I've had some friends ask for details on our trip to Iceland, so I thought I would just share them on here with everyone :) Feel free to comment if you have any questions!
Important details: we took this trip in March, stayed in Reykjavik every night, and since we're both younger than 25, renting a car was too expensive for us.
How to get there:
We took IcelandAir, and I really liked
it. Their carry-on restrictions are smaller than most airlines, but we were
allowed to each check one free bag. They had really cool features (the cabin
lights looked like Northern Lights, and each seat had poems in Icelandic), and
overall I really enjoyed the airline. HOWEVER, since our trip, WOW Airlines has
started doing really cheap tickets to Iceland, so you might get a better deal
there.
From the airport, you’ll need to take a
bus into Reykjavik (9,000 ISK for 2 people round trip).
Where to stay:
For a hotel, I
really liked where we stayed: Hotel Leifur Eiriksson. We booked on Orbitz, and
I think it was about $85/night.
Reasons I liked it:
- Included breakfast
- Within walking distance of many sights in the city
- Many bus companies would pick up/drop off there
- Right next to a supermarket where we got bread and lunchmeat for lunch to save $$ on food
The only complaints
I could make would be the rooms were a little on the small side (which I didn't
think was a big deal), and the water smelled a little sulfur-y.
What to do:
The first thing you
should do is decide what bus tours you want to go on, and go down to the tourist
information center (there are a few, we went to one right behind a store called
Islandia, on Bankastraeti Street) where someone will book you the tours for no
additional cost. There are several bus companies, and we did all ours with
Sterna Tours (they were about the same price as the others, and they picked us
up from our hotel). The tourist center will also look up the weather/aurora
forecast for you if you want to do a Northern Lights tour. If you plan on doing
a Northern Lights tour, don’t go to the Aurora Museum beforehand! Only go to
the museum if you end up not seeing lights on your tour.
The tours we did
- Northern Lights tour – very nice, but not sure if it would be good during the summer
- Golden Circle tour – definitely recommend
- Southern Peninsula tour – (this would be a good one to see puffins) we stopped by several cliffs where birds nest, but there were none there in March. This is also a good one to do if you want to visit the Blue Lagoon (quite a splurge, but I highly recommend going there; just get the cheapest package and as for 2 towels). You have to book tickets to the Blue Lagoon on your own (for some reason the tourist center wouldn’t do it for us), so we just used our cell phones on the hotel’s wifi.
Things
to do/see in Reykjavik:
•Volcano House –
Brian liked this because of the rocks. Free to get in
•Aurora Museum -
$7/person, very interesting, but in my opinion only go if you don’t do a NL
tour
•Phallological
Museum – weird (2,500 ISK for 2 people) but we liked it!
• Hallgrímskirkja –
right across from the hotel. I don’t remember how much it was to go up in the
tower, but we chose not to, and I kind of regret not doing it.
•Harpa – beautiful
new concert house; you will see it if you use Sterna Tours
•Sun Voyager –
sculpture by the water, near Harpa; we didn’t walk there, just drove by
Places to eat in
Reykjavik:
• Kebab Husid –
very good pizza!
• Prikid – we went
there twice; the Cypress Hill chicken sandwich was excellent
• Hlollabator –
little sandwich shop downtown; very good
The Blue Lagoon! Overpriced but definitely worth it, in my opinion.
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