Tally

Hello!

I'm thinking about a 2 week family trip (me, hub and 9 year old son) to Iceland next summer. Yea, I'm planning way ahead, I know. I really really want to see puffins, so if you have any scoop on where we might see them, I'd love to hear it! Here is what I have so far. I'd appreciate any advice or input. Thanks!

Day 1 (Sunday)
- Arrive, get rent car, stay in Reykjavik for 3 nights.
Day 2 (Monday)
- Sight-see in Reykjavik
Day 3 (Tuesday)
- Blue Lagoon
Day 4 (Wednesday)
- Drive Reykjavik to Akureyri, maybe detour to Hofsos for a few hours at the pool. Overnight in Akureyri for 1 night.
Day 5 (Thursday)
- Drive Akureyri to Lake Myvatn. Sight-see in Akureyri, turf house museum and Godafoss. Spend 3 nights in Lake Myvatn area.
Day 6 (Friday)
- Dimmuborgir, hike up Hverfell, Grjotagja, Hverir geothermal area.
Day 7 (Saturday)
- Myvatn nature baths, Dettifoss.
Day 8 (Sunday)
- Drive from Lake Myvatn to Borgarfjordur Eystri, look for puffins, then onto Egilsstadir and spend 2 nights there.
Day 9 (Monday)
- Day trip to Seydisfjordur from Egilsstadir.
Day 10 (Tuesday)
- Drive from Egilsstadir to Jokulsarlon and spend a few hours there. Drive to Vik and spend the night there.
Day 11 (Wednesday)
- Drive from Vik to Reykjavik. Along the way stop at Dyrholaey (puffins, maybe?), Skogafoss, Seljalandsfoss. If there's enough time, go to Gullfoss and Geysir en route to Reykjavik. Spend the next 3 nights in Reykjavik.
Day 12 (Thursday)
- Sight-see in Reykjavik. Maybe a whale watching boat trip or Laugardalslaug thermal pool.
Day 13 (Friday)
- Day trip to Thingvellir (and Geysir and Gullfoss if we didn't see them on the way from Vik).
Day 14 (Saturday)
- Home!

mxm

A) I would suggest doing Blue Lagoon either the day you land or the day you leave. It is really near to the airport and not near anything else. Specially if your flight lands in the morning - you could use the rest of the day. Or if you have a early morning flight - use the last evening.
B) As for Puffins - we took the Elder whale watch trip and did not see any whales. But puffins were plenty.

AnaBelen

We saw lots of puffins on the boat trip to Papey island.

At Jokulsaron, be sure to check out the beach on the other side of the bridge. The glacial ice washes up on the beach, and it is really lovely.

Tally

Thanks! Maybe I'll put all of the Reykjavik days either at the start or end, then spend the first/last 2 nights close to the airport and go to the Blue Lagoon. How much time should I allocate for Reykjavik? I'm thinking a day for the Blue Lagoon, a day for the Golden Circle, but how much time just to see the sights in Reykjavik?

mikeyred242

I would consider spending less time in Reykjavik,3 nights at the start and 3 nights at the end means you´re wasting a lot of time that can be spent exploring the beautiful countryside. You can do the Golden Circle on your way back to reykjavik from Vik.

Don´t get me wrong, Reykjavik is a cool city but it is rather small, I would have thought two days is enough.

The Blue Lagoon..personally I think it is overrated - and you are visiting the baths at Myvatn as well which in my opinion are much nicer. However as someone has said it is near the airport at Keflavik so I guess visiting it won´t affect your itinerary too much.

Whale watching - maybe when you are in the North go to Husavik and go whale watching from there, Husavik is a really pretty towen and well worth a visit.

Puffins..hmm, plenty in the Westman Islands, which are well worth a visit, you can get a ferry from Landeyjarhofn which is in between Vik and Selfoss. Well worth spending a day there if you can find the room in your schedule.

