[Closed] Iceland

Did you hire a car? How did you find the prices over there?

I'm a bearded man. I do the same.

Several moons ago I was a single parent and I managed to cajole the kids into cycling holidays in various northern destinations including Norway, but by the time I got Iceland in my sights their ability to say NO had multiplied into an effective force which sunk my plans. Still haven't made it there. Still want to go......and time is not infinite.

We thought about hiring and exploring, but because we were super busy in the months before going (bought a new house, lots to do to it!) we went for the easy option of an apartment near the centre and a few coach trips. I got a bit annoyed on one 'cos it was just full of gits, as were some of the more touristy spots, but on the whole it wasn't too bad.

Prices aren't too bad on the whole we found - cheap supermarket food was silly expensive, eating out much cheaper. Most expensive meal out we had was three courses which, for both of us with a glass of wine for MrsMonkey and a fizzy beverage for myself came to just under £60. It was very nice, and I would have expected to pay close to that at home (in Hull) and probably more in a bigger city.

There are plenty of restaurants doing 3 courses and a drink for £25, and by god some of them gave you a ridiculous amount of food. Then there are lots of places doing more snacky meals, we ate a lot of noodles - about a fiver a bowl iirc, but it's a BIG bowl and very tasty.

That's in Reykjavik, we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon which cost about 20 quid for a bit of cheese and meat, a packet of crisps, a drink each and a piece of cake.

The trips were quite expensive, but an easy way of getting around and the guided tours were actually genuinely quite interesting. Did you know that Iceland is Europe's number one producer of bananas?

@Billyboy - we were very touristy this time, for simplicity's sake as we had no planning time. If we go back, I want to do a roadtrip around the ring road over a couple of weeks. Just have to convince the Mrs now...

Car hire opens up lots of options but need to be careful with damage on the unmade roads (every hire car is plastered in little reported damage stickers). Hire also really really expensive, and 4x4s often not insured during river crossings (which kind of defeats hiring a 4x4 as every inland road has rivers to negotiate).

Biking the ring road looked very grim - we know people that cycled east for 2 weeks and then ditched their flight plans and got the ferry home as they couldn't face 2 weeks of headwind to get back to Rekjavik 🙂

2 zero cost top tips if you go back:-

1) Walk up to the hot river in the hills above Hveragerdi - much better than the Blue lagoon (if you have some cash then a day mtb tour with Iceland Activities in Hveragerdi was our highlight - like being adopted by an Icelandic family for the whole day).

2) If visiting Jokulsarlon, leave the main car park, cross the bridge and check out the beach / river outlet on the opposite side of the road. Amazing wave shaped ice lumps on the black volcanic sand and big chunks of ice bashing down the river and out to sea.

Can't wait to go back sometime.

Loving the vid FMC. Of all the places I've visited it is Iceland I've returned to again and again. The place continues to astound me.

Loads of great advice given above, especially the 'top tips' to which I would add:

Almost all the service stations offer low cost food.

The further north and east you go the better the weather gets.

If you can, hire a 4x4. Askja, Sprengisandur, Landmanalaugur and Hvveravellir are special places. All are accessible by public tours but the fun had by driving to them is pretty cool TBH.

Blue Lagoon is really well situated to take advantage of the tourists. It's a great place. There are other, similar places too. Most villages and towns will have a geothermal pool.

There are many geothermal pools to be found in the wilds.

The Aurora Borealis is the best show on Earth.

I think Iceland was the best holiday I've ever been on - need to go back some day, here's some pics I took back in 2007... seems so long ago now!

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/195/500023307_55d2219c4f.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/195/500023307_55d2219c4f.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/LbKvv ]Icebergs at Jokulsarlon[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/15401902@N00/ ]zachw77[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/212/499990035_8657bb1f43.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/212/499990035_8657bb1f43.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/LbzBR ]Vik Beach[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/15401902@N00/ ]zachw77[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/196/500037608_9f71f07968.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/196/500037608_9f71f07968.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/LbPL5 ]Twisted Metal[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/15401902@N00/ ]zachw77[/url], on Flickr

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/214/499981073_f31093d5a6.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/214/499981073_f31093d5a6.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/LbwXk ]Skogarfoss[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/15401902@N00/ ]zachw77[/url], on Flickr

I was out in Iceland last week and I agree its an amazing place. We hired a car via Holiday Autos and it worked out at just over £100 for the 4 days so not too expensive. It was a small Chevrolette (however you spell it) Aveo and it was ace. I was a bit nervous about the roads as they can be pretty dodgy but I managed to get the car back in one piece minus any damage. Having the car really made a difference as we could go explore a bit.

We where based in Reyjkavik for 4 nights so did the Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle tour and wandered about the city for a few days. I loved it and want to go back and hire a 4x4 and explore more. Like was mentioned before eating out is not too bad, on par with the UK but drinks are very expensive. However the Icelanders love a good coffee and often shops give the stuff away for free! Its brilliant. Also in Reykjavik the bars seem to run happy hours and these are staggered over the city so you can normally find somewhere with cheapish dirnks at any point in time. Apparently the is a Happy hour app for your phone!

I cannot wait to go back. Like the OP we did touristy stuff as it was a first time visit and I am glad we did that. I don't begrudge the expense of the Blue Lagoon as it was a nice way to kick the holiday off as its easy to go straight from the airport to the Blue Lagoon and then onto Reykjavik.What I was not ready for was how well everyone speaks english, and the amount of Americans out there!

FMC- thanks for putting me onto Jon Hopkins. When I first heard it I genuinely thought that it was Gus Gus. Very fitting.

Nice vid FMC.. For some reason (despite reading many gawd awful tales regarding the headwinds) I hanker to do a bike tour of the country...whilst listening to Jon Hopkins of course 😀 , he's bloody good ain't he?. I've saw him doing his full live show with video support twice this year and I'd quite happily see him again if I could.

Have you checked out Nils Frahm or Olafur Arnalds on Erased Tapes label?, if not you may like them as well, they'd be good music for a tour of Iceland