iceland in 9 days...
Jul 28th, 2006, 07:04 AM
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iceland in 9 days...
we are going to iceland for 9 days. How many days should we stay in reykavik? Is 3 a good amount of time? Can we (or should we) drive the ring road for the rest of the time- 6 1/2 days- or should we just go to south east iceland? I know there are many posts here about short trips, and longer trips- we just have no idea what to do in this amount of time. We are a married couple with no kids.
Jul 30th, 2006, 05:15 AM
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lucky123,
As no one else has responded I will, but I do not know Reykjavik or the area near it.
The first question must be what are your interests/likes? Only you can decide if you want to go to tourist traps like the Blue Lagoon along with hundreds of others or if you'd rather get to see some history/landscape in this remarkable country.
The south-east has a fair bit to go at, but does tend to be busier because it is nearer the capital and that's where many visitors arrive.
These sites may be of use:
http://www.nat.is/main.html
http://english.ust.is/
http://www.iww.is/
http://www.vegagerdin.is/english/
http://iceland.vefur.is/
http://www4.vegagerdin.is/thjonustuk....html?lang=eng
http://kort.ganga.is/
To drive round the Ring Road is just over 1300 km so it is possible to do it in a week, and many people do. However how much they actually manage to see may be open to debate. On a recent visit with our own car from UK we took just over two weeks to do the eastern third of the country, but we prefer to travel slowly and look at areas in some detail.
If you don't want to go all the way round you might consider going along the south coast to Skaftafell National Park (glaciers). Alternatively head north to Jökulsárgljúfur National Park (canyons) via Akureyri. Something very different would be to go to north-west fjords and drop out - it's a very remote area with poor roads which we hope to get to some time.
When are you going? If soon you need to be booking accommodation as soon as possible.
Michael
As no one else has responded I will, but I do not know Reykjavik or the area near it.
The first question must be what are your interests/likes? Only you can decide if you want to go to tourist traps like the Blue Lagoon along with hundreds of others or if you'd rather get to see some history/landscape in this remarkable country.
The south-east has a fair bit to go at, but does tend to be busier because it is nearer the capital and that's where many visitors arrive.
These sites may be of use:
http://www.nat.is/main.html
http://english.ust.is/
http://www.iww.is/
http://www.vegagerdin.is/english/
http://iceland.vefur.is/
http://www4.vegagerdin.is/thjonustuk....html?lang=eng
http://kort.ganga.is/
To drive round the Ring Road is just over 1300 km so it is possible to do it in a week, and many people do. However how much they actually manage to see may be open to debate. On a recent visit with our own car from UK we took just over two weeks to do the eastern third of the country, but we prefer to travel slowly and look at areas in some detail.
If you don't want to go all the way round you might consider going along the south coast to Skaftafell National Park (glaciers). Alternatively head north to Jökulsárgljúfur National Park (canyons) via Akureyri. Something very different would be to go to north-west fjords and drop out - it's a very remote area with poor roads which we hope to get to some time.
When are you going? If soon you need to be booking accommodation as soon as possible.
Michael
Jul 31st, 2006, 05:29 AM
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thank you for all this information. We are leaving on august 19th, we have our accomodations in Reykjavik already set. Now i am trying to figure out the rental car, and where we are actually going to go. We will most likely see the blue lagoon, and other nearby sights those first few days- then take off to more a more remote area. The main thing we want to see are the glacier lagoons, and probably Lake Myvtn
Jul 31st, 2006, 05:49 AM
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lucky123,
You may as well do the circuit as Mývatn is just about opposite Reykjavik.
We found Mývatn itself a bit disappointing (and full of flies as its name implies - not certain if they're still there in August) but the hot springs and volcanics nearby are good.
We stopped at Stöng, a few miles from Mývatn, but comfortable and nice and quiet.
Detifoss waterfall is worth getting to if you can, but will mean a detour off the Ring Road unless you go to Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, which is excellent, but may be a bit out of your way.
If, by the glacier lagoons, you mean Jökulsárlón be sure to spend some time at nearby Skaftafell for the glaciers. Bölti Farmhouse there is excellent, but very small.
If you click on my blue name above you will see some other recent posts I have made on Iceland which give a bit more info.
Sort accommodation <u>quickly</u>.
Michael
You may as well do the circuit as Mývatn is just about opposite Reykjavik.
We found Mývatn itself a bit disappointing (and full of flies as its name implies - not certain if they're still there in August) but the hot springs and volcanics nearby are good.
We stopped at Stöng, a few miles from Mývatn, but comfortable and nice and quiet.
