~~ Iceland megathread ~~

Have been preparing an Iceland trip for myself and the OH for the last month. We're looking to go for 12-14 days next April and over the last month I've become an Iceland freak in my research. It's good to stumble upon this thread and there's lots of great info here, thanks to all who've posted their experiences.

Have any of you been out to the Westfjords? I'm looking to take them in on my trip, but am just wondering how much time to allow for a brief overview of the area. We want to get up North to Husavik also to partake in some whale watching, as well as do as much of the Ring Road as possible, so will only have 4 days at the most for the Westfjords. Will the drive up there be worth it for such a short spell?

_Dara_

I've heard that the Westfjords are amazing! I would have loved to head up there. A very unspoiled part of the island apparently with dramatic mountains.

cdeb

The Westfjords are stunning. I did a quick visit - drove from Reykjavik to Isafjordur on one day (stopping off along the way) and back to Borgarnes the next. You could easily stretch it out a couple of days. The roads are pretty bad is the main thing; a lot of gravel roads going over mountains. Do make sure they're passable when you visit. I was there in June and the weather was manky and there was remnants of snow drifts by the roadside in places. I don't know at what stage in the year do they become ok to non-4x4s.

Otherwise, Dynjandi is the main draw. Keep an eye out for Vigur island too, and Eyri church (I think). It can be worth timing a hike up the hillside overlooking Isafjordur airport with the arrival of an incoming flight. I don't know if you're set on April, but in June, you get the midnight sun, and you can watch the sun just fail to set from Bolungarvik. The sun improves the area hugely, so if possible, time your trip with a nice day or two (postpone/bring forward the Reykjavik part of your trip if there is one; don't waste a sunny day on Reykjavik)

There is a more northern peninsula to the main Westfjords which contains a national park and I think one or two abandoned villages which could be worth a visit with the time you suggest.

Isafjordur is expensive. I paid the equivalent of E21 for a pint there, and E30 to add blankets to my room booking. So be warned!

_Dara_

I don't know, it being blue-skied in Reykjavík while we were there really enhanced things for me. Really made the city look beautiful. We had cloud and rain for the Golden Circle and it didn't really matter. The natural sights look amazing in any conditions and Gullfoss looked cooler with the rain! :P

eleventy6

looks great, still trying to get there!

loriexxx

I think Iceland is one of the best places I have ever been ( with the exception of New Zealand) it's been a year since I visited and still think of it at least once a week. We were extremely lucky with the weather when we visited very dry, blues clear sky's everyday and the northern lights were out in force every night.

Everything is stunningly beautiful, food is fab, safe, clean and people are friendly and while it is expensive it is totally worth it. We stayed in a great Airbnb and rented a car which is a must in my opinion. I highly recommend Islenski barinn, Harry's and of course reykjavik chips for good food that not very expensive. The black sand beach in Vik is a must see.

The couple in the below video are probably not to everyone's taste but I feel this video shows how beautiful Iceland is and gives an accurate portrayal of how amazing it really is.

https://youtu.be/FH7U6PEhM_k

cdeb

_Dara_ wrote: »

I don't know, it being blue-skied in Reykjavík while we were there really enhanced things for me. Really made the city look beautiful. We had cloud and rain for the Golden Circle and it didn't really matter. The natural sights look amazing in any conditions and Gullfoss looked cooler with the rain! :P

It's horses for courses of course. But I think the natural sights are infinitely more spectacular in the sun, and you don't go to Iceland to see cities (Reykjavik is a bit drab, to be honest). Both of these photos are in the Westfjords; I know which I prefer -




Also, on a practical note, the gravel roads in the Westfjords are ****e, and good weather can actually help get through them

fits

I was in the west fjords in April at a music festival. ( aldrei for eg Sudur). Amazing. But be mindful of weather if driving up there.

cdeb

Actually, if anyone knows how to resize photos, let me know and I'll do what it takes...

_Dara_

loriexxx wrote: »

I think Iceland is one of the best places I have ever been ( with the exception of New Zealand) it's been a year since I visited and still think of it at least once a week. We were extremely lucky with the weather when we visited very dry, blues clear sky's everyday and the northern lights were out in force every night.

Everything is stunningly beautiful, food is fab, safe, clean and people are friendly and while it is expensive it is totally worth it. We stayed in a great Airbnb and rented a car which is a must in my opinion. I highly recommend Islenski barinn, Harry's and of course reykjavik chips for good food that not very expensive. The black sand beach in Vik is a must see.

The couple in the below video are probably not to everyone's taste but I feel this video shows how beautiful Iceland is and gives an accurate portrayal of how amazing it really is.

https://youtu.be/FH7U6PEhM_k

Yeah, I recommended Islenski Barinn on an earlier post. Great spot! I agree, Iceland is bewitching!

