Heading to Iceland

Drive the golden circle, eat at Public House in Reyk, keep your fingers crossed you catch the northern lights if you’re there that time of year.

Headed there in two weeks and we are driving the entire ring road. The northern part of the country is getting pounded by a storm right now that’s dumping all kinds of snow. That kind of worries me about being able to actually make it around and not having to turn around at some point and head back.

Do not speed and do not drink and drive. Iceland police are strict.

Sjavagrillio

Cafe Loki

Lebowski Bar

Messinn

We ate or drank at each place. All are very good.

Interesting place is Perlan which houses a museum and cafe. It's fine-dining place has shut down. It's atop a tall hill next to the airport. It's part of a complex of storage tanks for hot water which provides heat for the city. They even heat major roads to melt snow/ice.

Restaurants changed a lot during Covid so I won't give names. Seafood is a sure thing. If eating endangered species is OK with you, try puffin and whale. Iceland breeds small horses for meat...give it a try. Lamb is a safe bet. Putrid shark is not a safe bet, but the more you try the better it tastes...each bite is chased with vodka. I was told at a private tasting that the quality varies greatly.

Buy some woolens carefully. Lots of fakes are imported for the cruise ship passengers.

Went there for 9 days in late 2021. It's an absolutely STUNNING country as far as geological features and landscape go. Try to limit Reykjavik to a maximum of 2 days, do the touristy stuff such as the church, by the bay with the PM's residence, and there is a quite interesting museum in town dedicated to a certain male feature in different species .

There are rental "camper" vans EVERYWHERE. If I were to go back, that would be the way I would go and skip staying in hotels as much as possible. Sleep in the vehicle each night and hit the road in the morning. It's very popular there. And the odds of seeing the aurora increase dramatically as you get out of Reykjavik and the light pollution. I only made it down to the south coast as far as Vik (Which is the location where the Netflix show Katla is based out of, highly recommend it), and unfortunately didn't get to the east and northern coast, but there was SO MUCH to see between Reykjavik and Vik. Alot of the attractions are going to be more environment and geologically based such as the black sand beaches, numerous active volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, the continental divide, etc. but there are some gems in there about their culture and history and how the people survived throughout tons of volcanic activity through the years, one that sticks out being next to the Skogafoss waterfall.

My absolute BIGGEST piece of advice isn't going to be where to go, but instead ensuring you get there safely. Their countryside is very desolate at times and population centers are sparse, so if you need help, you might be SOL for a hot minute. Sometimes it feels like youre on a different planet. And, the weather there is EXTREMELY temperamental. Literally one minute you're driving along in beautiful sunshine with nice puffy clouds, then not 5 minutes later you're in a terrible rainstorm or snowstorm. MAKE SURE you have a way to access the internet at all times if driving yourself and your family and make sure you're constantly checking out Icelands weather page, or can try to communicate with anyone to help in an emergency.

Bookmark this page: LINK /

And they also have a web page that predicts the likelihood, strength, and areas of the country that you'll be able to spot the northern lights on any given day right here, the Kp-index is what youre looking for: LINK /

Other than that, it's a SPECTACULAR country with very nice people, and EXTREMELY safe with very little crime. They are extremely environmentally conscious, but they don't go overboard jamming it down your throat. They just do them.

Oh, and if you get offered some, skip the fermented shark. Almost made me puke and I have a tough stomach. The caraway seed brandy wasn't bad though.

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Lastly, If you have a high quality drone to capture video and images with, THIS is the country to use it in

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I bought a drone specifically for this trip but I’m still not sure about the regulations. It’s a mavic mini so it falls under the weight requirements, but it says all non-residents must register their drone regardless. I went through the registration process but I’m still not sure if i need a license to fly. Seems like there are different categories and the drone I have can fall into several depending how you interpret it.

If you rent a car, use a credit card that offers primary insurance. I used the VentureX and it saved me $2000.

The wind ripped the door out of a friends hand and the car rental agency run some sort of racket to charge exorbitant repair fees.

What range of budget should I anticipate for flights, daily lodging and daily rental car in Iceland? Y'all got me curious.

I booked about 4 months out and paid around $800/ticket on Delta from Msy. Rental car for 9 days with the insurance was $850. We booked all rooms thru Air BnB. We’re staying in a different place every night except for 2 nights in Reykavik. Its mostly guest houses in small towns around the ring road that average $150-200/night. We booked Blue lagoon in advance and will do that on the first day after our overnight flight since it’s close to the airport already.