Trip planning

When planning our trip to Iceland Molly (my long time travel bestie) and I wanted to go outside of tourist season, but when there was still enough sunlight to actually have a full day to see the sights. So we agreed on going in early September, when the crowds have died down, but there is still 8-9 hours of sunlight a day.

The flights/ arrival

We both booked flights with WOW airlines unsure of how that would be given that it’s a low cost carrier which some people love and some people hate. I must say I was pleasantly surprised, if you set your expectations correctly (i.e. pay for your checked bag up front, and either bring food from home or buy it at the airport) it was quite a nice experience. The seats were comfortable, and had a lot of legroom in the standard row, way more than usual economy seats. The added convenience of having a direct flight from San Francisco to Iceland was a huge bonus too.

We timed our flights to get in close to each other, however, when flying to Iceland most flights will land sometime in the (very) early hours of the morning. We thought we would do a bit of sightseeing, maybe check out a local bathhouse and then check into our hostel. Haha, that was a pipe dream. In reality we were both extremely exhausted, so we boarded the bus that took us from the airport to our hostel and managed to stay awake for the 45 min journey into Reykjavik. After dropping our luggage we begrudgingly ventured into to town to see some sights and grab some breakfast. The town was very sleepy on the Saturday morning, and we got some nice sticker shock at the first few places we looked. After some food and a little walking around we went back to the hotel and slept on the couches in the lobby until check in time (not our finest moment but necessary). All in all if I were to do it again I would definitely book a place that either has very early check in, or a room for a night before you land so you can check in right away. We basically wasted the first day sleeping because we didn’t do this.

Itinerary

Our itinerary for our trip was fairly simple, we arrived on Saturday, stayed in Reykjavik until Wednesday, and the drove the southern part of the ring road out to Jokusarlon. We stayed out by Jokusarlon on Wednesday night and then came back to Reykjavik on Thursday through until our departure on Sunday.

While this itinerary allowed us to see a lot of really cool waterfalls and glaciers on the ring road, I would say you do not need this much time in Reykjavik. If we were to do it again (and I fully plan on going back and doing this) we would’ve only had 2 days in Reykjavik and spent the rest of the time driving the ring road around the entire island.

Getting Around

In Reykjavik we had no issues walking everywhere, the city is small enough that if you’re staying relatively down town you shouldn’t need to taxi around. We did rent a car to go and do the golden circle, part of the ring road, and the blue lagoon. You can get tours that will take you around, but we much preferred driving so we could stop when we wanted to, plus it was the cheaper option.

Weather

This is where I got caught out, the forecast said mid 60s for the whole time we were there, with some clouds on a couple of the days. Great, that’s light jacket weather for me. What I did not look into was the windchill factor. It was super windy the whole time we were there, which made it like 10-20 degrees colder than the forecast. So in my light jackets I was freezing. In the future when I go again, I will just bring a heavy jacket, because the weather changes so easily there that it’s all over the place. Also bring a rain coat, I got caught several times with not having one and a freak rainstorm would come in for an hour or so.

Expense

The short story is that Iceland is expensive, so plan your budget accordingly. I thought I had an idea of what a reasonable day’s expense would be but I definitely under budgeted. Lunches in a restaurant are about $20-30, Dinner with wine $50-80. There are lots of grocery stores around, so if you want to cut your food expense those are definitely the way to go. Renting a car is also expensive due to limited inventory but well worth it, as are the various excursions along the way (we LOVED our whale watching trip). Alcohol should be purchased at the store right before you go through customs in Reykjavik. A lot of websites will say to purchase at the duty free store in your home country, so I did that, but it turned out to be more expensive than the duty free store in Reykjavik, so just wait until you get there to purchase alcohol.

Top 5 takeaways:

1. Yes everything is expensive, but book a hotel for the night before you get in, so you have somewhere to sleep when you land, this will save your first day from being a waste.
2. Drive the full ring road – the roads are amazingly well kept and this is a leisurely drive you can easily do in 3-5 days.
3. Renting a car is the best way to get around the island, see all the sites, and stop when you want to. We also were able to drive out of Reykjavik one night to go Northern light watching, which was amazing.
4. Bring a heavy jacket and a raincoat even if you don’t think you need to. Otherwise you will be cold and wet a lot of the time like I was.
5. Budget appropriately – Estimate what you think you need, and then double it to be safe. It will be an expensive trip but well worth it as Iceland is amazing!