3 days in Iceland after all the day tours?
Jun 11th, 2007, 09:37 AM
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3 days in Iceland after all the day tours?
Hi all:
Will be going to Iceland (finally!!) at the end of July. We arrive the afternoon of July 21st and will be staying in Reykjavik until my brother and his niece leave the morning of the 25th. My husband and I will remain until the morning of the 28th.
While my brother and niece are there we will be based in Reykjavik and going on day trips, so I figure we'll probably do a Golden Circle day tour, some type of trip that involves taking a super jeep and maybe a snowmobile onto a glacier....and definitely some horseback riding?
After they leave, though, I think I'd like to rent a car and explore some further afield. I'm all about spectacular scenery and wildlife, but we're not really into loooong hikes.
So 2 questions:
Are accommodations difficult enough to find or booked in advance enough that I need to plot our our route in advance and book them beforehand, or would it be possible to just drive wherever the mood takes us and find a B&B on the way? (I guess I am imagining something kind of like Tasmania, where I never had accommodation booked in advance, or even researched!
2. If I do need to plan my route, anyone have any recommendations? what "don't miss" places would you put on the list? At first glance, the West and the Westfjords seem the most intriguing......?
....ok maybe 3 questions
3. Any place to look for a rental car cheaper than AutoEurope?
Any hints welcome. My husband and I are both 31; my niece is 10 (brother is 36, not that that matters.
thanks in advance,
Carrie
Will be going to Iceland (finally!!) at the end of July. We arrive the afternoon of July 21st and will be staying in Reykjavik until my brother and his niece leave the morning of the 25th. My husband and I will remain until the morning of the 28th.
While my brother and niece are there we will be based in Reykjavik and going on day trips, so I figure we'll probably do a Golden Circle day tour, some type of trip that involves taking a super jeep and maybe a snowmobile onto a glacier....and definitely some horseback riding?
After they leave, though, I think I'd like to rent a car and explore some further afield. I'm all about spectacular scenery and wildlife, but we're not really into loooong hikes.
So 2 questions:
Are accommodations difficult enough to find or booked in advance enough that I need to plot our our route in advance and book them beforehand, or would it be possible to just drive wherever the mood takes us and find a B&B on the way? (I guess I am imagining something kind of like Tasmania, where I never had accommodation booked in advance, or even researched!
2. If I do need to plan my route, anyone have any recommendations? what "don't miss" places would you put on the list? At first glance, the West and the Westfjords seem the most intriguing......?
....ok maybe 3 questions
3. Any place to look for a rental car cheaper than AutoEurope?
Any hints welcome. My husband and I are both 31; my niece is 10 (brother is 36, not that that matters
.thanks in advance,
Carrie
Jun 11th, 2007, 10:04 AM
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Are you interested in salmon fishing? My friends own a fishcamp resort and from what I have heard it is a great experience for those who enjoy fishing. If so, email me [email protected] and I will get you the details.
Jun 11th, 2007, 10:51 AM
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Hi! I just got back from Iceland. I haven't written up my trip report yet, but I thought I could jump in.
If you want to drive and explore a little on your own, the Snaefellsness Peninsula is just 2 hours away. The place is called "Iceland in a nutshell" or something like that because it has many features typical of Icelandic topology, like glaciers and lava fields. I've heard it's best to take 2 or 3 days to explore the peninsula, although DH and I just spent the night there and it was enough for us.
Secondly, if you're interested in a Super Jeep tour, I highly recommend the outfit we used, Nature Explorer.
http://www.natureexplorer.is/
The did all our bookings for us, and we also did a Super Jeep tour with them in Thorsmork. Thorsmork is a region between three glaciers, and you drive through rivers while you're in Thorsmork. There is some light hiking, but I wouldn't say it's long or strenuous. The tours usually leave from Reykjavik, but the night before our tour, we stayed near Thorsmork and they just picked us up at our guesthouse. It was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it or one like it.
Nature Explorer booked us a car with Budget. We were supposed to get a Suzuki Jimmy but we got upgraded to a Grand Vitara instead. I forget what our rate was but I can look it up for you tonight.
Anyway, hope that helps. If you book with Nature Explorer, please tell them Amita sent you. Have a great trip!
If you want to drive and explore a little on your own, the Snaefellsness Peninsula is just 2 hours away. The place is called "Iceland in a nutshell" or something like that because it has many features typical of Icelandic topology, like glaciers and lava fields. I've heard it's best to take 2 or 3 days to explore the peninsula, although DH and I just spent the night there and it was enough for us.
Secondly, if you're interested in a Super Jeep tour, I highly recommend the outfit we used, Nature Explorer.
http://www.natureexplorer.is/
The did all our bookings for us, and we also did a Super Jeep tour with them in Thorsmork. Thorsmork is a region between three glaciers, and you drive through rivers while you're in Thorsmork. There is some light hiking, but I wouldn't say it's long or strenuous. The tours usually leave from Reykjavik, but the night before our tour, we stayed near Thorsmork and they just picked us up at our guesthouse. It was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it or one like it.
Nature Explorer booked us a car with Budget. We were supposed to get a Suzuki Jimmy but we got upgraded to a Grand Vitara instead. I forget what our rate was but I can look it up for you tonight.
Anyway, hope that helps. If you book with Nature Explorer, please tell them Amita sent you.
Have a great trip!
Jun 11th, 2007, 07:14 PM
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Hi! Looks like we paid about $1,400 for the car rental, but that was for a week in an SUV. If you stick to a sedan for just a few days, I'm sure you'll pay a lot less. I got the SUV as a precaution, but it turned out we would have been fine in a sedan after all.
