Costs
So Iceland really is one of the priciest places I've ever heard of, definitely the priciest I've ever been to. Your head will spin when I share some of these numbers with you, but it's important to know what's coming, and modify your trip to fit your budget!
Accommodations
One of our non-negotiables was no camping. The potential single digit temperatures and perpetual daylight were too intimidating for me. So we decided indoor accommodations for sure. Now, I skip a step and don't "do" hostels. Only because I started really travelling when I was 28 and never did the backpacking thing, and now am a spoiled, privacy-lovin', grown up! So that right there was a big cost for us on this trip - accommodations. I booked 6 months in advance and was mainly aiming to get UNDER $200/night, whether it be a guesthouse (with or without a shared washroom :S) or airbnb. I treated us to a hotel one night that was in the "3"s (!!! I'd never pay that anywhere else!) and I learned that the same place was charging $480/night for people booking or just showing up in July. YIKES! So book early, and depending how you want to stay, plan for it. Hostels and camping would have reduced our costs by 90%, so that could have been a huge savings right there - if you're game, do it! Our accommodations were fairly hilarious in terms of how sparse they were - so Scandinavian in terms of avoiding any excess. Always 2 separate duvets folded on 2 twin mattresses pushed together with 2 very flat pillows and the world's smallest washroom, often with the toilet almost inside the shower; tiny kitchen, two burners. And done. Small and tidy, across the board.. I kind of missed our (evil, consumptive) North American excess. ;)
Rental Cars
Another non-negotiable for us was the rental of a 4x4 vehicle. Many roads in Icelands, known as "F-roads" are only navigable by a 4x4 and your insurance is voided if you take a little Yaris down them - plus that would have been seriously scary in places. Be very careful who you rent from. I read a LOT of reviews and a lot of bad ones at that. One of the more "reasonably" (HA!) priced and well-reviewed places was Blue Car Rentals. I found them very professional, and they gave us a Kia Sportage with 8,000 kms on it, that was in great shape. The whole experience was wonderful. On the other hand, we met other travelers who had been rented cars with 200,000 kms on them (!!!!) which broke down en route.. of course they did!! Others took cars down not-so-scary gravel roads and ended up blowing out/shredding multiple tires, likely due to tires being bald (I'd heard this from another friend as well, so always check your treads!). And then have a big drink before you finalize the booking of your car - instead of the $40/day I pay for car rentals for work here in Canada, the prices are closer to $200-250/day depending on the size of vehicle you get. Yup, do that math and think hard about how you want to travel around. Having your own car = ultimate freedom. Diesel was about $2/litre (not cheap, but a tank goes far). But I hear the bus system is not bad, and we saw lots of people hitchhiking as well. Also domestic flights were surprisingly cheap and would be a cool way to travel - $200 from Reykjavik to Isafjordur in the Westfjords?! Do that!
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| Our friendly Kia rental. Ensure keys are out of ignition before attempting to open gas tank door... finally figured out on Day 13 |
Eats and Drinks
Food and drinks were bananas. Not literally bananas (not much fruit there)... insanity bananas. The airport duty free MUST be your first stop - about $14 for a 6 pack of tall cans (not bad!), where as you can plan to pay $14/pint in most bars, especially around Reykjavik and other heavily traveled places in the south. YIKES!!! Jeff and I were just ordering pint after pint of draft during the first half of the soccer match, as you do, then nearly fainted when we got our dinner bill and found out that 4 pints = $60!! From then on we vowed to drink only our duty-free stash or share one beer at restaurants lol. (And don't buy beer at the grocery store - that "5%" marking on it means "5% of your daily recommended intake of sodium" or something like that - if you squint closer the % alcohol is only 2.5%!) Every time we ate out I was having small heart attacks, and had to come to terms with this fact: every meal in Iceland is going to cost you $20 (base cost) + what you'd expect to pay for that item in Canada. So if your chicken sandwich would be a $12 menu item here, it will be $32 there. If your lobster would cost $45 here, it will cost $65 there. And so on, If you can rectify this in your head, you'll do ok. Needless to say, the number of pb, and salami/cheese sandwiches, and small containers of Skyr (Icelandic yogurt) consumed out of our cooler bag, and grilled cheese and pasta dinners fried up in our airbnbs, went way up after the first restaurant experience. :) But it meant that when we did go out we were determined to appreciate it, try all the local cuisines, and enjoy every bite! Local food that was awesome: lamb (says Jeff), tiny lobster tails (so good) and other tiny shellfish, salted cod (unreal), and halibut or any other fresh caught fish (skip the plaice, kind of mushy). On those days when stuck on the road with limited food in the cooler, we would grab "roadtrip food" which really meant fairly disgusting hot dogs, burgers, coke zero, fries, pizza, etc. They love a greasy grill over there. Plan to pay at least $25 for a fast food meal, too. The only real deal was gas station hot dogs (revered by Icelanders, they love their hot dogs), which were oddly delicious and so cheap ($3!). Stomachache afterwards: guaranteed. Veggies were pretty limited - sad side salads or a few veggies roasted with the fish or in the fish soup. Grocery store veg was ok price-wise because they have greenhouses powered by geothermal heat. But overall, I felt borderline scurvy-ish when I got home and have been eating nothing but veggies for the past 12 days :) Oh and try the fermented shark... just to say you did it :D
Best restaurants: Kaffi Duus in Keflavik (near airport) - fish dishes; Pakkhuus in Hofn - lobster tails; The Tar House in Isafjordur - every bite you could put in your mouth was the best thing you've ever tasted, fresh out of the sea.
