Some helpful tips for visiting Iceland
 

My husband and I recently returned from a trip visiting the west and south coast of Iceland, including the beautiful Snaefellsness Peninsula. Everywhere we went the scenery was stunning! I compiled a list of tips and observations that might be helpful to others. Here they are, in no particular order:

Before you leave home, download the Parka app (Parka.is) onto your phone. This is what you will use to pay for parking at a number of the tourist sites. It will save you a lot of time if you already have it downloaded; my husband spent at least 10 minutes standing in a parking lot with poor cell reception before he was able to download it and pay for our parking.If you hear or read that it’s pointless to bring an umbrella because it’s too windy to use one, don’t believe it! I made that mistake, so we didn’t bring any. I really regretted that! The day we visited the Golden Circle it was was calm, but poured down rain most of the day. Our rain jackets were “water resistant” but not water proof, so we were soaked and very cold by the end of the day. Having umbrellas would have saved us a lot of discomfort.

If you visit Seljalandsfoss waterfall in South Iceland and want to walk behind it, don’t follow the crowd and go up the stairs on the right side of the falls. At the top of the stairs there are several large boulders wet with spray from the falls you have to traverse to get to flat ground to continue behind the cascade. This is difficult for people with bad knees or balance problems - I had trouble even with my trekking poles for help. Instead, take a clockwise route; cross the bridge over the stream below the falls and ascend on the gentler route that goes up the left side of the falls. If you want to continue and descend via the stairs, I think it would be easier to cross the boulders going uphill rather than down. If you decide it’s too daunting to attempt, simply go back down the way you came up.

When doing the Golden Circle, I recommend visiting Gulffoss before going to the Geysir Thermal Field, it’s only about 10 minutes further down the road, and you have to return back past the thermal field anyway. If you’re short on time or running low on energy, concentrate on Gulffoss, I thought it was much more awe inspiring. We would have liked to walk out to the viewpoint right next to the falls, but by the time we were there we were very cold, wet (it was raining) and tired, and it was getting late. If you’ve been to Yellowstone you’ll find the Geysir Thermal Field less impressive, but still interesting.

We never needed to change currency in Iceland, they accept credit cards and Apple Pay everywhere, even for purchases as small as a postcard or stamp. We were able to use our Apple watches for all of our payments and purchases - the only time I even needed to get my credit card out was when we checked into our hotels, as they wanted to have it on file. Most places don’t take American Express, but Visa is accepted everywhere.

We were surprised at how quickly our food came out at every single restaurant we went to, much more so than at American restaurants. Also, we weren’t given paper checks. Sometimes the server brought a card reader to our table, but more often we were expected to pay by a cash register station, and we simply told them what we had ordered, which seemed awfully trusting.

Everyone spoke English, there was no problem with a language barrier. Even most of the signs were in both Icelandic and English.

If you want to take a boat ride in a glacier lagoon, the Jokulsarlon rides get booked up pretty far in advance in the busy season. However, we were able to book a slot for a ride in the Fjallsarlon Glacier Lagoon at a time of our choosing shortly before we left for Iceland (thanks to Rick Steves for the recommendation). The rides are in inflatable Zodiac boats, and it is much less crowded than at Jokulsarlon, and only about ten minutes away. You are able to get pretty close to the glacier, and your guide will take your photo with the glacier behind you. You are given a very heavy jacket and life vest to wear, so you don’t need a heavy layer underneath. You have to walk for several minutes over a small hill to get to the launching point, so you may get overheated if you have too many layers on underneath the jacket they give you. There’s also a nice cafeteria there, we had some good tomato soup and bread for lunch after our tour.

There is a nice cafe at the Settlement Center in Borgarnes. We took the two tours offered at the center, but they took a lot longer than we wanted to spend there (they are both audio tours, so you can’t really make them any shorter). That might be a good activity if the weather is bad, but we felt we could have spent more time exploring the area instead.

Enjoy Iceland, I can't wait to go back and see the parts of the country we missed this time!

Great tips Sara, thanks for posting.

Trip Report flag added

Someone pointed out on another travel forum that if you download the Parka app, after you return home you should delete your credit card info and the rental car license plate, so you don't inadvertently end up paying for parking for the next person who rents the same car, as they did. I never would have thought of that!

Thank you Sara! Very helpful info.

I went last year, it is an amazing country. I have a question. I was there before the volcano in Grindavik popped up. Was the air quality affected by that?

How long was your trip? What was the weather like? Thanks!

The fissure volcano near Grindavik was not actively erupting while we were there, though there was another eruption shortly after we left. The air quality while we were there was fine, except when we were in an area near any steam vents, then there was a strong smell of sulphur.

We were there for 9 days and 10 nights in early August. The weather was variable, with highs in the mid 50's to low 60's during the day. We had one day where it rained all day, a few other days with light showers, and the rest were partly cloudy.

Thank you!

My sister spent three-plus weeks in Iceland in March of this year, and is returning again with her partner soon.


She was ecstatic; she is a photographer/filmaker and although I never had any desire to go there, her descriptions and photos might put that country on my own list.