As for the most amazing parts of the trip...the nature everywhere was incredible. We found a black sand beach on Snaefellsnes, and any time we got near a glacier, there'd be these dramatic snowcapped mountains with little farmhouses hugging the foothills. Driving through a dust storm on the way to Skaftafell National Park was pretty crazy - I didn't even know there was a desert there until we drove through it! You'll be driving along and all of a sudden you'll find a waterfall (lots of those), a volcanic crater or a steam vent or something, and those moss-covered lava rocks are everywhere. The place really has to be seen to be believed. I really want to go back someday and see the rest of the country. I figure it'll take us 2 or 3 more trips at least for us to see a lot of the country - this time we only did Snaefellsness and the south coast.
BTW, I did a horseback ride. The horses are adorable and the ride was a lot of fun, although it had been years since I rode regularly and I'd forgotten how to ride properly.
As for the most amazing parts of the trip...the nature everywhere was incredible. We found a black sand beach on Snaefellsnes, and any time we got near a glacier, there'd be these dramatic snowcapped mountains with little farmhouses hugging the foothills. Driving through a dust storm on the way to Skaftafell National Park was pretty crazy - I didn't even know there was a desert there until we drove through it! You'll be driving along and all of a sudden you'll find a waterfall (lots of those), a volcanic crater or a steam vent or something, and those moss-covered lava rocks are everywhere. The place really has to be seen to be believed. I really want to go back someday and see the rest of the country. I figure it'll take us 2 or 3 more trips at least for us to see a lot of the country - this time we only did Snaefellsness and the south coast.
BTW, I did a horseback ride. The horses are adorable and the ride was a lot of fun, although it had been years since I rode regularly and I'd forgotten how to ride properly.
Jun 28th, 2007, 06:11 PM
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OK So the plan so far is
Day 1: Arrive at Keflavik, hang out at Blue Lagoon, go to hotel, See Reykjavik
Day 2: SuperJeep Golden Circle tour (I think splurging for a superjeep would have probalby been better in a different place, but my brother's on a budget, and wanted to do superjeep and wanted to golden circle but couldn't do both, so we are doing both in one
Day 3: Some sort of Whale Watching/Horseback riding combination.
Day 4: Not sure. Investigating not-terribly-expensive ways of seeing either Snæfellsnes, Thorsmork, or the South coast in general with some puffins, or possibly Landmannalaugur...not sure yet
Day 5: Brother and niece leave
We Have Day 5, 6, and 7 to play, and we leave very early on day 8.
If I had my wish, ability to stop time, and a teleportation machine, I would:
-See seal colonies and bird colonies in the Westfjords (and stay in a cool hostel with seals just yards from the door),
-Drive and see cool scenery on the West coast/Snæfellsnes (funky rock formations and black/red sand beaches),
-See oodles of puffins
-Visit the glacier lagoon
-Visit the numerous waterfalls along the south coast
-Do the cool birdwatching trip mentioned in someone's trip report which is somewhere over near the glacier/iceberg lagoon
-Landmannalaugur, particularly swimming in the areas where the glacier melt mixes with the hot springs water
Myvatn is not ultra high on the list
Pretty sure that's too much for a little less than 3 days But having a hard time figuring out what *is* reasonable. I've pretty much decided that we have to either do the west coast or the south; I don't see how we can do both. But if someone disagrees with me I'm happy to hear it!
I'm asking, I guess, for some input on what distance/amount of activity is reasonable to expect to be able to do in a day? I would looove to play this all by ear but everything I've read said its a baaaad idea to not have accommodations lined up in advance, and so principally I'm trying ot figure out where to make reservations (we really only have 2 nights; need to stay close to airport on last night)
Thanks
Day 1: Arrive at Keflavik, hang out at Blue Lagoon, go to hotel, See Reykjavik
Day 2: SuperJeep Golden Circle tour (I think splurging for a superjeep would have probalby been better in a different place, but my brother's on a budget, and wanted to do superjeep and wanted to golden circle but couldn't do both, so we are doing both in one
Day 3: Some sort of Whale Watching/Horseback riding combination.
Day 4: Not sure. Investigating not-terribly-expensive ways of seeing either Snæfellsnes, Thorsmork, or the South coast in general with some puffins, or possibly Landmannalaugur...not sure yet
Day 5: Brother and niece leave
We Have Day 5, 6, and 7 to play, and we leave very early on day 8.
If I had my wish, ability to stop time, and a teleportation machine, I would:
-See seal colonies and bird colonies in the Westfjords (and stay in a cool hostel with seals just yards from the door),
-Drive and see cool scenery on the West coast/Snæfellsnes (funky rock formations and black/red sand beaches),
-See oodles of puffins
-Visit the glacier lagoon
-Visit the numerous waterfalls along the south coast
-Do the cool birdwatching trip mentioned in someone's trip report which is somewhere over near the glacier/iceberg lagoon
-Landmannalaugur, particularly swimming in the areas where the glacier melt mixes with the hot springs water
Myvatn is not ultra high on the list
Pretty sure that's too much for a little less than 3 days
But having a hard time figuring out what *is* reasonable. I've pretty much decided that we have to either do the west coast or the south; I don't see how we can do both. But if someone disagrees with me I'm happy to hear it! I'm asking, I guess, for some input on what distance/amount of activity is reasonable to expect to be able to do in a day? I would looove to play this all by ear but everything I've read said its a baaaad idea to not have accommodations lined up in advance, and so principally I'm trying ot figure out where to make reservations (we really only have 2 nights; need to stay close to airport on last night)
Thanks
