scigirl

Leaving in late July for 4 days in Reykjavik. We will be renting a car and doing the golden circle on one day. Spending our arrival day mostly in the city. Another day I'd like to do whale watching and/or fishing and/or horseback riding. I was wondering if it is necessary to make reservations in advance or if we are likely to be able to find space day of or day before. I hesitate because I am concerned about making reservations for a very expensive tour and then having the weather go foul. W/o reservations we would have more flexibility, but possibly run the risk of not getting on a tour.

Any recommendations on the book on advance vs. book on arrival dilemma?

Recommendations for tours would be most welcome also - I have an 8 and 12 year old who will be with me. Many of the more exciting tours (which are of course the ones they most want to do) require kids to be at least 14.

Thank you!

inspiredexplorer

I went this past March, traditionally Iceland's low season for tourism. I prebooked most of my tours, and there were a few I barely squeaked onto due to an increase in tourist numbers and reservations.

My visit in March had a range of horrible weather, but none of my tours were ever cancelled.

Maybe email the tour companies you are looking at, and ask what remaining availability they have on X tour on Y date at Z time. That way, you'll know how many open spots there are, and can guess if it will fill in the next month or not.

scigirl

Thank you - I will check into that. Right now I have to settle on just what we are going to do (seems everyone has a different #1 activity - ) and get it booked. I definitely would rather go out in bad weather than to miss because I should have made reservations!

kristinje

I would definitely recommend reserving the tours in advance, especially for the summer. The most popular family tours are the Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon, Whale watching, inside the volcano, puffin boat trip and sea angling trip. Guide to Iceland is a very good website to reserve the tours on. They have all the tour companies and car rentals and they make a price comparison.
Here are links to some of there popular tours:

Golden Circle: https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...ps/c78a?a=4671
Blue lagoon:https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...lagoon-?a=4671
Horse riding: https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...ge-tour?a=4671
Whale Watching: https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...ching-1?a=4671
Puffin boat trip: https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...express?a=4671
Inside the Volcano: https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...volcano?a=4671
Sea angling trip: https://guidetoiceland.is/book-holid...angling?a=4671

I hope you will find this helpful. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions about Iceland.
I hope you have a great time here

-Kristín

Anastasia_131

Hi! It is better to reserve tours in advance, as the number of tourists increases, and there may not be spare places. Especially if you go in high season.
If you plan to rent a car, I suggest Cars Iceland (www.carsiceland.com) - they have best (as far as I managed to find) terms for insurance, and they block only 15% of the sum as a deposit.

scigirl

Coming back to say that we booked a fishing tour for our first evening and a glacier walk (which allows children!) for one of our days. The other day is spent doing the golden circle drive. I'll post back on our return w/ reviews and a trip report. I had a lot of trouble finding a glacier hike that would allow 8 year olds - so I want to be sure to include that information.

Hoping to squeeze in some horses or a whale watching tour but decided to wait and see how our time plays out (very short trip) and if we have the energy and opportunity to go for it - and one is available - we will do it.