Detifoss waterfall is worth getting to if you can, but will mean a detour off the Ring Road unless you go to Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, which is excellent, but may be a bit out of your way.
If, by the glacier lagoons, you mean Jökulsárlón be sure to spend some time at nearby Skaftafell for the glaciers. Bölti Farmhouse there is excellent, but very small.
If you click on my blue name above you will see some other recent posts I have made on Iceland which give a bit more info.
Sort accommodation <u>quickly</u>.
Michael
Jul 31st, 2006, 06:04 AM
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Today's Washingpost www.washingtonpost.com has a terrific article on Iceland in its travel section. Just click on and scroll down.
The golden ring -not the same as the ring road- is a good place to start and can occupy at least one day trip from Reykjavic, but preferably more. Although the Blue Lagoon is popular with tourists and others, it is still an enjoyable and unique experience if you are in the mood for a dip.
The golden ring -not the same as the ring road- is a good place to start and can occupy at least one day trip from Reykjavic, but preferably more. Although the Blue Lagoon is popular with tourists and others, it is still an enjoyable and unique experience if you are in the mood for a dip.
Jul 31st, 2006, 01:50 PM
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Hi lucky,
I'm heading to Iceland in August for 10 days as well and we're hitting the Ring Road and only planning on 2 1/2 days in Reykjavik. We're definitely planning on a pretty good pace around the island, but since we've never been before we thought we'd try to get an overview of everything and then plan trips back in the future to see things that we really like.
We booked most of our arrangements and our car through the http://www.hostel.is site. They have package deals that seems to be more reasonably priced than doing everything ourselves. They were really helpful with designing a plan for our needs (10 days with the car but 6 nights in hostels) and gave us some good advise about where to stay. Plus, since we're practically staying at a different place every night, it was nice to let them handle making all the reservations for us instead of having to call up places individually.
For the other nights that we're not in hostels (we're spending 2 nights at Geiteyjarströnd Farm near Lake Myvtin and 2 nights at Bolti Farm in Skaftafell - both locations weren't as hostel accessible) we booked through a wonderful travel agent that someone else on Fodor's recommended, Bruno Guttenberg at [email protected]. He was wonderful and gave us tons of ideas of things to do in the areas we're staying at. You can't book Bolti online, which is why we went through Bruno originally, but he was very helpful and I would definitely use him again.
In planning our trip we also found the Lonely Planet guidebook to be the best out there, although none of the ones we found are particularly great. We mostly read these message boards and any online articles we could find as well as asking others questions about what they enjoyed.
Hope this has been helpful. I'm happy to share any of our trip planning info if you have other questions.
I'm heading to Iceland in August for 10 days as well and we're hitting the Ring Road and only planning on 2 1/2 days in Reykjavik. We're definitely planning on a pretty good pace around the island, but since we've never been before we thought we'd try to get an overview of everything and then plan trips back in the future to see things that we really like.
We booked most of our arrangements and our car through the http://www.hostel.is site. They have package deals that seems to be more reasonably priced than doing everything ourselves. They were really helpful with designing a plan for our needs (10 days with the car but 6 nights in hostels) and gave us some good advise about where to stay. Plus, since we're practically staying at a different place every night, it was nice to let them handle making all the reservations for us instead of having to call up places individually.
For the other nights that we're not in hostels (we're spending 2 nights at Geiteyjarströnd Farm near Lake Myvtin and 2 nights at Bolti Farm in Skaftafell - both locations weren't as hostel accessible) we booked through a wonderful travel agent that someone else on Fodor's recommended, Bruno Guttenberg at [email protected]. He was wonderful and gave us tons of ideas of things to do in the areas we're staying at. You can't book Bolti online, which is why we went through Bruno originally, but he was very helpful and I would definitely use him again.
In planning our trip we also found the Lonely Planet guidebook to be the best out there, although none of the ones we found are particularly great. We mostly read these message boards and any online articles we could find as well as asking others questions about what they enjoyed.
Hope this has been helpful. I'm happy to share any of our trip planning info if you have other questions.
Aug 1st, 2006, 12:02 AM
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lucky123,
Sorry, can't help with any of your general questions but we paid a short visit to the Blue Lagoon during a stopover on our flight from Glasgow to New York & thoroughly enjoyed it.
Here's a link to my trip report if you're interested;
Jim
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34778474
Sorry, can't help with any of your general questions but we paid a short visit to the Blue Lagoon during a stopover on our flight from Glasgow to New York & thoroughly enjoyed it.
Here's a link to my trip report if you're interested;
Jim
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34778474