_Dara_

cdeb wrote: »

It's horses for courses of course. But I think the natural sights are infinitely more spectacular in the sun, and you don't go to Iceland to see cities (Reykjavik is a bit drab, to be honest). Both of these photos are in the Westfjords; I know which I prefer -

I wouldn't agree that everyone goes to Iceland for scenery alone. I was very excited to visit Reykjavík, it seemed so different from other cities I'd been to, very Arctic. And Hallgrimskirkja was up there with the things I was most excited to see and it didn't disappoint. Easily one of my favourite buildings that I have visited, a sleek Nordic masterpiece but very unusual too. As I said upthread, we only had half a day to explore Reykjavík. I would have loved another full day on top of that.

Plus, I felt like relentess wilderness would be a bit much on its own. I was happy to get back to civilsation every evening! I'd love to travel the ring road but I'd struggle with the evening quietness. And some of the landscape becomes samey after a while. The country is mostly lava desert after all.

But yeah, I think you need decent weather for the Westfjords!

Unfortunately Iceland no more than Ireland generally doesn't get great weather so I'd always plan for the worst. We were very lucky to get two sunny days out of three. Sadly, the lights were quite faint.

_Dara_

Loriexxx, I still feel so sad that we missed out on Black Sand Beach because of that stupid crashed plane taking up so much if our time.

loriexxx

_Dara _ its such a pity you didn't get a chance to get to the black beach it was definitely a hi-light of the trip, it's stunning and not overly busy. We were going to go to the plane but decided not to in the end after reading your thoughts I am happy we skipped it.

One thing I would recommend for anyone travelling over is to take a day and just walk around Reykjavik, the houses down every street are so colourful and it's quite an easy city to navigate around.

_Dara_

I was loving the brightly coloured roofs in Reykjavik, every colour you can think of!

holyhead

I must say I think Reykjavik is fantastic. Along with St John's in Canada and Rovaniemi in Finland it is one of those places that I have to pinch myself to believe I was there. Endlessly fascinating city. Whale watching, Cathedral, Main Street, Volcano exhibition, scenery, The Harpa, and the intimate scale made it a brilliant city to experience. The Golden Circle was a brilliant tour. I had never seen a Geyser in my life as for the waterfall wow! We also did a southern tour which had Vik as it's final point before returning to Reykjavik. On that tour I got to walk behind a waterfall! Again the scenery was amazing.
Wonderful country. Not cheap but what you get tend to be of good quality be it food or souvenirs etc

_Dara_

Yeah, the touristy nature of the Golden Circle didn't bother me at all. I was in Lisbon over the summer and the amount of tourists there was oppressive. (And yes, I added to it! :P ) But I liked the level of tourists on the Golden Circle, there was a buzz about the place. Gullfoss was the busiest site we visited and, tourist-wise, it reminded me of a busy day at Glendalough. I've read so many travel blogs saying that the Golden Circle is overrated and honestly, it makes me sad to think of anyone giving it a miss based on one of those blogs. And the feeling that it's overrated seems to be solely down to tourist numbers. (cos the blogger is, like, speshul, you know) On the Golden circle, I swam in a thermal pool, saw a huge, stepped waterfall, saw a geyser go off seven or eight times, at the same site witnessed pools with jewel-blue coloured water and a lot of other little bubbling springs and another cool waterfall at Thingvellir Park. And we didn't even see everything on the route! We missed Bruarfoss waterfall and the Kerid crater. If the Golden circle is busy it's because it's good AND accessible. The geyser is one of the best things I've seen. On Tripadvisor, you'll see reviews for it saying things like "Meh, it's no Old Faithful". These people should probably go and die in a fire. :P

The south coast tour is great too. The walk behind waterfall is great and at the same site, there is a crevice that you can go into where there is another waterfall inside. I didn't have the correct footwear so had to give it a miss. But my husband went in and said it was an intense experience. The waterfall hits off the rocks and sprays you. He was soaked on his return.

I dunno, maybe summer in Iceland is more intensely touristy. I was there slightly off-peak.

And yeah, holyhead, I loved Reykjavík, it felt... Arctic. I'd love to go back for a weekend!

Hammer Archer

_Dara_ wrote: »

The south coast tour is great too. The walk behind waterfall is great and at the same, there is a crevice that you can go into where there is another waterfall inside. I didn't have the correct footwear so had to give it a miss. But my husband went in and said it was an intense experience. The waterfall hits of the rocks and sprays you. He was soaked on his return.

The hidden waterfall was where I proposed to my now fiancée :pac: Was planning on doing it at Seljalandsfoss but there was way too big an audience so we wandered down to the hidden away from prying eyes.
Around 15 seconds after I got up off one knee, around 30 Chinese tourists with cameras came over the little hill from the road. I was that close to being a celebrity on Chinese social media.

_Dara_

Hammer Archer wrote: »

The hidden waterfall was where I proposed to my now fiancée :pac: Was planning on doing it at Seljalandsfoss but there was way too big an audience so we wandered down to the hidden away from prying eyes.
Around 15 seconds after I got up off one knee, around 30 Chinese tourists with cameras came over the little hill from the road. I was that close to being a celebrity on Chinese social media.

