love2travel2LA

Going to Iceland in August for 7 nights. Starting with 2 teens and 2 adults and adding one more 25 year old daughter the last couple days.
Need help deciding the highlights and if we should drive ourselves or hire a guide. little worried about driving ourselves as we are not too brave but would like to white water raft, hike, pools, glaciers and see lots of unusual scenery and animals.

Day 1-get to reykjavik in afternoon-shuttle or rent car? second daughter coming at midnight so have to go back or she takes shuttle.
Day 2-leave in morning and go where? have 4 days/3 nights and want to see volcano, cool places to visit and stay and not interested in west side.
Day 5-back to reykjavik late afternoon to meet up with kid #3. Dinner there?
Day 6-7 Southeast/west? side of island. pools, golden circle? can we drive or need a guide?
Day 8-leave for home

any suggestions re locations, transportation, meals appreciated.

SusanInToronto

You may want to look at Tripadvisor, where the Iceland forum is really quite active. I find that there are very few posters on Fodors these days

One thing that you will likely hear is that accommodation is really limited in Iceland. We're going in August, and I had to book months ago. So your itinerary may depend on where you can find lodging.

Good luck!

Hobbert

I just returned from Iceland yesterday. It was my second trip and we decided to rent a car this time since it seemed so easy to drive. The roads are well marked, there's never a ton of traffic (I'm from the DC area, though), and the other drivers are very polite. We went to Gullfoss, Geysir, Thingvellir, the Blue Lagoon, and all around Reykjavik with no trouble at all. Renting a car was a great decision. We rented a GPS as well and had no trouble getting around. We used Green Motion and booked thru Car Trawler, an Irish company. The rental place is a few kilometers from Keflavik but they picked us up from the airport.

This trip, we snorkeled in the Silfra Fissure at Thingvellir and it was incredible. The clarity was over 100 feet and the rock formations were stunning. Plus, hot chocolate and cookies afterward

Iceland is a fantastic place to visit and I find myself planning my next trip before I even get home.

SusieQQ

You might consider taking day trips out of Reykjavik. There are some excellent ones in Iceland. That way you could enjoy the city for restaurants,etc. in the evenings.

love2travel2LA

thank you for all suggestions. will probably do some day trips once we pick up daughter.. We are in Vic one night and want to go to Hella. should we stay there one night and then back to Vic one more night on our way back to Reykjavic or stay 3 nights in Vic and do Hella as a day trip?

love2travel2LA

ok, figured out I had it wrong. does anyone know a place to stay between Vic and Skafftafell National Park?

virginiafish

between Vik and Skafftafell we stayed in two places
1-Seglbúðir Farm
880 Kirkjubæjarklaustur
+354 697 6106
and here: Hrifunes Guesthouse
Hrifumes Road F 209
880 Hrifunes, Iceland
+354 863 5540
The second is a bit farther off the road. The first was amazing, with a hot tub and sauna and wonderful kitchen available to use.

Audura

Hi
It is great that you and your family are visiting Iceland. If you are driving along the south cost, it is a great day tour visitng Westman Islands. There we have a beautiful landscape, big volcanic history, ribsafari and the biggest puffin colony. You can also pet a live puffin

here is blog about somethings to do on the island and great pictures.
http://bookingwestmanislands.is/blog/