dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

We are trying to plan a trip to Iceland. Can anyone who has been there fairly recently provide some tips, recommendations, advice? Good companies to work with, self-drive or guided, places to avoid (Blue Lagoon?), places not to miss, length of trip? Not necessarily "photo tours" only. Most posts here on UHH are from 5-7 years ago or more. I know Iceland has become extremely popular since then. Thanks.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

The end of 2017 we went to Iceland with Collette via a local PBS station. Six days (5.5).
We left Newark New Jersey about 8 or 9 at night and arrived Reykjavik about 6 AM local time (5 hour difference, they are on GMT.)
The tour was VERY well organized, things to see every day. Tour guide was great!
At the Blue Lagoon they will make sure you wash everything prior to going into the lagoon.
Our tour hit the "Golden Circle" and Northern Lights. The people there were really nice, almost everyone spoke English very well. The food was excellent, some different. they're big on fish and lamb.
Expensive though! A mixed drink or wine was about $15US. Breakfast and dinner were provided by Collette, but we were on our own for lunch (time allotted), which averaged maybe $30 or so. Take VISA and M/C, leave everything else home. (AMEX and Discovery hardly accepted, but Iceland Air did take AMEX for our return flight first class upgrade (SAGA class).) Cards are used a lot, but some little shops may only take cash (ISD), which you can get from an ATM/bank, or at the airport for a fee. Everyplace we went with Collette took cards. We did not exchange any cash, and used the cards for everything. I found out one buffet dinner we went to was something like $90 per person. Tipping is not expected, but you can tip in US$ as we did.

Depends on when you go. LAYER CLOTHES!
We went in December (25° lows, 35° highs) The winds were 25 to 60 MPH. Some rain, ice, and snow.
Wind and waterproof pants, coat, and gloves. Thermal underwear, sweater, wool socks, NO JEANS, NO JEANS!!! We also wore good tuques outside and used ice cleats once.
The temps we are used to, but the winds were brutal at times, knocking some people over at the coast.
It's recommended not to play in the ocean if you go in the summer (still cool) as the waves/undertow can be deadly.

Amazingly wonderful place! We want to go back and see it in the summer (green), and will probably do a self guided tour for that visit. And yes, the traffic signs are different, but they do drive on the right. You will get in BIG trouble if you go off-road, they are REAL serious about damage to the landscape, real serious.

P.S. Daylight in December was about 5 hours.

Now, what did I miss......

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

This is a huge help! Thanks so much. I have heard of Collette. Helpful to get a review of a company—so many to choose from. Did you travel by bus? Number on the tour? Did you see mostly south and east? Did you Walk on glacier, see ice caves, black sand beaches, ride horses, see puffins? Thanks!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yes, large (tall) bus, big windows (a Collette touring bus);
43 people I believe (see picture);
Yes, south and east.
No glacier;
No ice cave;
Black sand beach, yes;
Saw & petted Icelandic horses, no rides;
I didn't see any puffins (too cold?).

One waterfall were were scheduled to see was closed due to ice, they closed Blue Lagoon also the day we were scheduled to visit it (same day we were delayed leaving Vik). Collette found other stuff to do for the closed things and refunded the Blue Lagoon admission. The weather can be unpredictable. We were in Vik for almost an extra day due to the Ring Road being closed by ice and snow. There is only the ONE road around the island.
I would definitely use Collette again. Iceland is much larger than one thinks, it's about the size of West Virginia I believe.

LOTS TO SEE THERE!
I think I still have the itinerary or a map. Let me check.... will send by PM.
I can also give you a link to some of the pictures I took if you like.

Oh, insulated hiking boots also!

