Things that Make Iceland a Great Travel Destination
- The sheer amount of things to do and see (it was very hard to narrow and we had 2 weeks!)
- The natural beauty (Iceland is GORGEOUS, right up there with Hawaii and New Zealand)
- All of the natural sights (waterfalls, glaciers, lagoons, national parks) are free or only require a small parking fee
- Although we chose not to camp, there are an abundance of campgrounds and you don’t need to make reservations in advance. Check out this handy map if you’re planning to camp.
- There were several unique experiences available that I’d never done anywhere else before (saw a volcano, went whale watching, walked behind a waterfall, swam in a thermal river, hiked a glacier)
- Icelandair has a cool program where you can do a stopover in Iceland for a few days and it won’t affect your ticket price. A perfect way to see the volcano en route to Europe!
- There are direct flights to Reykjavik on Icelandair from Seattle, Portland, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington Dulles, Baltimore and Orlando. Flying time was under 6 hours from Minneapolis and our ticket prices were very reasonable at $700 a person. It may be more affordable and doable than you think!
Things I did NOT love about Iceland
- Food is crazy-expensive. A pound of chicken at the grocery store is $12. A basic burger and fries at a restaurant is $25. And my 10 oz latte was $5-6 each day. Boo. We combatted this by bringing food with us in our luggage. We did dry soup mixes, peanut butter, tuna and mayo, mac & cheese and granola bars (to name a few things). Icelandair says you can bring up to 3 KGs of food per person but no one actually opened our bags and weighed the food. So we ate 1 meal out per day (usually $50 – $80 for the 3 of us) and ate breakfast and lunch or dinner on the road or at our airbnb. That definitely helped our budget immensely.
- Alcohol is crazy-expensive. Your best bet is to load up in the Duty Free area as soon as you get off your plane in Reykjavik.
- Lodging is very expensive and very basic. Hotel rooms for 3 people were $250 to $300 a night for very rudimentary accommodations. Airbnbs were similar. Usually about $300 a night for a small cabin or apartment. Decoration was very minimal. Lots of white.
- Icelanders love black, grey and white (and the occasional light brown). Bright colors aren’t in. The majority of our accommodations were very bland. It definitely doesn’t feel like you’re getting as much value as you’re paying for. But supply is low and interest is high, so that’s how the market works! I actually think we got lucky booking back in April before travel was picking up yet. So my point is, unless you want to spend boatloads of money, this will not be a foodie trip or a fancy hotel trip.
- Sleeping does not come easy here. We came at the height of summer. I was told it was dark from 12-2 AM but I was up with jetlag and can say with certainty that it was not dark at those hours. So yeah, it never gets dark in summer. Which makes it very hard to sleep or convince your kid(s) that it’s time to sleep. And blackout curtains are hit or miss. Ask about those when picking your lodging – it will make a difference!
- The beds are odd too. Most are single beds. Sometimes two single beds are pushed together to make a queen. But each person still has their own separate covers. It was strange. We only had 2 places out of 7 that had a normal queen bed with shared covers. Another odd thing with beds – there is always a fitted sheet on the mattress, but no top sheet. All you get is a duvet with a plain white cover (always white!). Which leads to my next point…
- Houses are well insulated and retain heat so while we were freezing during the day, we were sweating our butts off at night. And since I didn’t have a sheet, my options were to sweat with my duvet on or ditch the duvet and have no covers. In the end, I opted to open the window all night, which let in gloriously cool air but then I had to keep the shade up so the room never got dark. Tradeoffs… P.S. – I think I’m in perimenopause because I am absurdly hot all the time now!
- Don’t count on microwaves, ovens or dryers in your rental apartments/houses. We were shocked that these weren’t standard but that was not the case. It took us 3 days to air-dry all our clothes mid-trip. Funny what we assume are standards that aren’t to other countries!
- We came at the warmest time of year and the temps never got higher than 65 degrees Fahrenheit. A typical day was mid-50’s. There were only 2 days we could wear short sleeves. And it rained nonstop 3 out of our 14 days (I think we got lucky on that). Strong winds are a constant.
So Should You GO?
Mostly definitely, YES! I know I just listed a lot of downsides but I just want you to be aware so you go in with reasonable expectations. The good definitely outweighs the bad here. And you can even stick to a low budget if you camp and bring your own food and supplement with a few things from the grocery store.
So now that I’ve hopefully convinced you to go (did I mention this was in my top 5 favorite trips of all time along with Galapagos, New Zealand, Easter Island and Machu Picchu) and I’ve warned you about some of the things that will be frustrating for Americans, I will give you a few final tips and then stop talking about Iceland for good.
Sarah’s Iceland Tips
- If you don’t bring appropriate clothes and footwear you will be miserable. Do you homework and have the right gear and boots! I’ve found this to be a comprehensive list for summer. We got a lot of things used on EBAY or Facebook Marketplace. Rain pants & coats double as wind protection and proved to be very handy even when it wasn’t raining!
- If you can, try for 7-14 days in Iceland so you can drive the Ring Road. There’s lots more to see outside of Reykjavik, the Golden Circle and the South Coast!
- Benefit from all my research and use the Google Map I made! Has all the stops we hit (and then some). If you click into each place there is usually another link with info about the place.
- Use this comprehensive map if you’re planning to camp.
- Check out all my tips for visiting the volcano on my blog post.
- Make sure you have a cell phone with a data package on it, as you’ll need to pay for parking via internet at several places (including the volcano).
- Visit as many thermal baths as you can – they are so fun! Actually, the most authentic Icelandic experience we had was visiting the town swimming pool in Akureyri. Nearly every town has one and it’s where all the locals hang out. Important to note though, there is a specific protocol and it’s different than how we do things in the States. CLICK HERE to get the full scoop if you plan to do this (which I hope you do)! Here’s a list of all the swimming pools in Iceland to help with your planning!
- There are no McDonald’s, Starbucks or Ubers. People get around by bike, scooter, walking, buses or taxis instead. Car rental is popular. We used Blue Car Rental and really liked them. GET ALL THE INSURANCE OPTIONS AVAILABLE.
- I found the Iceland with Kids book to be a very helpful guide for planning a family trip. And even better, it’s free on Kindle Unlimited!
- Be aware of what the latest COVID guidelines are at COVID.IS.
- The airport was a zoo. All the America flights leave within the same hour. Get there 3 or more hours early for departure. We arrived 2 hours early and were just boarding our flight when it was supposed to be taking off. Thankfully lots were in the same boat as us and they held the flights. And it will only get worse as the tourist season picks up so plan accordingly.
