Wife wants to book a weekend away from the little ones in March and we are both keen on Iceland.
I guess there’s a few here that have been so what are your top tips?

Good question – I might be going last weekend in February!

Rachel

Can’t help with March (or Feb) but went last summer and loved it.

We went at the end of March a couple of years ago. -13 degrees the first night but averaged around zero for the 10 days we were there.

Everything covered in snow.

A family trip so not into nightlife. Worth doing the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle but be aware that the roads can be shut due to the weather so it’s possible you won’t be able to do them in the time available.

Personally, I thought Iceland was ok but too much a tourist trap for my liking. The sort of place that is worth going to later in the year when you can get away from the crowds and drive round the island or explore on a motorbike/MTB.

5 days would have been more than enough being based in Reykjavik.

Friends of ours went as a 40th birthday trip as a couple and they thought it a bit touristy too.

If you’re into nightlife then it has a lot of potential though.

I can give details of accommodation or more info. if you want. Just ask.

Rich.

My son went in Dec with his GF.
Their recommendations were:
1. Accommodation – Lodges seemed best option, hotels very expensive.
2. Food – horrendously expensive to eat out. Soup @ £20 per head was their only meal out! Mostly self catering through necessity.
3. Attractions – Thermal springs, guided walks on glaciers.
Hire big 4×4 and drive around island

If you going in snowy season take a Superjeep tour, its awesome!

Went Feb ’15. Lovely. Blue lagoon touristy but weird. Good fish and chip place out towards harbour past flea market. Food expensive, maybe London + prices. Cathedral worth a trip. We stayed in hotel right across the road from its front door. Leifur Erickson or something like that. Good locals pool just by cathedral. Trips can be weather dependant. We booked before going as it was a fair bit cheaper and the cancelled one was refunded. Ireland air.

Me and the Mrs are going on 16th March for 5 nights.

We’ve heard it’s expensive. We’re looking at hiring a car to see the sights. Apart from the Blue Lagoon, I want a few beers sat in there. 🙂

I went end of March the other year and it was ace, right at the turn of season, it was covered in snow and minus temps when we arrived and by the time we left more like a typical damp British winters day. We did the Iceland Air flight and hotel deal, stayed right on the harbour front, which was a great location. We did the usual i.e Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle and boat trip to see the Northern Lights. Plus a few days pottering around the city including the Cathedral.

The fish and chips place by the harbour is great, and not silly prices. Drink is however, silly prices unless it is happy hour.

Launderette cafe wasn’t horrendously priced and was nice food in town. There was an expensive place that looked nice in a basement too but was fully booked when we went.

Kaffinbarrin, tube sign pub, great night out if you head out at 11 or so.

Went into a bar on night 1 at 7 in the middle of town, we were the only customers, come 5am the queue was down the street.

I really liked, it, really liked the people we met. Weather suited me too, quite a bit of rain, some snow and 8-10 degrees as a high temperature.

It’s not cheap, I didn’t find it all that touristy (well except for the blue lagoon, but I still quite liked that too).

I’ll head back one day and do the South coast road trip I wanted to do.

Apart from the Blue Lagoon, I want a few beers sat in there.

Limited to 3 per person* when in the pool 😥

*your bank balance will thank them for this

Cathedral worth a trip. We stayed in hotel right across the road from its front door. Leifur Erickson or something like that.

Stayed here as well. Very pleased with it, and if you have a hire car you can park it in the Cathedral car park.

I love Icelandic food.

Smoked sheep face … yummy but I like it with Tabasco … my way. 😛

Best soup I’ve ever had was in Reykjavik. Wasn’t £20 a pop though

We went in December and loved it. Stayed right in the heart of Reykjavik thanks to airbnb, and got a hot tub. Plenty to see in Reykjavik and everything nicely in walking distance. Food was expensive but good quality. Beer is generally £10 a pint in a restaurant, but found a local pub selling local brew for £5 a pop during happy hour (most of the day).

Blue lagoon is very touristy, but a great experience. Try the ‘secret’ lagoon for something a little quieter. We didn’t manage to do the Golden Circle (only 4 hours of daylight when we went) but did attempt the Northern Lights tour with mixed success.

I got blown over last March in Reykjavik. It’s never happened before and frankly I wouldn’t consider it until the height of summer. YMMV etc.

Went in February a couple of years ago. Back then the exchange rate wasn’t bad, certainly stuff was cheaper there than any other Scandinavian countries. We stayed 1 night in Rejkavik, then flew to Akureyri, which was much less touristy. Spent 3 days there then 1 more night in Rejkavik before coming home. Myvatn Nature Baths much more awesome than the Blue Lagoon. Dark Cities just a magical place. We all agreed that spending all the time in Rejkavik would have been very ordinary by comparison.

OP, I took a school group there last March. I still have two tickets for Whale watching, as we did not see any whales. I can send them to you if you want? There will be two different names on the tickets however. They are valid for 2 years after initial visit.

Pack for all weathers! It rained, hailed, snowed the lot while I was there.