Our tour guide took this shot at Jokulsarlon

(Download)

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

Appreciate all of this! Thanks a bunch.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

No problem.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to answer them.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Puffins winter on the open ocean. They only come to land to nest in the summer.

diclam Loc: Red Lake Falls, MN

We were just there in October for one week. We rented a car and did mostly self-touring. We went on an Aurora night tour that was a bust - the lights didn't show up! We went on a bus tour to the Golden Circle that was also not so pleasant. Most of that tour was very windy, wet, rainy. You can expect a fair amount of that in Iceland. We stayed in Reykjavik and did some sight-seeing in the city - visit the church if you get there (Hallgrimskirkja). We drove to Vik along the southern coast and back in one day. There are quite a few things to see along the south coast - waterfalls, glacier, mountains, black beach and rock formations near Vik. We travelled to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and spent two days there staying one night in Olafsvik. There is a lot to see on this peninsula - mountains, lots of waterfalls, craters, rock formations, glacier, interesting fishing towns. We were too late in the year to see any Puffins, whales, or seals I understand. Longshadow gave you a great overview. I have to be somewhere, so I have to cut this short. Have fun!!

diclam Loc: Red Lake Falls, MN

I hope to get some pics of our trip on this site shortly!!!

JBRIII

The weather there can change in a hurry as stated. We were there in early March, same day we arrived, they cancelled flights that night due solely to winds. Went to dinner no problem, came out and nearly knockdd down by winds. Clear one minute, blizzard 5 mins later. Great place, northen lights very irratic due to block needing clear skies and their nature.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

I visited Iceland solo in 2013 in summer, so that doesn't really apply to your "recent" parameters, also went back in 2020 in January with my wife on a 7 day stop-over on a flight from Seattle to London. In January, the days obviously were very short and we decided to sign up for two local back-to-back tours, bringing us as far south-east as Jökulsarlon Lagoon including a glacier walk, and as far west as the Snaefellsnes peninsula. We were glad we opted not to drive, as on Snaefellsness we got into a quite nasty snowstorm, the snow was less of a problem, but the wind blowing the snow and reducing the visibility to pretty much nothing was rather scary - our driver was unfazed, obviously accustomed to these conditions.

I have great memories from my summer solo-drive around the entire island, including the Vestfirdir/Westfjord area. Self-drives fit my style better, as I want to be able to stop anywhere I spot a good photo-opportunity. The roads in Iceland, once you are out of the Reykjavik area, carry rather very little traffic, so sometimes I could just shoot out of the car window, possibly putting the car perpendicular to the road to get the right angle. If you are planning to go from May to September, I would highly recommend a self-drive and also to drive around the entire island. I used a company then called "Icelandic Farmstays", since then renamed to "Hey Island": They provide you with the car and a basic itinerary with pre-determined stays at farms or small boutique hotels, anything from quite basic to fairly fancy. Within these parameters of the overnight stays provided, you can schedule the drive yourself, start and stop whenever you want, select your own detours to get from A to B. I very much enjoyed the stay at the basic small farms, in some of them you almost became a member of the family. Highly recommended it you don't mind people-contact on a family-level.

I have two photo albums covering Iceland on my photo-website, see the link below. The first one extensively covers my 2013 visit, after getting to my site, click on Albums-Chronological at the top, then scoot down to the year 2013 and find the album Summer 2013 - Iceland. You have a choice of looking at my shortened album version - click on "Short" or the full, rather lengthy version. - I have not yet properly worked on all my Iceland photos from the 2020 trip, but have a preview of some of them in my album 2020 Trips - Interim Selection" where the first 70 or so photos cover Iceland. You can find this album at the very top of the chronological list. All my photos include a caption with the location and date data and a limited amount of description."

Here the link: www.weberwest.weebly.com

Unfortunately you can only get access using your laptop or computer, but not via ipads or similar as the handheld devices to not support the pdf file I use for the list of albums.

I trust this will provide you with some information, let me know if you have questions. Enjoy the planning and then the trip! Joe

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

This is so helpful, Joe. Thanks. I have heard of Hey Island. Look forward to seeing your photos.

weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA

Hi dbf - you are very welcome. - I forgot to mention that there is a map of the drive I did in my album. - Also, I did a rather lengthy (55 episodes) series of posts here on UHH on Iceland, basically the same images you can see much quicker in my "Short" album, a bit extended with some shots from the "Full" album. You can access these posts by going to my topics list, here is the link (the posts presently start about half-way down on page 9 - that's a moving target as I am presently posting every day on another series):

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-topic-list?usernum=45105


The posts here on UHH provide much more information on the daily series, but it would take quite some time to work yourself through the entire set. Just thought I mention it.

dbfalconer Loc: Salida CO

Thanks. I think I glanced at your UHH series. What a project! Very generous of you.

wiley.coyote

Need to ask - why "no jeans"?