My response to the Cucumber TR is the same as it was then....I had some great food in Iceland! I disagreed with her food assessment then as I do now.

My response to the Cucumber TR is the same as it was then....I had some great food in Iceland! I disagreed with her food assessment then as I do now.>>

I don't doubt that you found better food than we did Susie - it may be that we were just unlucky, or bad restaurant pickers.

but are you suggesting that i should have said that it was better than we found it to be?

I wouldn't expect you to say that it was worse!

My objection to your TR is that I think there is so much good food to be had in Iceland, that honestly I think you exaggerated to make a comedic point. And therefore you are giving people a mistaken idea of what they will actually find when they travel to Iceland. i.e. As seen above by Amandakohn's post.

well susie, you are of course entitled to your opinion, but I have just re-read my TR, and i find that I did in fact praise quite a lot of the meals that we had, so I'm not sure why you think that i exaggerated.

the main problem that we had [apart from the cost of meals] was finding fresh food when we were self-catering. are you saying that i am wrong to bring this to the attention of other fodorites?

i also note that some of the other posters on my thread also comment that some of the food they had was "less than stellar" as one of them described it. perhaps they are "exaggerating for comedic effect" too?

>>>THE NOT SUCH GOOD BITS:
in general the food. whether in guest house or supermarket, it really wasn't very good, even if you liked lamb. if you didn't it was very bad. [the hotel Glymur was an honourable exception.]<<<<

Wow, annhig, did I misunderstand that statement? "really wasn't very good"...."it was very bad"....

sorry,I thought that was an assessment of the food in Iceland.

I do not want to keep this post going so this is it for me!

so why keep at it, susie?

BTW, I just read your TR about your trip to Iceland and apart from praising the hotel's bountiful breakfast, you say nothing about the food whatsoever.

amanda - I'm sorry that your thread has got hijacked by a rather petty dispute between susieqq and me. I definitely recommend visiting iceland which is uniquely beautiful country.

Based on my own experiences, I would NOT however recommend self-catering outside Reykjavik.

We ate well when we were in Iceland and we tended to stay in the larger towns. Even so there were a few poorly cooked meals, but no more than I would expect small towns in small countries away from the main track.

On the other hand the UK TV has been showing a certain amount of Icelandic Noir and the sight of a man chowing down on his take-away sheep's head took me back....

Based on our experience the food in larger towns was better. We travelled for two weeks, often in more remote locations where the dining options were limited. We had a few great meals. You can check my trip for details. We did not have any really bad meals, but most were just OK. If you like fish and lamb (we both do), they were both good quality but often not that well prepared. You mention you do not like lamb but hopefully fish is OK? Overall, the food is nothing to worry about, our meals were all edible - just don't expect a delicious meal every night. I did not come across any sheeps head entrees, but maybe next time. I did have one dinner of salt cod "prepared the icelandic way" and served with "heated fat". There was a little tub of what I think was melted lamb fat served with the meal. Big thumbs down for heated fat as a condiment, but the salted cod was very good.
Have a great trip

Big thumbs down for heated fat as a condiment, but the salted cod was very good.>>

AnaBelen - I think that must count as the understatement of the week.

I'm off to Iceland in July (without a cucumber) and I'm a bit leery of Icelandic fare (I don't eat lamb) but I think I'll find decent alternatives in Reykjavik and Vik (that will probably be the extent of our exploring).

So far I have flown business class on Icelandair and been offered reindeer burger and whale on board; I chose option 3 = sushi but my husband braved the burger as he's not a fan of fish (or whale!). The burger was 'meh', not something he'd order again unless the options were equally dire!

Amandakohn, I hope you write a trip report and include your experience of food in Iceland.

sassy_cat, I just posted a new thread on Icelandic food, take a look:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...in-iceland.cfm

Wow! My goodness, I hadn't checked the thread in a few days, but glad I checked back! I don't mind the bantering, love to hear everyone's experience; and yes, I will definitely write a TR!

Not that anyone really needs to know, but I'm an especially quirky eater... only fruits/veggies/grains/chicken/turkey/beef. No fish, pork, veal, lamb, reindeer... etc. lol. We'll see how it goes : ) Thanks for the food report Susie!

Karl & Laurie, thanks for the links and the info. Unfortunately can't afford flipkey, so will probably stick with airbnb.

Flying Iceland Express btw; now a little nervous after reading some pretty awful reviews! I've taken 8 hour bus trips and 11 hour plane rides, so as long as I make it there in one piece I can forego some creature comforts... Anyone have any experience flying with them? (The only reason we booked the flight w/ them was b/c of an amazing deal, otherwise the trip would have been prohibitively expensive.)

To the ladies who have been; any suggestions on what to do re hair appliances? I have successfully blown fuses and burnt out "travel" dryers/flat irons on every trip abroad - even when using the correct adaptors/plugs, etc. Any recommendations would be helpful!

Best,
Amanda

Best advice re hair appliances; don't take them! The correct adapters/plugs do not act as transformers (and US appliances that run on 110V will burn out with 220V European supply).

Call your hotel or apartment and it's likely they will have hair dryers for guest use.

Hi amanda,

we flew Iceland express, and they were fine - we were only flying from the uK though so it was a much shorter flight than from the US.

as sassy cat says, your hotel should have hair-dryers, if not in your room, then at reception.

good luck!

About those hair dryers.... most of the places we stayed did not have one in the room. As mentioned above, I probably could have gotten one from reception. You might want to consider not bringing one though. Iceland is windy and if you plan on a lot of outdoor activities you may not want to bother with styling it. At least that is how it worked out for us. Between the occasional light rain and frequent wind, it really did not make much of a difference whether I blew my hair dry in the morning or not. I am not sure if it is always so windy. Maybe others can chime in here.

Hi all! Just settling in from the trip to Iceland - it was incredible! Will type up notes for a TR shortly :)

Welcome back!

Did you see Skogafoss? That was my absolute favotite. Its not the biggest or tallest, but something about the fact that you could get so close to it. Did you eat the Fermented shark! that is defitnaly an eye opener!

Hi
There are many advice how you can save money on your trip to Iceland on: http://icelandtravel.weebly.com/save-money.html.
Hope you can use few of them :-)

Karith --

Crap. Just flagged one of your comments by mistake. Will contact Fodor's….

I apologize. Appreciate your Iceland advice.

-- esme