Best ice-cream- http://stuckiniceland.com/south-iceland/best-locally-made-ice-cream-found-in-a-barn-in-the-south-of-iceland/

You can sit and eat while watching all the cows through the windows.

went last Febuary…..got really lucky with the weather…..lots of snow on the ground but generally was about -2 to +2 and sunny skies ( between 10:00 and 17:00.
Hired a Dacia Duster from Blue Rentals and self drove Golden Circle. Blue Lagoon as has been said is touristy but a great experience.Fish and Chips place by Harbour a good tip also the Whales exhibition ….life size fibreglass whales ….so much better than hunting them !
Another good tip is to buy drink on arrival at Keflavik ….we picked up cases of the lovely Einstock beer.
Drive out to lighthouse at western edge of Reykjavik to check the skies for the Northern Lights ( after checking the aurora alert website ) ….this is only area close to city centre without streetlights.

Much to the wife’s disgust I bought beer at the airport as well. Can second Launderette cafe place. Good cake and coffee shop just inland of the main cross roads near the sea/bottom of town. Flea market nothing special. Jumpers to expensive!

We went a couple of years back. I did a MTB day around Reykjavik – some local trails etc, including up by the Pearl – really good. Wife went Whale watching while I did that – saw a massive amount apparently. Golden Circle is impressive, if quite a long trip on a bus. +1 for Cathedral – nice view from top.

Oh, and take ALL your money. 🙂

We had a long week in Iceland last September, ace place. If you live somewhere outside London then everything is very expensive, think home costs + 50%, just about the only thing that wasn’t expensive was fuel.

Blue Lagoon is very touristy but one of those things that you just need to do. We hired a Dacia Duster for the time we were there, The Golden Circle is easily done in a day without rushing, we thought Gulfoss was the most impressive even with several coachloads of other tourists there.

Best place we ate at in Reykjavik was on one of the streets leading down to the city centre from the Cathedral, can’t remember the name.

Is that the laundromat Toby? Kaffinbarrin used to be joint owned by Damon Albran, it is a nice spot.
We stayed at Hotel Fron, while not luxurious was decent, perfectly situated on laugervagur and cheap. Didn’t find food extortionate and if you use the grapevine appy hour app drinks are dirt cheap. I had the best burger I’ve ever had in the Chuck Norris grill. Don’t use the 24/7 shops use the supermarket with the yellow sign.

When you’ve had three beers at the blue lagoon you can enjoy a Kraap.

Reykjavik is nice and not really like a capital city – but not a huge amount of things to do there. The country surrounding is the real draw.

Do the golden circle stuff yourself if at all possible – I could sit watching the geysirs for ages.

Natural hot river above Hveragerdi is relatively tourist free, fabulous and not far out of Rekj. If you want help to get there then http://www.icelandactivities.is will collect you and arrange it all. They are a dad, son and mum firm – nothing like a normal tour firm, more like being shown secret stuff by local friends.

Thanks for all the tips folks.

We are now booked but have changed plans slightly in that we are going to hire a car for the 3 days to get around. We’ll be based in Reyk so can plan some places to drive to – any recommendations to do a day’s driving/touring?
Can also go out to see the Northern Lights at our leisure.

@ mrwhyte: If they’re still available I’d be interested in the tickets 🙂

You’d be very lucky to see the northern lights during a 3 day window. There’s a website to check the likelyhood of them coming up

the roads in iceland are open and easy to drive along, but also long and with speed cameras (with fairly hefty fines) and low-ish limits. The golden circle is ‘tickable’ in a day, and you can do the blue lagoon on the way to/from the airport to avoid un-necessary driving (its right by the airport, but both that and the lagoon are ~1 hour out of town). the lagoon sells out so book well in advance

The circle is very touristy – I did half a week in the south (inc there) and have a week in the north, and the difference is night and day – the north is completely deserted.

We went here https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/regina/reykjadalur-hot-spring-valley-in-south-iceland which was easily day-trippable (you can do other things too) from the capital. Nice hike, hot springs at the top, not too many people there. I don’t know what the weather\snow level would be like in March – we went in sept and it was windy\cold but reasonable hiking weather and no snow. The hike is about an hour each way

We stayed in Reykjavik and did a trip to Gullfoss falls and Geysir Hot Springs in one day. (But this was the summer). The next day we just drove north alone the coast to see how far we could go in a day. Was very attractive and fairly quite.
We got back in time to hire some bikes from the place on the harbour and cycled alone the cycle path alone the coast.

I was there this year for new year’s and 2 years ago in April. Food is expensive, 2 Curry’s a nann and 2 beers was £87 and that wasnt anywhere posh. You need to go to this place it’s the best soup in Iceland https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g189970-d1487023-Reviews-Svarta_Kaffid-Reykjavik_Capital_Region.html they only serve 2 soups, a meat and a veg one. This place was best I found for car hire http://www.bluecarrental.is do a bit of research and you can drive to a lot of the touristy stuff and a lot of it is free like the waterfalls, gyisers etc

Really good aurora forecasting for Iceland here:
Iceland Aurora Forecast

We did a 3-day trip out of Reykjavik with Extreme Iceland, they have so many excursions from a few hours to many days, anything you could wish for is covered, might give you some ideas about what you’d like to do with your time, even if you don’t book with them.

Also been to the Soup cafe, nice on a cold night. Good fish and chips down by the harbour too, next to the Volcano museum.

Oh and go watch the sunrise from the Sun Voyager sculpture, it won’t be too early in March.

I’ll be there end of February.

I don’t suppose anyone knows where I could get a run in, do they? I have a half marathon the following weekend and it will be my last proper training run before the race.

Rachel

Lots of people running along the coast cycle/foot path (starts around the harbour but goes both ways). But it was summer and we had good weather.