The land of waterfalls, snow and fire
Known for its natural beauty, Iceland is one of the standout places for landscape. You will find a waterfall, canyon, river, mountain at every mile. The ring-road tour is a good way to cover key sights
When to go
We debated a lot about this. Summer is peak season with inflated prices across the board. Winter is beautiful but ridden with road closures in some parts, and with very little daylight hours. The time during equinox is supposed to be the best viewing season for northern lights.
You can see puffins in summer and northern lights, ice caves in winter. After a lot of deliberation, we took the tough call of going in October to see northern lights.
We were not very lucky on this front- we could see a faint glimpse only on one of the nights.
Apart from northern lights sighting, it was actually a good time with ample daylight hours, limited rains and clear skies.
We suggest narrowing on the most important thing for you- puffins/ northern lights/ icy wonderland/ sunny sights and decide the season
Flights
We took Finnair with a stop-over in Helsinki. Iceland air operates flights between Helsinki and Rejkjavik. The flights were comfortable, on time with decent vegetarian food options which we had pre-booked
Getting into the city
We took Flybus bus from and to Keflavik airport as taxi fares are upwards of $150 one way. Buses wait at arrivals till they get filled up and usually go to city once every hour. You don’t need to worry too much about arrival time getting delayed
It costed about $35-38 one way with drop at the hotel. You will have to change vehicles at the BSI bus stop if you want a drop at the hotel. Drop till BSI Terminal costs $30 typically
How we went around
Renting a car is the most popular way. We don’t prefer driving, so decided to join the ring road tour with Arctic Adventures. Everything is pricey in Iceland and this company seemed to be the most reasonable one. There are other similar options like Troll Expeditions which can have better pricing on some of the day tours
We chose the 8 day option which is same as 6 day plus 2 nights of stay in Reykjavik before and after the tour. We wanted to cover Rejkjavik before start of the tour and Arnarstapi at the end
We added a day tour covering Arnarstapi which was not included in the standard ring road tour
You can get a special discount if you book 3 or more tours with Arctic Adventures. We also booked airport transfers to be eligible for this discount
The alternate we had explored was Veena World. Our dates didn’t match- they have few departures every year, at times only one. It was tad expensive, but the good part was they provide Indian food where possible. The don’t do the full ring road and stay in major cities doing day tours from there
Places to see
We covered prominent site along the ring road. See more details on ring road tour in a separate post here
What to carry
- Waterproof shoes
- Rain coat
- Thermals
- Sweater/ jackets
- Hiking poles
See details in a separate post here
Things to be aware of before your visit
- Take the ring road vs. doing day trips from Rejkyavik and Akureyri. The highlands beyond Egilsstaðir were out of the world
- Save hotel helpline contact numbers. We had unmanned hotels where both the main door and rooms are opened by key codes with no one at the reception. In case you get into trouble, there is no one to ask for help
- Visit Ytri Tunga beach popular as “Seal beach”. You will find quite a number of them lazing around
- Dress in layers: The weather can turn hot to rainy to cold quickly. We had layers of clothes with thermals inside normal clothes, sweaters, jackets and raincoats outside- total of 5 layers. We would go down to two layers inside the vehicle and five while visiting a waterfall for example
- Do Whale watching at Dalvik: It is quite peaceful compared to Reykjavik but be prepared with lot of layers to avoid falling sick in the cold. You are provided with thick suits, but will still need layers inside to be comfortable. The scenary is quite good with snow capped mountains around
- Register at your hotel to wake you up if there are Northern Lights. It will help you have a good sleep without thinking or waiting for too long
- Try out Skyr: It is a cheesy version of Greek yoghurt. You get zero fat option which has a lot of protein. We liked the plain version the most
- There are hundreds of earthquakes before a volcano eruption. We had a day with 1000+ small magnitude earthquakes when we were there, although we felt none. There was an eruption about 20 days later after we left
- Don’t get your hair wet in Blue Lagoon. The silica will make it very difficult to comb and maintain for days if not weeks
- Do not walk on the moss growing on lava fields. The moss is richly preserved and they are quite protected since it takes hundreds of years to grow
How much does it cost
Budget $3650 per person overall including flights. Iceland was one of the most expensive countries to visit
- Flights: $1250 including domestic flight to Delhi; We took Finnair from Delhi to Reykjavik with stop over in Helsinki for a day
- Hotel: $100 for one night we added beyond or tour
- Food: $50 (We carry our own food/ shop at supermarkets)
- Tours/ transport: $2100
- Visa: $120. Includes cost for travel to Bangalore for Schengen Visa submissions
- Insurance: $20