egordon132

I am planning a 5-6 day trip to Iceland for early June. I am very excited, but everything looks so interesting to me. I am having a hard time narrowing it down. My question to all of you - what places/sites are absolutely not to be missed? Are there any one day tours (or even 5 day tours) that are worth looking into? I'd love to do a glacier tour - could I fit that into my 5 days?

Thanks for all your help - I've gotten great information from all of you before and look forward to your suggestions!

Liz

rj007

I did two day trips with Iceland Excursions - Golden Circle and South Shores. I enjoyed both of them. You'll get a chance to see some of the diversity of this amazing place. You can do a glacier tour in one day. I didn't do that on my trip, but have it one the list for the next one. I would just use google and type in glacier tours Iceland and you'll get lots of info on the tours.

I kept my food costs down by going to the grocery store for my meals. It was interesting trying to figure out what kind of sandwich I was looking at.

Iceland is one of the most amazing places that I have been to in my travels. Definitely want to go back. You'll have a great time. Enjoy your trip.

ALF

You can see a lot of the west part of Iceland in 5-6 days.

You could spend a day;
1) exploring Reykjavik
2) On the Golden Circle Route (Kerið volcanic crater, Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir, & Þingvellir Natnl Park)
3) Along the South Shore (Seljalandsfoss waterfall, Skógafoss waterfall, Mýrdalsjökull glacier,
Vik)
4) Flight or ferry to Westmann Islands
5) Reykjanes Peninsula & Blue Lagoon (this trip can be taken on the last day, as it ends up at the airport)

You can book a tour with several companies. We took a couple of trips with Oli Schramm, who runs Highlander Adventures (www.highlander.is). I cannot recommend Oli highly enough - he can custom-tailor a trip to wherever you want to go. Oli took us along the South Coast, and we had a great time. The only problem there is that it was only economical if we put together a group of 6-ish people. Otherwise, the cost would have been prohibitive.

There are larger companies with big buses, such as Reykjavik Excursions (www.re.is).

We snowmobiled across the Mýrdalsjökull, a glacier along the south coast road, just north of Vik. We went with Arcanum (www.snow.is), and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here are some photos I took: http://mysite.verizon.net/res1dm2h/index_2.html

We took a 'SuperJeep' tour of the Highlands, with Mountain Explorer Adventures (www.mountain.is).

egordon132

Thanks for all your great advice. We've decided to do it ourselves, so now I have to rent a car and figure out our itinerary. Two quick questions:

1) Are rental cars all stick, or would it be possible to drive an automatic (need to know if I need some quick lessons before I go! LOL)

2) What guidebooks would you recomment for Iceland. Since I am planning it myself, want to make sure I am armed with all the information I will need before I go!

Thanks again!

liz

dkw

Hi Liz,

I am also planning a trip to Iceland (2 weeks in August) and have found 2 different books to be very helpful. The first (and my favorite) is Landmark Visitors Guide-Iceland written by Cathy Harlow. Tons of information, maps of walking paths, lots of fantastic, eye popping pictures. It was published in 2004, so it is very current.
The other book I have been using is insight Guides - Iceland This one was updated in 2003. I looked at so many in our local bookstore, these seemed to be the most comprehensive.

Hope this helps!

DKW

ALF

Although it is hard to rent an economy-type car with an auto transmission, you can definitely rent a mid-size with auto. We rented a small VW Polo from ALP (alp.is). It had a stick, but autos were available.

Another thing to consider is that gasoline is almost twice the price of diesel fuel (due to diesel fuel subsidies), so if you are driving long distances, a diesel car could save you some money.

I like the Lonely Planet guide, especially if you are more budget-minded.