 2019 year in September. Both times there were perfect (except first time I was really ill and drove a car with high temperature).
Both times we drove through the Golden circle (1st road) around the whole island. You may think that second time was boring for me to drive the same path I did in the previous trip. Definitely no. I saw like the same places but more precised and new places additionally. So the second time I saw even more than first one.
What to start with ? Many people do their trips with some travel agencies or just simple go to the one city and buy just excursions nearby. My way is more interesting and not so complex as you may think about planning a trip by your own. Next is a brief content of the article:
Content
- Plan your route.
- Plan accommodations, food and transport.
- Calculate costs.
- Book everything.
- Prepare your bags and equipment.
- Have a nice trip !
In this article 99% of photos were taken by myself, so I’m not a professional photographer, but it may give you another view for places described here. If you don’t like them, you may always google it (I wrote all the names). Have a good read ! :)
Plan your route
I’m living in Ukraine, so my route started with a flight. I booked a WizzAir flight to Poland (Wroclaw) and from Wroclaw to Reykjavik at the second trip. It was easy flight with total cost 300$ per passenger (one way). First time I went to Poznan by train and had a low-cost ticket (50$ per passenger) to Reykjavik. It was real luck.
Your trip and departure country might be different of course, so I will not concentrate to much attention on flights and will write more about Iceland directions and key points.
Golden circle is a route with a number 1 that goes around the island continuously. It begins in Keflavik and goes through the main cities and villages like Reykjavik, Vik, Hofn, Egilstadir, Akureyri.
We had 7 days for all. Our plan was:
- Flight to Keflavik.
- Rent a car.
- Southwest.
- Southwest to Southeast by South coast.
- Southeast to Northeast by East coast.
- Northeast to North by North region.
- North to Southwest by West coast.
Here is the simple map:
We did it next way:
1st day we come in the evening to Keflavik and spent a night nearby.
2nd day we went to Selfoss through the Blue Lagoon (Grindavik), Reykjavik, Tingvellir, Selfoss. Easy day. But Blue Lagoon was awesome, so I totally recommend you to visit this place. Reykjavik this day was very simple, just see some places and have a lunch. Tingvellir is a quiet simple place with beautiful nature (lakes, mountains). Selfoss is a small town (rather village then town).
3rd day was rather long in ride. From Selfoss to Kerid crater, Geysir and Gulfoss waterfall. Next we moved on the South to Vik to visit Dirholey and stayed in a hotel near Vik.
This day was very windy and rainy weather. I took there inappropriate coat and trousers so I got totally wet. It will be described more in the equipment paragraph.
4th day: we went from Vik to Hofn, but a bit went back to Solheimasandur plane wreck. It’s a beautiful place, but note that you need to walk by the rocks and sand 4 km one way and back 4 km (8 km to walk). In 2019 there was made a shuttle bus for 1500 ISK (12$ one way per person). It is an American military plane that made an emergency landing on the beach. Nowadays there is only its corpus without all mechanisms (and even wings). Next we moved to Jökulsárlón. It’s a glacier that falls and flows to the ocean. Very interesting and beautiful place. There might be seals ! (we saw them in September, but in October didn’t). And next we moved to Hofn.
5th day: we moved from Hofn to Egilstadir through the mountains. Here we moved from the 1st road to the 95th to get to the Litlanesfoss waterfall. It’s a very beautiful place (but note that you will need to walk for 71 floor up there). 95 road goes through the mountains with no asphalt there, so be vey careful there. Or you may drive by the first road near the East coast, it’s very beautiful too, but if you want to visit Litlanesfoss this way you will need to come first to Egilstadir and go backon South by 931 road.
These places have a very beautiful nature (one of my favorite). Mountains, lakes, seaside, waterfalls, forests and it all for a one ride !
6th day: we went from Egilstadir to Akureyri. These are two my favorite cities there. Not so much people like in Reykjavik, but very beautiful mountains and nature around them. We drove by the 1st road and went to the Dettifoss waterfall. There are very dangerous path while snowing, but it’s good when it is not. Also we visited Grjotagja cave (Game of Thrones scene with John Snow and Igrit was filmed exactly there! ) and Hverir hot spots. This way you will meet minimum of cars and tourists, just mountains and landscapes like on Mars.
7th day: this day was very simple for visits but long enough for a ride. We drove from Akureyri to Reykjavik. There not so many places to see like on south or east or even north.
It was a brief context of our trips there. Just to show you these locations. Now you may see them or additionally google them. Now it’s time to plan accommodations, food and transport.
Plan accommodations, food and transport
Hotels in Iceland
Iceland has its main income from tourists, so you may guess the price for the hotels. Medium price is around 100 euro per night. So if you want to plan your budget in advance, you may multiply your days to stay on 100 euro and receive the total price for all stays there. For example, our stay for one week in 7 places cost us 700 euro.
Next are listed my favorite properties. I have been there and know: they are cheep, comfortable and located on the route described in this article. Use the links below to go exactly on the properties pages to see more information and book them.
HINT: book in advance (2–3 months minimum). Iceland is a very popular place for tourists and all properties are being booked really fast.