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| The Tar House, Isafjordur |
In lovely contrast to the priciness of most things was the free admission to basically every natural site in the country. Waterfalls, national parks, geysir, mountains, bird cliffs - parking and admission were free, free, free. Very nice! Guided day-long tours were bank-breakers for sure. Expect about $500/pop. But if it's somewhere you couldn't get to on your own, or something you couldn't do on your own, just go for it! I have no regrets about our hike across Hornstrandir or up the glacier. I did notice that my 2013 Lonely Planet travel guide from the library would quote me a price on an activity ($20 for a cave tour!) and we'd show up to find the price had increased by at least 50-75% in three years ($34 for a cave tour!). This makes me suspect anything you do have to pay for is skyrocketing in response to the ever-growing number of tourists arriving in Iceland every year.
People
The people in Iceland were definitely nice, and friendly enough, and I was so impressed that everyone spoke English! It made travelling a breeze. However, the Icelanders weren't a particularly warm people - friendly to a point, then they were kind of done with you :P I'm used to the oozing, chatty charm of Irish and Italian people (we only travel to places starting with "I"), but everyone was helpful, polite and got the job done. I loved their dry sense of humour too. Our guide in Hornstrandir saw my face when I crossed a freezing mountain river in my bare feet, then when I asked him if it was cool to fill up our water bottle from the river he said, deadpan, "yes you just have to cross back to the other side of the river". Our tour guide on the glacial lagoon boat ride was the worst ever - I casually asked him "how do most people afford to eat here?" and he said "I eat canned food." No follow-up, no smile. Yipes.
Tourists
Anytime you can get away from hordes of tourists, do. It's like a panic attack waiting to happen at some of the sites that are clogged with people (note I went in the high season, July). However, anytime you can have a meaningful exchange with other travelers, do! It was so great to get tips on what to do/not to do and hear about the other types of trips people had taken around the country that were different than ours, or similar, and their opinions. We met some of the nicest people ever, from Australia, the U.S., Canada (of course), Belgium, Spain and Britain as we chatted with people here and there on our various travel experiences.
Timing
The northern lights are supposed to be spectacular in Iceland, but I can't imagine having had limited daylight for driving and sightseeing (not to mention there being snow...), so there's a tradeoff. In June/July it's light all day/night long which is something else (bring an eyemask, at least for the first few nights!) The northern lights are a huge part of the culture though, revered and celebrated - it would have been cool to see them. The reason I went in high season, which I never do, being someone not a fan of crowds (can you tell...), was because the average daily high in July is 16C. We reached 16C on about 3 days (one day got up to 19C). Otherwise it varied between 8C-12C or so. AGH! I thought it would be a refreshing break from Ontario's sticky summers, but instead I was pretty sad to put on a toque in July. :P Just bring layers and you'll be grand. My rain gear, fall jacket, fleece and some long sleeved shirts and tees did the trick. Icelandic weather is like in any other coastal place - every day a little sun, a little cloud, a little rain - some days mostly sun, some days mostly rain :) Do not bring shorts.. unless you're Jeff :D Apparently sometimes there are 20-23C days in June/July. I'll believe it when I see it! ;)
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| Northern Lights, photographed in April by my colleague Arni |
Kitsch
I couldn't bring myself to buy any souvenirs because the ugly-cute Icelandic sweaters were $250!!! Made out of genuine, itchy sheep wool. I almost got some mitts, but same deal.. itchy sheep wool! But then I didn't want knock off non handmade gloves.. so I just got nothing. Oh, untrue, I bought a buff which I thought would be a good ear warmer/scarf/hat hybrid (it was).. but you can buy those at home! Lots of tacky stuff, and also giant stuffed puffins (didn't want to have to pay to check him ;)). But I didn't think anything from Iceland was a must-take-home. Some pretty art, but overpriced, as to be expected.
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| We were tempted, but just couldn't do it!! This model is so dorky, I love it. |
Sturdy hiking boots are a must. Maybe it's my sprained ankle talking, but I barely wore my birks and really appreciated the support of my hiking boots as I trekked up yet another gravelly hill! And don't forget your bathing suit and towel for the public pools and natural hot pots! A total must! Quick dry hiking pants were my big "missed it" item re packing - I just didn't picture a trek up a mountain to be quite so soggy - my jeans were stylishly tucked into my socks the entire time on Hornstrandir to avoid having them wick cold mountain water up my legs!
Have So Much Fun
It's the kind of trip that you can make anything you want. I met a guy whose trip was focused entirely on pools and hot pots/hot springs. I met a group who were doing everything adventurous from hiking the glacier, to descending into a volcano! There were people there just to hike some of the famous multi-day treks. We met young single people, groups of friends, young couples, older couples, parents, and saw a hilarious number of grumpy teenagers being dragged along by their ears. It's kind of a great place for everyone and you can definitely make your own adventure. Enjoy your trip, and I can't wait to see YOUR pics!!
