Traveling to Iceland

[green nationalist]

Im considering going to iceland for a holiday. What is the weather like up there in december? Also how much is a pint of beer? Are there any strange drinking laws ( like in Sweden for example ) where one cant buy beer in the shops at weekends?

Beer is a very important part of the process you see

How about Hostels and Rail prices?

Any info regarding Iceland would be appreciated.
Cheers

[Telperion]

I visited there four years ago in late May. While it was interesting to experience the near 24 hour daylight at that time of year, it was surprisingly cold for that time of year (compared to what I am used to for May weather), and I had to buy a sweater and gloves while there in order to be properly dressed. So, I would imagine that December would be even colder, and also dark very nearly all of the time due to the extreme northern latitude. On the bright side, you should be able to get excellent views of the northern lights.

I don't recall drinking much beer there (the horror!), but everything is very expensive, alcohol included.

Icelandair offers organized tours of the island, and they are probably a good way for a first-time visitor to get a glimpse of it. Hostels might be good in the major towns at least, but there is no rail service anywhere in Iceland. I think there are bus routes between the major towns, though not off the beaten track. Getting around by renting a car would be very expensive, and hitchhiking would probably be a bad idea, due to the very long time you might have to wait between rides in the more isolated areas (bearing in mind it is apparently dark just about all of the time in December).

I would highly recommend visiting Iceland, it is a beautiful and fascinating country. My own advice, though, is you might want to consider postponing a trip until spring if possible, because you won't get to see much scenery in December (beyond the northern lights) due to the dark/twilight conditions.

[Grettir]

I have a longstanding interest in Iceland and I want to go there to study the language. I'm a white christian and I certainly don't want any mosques built in Iceland. Would anyone here object to me going there?

[fonze]

I OBJECT TO YOU VISITING ICELAND!

It's a free country and unless Iceland objects to you visiting her land, you should have no problems. Although I don't have any interest in the language etc, Iceland is a beautiful country that I would love to visit and maybe live there for the duration of a summer.

[Scania]

I have for a long time wanted to travel to Iceland.

If one were to travel to Iceland during say 4 days or so, what would be the most ideal traveling plan to experience as much of Iceland as possible?

[The Aesthete]

I am also thinking of travelling to Iceland and am very much interested in this question.

[Sjoerd]

These are the places I would go if I traveled to Iceland. (which I hope to!)


Glymur


Hornbjarg


Leirhnjukur


Jökulsárlón

[The Horned God]

I went on a 4 day trip to Iceland last April. 4 days is not a lot of time to see a country that is the size of England. However it is enough time to see a fair bit and get an overall flavour of the place.


The red line on this map marks my total route over the 4 days, (though not necessarily in the correct order.)

Assuming Reykjavik is your base you have two main options if you want to see more of the Island. 1) Go on guided bus tours or 2) Hire a car.

I chose the latter option but I could have seen almost everything by Bus. The expense is about the same either way. I like the car option because it gives you more autonomy but you don't get the historical background that a guide would provide.

Here are some of the photos I took during the trip;

Day 1.
Tingveller National Park.








Icelandic Cuisine.


Climbed down into an Ice cave.







Day 2.
Geysir.



Gulfoss Waterfall.






Kerid Crater.


Bobby Fisher's grave.




Day 3.

Selandsfoss.




SelFoss waterfall






Town of Vik where I stayed on 2nd night.









Drive to Scatafell on 3rd Day.









Scatafell glacier;






Jokulsarlon;






Drove all the way back to Reykjavik on evening of 3rd day.

This is a Geo-thermal area outside Reykjavik on the No. 1 road. This is where they pull energy out of the ground and distribute it throughout Iceland!

Day 4.
Spent most of day in the Geo-thermal spa at the blue Lagoon and caught the plane home that evening.


All in all a great trip and I hope to return again and see the Northern portions of the country.

[Scania]

Thank you very much for the information!
Looks like you can have quite the experience in 4 days!

[The Horned God]

Looks like you can have quite the experience in 4 days!

The main thing I did was to plan the trip fairly well. I decided on everything I wanted to see in advance and then fed the co-ordinates for all locations into my satnav. So I knew where I needed to be at all times in order to get seeing as much as I did.

I used Geyser car hire, mainly because they are conveniently located. As you exit the Terminal building in Keflavík airport you can see the Red logo of the Geyser office just 100m to the left across a car park. I stayed at the AR Guest house in Reykjavik and the Lundi Guest-house in Vik (their is also a slightly more expensive Lundi hotel run by the same people next-door). I'd recommend all of them as being good value with friendly staff. Other guest houses are available ).

For walking on the Glacier I could have chosen to join a group tour run by "Icelandic Mountain Guides" from Skaftafell national Park which would have been the cheapest at 6500ISK for about an hour and a half's walk. However I chose another smaller operator costing 12500 for a one to one tour of the same duration. I can give you their number if you are interested.

When I return to Iceland one thing I want to do is drive a snow mobile ride on a glacier. I was told by Icelanders that it is about the most fun thing to do in Iceland. There are a number of tour operators offering snow mobile excursions from Reykjavik though as I haven't been on one I couldn't recommend any of them personally.