- Great hotel near Keflavik airport in 15 minutes of ride: hotel . Kitchen, cozy facilities, nice window view. Stayed there 2 times.
- Cozy and small guest house near Selfoss: guest house on our day 2. There are hot tubes on the backyard (work from April till the October). Simple guest house, kitchen in some houses, clean and warm. Made 2 stays there.
- Nice hostel near Vik (exactly near Skogafoss waterfall) : hostel . Even this is hostel, but very clean and cozy. Shared kitchen and shower. Be careful by booking a property near Vik because it’s a very popular location, expensive properties but its quality not always corresponds to the price. Maybe you will be luckier and this hotel fixed its disadvantages.
- Perfect guest house with cottages near Höfn: guest house . It’s a very cool place with no kitchen, but with a bar, it is cozy, warm, quiet and has beautiful view.
- The best location for couple or single stay : cottage on a farm near Egilstadir. It’s just a cottage near the farm with horses (100 meters). Perfect view, warm, cozy and waterfall nearby.
- Nice guesthouse in Akureyri city center
- Comfortable apartments in Reykjavík
Food in Iceland
There are two possible ways of spending money for food there. You may eat in cafes and restaurants or you may buy food in the supermarkets and cook it by yourself. What is the best option ?
There is no such thing. Both variants are very interesting and I advice you to try them both. Food in restaurants or cafes are very tasty and expensive, but in supermarkets you may buy for the same amount of money as you may spend in one dinner for three days for 2 persons. Let me show you few examples.
“American Style”, Skipholt 70, 105 Reykjavík. — is a very nice place to eat for two or for a big company. They are serving burgers. Size of them are huge and price is near 15$-20$ per meal (burger, potatoes, unlimited Pepsi). I have been there 3 times and each one was perfect. You may google it and find few more addresses in Reykjavik.
“Kaffehörnet”, Hafnarbraut 42, 780 Höfn í Hornafirði — restaurant in Höfn (city on Southeast of the island). Was there once and it was extremely cool. I love burgers as you may noticed and I took there “Icelandic Monster Burger” for 30$ per meal (extremely huge and tasty burger) and my wife took “Lobsters’ tails in tempura” for 30$.
It was our experience of Icelandic restaurants food. You may find that average price for meal (for one person) is near 40$ and if you are planning to feed in this way, plan your budget with this number.
Here we come to another variant of feeding there. There are few really good supermarket chains where you can buy food: Bonus and Kronan .
These two chains are cheap and there are a lot of trading points on the island.
As you may have noticed, there are no Bonus or Kronan between Vik and Egilstadir (Southwest). But there are such supermarkets like Kjarval or Netto.
About supermarket prices. You may read this article about Reykjavik food prices. Or this one about average Iceland prices for food and living at all.
But for example we were in Bonus and buy: 1 kg of nuggets, 1 kg of spaghetti, salsa 300 g, bread, 10 sausages, cheese, salami, bacon, nutella, pack of Pepsi 0.25 l and it costed us 40$ . We ate it for 3 days (3 breakfasts, 3 dinners and 3 simple sandwich stays on nature). So if you are planning a budget trip, it’s better to buy food in supermarkets and cook it by your own. You may use for free kitchen in hostels or guest houses. Or you may use a compact gas burner to cook it in a special places like this:
What about water ? In Iceland you may drink water from the each tap without any filters. But be careful. In the most of places water is taken from underground spots and even very tasty, but somewhere it’s just a technical water with chlorine (eg. touristic restrooms far away from civilization with signs of prohibited water drinking). But if you really thirsty, you may drink water from the rivers (it’s pure but cold. tested).
Car rental in Iceland
I have two experiences of car renting there. I used both times “Goldcar”. It’s a budget car rental with good quality cars. First time I took there Kia Rio 1.4 and second one it was Suzuki Grand Vitara 1.4 .
Kia costed us 400$ for one week. Average fuel usage was up to 6 liters per 100 km. We drove near 2000 km and spent near 150 euros for gasoline. Benzine costs there near 1.5 euros per liter.
Suzuki was more expensive: 750$ for one week. And we spend the same 150 euros for gasoline, because almost the same route and average fuel usage was the same 6.1 liters per 100 km .
What car is the best to choose there ? It depends on a season. When we were there in October, we met a lot of places with snow (95th road, Dettifoss, roads near Akureyri). But we took Kia (our fault) because it was first time and we didn’t expect it. Second time in September we took Suzuki, but there are no snow this period of year. So plan your transport according to weather and your budget.
How to fill up your car tank ? Many people there are confused of Icelandic pumps and gas stations because in the most cases they are looking like on the picture below.
Filling up. You will need a credit/debit card with a chip (no american express and no cash). And if you want to fill up a full tank you need to: put a gasoline gun inside a tank, insert a card, select English, “fill up” option, you will be charged near 100 euros as a deposit, next this amount will be returned to your account, start filling up a tank and finally actual amount will be charged from your card. Nothing difficult. For example this scheme is working at “N1” gas stations. If you use “Orkan” you need to first insert your card and select filling option (you may choose liters or in ISK amount or filling up) and after charging you may take a gasoline gun.
