Larry123

My wife and I just returned from an eight night-long trip to Iceland. We spent the first five nights in Reykjavik and the last three nights in Vik. Presently, travelers, returning back to the US, must present a negative Covid test taken within the last three days. The test can be a rapid antigen test or a PCR test.

Since we were leaving Iceland on a Tuesday, the three day window started on a Saturday. The PCR test is offered at Selfoss at 1pm on Monday through Friday. We could have taken a PCR test on Monday at 1pm in Selfoss, but this would have impacted our travel plans and may not have given us our results in time for our flight, as the health service only promises results within 48 hours if the PCR test is taken in the country. Iceland's health service offers the rapid test only in Reykjavik. There is also a private company which offers the rapid test near the Keflavik Airport, which we could have possibly done on our last day after our three hour-long drive from Vik, since our flight to Boston didn't leave until 5:15pm.

We decided to buy the BinaxNOW Covid-19 Antigen Home Tests through eMed.com, which remotely supervises you taking your test through an application, similar to Zoom. We paid $150 + $20 shipping for six tests, which we were able to share. It took each of us about 30 minutes total to take our test. You get the test result right away via email. We just showed our test results on our smart phones to the Icelandair agent who checked us in, and it was accepted with no problem. That was the only time that our test results were checked.

We brought all six tests with us, so we would have extra tests if we needed them. Each test kit is 8.25" x 5" x 3/4" and has to be in your carry-on bag. The tests have a shelf life of about six months.

shelemm

Sounds like a clever solution. Glad it worked out for you. Necessity is the mother of invention.

zachlipp0457

Do you know if these supervised at home tests are acceptable for entry into Iceland?

Larry123

I don't know since we were not required to provide a Covid test at the time that we entered Iceland.

Melnq8

A lot of talk about this on the Trip Advisor Iceland Forum.

There's a thread that mentions people using it to enter Iceland - I tried to post the link but it didn't go through for some reason. Look for the thread titled BinaxNow Covid 19 Ag Card and scroll down to comment #21.

annw

Thanks for posting this info -- I also bought the 6 Binax/Abbott tests through Emed and we plan to take with us to Italy -- only worry is keeping them below 80 degrees F. Not a problem in Iceland I imagine! Did it take long for you to connect with a proctor once you signed in with the app?

Larry123

No, It didn't take us more than a minute or so to get connected to a proctor once we signed into the app.