rosetravels

DH and I are on our way from Seattle to London (and then to Italy) in mid-September via Icelandair. We'd like to stop in Iceland and are trying to decide how many days is the right amount for this visit.

DH is a geologist so...he's keenly interested in this part of our trip. How is the weather in mid-September? Would 1 or 2 days give us enough time for this visit (I assume we'll be back) or should we take another day away from work or Italy and stay for 3? What do you recommend we see in this short amount of time?

rosetravels

Anyone?

Shanti

I don't think I've ever posted about a place that I haven't been to - but since nobody else has responded, at least I can give you a link:

http://www.icelandwantstobeyourfriend.com/

Which leads to links to Facebook, Tumblr etc. and you can ask about the weather etc there.

TripAdvisor also might be a good resource.

Have a great time. I hope to make it there myself some day.

takemealong

We spent a week in Iceland in mid-September 2011. The early part of the week was gorgeous—pleasant, sunny days (jacket weather). The latter part of the week was rainy. We wore long slacks/jeans; jackets that were suitable for rainy weather; sweater/vest and shirt/knit top; shoes that were comfortable for walking and that could withstand rainy days; a hat or hooded jacket; gloves.

Your husband would at least want to see the Golden Circle, which includes geysers, waterfalls, and Thingvellir National Park, where the North American and European tectonic plates are pulling apart creating huge rifts in the land. This can be done on a day trip from Reykjavik.

rosetravels

Thanks to both of you!

takemealong - do you think 2 days would enable us to see a few of the best hot spots?

rosetravels

We are considering either a 3 day bus tour or just 2 nights at a hotel and a 1 day car rental. Does anyone have any tour company recommendations?

joelsson

Hello
My name is Gudmundur and I am the owner of the site http://icelandjourney.com What I suggest is you take a 2 days visit and go to reykjanes peninsula there you can find nearly all information about Iceland geology.in such a short trip,if you want to get more information you need at least 10 days to go around Iceland.

sassy_cat

rosetravels, did you try the search function on Fodors? There's quite a bit of info on Iceland.

I'd recommend you stay as long as possible. We spent 5 nights there last July and I would have loved to stay longer. I'd definitely self drive so that you can do your own thing. We hired a car for a couple of days and also took one tour and preferred having our own transport even though it cost more.

MaineGG

A few years ago, in the spring, I took my 10-year-old granddaughter to Paris. We flew Icelandair and took a one-night stopover in Iceland on our return trip. This hardly qualifies me to give much advice here, but since the previous poster recommended the Reyjkanes peninsula, I thought I'd jump in because that's where we went during our brief stay.

My granddaughter did some research on Iceland and said that she was most interested in going to the Blue Lagoon. I found a small hotel near there, The Northern Light Inn, that was reasonably priced and offered round-trip airport transfers and transportation to the Blue Lagoon. It worked out very well. The people there were so friendly, and we enjoyed the Blue Lagoon the afternoon we arrived. Our room was very comfortable, and dinner and breakfast were good. The next morning we took a long walk around the lava fields near the hotel. Fascinating terrain. Then the people at the hotel offered to drive us to Grindavik to see the town and visit the Icelandic Saltfish Museum which was also very interesting. We were told where we could have a quick lunch, and to ask the restaurant to call the Inn to let them know we were ready to be picked up. We were then taken to the airport for our flight home.

I would think this area would be very interesting geologically, and its proximity to the airport and compact area would make it a good choice for a quick visit. I'd love to get back to Iceland someday to see much more of the country, but I'm really glad we had the opportunity to see this little part.

http://www.northernlightinn.is/index.htm

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...Grindavik.html

rosetravels

Thanks sassy_cat for your thoughts on this. I did read the guide section on Fodors and then read several trip reports. We've since decided not to go via Iceland this year but we'll probably consider that another time. Instead, we're using FF miles to get to London via New York.

Amy

Oh, dear, I'm sorry for your husband that you're not going to Iceland; do consider it soon. It's a geologist's paradise! I've really never been anywhere else (40+ countries) quite like it.

This is a very old but still valid thread that gives you a bit of insight into Iceland: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...in-iceland.cfm

annhig

Hi Rose,

i only just came across this thread [i think our paths may have crossed on another one?] and I'm sorry that you have scrubbed Iceland from your itinerary.

I know next to nothing about geology, but there were two areas which strike me as being potentially most interesting for your DH - the area around Thingvellir [spelling] the site of the old parliament where the two tectonic plates meet. you can actually walk between them, which we thought was pretty cool. the geysers are in this area as well.

the other is the area around the airport. there are lakes, bubbling mud fields, fields of lava, and probably a lot of other very geologically interesting features.

I suspect that with a bit of research, you could probably put together enough to see for a whole dedicated trip. we went in late July/ August and the weather went from a heat-wave to really quite chilly wet weather, so anything is possible. click on my screen name if you'd like a look at my trip report. [in which geology features barely at all!]