Trip report: Iceland, Golden Circle and South Coast
Thought I’d share a travel hacking/points based trip report for Iceland. We mostly paid cash for this trip and used it to meet MSRs on several cards. This is my absolute favorite trip of all time and we’ve been to Greece, Paris, London, Hawaii, Mexico, blah, blah, blah. I cannot say enough about the amazing diverse landscape. It’s so green, like you are in Ireland or Hawaii, but yet the temperature is cool. One moment you are at a hot spring or waterfall and a few hours later you are hiking a glacier or floating next to an iceberg. It’s just indescribable. If I could recommend one place to visit for active travelers, this would be it. We also really loved staying in the country. There was just a calm to this trip that was completely different.
Travel party of 6: Myself and husband, 44, our younger kids, 7 and 11, known as “the lils” and our older kids, 23 and 20.
Iceland requires PCR or Antigen testing 72 hours prior to departure, except for children born after 2005. Completed a PCR test at Walgreens on a Friday morning, including for the lils for peace of mind. The Walgreens in our area don’t provide rapid antigen test, only the Naat test (which we’d successfully used for Hawaii). By the time our departure day rolled around, Sunday, only my husband’s results had come in. We had to scramble and do PCR tests at O’hare for $120 each. Total cost= $
360.
Pre-planning. We paid about $20 for an Icelandwithaview Guidebook (digital) and Map. I’m not kidding, this simple purchase basically did all of the work for us. It gave us all of the inside information on packing, currency, what sites to visit, where to eat, etc, etc. It was exactly what we needed.
Trip Insurance. I always buy trip medical insurance and did this for our travel party of 6 ($234 total). $250,000 primary medical insurance pp and $1M med evac, + more coverage. My husband and niece were once hospitalized in Mexico and during our hospital stay we met many American and Canadian families without insurance coverage who were facing bills in the tens of thousands of dollars. Over the years, I’ve filed 3 claims with various travel insurance companies and it is ALWAYS a hassle, but I’ve always been glad to have the coverage. Cost=
$234
Airfare. We bought economy light tickets on Iceland Air in November 2020 for $421pp. Prior to our trip I read reviews that Iceland Air is very particular about luggage sizes and checking luggage would have cost us $140 pp/RT, so I bought us all some cheapo Rockland luggage which fit their requirements. Glad I did, because they did both weigh our carry-ons and make us test them in their carry-on sizer. Total airfare cost, seat selection + luggage=
$2,766
Transportation. Blue Car Rental. This company comes highly, highly recommended and did not disappoint. Because Iceland can be a hazardous place to drive, we took all of the insurance. We also added 4G WIFI router. This was one of the best decisions ever. It was a tiny wireless router we could connect up to 10 devices and portable, so we carried it around with us when we weren’t in the car. Worked brilliantly. We got a seven seater SUV but man was this SUV super, super tiny. Thank goodness for that tiny luggage or we would’ve never all fit! Total transportation and wifi cost=
$1486
Accommodations.
We stayed at 3 AirBnbs and one hotel.
Geysir cabin in the Golden Circle
It’s difficult to describe the gratitude we feel for being able to stay in this home away from home. The host welcomes you with little touches that make you feel like family. The location is perfection- we easily visited Geysir, Gulfoss, and Kerid Crater from this location. We dined at Fridheimer greenhouse (must-do! and make reservations) and visited the Efstidalur dairy farm. There are many options to stay in this area- but this was by far our favorite of our 4 stays, including those that cost twice as much. P.S. A washer AND dryer is a huge bonus in Iceland!
Cost per nt: $417, Total cost=
$833
Seljalandsfoss tiny homes , 2 cabins
These tiny cabins slept 4 and so we got 2. Waterfalls are in the backdrop and it’s just the perfect setting along the south coast. Seljalandfoss waterfall is just up the street.
Cost per cabin per nt: $383, Total cost=
$1530
AirBnB 3
I won’t provide much info on this stay, but we will receive a full refund on our stay. I’ll make a subsequent post about the protections of booking through AirBNB and how that has served us well in the past.
Kvosin Hotel, a Mr and Mrs Smith property, booked through IHG
We had to scramble to find accommodations when we could not continue staying in the AirBNB we booked. Only 4 other AirBNBs were available, and none fit our criteria. I had considered staying at the Kvosin in Reykavik and highly recommend it. Perfect location, boutique brand and mini kitchenette. They even got us rooms right next to each other, even though we booked at the last minute. They checked us in very early, around noon and provided 6 drink coupons at their bar, as well as late checkout. The Mojitos I enjoyed in bed were delicious!!!
Cost per room per night: $446, Total cost=
$891
Total accommodation costs for 6 people for 7 nights=
$3254 (this is about $1500 cheaper than we expected due to the AirBNB issue)
Free excursions.
I'll attach a few more pics at the end of this post, as there is a limit of 10.
There’s a volcano erupting right now and we were able to hike to the site following our visit to the Blue Lagoon. A 30 minute hike leads you to a fresh lava field. We were almost speechless. It’s breathtaking to behold this freshly drying lava (black, not red). It would have been a several hour hike to make it to the eruption site to see red lava, which was too much for our lils. We were so pumped to see what we saw and it was totally worth it. We finished off our amazing day with some gelato in town!
Paid excursions.
In addition to all of the places we visited for basically free, we also did these paid excursions and they were some of our favorite experiences.
Jökulsárlón Adventure Tour by Ice Lagoon. This is a Zodiak boat tour of a glacial lagoon, where you get up close to the glacier (you can hear it crackling) and ride alongside huge icebergs which have broken off the glacier. We selected this company because it is well reviewed and was one of the few companies that allowed 8 year olds in a Zodiak. They were very, very safety conscious. We suited up in their flotation suits and life jackets and then zipped off in Zodiaks to the glacier. We even got to see seals and grab our own mini icebergs right out of the water. I was really worried about the safety aspect of this trip, but we felt comfortable the whole time. It was a 6 hour round-trip drive to get to Jökulsárlón, and you know it’s worth it when your 8 yo says it was worth the drive.
Total cost= $
415
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Ice Cave by Katla Volcano by Troll Expeditions. This starts as a ride through moss lava fields on a super jeep. You are dropped off to do a glacial hike to an Ice Cave which sits atop Katla Volcano. You can see the glacier is crusted in volcanic ash. My kids really loved the experience of drinking fresh glacier water dripping inside of the ice cave. It was just totally unique.
Total cost= $940 paid for with
62,656 URs, booked through the Chase Travel Portal
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Blue Lagoon. The iconic Iceland tourist experience. I was really worried about the communal showering and changing rooms, because I am a very modest person. But there were plenty of private changing rooms and private showers. We had a very relaxing time and were glad to have spent a few hours here enjoying Iceland’s unique geothermal energy.
Total cost=
$252
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Gas, groceries, dining, small souvenirs=
$1480
Departure. US requires a negative covid test for re-entry. We pre-ordered eMed’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag At-home Test 6 pack and brought them with us. Easy proctored testing from our AirBNB with results within 15 minutes.
Total cost=
$165
8 day trip to Iceland for 6 people= $10,432
Final thoughts, if this destination is one you’ve considered, I encourage you to do it. I think summer is the perfect time to go- even though it is busier, the weather is beautiful (50s for us) and we got to see seals, puffins, Icelandic horses and sheep roaming the countryside. The days were long with about 16 hours of sunlight, but the cool temps made hiking so enjoyable.
Thanks for the advance recommendations, especially
@wanderlust7,
@AndreaDM and
@mmmears