Iceland – Anybody been?

Just booked tickets for 18 days in July 2012. Just a little bit excited.

Any recommendations for things to see, places to stay and any insider tips.

Google all the usual Blue Lagoon, Gulfoss etc looking for other ideas.

Cheers

No, but well jellus! Enjoy.

With 18 days you’ll see loads.

We had 5 and did

Golden circle tour
Snow mobiling
Geyser
Gulfoss
Perlen
Blue lagoon
Whale watching
Hanging about in Reykjavik trying to look cool

After 18 days you will starve to death though because the food is both dire and expensive.

Get the Lonely Planet guide and read it from cover to cover before you go.

Also, you will need to take £1,000,000.

Avoid the Scampi.

Ye its ace and they are a bit “bonkers” in a good way.

Pretty well what Harry says, but also try the Hákarl Shark (its an experence you wont forget, EVER) 😯

We’ll be doing the Laugavegur Highland Walking Trail which will take up 5 nights and be dirt cheap – £25 a night in the mountain huts (probably the only cheap accommodation on the island.

Flights were cheap

So it mean we have more money for the rest of the trip. It will be our honeymoon so don’t mind treating ourselves – rather than the usual camping holidays.

Harry – which bits were the best from what you’ve listed?

I went for a long weekend a few years ago, loved the place! It was in December.

We done a ‘Golden Circle tour’ (loads of local companies do them!) which included Gulfloss, The Geyser (which is sort of next to Gulfloss) and Snow Mobiliing on the Glacier. We went Whale Watching too which was good. Plenty to do, i’d like to go back; hiring a car and driving round the country would be good too. Reykjavik is nice too, but all in all didn’t find it horribly expensive and plenty of decent food and drink about – have fun!

Sun set/rise at Solfar.

Ooooooooo………….

sleasyjet fly out there now, if you haven’t booked your flights yet

Got the lonely planet guide and map.

Planning on hiring a car for a week and there seems to be plenty of hostels in the major town and villages with private 2 person rooms that are very reasonably priced.

So mix in a few of those and a few nice hotels too.

+ bjork was born there (and that’s good enough for me 😉

Already booked tickets through Icelandic Air very reasonable prices, fly from Manchester, decent times and hold luggage is included which makes a change these days!!

We were there in July too. The sun just bounces off the horizon. We sat at Solfar at about 1:00am with our shades on!

My mums gone……..no really she has.

Harry – which bits were the best from what you’ve listed?

All of ’em. You have 18 days. You can do everything 3 times.

I went and saw Kerry Katona’s prawn ring…

Brilliant country. Best weather is usually up in the north-east though. The interior is amazing.

No, but well jellus! Enjoy.

😐

😀 Everything sounds sooooooo good 😀

Got Married in “Hafnir church”…..in Winter by a minister called Thor! Honest.

Try some local food such as grilled puffin!
Also do a hardcore 4×4 trip

Have fun!

Mmmm………puffin

There’s plenty of better places to get warm nice water in less commercialised surroundings than the blue lagoon….
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IMG_7258[/url] by j.buckle[/url], on Flickr

Wonderful place. Absolutely wonderful. Not sure I could use 18 days there without hiring a 4×4 and having access to the highlands, but it depends what you’re there for. Food was great and not overly expensive, about 5% more than the UK.

i spent 6 weeks cycling round the place in ’06 – bloody awesome place.

go to the NW region – nobody else seems to – geologically rather different to the rest of if (a lot older)

lake myvatn (a days cycle east of akueyri (sp!) was stunning – loads of pseudo-craters – take a scenic flight from there (you, your missus and the pilot) and see them from above, the central desert and the massive ice cap – well worth £150!

go through the interior, somehow – we cycled. its awesome.

was a bit ‘meh’ over the blue lagoon, but i’m sure the lady will enjoy

eat the hotdogs – they’re amazing. there’s a really famous hotdog stand somewhere in reykjavik. hotdog, bread, ketchup, mustard, mayo, fried onion, deep fried onion. yum.

We went for our honeymoon too (got somes strange looks from those that assume you need to go to Barbados for that)
We hired a 4×4 and did the whole lot. The drive down to Askia was an experience I’ll never forget!

The hot dog stand is called Bæjarins bezt and it’s down near the harbour. I can second the ‘amazing’ hot dogs!

http://www.icelandguest.com/travel-guide/dining/fast-food/

I spent 2 summers cycle touring / hiking there – email me if you want any tips

snowpaul at hotmail co uk

paul

Reykjavik flea market. Get your Hakarl there, a couple of stalls there do little tiny pots for Kr150. That’s all you’ll need of it. Then drink yourself silly around Laugavegur.

The Blue Lagoon Clinic hotel comes recommended, has a private lagoon away from the masses (but no lagoon bar, unlike the public lagoon which sells licorice ice lollies and champagne FTW). You do get free entry etc to the public lagoon if you stay at the clinic though. The food at the Lava restaurant there is surprisingly exquisite, proper fine dining.

No ,but if there is enough time,i will go

Went in 2003 for a ong weekend and lony just financially recovered from it 😉

Can’t wait to afford to go back there again.

Blue Lagoon is a must

Some more holiday snaps.

Thanks for all the photos – inspired

With the big sites like Gulfoss and the Geyser etc are there gates and fences round the place?

Or if you staying close and due to the eternal sunshine – can you turn up at 11pm at night and see them without the crowds?

No fences. Not that kind of place!

What’s the cost of eating/drinking there like these days?

Spent 5 days there in 2010 – proposed to the missus in blue lagoon. Amazing place, in October there is some sort of international music festival where all the shops stay open all night with bands playing in them – you just wander in listen to one band, then wander up to the next shop – was free too.

I really wanted to 4×4 monster truck but that was very expensive so we give it a miss (so I can insist we go back)

Only other thing we did that isn’t mentioned above is hired a guide to take us hiking for a day on one of the glaciers – absolutely incredible – really cold / windy & felt very dangerous.

I believe about 2 months later most of that glacier melted when the volcano went off….

No fences. Not that kind of place!

Not even over the geyser itself. If you want you can go and stick your face right over the hole. This is not a good idea.

Cool that’s definitely an option then to get tourist free photos of the sites. Superb

I’ve been put right off by that thick lass on the adverts going on about her ‘premier’ xmas party food which makes the Chinese around the corner from me look like fine dining.

Been a few times on school trips. The iceberg lagoon at Jokulsarlon is worth the drive, although maybe stay half way round somewhere near Vik. The island of Heimaey is also worth a visit but this is on a boat now I think as the little aiport has closed following the eruption – at least it was last time I looked.

The north coast is amazing and very different to the south – it’s much more green with wide valleys rather than endless outwash plains. You can either drive to Akureyri (long way) or take an internal flight.

A drive up the Porsmork valley is good too – also on the way to Vik. This is the valley where the huge meltwater flood caome from during the 2010 eruption and leads to the Gigjokull glacier where the eruption began – well at the top of it at least. I’m not sure if this roadis open again now and you’d certainly need a 4×4 as there are some big river crossings.

I’d suggest must-see sights are:
-Blue Lagoon
-Gulfoss
-Geysir
-Pingvellir
-The solfataras near Reykjavik
-Reykjavik itself
-Skaftafell National Park
-Jokulsarlon
-The small farm selling ice cream just east (well about 1.5hrs east) of Jokulsarlon
-Waterfalls on the south coast road around Vik
-Trip on the glacier on a skidoo near Vik
-Porsmork valley
-Akureyri and the North

The costs are just like living in London really, which is less than they were 5 years ago.

GB