Thinking of going there in April – fly in to Reykjavik for 4 nights. Anyone been? What should we do? What are the chances of seeing the Northern lights at that time of year?

ta,

thebunk

Eat a lot of dry fish, drink a lot non-alcoholic malt, eat some fish balls (tin), fish cake/pudding … plenty of fish … lovely.

Me too!

When are you going? Bit of a difference in darkness from the beginning to the end.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=211&month=4&year=2011&obj=sun&afl=-1&day=1

It’s a great place – I’ve been twice. Somethings to do;

1) Blue Lagoon – geothermal swimming pool. Great fun!
2) Super Jeep Safari – go-anywhere truck with silly big wheels. Great fun!
3) Golden Circle Tour – bus tour of natural highlight. Geyser, Gulfoss Falls etc…
4) The Pearl – super expensive restaurant and interesting building.

Get out of Reykjavik and see some of the interior. The glaciers are pretty impressive and the Super Jeep tour will get you on one easy.

Beer and food is very expensive – maybe more so now they’ve had all this financial trouble etc… but a great place. Definitely recommended.

Went for a Valentine’s day long weekend a few years ago. An excellent place. We walked around Reykjavik, took a coach trip to see volcanic activity and the original parliament, and spent the evening in the Blue Lagoon – touristy but great fun!

Friends went for two weeks last year in the summer and toured the island and glaciers. You won’t have time for that. Don’t expect to see the Northern Lights, unless you travel far north – only a small island at the top is inside the total day/night latitude. It’s a day away at least.

Go, you’ll love it. Just don’t expect to get drunk, alcohol is unbelievably expensive. And remove silver jewellery as the hot water is highly sulphurous (but free).

I’m looking to go this year too – although not till late Sept.

Apparently Autumn and Early spring are the best NLights times. So April will probably not be much good.

I’m looking forward to seeing the place in Autumn as most places look better in the Autumn.

Don’t expect to see the Northern Lights, unless you travel far north – only a small island at the top is inside the total day/night latitude. It’s a day away at least.

Don’t quite understand this? The further north you go after 21st March, the less darkness you’ll get?

I’ve been lucky enough to see Northern Lights in Scotland in August (very faint though) and in BC in late April (massive green display all over the sky, went on 30 minutes or so) and that was at about the same latitute as Paris.

I’d agree with not expecting to see them, though! Chances are low if you’re only going for 4 days, wherever you are.

Cool thanks for the tips. I think I knew it would be foolish to take a “Northern Lights” tour, thanks for the confirmation.

Where else is good to eat/see? Anyone hired a mountain bike out there?

Apparently not very good for mountain biking – the interior is just proper exposed & windy – a lack of trees offers no shelter.

I went in May 2007 the evenings were starting to draw out nicely, barely saw any darkness. I expect April will be too late for the northern lights.

As others have said the golden circle tour is good. The iceberg lagoon at jokulsarlon is truely a magical place. We hired a car & explored the south side of the island, every time we went round a corner we were treated to another fantastic view. Definitely want to go again one day, but there are plenty of other places I want to visit first!

Icebergs at Jokulsarlon by zachwinsley, on Flickr

Book the Mountain Taxi. 4×4 up to the glacier. Sounds tame but it really isn’t. 60mph through snow fields on giant balloon tyres to the middle of nowhere, then you get out and sink up to your arse in snow and somehow the 2 tonne truck doesn’t. Weird.

Swimming in the power station effluent is good too.

Don’t do a viking night. You might expect sex, violence, beer and vomiting but at a one beer per person (and almost impossible to order more) it’s not what you might hope for.

Don’t order the puffin. They taste like fishy slugs.