megdean

We are trying to decide if it is worthwhile hiring a private guide for our trip to Iceland next year. We will be traveling to Iceland September 2017 for about 10 days. Our plan is to drive the ring road. Interested in scenery, of course, short hikes (< 5 miles) and photography.

I see many people using private guides for this type of trip, while many others do it on their own. We have never used a private guide, so I am not sure what the benefits are while in Iceland. I assume they can take you places that you may not find on your own. We are comfortable driving in general, and it seems easy to book rooms on booking.com. So am I missing something? Should we consider hiring a guide? Thanks.

abram

We spent 24 days in Iceland last month.
Among other things, we drove the Ring Road. We did a few short tours, like a guided glacier walk, but mostly went on our own.
To me, the very ideal way would be to hire a private driver/guide, so DH (my driver) didn't have to focus on the road and so that we got the benefit of a guide's knowledge.
Wasn't in our budget.

historytraveler

We returned from Iceland several weeks ago and had a private guide. Certainly, you can do the trip without a guide, but we found it very helpful. He was very knowledgeable and that in itself was worth the extra expense. Also weather conditions can get a bit sketchy so glad we weren't driving through the almost gale force winds ( one evening ) and a few torrential downpours on a couple of the other days. Actually weather wasn't all that bad but we did encounter a few such situations. Our guide was also able to come up with good alternatives when the weather cancelled a couple of visits.

megdean

historytraveler, can you tell me the name of your guide? Sounds like this may be the way to go. Thanks.

historytraveler

Our guides name was Andrés Hannesson and he is with Gateway to Iceland. www.gti.is Tel: +354 534 444

descor

Hi,

I think is always better to make a tour with a guide. You aren't booking only a person that guide you,you also have a person that will show you the best point for photos, tell you the history of the place or will give you advice about other things to do. I recommend some of the tours avaliable for example at http://www.carrentiniceland.com/#tours

megdean

Thanks all. I will pursue these options.

vickiebypass

I'm the contrary opinion. I just spent 10 days in Iceland (September) and did it all on my own. I rented a car and driving was super easy - the road is pretty much flat, paved, in some areas it 2 lanes each direction & other areas, 1 lane in each direction, lots of areas to pull off and take photos. I researched beforehand so knew what i was driving past and planned overnights in Vik, Skafatell, Hofn, etc. I reserved specific tours for glacier treks, horse rides, etc which definitely required a guide. Otherwise, i was happy on my own. So, it's up to your travel style and comfort level (and financial resources) but don't think that you can't do it without a guide - it's just what you prefer!

SusanInToronto

I agree with Vickiebypass. We were there in August for 11 nights and apart from doing a few tours with guides, we were on our own. Definitely preferred the flexibility (and the cost - Iceland is an expensive destination even the way we did it).

annhig

10 days is the real minimum for driving round the ring road, IMO, but if you plan well as Vicki says, it should be possible.

Rather than use a guide, you could follow one of the tour itineraries that you will find on the info published by Discover the World and other similar companies. I'm not suggesting buying their tour, but using it for planning purposes:

https://www.discover-the-world.co.uk

another company which is Iceland based is Icelandic Farm Holidays:

https://www.heyiceland.is

They will book anything for you, from individual accommodation to a whole tour, and their website is full of excellent information e.g. about driving:

https://www.heyiceland.is/travel-gui...ing-in-iceland

megdean

Thanks all. We have decided to do it on our own. After spending two nights in Reykavik, we have planned about 7 full days to drive from Reykavik to Akureyri. We are thinking about overnights in Vik, Hofn, and Seydisfjordur. We are still trying to decide if we should stop overnight at Lake Myvatn, or visit Lake Myvatn and then continue on to Akureyri and spend two nights there.

We are also trying to decide whether to add on a couple more days and continue our drive back to Reykavik, or call it a day in Akureyri and fly back to Reykavik and home from there.

Annhig, thank you for the links. I will check them out today.

db6040

vickiebypass -- could you comment on what type of weather you had in September? We plan to drive the Ring Road next September and have reserved a small camper van for this trip. Did you experience rain most days? Any winter weather or poor road conditions? Thank you.

annhig

no probs, megdean. We never got as far as Akureyri so i can't help about whether it's a good idea to stay there for a couple of nights or not.

What I can say is that most sightseeing in Iceland is linear, back and forth along the ring road, so that it is not a very good place for the "spoke and wheel" type of travel that we usually do. That was our main error on our visit. It is much more of a place for one and possibly two night stays in a succession of different places along the ring road. Also though it will be September you should still have reasonable amounts of day light, so you can cover quite long distances in a day as well as seeing what you want to see en route.

Whatever you do, I would consider adding the extra days; you won't regret having the extra time to spend in Iceland.