Aww, that is lovely! Did you manage to get the waterfall to yourself? There was a constant stream of people going in and out when we were there but maybe you missed the tour bus arrivals.

Hammer Archer

_Dara_ wrote: »

Aww, that is lovely! Did you manage to get the waterfall to yourself? There was a constant stream of people going in and out when we were there but maybe you missed the tour bus arrivals.

We went in winter so there was less people but it was you couldn't really get into the waterfall itself because it was a bit of a torrent. One of my favourite places in Iceland. That and Kvernufoss which is another walk behind waterfall but with zero tourists when we were there.

_Dara_

Hammer Archer wrote: »

We went in winter so there was less people but it was you couldn't really get into the waterfall itself because it was a bit of a torrent. One of my favourite places in Iceland. That and Kvernufoss which is another walk behind waterfall but with zero tourists when we were there.

I'm surprised that there was a torrent, I thought it'd be frozen in winter. Then again, southern Iceland isn't always below zero in winter.

Hammer Archer

_Dara_ wrote: »

I'm surprised that there was a torrent, I thought it'd be frozen in winter. Then again, southern Iceland isn't always below zero in winter.

It didn't actually snow in Reykjavik/South Iceland last winter until the week before Christmas. Before that, it was pretty much all rain hence the torrent. The Icelandic couple that were renting in the AirBnB we stayed in said they couldn't remember a year where it snowed so late. Usually the first snow came in October.

_Dara_

Hammer Archer wrote: »

It didn't actually snow in Reykjavik/South Iceland last winter until the week before Christmas. Before that, it was pretty much all rain hence the torrent. The Icelandic couple that were renting in the AirBnB we stayed in said they couldn't remember a year where it snowed so late. Usually the first snow came in October.

Global warming, maybe!

Hammer Archer

_Dara_ wrote: »

Global warming, maybe!

Saying that, they had their biggest snowfall in 80 years in February :pac:

cdeb

Funny, when I was there in June, the locals were giving out that it was one of the worst summers they could remember; just lashing rain all the time.

_Dara_

cdeb wrote: »

Funny, when I was there in June, the locals were giving out that it was one of the worst summers they could remember; just lashing rain all the time.

Yeah, but they could just be like Irish people in that respect, totally shocked whenever it rains heavily despite it happening fairly often. :pac: Or maybe it genuinely was a unusually bad summer, like our terrible string of them from 2007-2012.

holyhead

Icelandair announced they will be doing daily flights between Keflavik and Dublin Sunday-Friday from May 2018.

_Dara_

holyhead wrote: »

Icelandair announced they will be doing daily flights between Keflavik and Dublin Sunday-Friday from May 2018.

Unsurprising, our WOWair flight from Dublin was packed and that was heading into shoulder season. I’m not surprised that Icelandair wants to capitalise too!

k123456

Went weekend of Dec 18

a couple of inches of snow everywhere, about -12 first thing, lunchtime -2

Full sun, so excellent conditions


Reykjavik moderately interesting, some parts beautiful, some OK, great views across bay to white mountains

Golden Circle tour and South Island tour excellent

Would recommend Arctic Adventures (did Solheim Glacier) tour CO ..smaller groups

One evening we did N Lights tour...cloudless conditions and v cold... Saw N Lights , to the naked eye , not very intense
For N lights , we went with Reykjavik sightseeing tours. Cheapest, knowledgeable and tripods available to lend for those with decent cameras. Despise haven a good camera and a loan tripod my pictures were not great. What I liked about Reykjavik sightseeing was they had a very good camera and knew how to use it. They took excellent pics , which were avail to download on their FB page

Prices generally v high, possibly some of the highest in the world

If you are interested in Glaciers incl Iceland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIZTMVNBjc4

feargale

little_scamp wrote: »

i hear its an incredibly expensive country

Expensive but not nearly as bad as Norway. My info may not be much good as it's about 7 years since I was in Iceland. I believe I paid about €10 for about a pint and a half of beer.
I was there in August and the weather was like a beautiful February day in Ireland,

rainbowtrout

feargale wrote: »

Expensive but not nearly as bad as Norway. My info may not be much good as it's about 7 years since I was in Iceland. I believe I paid about €10 for about a pint and a half of beer.
I was there in August and the weather was like a beautiful February day in Ireland,

Costs have gone up considerably. I was there in June 2007 and then again this year in August for two weeks. It cost me a small fortune, but it was worth it.

The supermarkets are packed with tourists wherever you go as it's the cheapest way to eat, no way is eating out every night an option. Last time I was there, it was more like an old man and his dog. When I was dropping back my car to the car hire place, the guy there told me that 1 million people came through Reykjavik airport in August. Given that the country has a population of 320K, it is literally creaking at the seams to accommodate tourists. It was impossible to get accommodation on the fly on the south east coast, for a 200 mile stretch when I was there. I had my tent with me for camping, but realistically it was my only option. I couldn't believe the change.