Iceland
 

I am looking for some information about any type of adventure tour through Iceland. We have a group of 15 teachers looking for an adventurous week for a decent price. More activity than sitting and listening. Looking to maybe hike, white water raft, etc.
any ideas?
Jamie

Can't help other than to top you. Good luck!

Well if you're going on this period of the year then forget about hiking, as it will be cold as hell :)

If you're instead going around spring/summer then there's a whole lot of stuff to do, but please specify when you're going and what's your budget

check icelandair.com.

I'm originally from Iceland and still have lots of family there. Adventure trips abound there but must have more exact info as to what time of year. A group of 15 sounds perfect. Let me know more specifics and I'll email my family there and get you good info.

There is a thread titled something like-
15 Canadians go to Iceland to trace roots. It is very interesting! The final chapter was posted a few days ago.
We spent 3 days in Iceland enroute to France in August. It was a terrific experience and we would like to visit again.

Here's the thread for

'Trip Report - 10 "Western Icelanders" Discover Their Roots (Long)'

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34427051

From my previous experience, Iceland is one of the most expensive country. I am a little cautious about your 'decent price'

If jamiek29 reads that 'Trip Report - 10 Western Icelanders...' thread, she (he?) will see just how expensive Iceland is. Keeping that in mind, it still sounds like a wonderful place to visit!

Just today on the BBC World Fast Track show, there was a segment on Iceland and tourism. Mostly it was about the controversy over resumed whale hunting (which I'm NOT going to talk about here), but also about the country's austere natural beauty and...the weather. Apparently, the Iceland Tourist Board was getting grief for all those photos of sunny Iceland when the reality is that it has only about 2 days of sunshine per month. The tourist office is now redoing their brochures, etc., to give a more realistic picture of what the weather is like.

Sorry for ther lack of info! We are looking to go in July sometime for about 8 days. We realize that it won't be cheap but somewhere around $2200 including flight, and accomodation. Is that realistic?

Hi Jamie - we went in June (I'm the "10 family members" person!) on a tour designed for us by a travel agency in Winnipeg that specializes in Iceland tours - they might be able to design something for you - here's their web site:

http://www.greatcanadiantravel.com/i...ence/index.htm

It's not an issue using a Canadian travel company as all flights to Iceland depart from the US - NY, Baltimore, Boston and Minneapolis.

Our trip (13 nights) included air/hotels with breakfast/rental cars/a couple of other meals/taxes/etc - the portion the tour company put together was approx $3700 US plus I spent about another $700 US for meals/gas/etc.

Happy to answer any questions.

Here's another suggestion for a tour company. If you read my report we had a wonderful one day tour organized by:

http://www.storytrips.com/

I just checked their site and they do longer customized tours as well....I highly recommend them - if you contact them you'll speak with Gudrun Asmundsdottir - she's delightful and I'm sure can help. This route might save a bit of money as well because it will be one less tour operator to deal with - you would just have to get there which is very straight forward via Icelandair.

That's $2200 per person, right? Hope so! LOL

We went on several adventures with Oli Schramm, who runs Highlander Adventures (http://www.highlander.is). He can take you rafting, horseback riding, hiking, or touring. A highlight was a snowmobile ('snow scooter') trip across the Mýrdalsjökul Glacier (http://mysite.verizon.net/res1dm2h/Pages/42.html). Oli runs small-scale trips, so I don't know if he can handle 15 people. His 4WD van probably only seats 12 max.

I didn't read the entire thread so forgive me if this has been posted, take a look at Iceland Air's website and sign up for lucky fares (presuming you are from the US), we got a decent deal through them. They have vacation packages as well that you might check out. We added a few days in London and the airfare was less than it was just to go to Iceland.

Hotels and food are very expensive, we ended up staying at a guest house which was right around $100 per night with shared facilities.

Reykjavik excursions had a lot of day trips and I believe they also had longer trips. Their website is www.re.is

I have booked a week-long adventure tour of Iceland next summer with Exodus, a British company. They also offer a two-week tour. Another British company, Explore, has similar tours. I can't tell you much until I go myself, however.

I can highly recommend Fjallabak: www.icelandtrekking.com. They usually conduct tours only for smaller groups (8 people, for example), but for a group like yours, they might be willing to arrange a tour to meet your needs. It certainly can't hurt to ask. I did a two-week trek across south-central Iceland with them, and it was fabulous.