About payments. Every gas station has a terminal and only. But you do not need a cash at all because there is even the simplest and the cheapest hostel has a terminal (even most of restrooms and ticket offices also have it). But if you have a cash, it’s ok (except of gas stations). There are kind of funny money with fish or crabs on it :)
Parking. How to deal with leaving your car there ? If you visit a touristic place somewhere it’s free parking there. If you want to park your vehicle in Reykjavik or another big city it has a price. First of all you need to see what kind of parking zone you are using (P1– up to 15 minutes, P2–1 hour, P3–24 hours). You may read about pricing here. Of course if you use P1 it doesn’t mean that you need to pay for 15 minutes and have no chance to continue it. You have this option, but you need to go to the parking terminal each 15 minutes and pay each time without any longer option. So you may use P1 zone 4 times (=1 hour) but it will be more expensive than use once P2. About parking terminals. They are not difficult. Just select English and follow instructions at the display. If you visiting Akureyri, there are all parking is free. But you need to follow the timing instructions. It means if you leave your car for more than 15 minutes in P1 zone, your car will be evacuated. There are even being sold a clocks on the gas stations to put them behind the front glass and set a timer. It’s needed to show Icelandic police how long you have been staying on the place.
Calculate costs
And now you need to calculate all the costs. I will write it for one person for one week.
7 nights stays = 700$
2–3 times in a supermarket = 80–120$
Car rental = 400 $ (for budget one or 750$ for crossover)
Gasoline = 150–200$
Total: 1330–1420$
Of course you will want to buy some souvenirs or there will be some additional expenses for restaurants or other and my advise you to add 200–300 $ more to this sum as minimum.
If you are traveling with a group it’s even cheaper. For example room for 1 or 2 persons has the same price as room for 6 persons (at the most cases). So you may share the price within the group members.
If you are traveling without stays in hotels or hostels, you may stay at campings. They are free at the most of cases, but sometimes it cost up to 10–15 euros per night.
Book everything
If you really book everything in advance (minimum 2–3 months or 5–6 better) it will be cheaper and safer for your trip. If you don’t have total amount of money right now it’s not a problem. Booking.com has a lot of opportunities to book for free and pay directly at the property. Goldcar rental has this opportunity too. So you need to pay for airplane tickets initially.
Prepare your bags and equipment
It’s very important step to do. You will need a right equipment there. I will start from the basic outfit.
- Coat, trousers and boots.
On the upper picture is shown an example of a right coat. Of course it depends on a season, does it need a fur inside or not. For example if you are traveling in Summer, you may just take a simple waterproof coat, but if you are traveling in Autumn or Spring you will need a warm lining inside.
You may look at my pictures. I had there 2 coats: black and green. Black one was windproof, but has only waterproof parts, it’s not right. Green one was made totally with waterproof surface and you may test it: just wet your hand and move it by the coat surface, you will see a water bulbs just laying on it in case of good water resistance. As more bulbs you see as good your coat in waterproofing. The same for trousers. The best variant is shown below.
Do not hesitate to use waterproof liquids to spray them on your outfit.
For sure in case of Autumn or Spring trip you will need a lot of sweaters, thermo underwear, warm socks, scarf, waterproof gloves, hat.
Best variants of Iceland boots and gloves are shown on the pictures below.
2. Accessories
If basic bag is enough for you, it’s ok. But you may reed it just like hints and probably find it useful.
Waterproof phone case
Iceland has a very unpredictable weather. You may walk in a t-shirt and sun is shining, but in 20 minutes of ride be totally wet after massive rain. So waterproof case is very important there. Not only during the waterfalls stays, but kind of Blue Lagoon places you will need it too.
Face mask
It may be look strange for you, but I had such thing there and it really helps in case of crazy wind or rain.
Foor warmers
You may be sceptic for this thing, so was I, but it really helps in case of cold or wet foots. Just put them in your boots and in a few minutes you will feel the result. Tested.
Buy a sim card there
Do not take a car rental navigator. It’s expensive and not always works properly. Nowadays everyone has a smartphone. Even the cheapest and simplest has a GPS system and maps. Example is below picture.
Both times I used Siminn card for 10 gigabytes. It costed 24 $/month , so it’s cheaper than take for 40$/week a navigator. First time for three persons we used 7/10 GB (personal hotspot sharing) and second time we used 5/10 GB for 2 persons. During the usage we always use the google maps navigator, youtube to play music, sometimes even online games. It’s really huge amount of traffic for a one week, so you may take 5GB, it’s cheaper.
Have a good trip !
Now it’s time for conclusion. You have planed your route, booked everything, prepared your clothes and other equipment, so now you are ready to go there.
Do not worry, it’s a very beautiful country. I chose it for my honeymoon and my wife was totally satisfied it the same as me. It’s good for couples, for friends and even lone trips. People there are very kind to tourists, everybody knows English and 4G is covering almost the whole island.
Good luck to you !
Bondarenko K.