It is good that you are spening a lot of time in the North, Lake Myvatn is stunning and you will love it. Be sure to check out Asbyrgi canyon as well.

Tally

So two full days to explore just Reykjavik?

I'm thinking of changing the Akureyri night to Hofsos. I keep reading what a cool pool they have there. Any scoop on Hofsos or Akureyri?

mxm

A few hours at the Blue Lagoon should be enough. There's nothing much to do - we checked in at a hotel late evening the day before departure. Then visited the Blue Lagoon, had dinner at the hotel and next day departed from Reykjavik. So Would not even say a full day for Blue Lagoon. Alternate plan would be if you land in the morning, head to Blue Lagoon - place your luggage in lockers, spend a few hours there and then after lunch check in at your hotel in Reykjavik.

Tally

Our 9 year old son will be with us, and I suspect he could happily spend hours at the Blue Lagoon. Or is it not appealing to kids?

Tally

I just did some more research on the BL and think you're probably right about just spending a few hours. No kiddy areas and mostly just adults relaxing. Thanks for the tip! If we go to other pools, maybe we'll just skip it. I'd love to have another day to add somewhere else.

Has anyone been to the geothermal area that's somewhere near the Blue Lagoon, with boardwalks, mud pots, etc?

annhig

Tally, the geothermal area near the Blue Lagoon is near the airport at Keflavik. Much more interesting than the Blue Lagoon IMO, which is effectively a glorified swimming pool. I'm sure that in the winter it comes into its own but it's not really something to make a special effort for in the summer. I would leave it to the end of the trip when you may have had your fill of lava fields etc.

Personally I would leave Reykjavik to the end of the trip. THere are some interesting things to see there, principally the National Museum of Iceland which is very well done, has everything in english, and a great section where you [or your 9 year old] can dress up as an viking, etc. 2-3 days should do it easily.

From landing, I would go either south east to Vik and go that way round, or north to the Golden triangle. It probably doesn't make that much difference. Whichever way you go you can easily work Gulfoss etc into your itinerary rather than doing it as a day trip from Reykjavik. I would also try to make time to get to the Western fjords, which we though were the very best part of our trip. [click on my screen name to find my TR if you want to know why!] The cliffs have the highest concentration of seabirds anywhere in Europe [probably about 6 million of them] and the ferry trip to get there [or back] is truly lovely. With 14 days at your disposal, you ought to be able to squeeze it in, especially if you are not going to be spending so long in Reykjavik.

Tally

If I add the western fjords, I'll have to cut out a few days around the ring road, and I'm not sure I want to add more miles to the trip. They do sound really cool, but I really want to go to Jokulsarlon and Lake Myvatn so I'm pretty set on the ring road trip. I'd love to come up with a plan that has driving every other day and then a day of not driving in between, but I don't see how to make that work. It seems to me that if we're going to drive the ring road (and detours), there's no way around a lot of driving, but we'll also get to see a lot of cool stuff. It seems like any trip to Iceland will have a lot of driving (and maybe backtracking) unless you just stay around Reykjavik. Any ideas on other good plans for 2 weeks?

mikeyred242

I would give the West fjords a miss, as stunning as they are they do take a long time to travel around as the roads are not great.

Hofsos pool is really nice (albeit quite small) with fantastic views over Drangey and Skagafjörður. Also worth checking out Holar which is in between the pretty town of Sauðakrókur and Hofsos. Do an image search on google for Holar and see for yourself!

The Geothermal area near the Blue lagoon I have been to is called Krysuvik and is well worth a visit, the surrounding area is stunning and I reckon your son will love it as well.

Instead of the Blue Lagoon check out the swimming pools in reykjavik. Much cheaper, more fun for kids (huge waterslides) and relaxing hotpools for the adults...the one in Mosfellsbær or at Laugardalur are my favourite.

