MARISAL3

We are 4 active seniors who are on first trip to Iceland. Our priority is to hopefully catch the Aurora. during this time. We have not planned anything as of yet. We probably will do walking tour of Reykjavik and possible stay in Reykjavik as a base and perhaps head to country side over night.
We were concerned about renting a car and driving vs day tours since day light is short.
Any suggestions regarding best places to try to see Aurora since we understand it depends on cloud cover. What is weather that time of year?
Any suggestions of apartments, hotels, afforable restaurants etc?
thanks.

marvelousmouse

Definitely do the walking tour- I really enjoyed that.

Food in Iceland is expensive, and it might help if you post a range, in dollars or euros, of what you consider reasonable.

You have almost 12 hours of daylight on your dates, so I don't think that's your problem. No idea if the weather is good for driving then though.

Lights forecast:
http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/

yestravel

We were just in Reykvanik for 4 nights. Agree it is VERY expensive & affordable is not a word I would use in describing costs! We stayed in a reasonably priced AirBnb and suggest for 4 people you might look for an apt. Plus if you do that you can buy food for breakfast at least.

We never did see the NL - no tours even went out the nights we were there. What I was told was that you have a better chance in the northern part of Iceland since the weather is mmore stable. We have friend who were there this past March and in fact did see the NL but in the north not outside REykvanik. I would think about spending just a couple days in REY and get to other parts of the country.

Agree the walking tour was nice. Because of the potential for bad driving conditions we did a Golden Circle tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of tour companies and you just have to pick the one that meets your needs and budget.

marvelousmouse

To give you an idea on the food..for the same price as a fast food meal in Iceland (like a street hot dog and coke or convenience store sandwich and tea)...I could get a hot, traditional German meal and a large beer in pretty much every German town I went to. So I think you've got to decide what you want to eat and just make allowances for it in your budget. I did a mix of "cheap" and "expensive" meals in Iceland, but really that translated in to "sort of filling but not worth the money" and "delicious but oh dear god don't want to look at the check"

marvelousmouse

And if you don't get an apartment, try to get a hotel with free breakfast. That seriously helped my Iceland budget!

abram

We were in Iceland September 3-26. One of the things that made travel easy was that the sun set between 730 and 830, so we could get to our lodging in daylight after a full day of sightseeing.
In Reykjavik, we found dead and apartment through "Rent in Reykjavik".
Used AirBnB in several locations.
Several nights we split one appetizer and one main, which was enough food for us.
In Reykjavik, we loved the tapas at the Public House, not expensive. Laundromat Cafe was very good and reasonable.