You are wise to plan ahead as car hire and accommodation are often fully booked in the summer. For car hire I recommend www.carsiceland.com

annhig

well we managed the western fjords even though we only had about 11 days, but we didn't try to get all the way round. yes the driving was quite hard work, but from the hotel by the ferry port at Brjlandslaekur [apologies for spelling] we managed to drive to and from the bird cliffs in the day, The next day we took the ferry over to Stykkisholmur so that cut out quite a lot of driving, and the ferry trip was wonderful.

have you looked at the itineraries suggested by companies like discover the world? not in order to sign up with one of their trips, but to get an idea of what mileage is possible per day? one of the things to remember is that there are very long days in the summer so on a travelling day, you can go quite a long way, stopping off and sight-seeing en route.

mxm

Another point I would recommend if to plan out and book the hotels especially if you are travelling in summer. We found that hotels were booked way way( and I think 6-7 months) ahead for summer months - and we had to finally tailor our itinerary based on hotel availability. So book early so that hotels are not a constraint. You can always cancel later if you change plans.

annhig

a good website for booking all sorts of accommodation is http://www.farmholidays.is/

They don't just offer accommodation on farms [some of which is very good] but also hotels. They also have reasonably priced tours and tour suggestions.

I agree that you should start booking accommodation quite early as the best soon books up.

Tally

My plan has changed some since I posted originally (and will no doubt change more).

day 1 (Sun) - Arrive early, stay in Reykjavik, weekend market, no big plans since we'll be jetlagged.
day 2 (Mon) - Golden Circle, overnight in Hvolsvollur (south)
day 3 (Tue) - South coast: Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Dyrholaey, Reynisfjara, Vik, overnight in Hof (by Skaftafell).
day 4 (Wed) - Jokulsarlon and hiking in Skaftafell, overnight in Hof,
day 5 (Thu) - Ingolshofdi (tractor tour to the cliffs), hiking in Skaftafell, overnight in Hof
day 6 (Fri) - Long drive day to Lake Myvatn, with a detour to Borgarfjordur Eystri, overnight at Lake Myvatn (for 3 nights)
day 7 (Sat) - Lake Myvatn
day 8 (Sun) - Lake Myvatn
day 9 (Mon) - Godafoss and Akureyri, overnight in Akureyri
day 10 (Tue) - Drive to Stykkisholmur on Snaefellsnes, boat tour of the bay (if we have time), overnight in Stykkisholmur
day 11 (Wed) - Drive around Snaefellsnes, tour Vatnshellir Cave, maybe hike Hellnar-Anastapi, overnight in Reykjavik (for 3 nights)
day 12 (Thu) - Reykjavik
day 13 (Fri) - Maybe Blue Lagoon and geothermal area (Krysuvik?), or a city pool, maybe a boat tour, or whatever
day 14 (Sat) - home in the afternoon

How does that look? Am I missing anything really cool along the way? I know it's a lot of driving, but we'll have some days with little or no driving, and some days we'll drive a lot but stop a lot. Any suggestions or opinions are appreciated!

annhig

Tally- that looks like a pretty good itinerary round Iceland. you probably are missing a few things but then you can't see everything wherever you go and however long you stay.

have a wonderful time and look out for the preserved shark:

http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/ar...k#.U-lEJChhq20

Tally

Annhig, I just don't think I can do that. Did you?

Tally

And yea, you're right, we can't see everything! I've accepted that we may have to drive right past some cool stuff. If we stop at everything interesting along the way, we'll never make it around the island. Especially on that long day from Hof to Myvatn. Google maps says it's 8 hours with the detour to Borgarfjordur Eystri.

annhig

Tally, the good thing about Iceland in the summer is the long days - you can pack a lot in when it's still light enough to read a newspaper at 11pm! The bad thing is the long days - it can be quite hard to get to sleep when it's still light enough to....well, you get the point.

And no, we didn't try the preserved shark. We did have salted lamb, roast guillemot, and an awful lot of oxtail soup.