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Iceland - Fishing, Dragons and Screaming
saltiness
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm looking for folks who have experience vacationing in Iceland.
My friends and I have a huge wanderlust hard-on for Iceland and we figure it's time we stop dreaming about it and start doing. We plan on making this trip at some point next year. From what I gather, camping is pretty big there and most towns have campgrounds near their centers which makes it easy to lodge on the cheap. Our plan is to rent a large van (depending on how many of us actually end up going) and touring around the country for a week or two to take in the sights. A few of us are photographers so we're going to be looking for out-of-the-way, awesome looking shit and we don't care if it takes us all day to get to it.
We're all students/freshly graduated so there's not a ton of money floating around in our group so the cheaper we can do this, the better.
So what I'm really looking for is anyone who has experience camping in Iceland, renting a car/van in Iceland, driving in Iceland or just vacationing there in general. All advice is appreciated.
edit: Also, we all have backpacking gear and cold-weather camping stuff so that's not an issue unless we're talking far below freezing conditions.
My friends and I have a huge wanderlust hard-on for Iceland and we figure it's time we stop dreaming about it and start doing. We plan on making this trip at some point next year. From what I gather, camping is pretty big there and most towns have campgrounds near their centers which makes it easy to lodge on the cheap. Our plan is to rent a large van (depending on how many of us actually end up going) and touring around the country for a week or two to take in the sights. A few of us are photographers so we're going to be looking for out-of-the-way, awesome looking shit and we don't care if it takes us all day to get to it.
We're all students/freshly graduated so there's not a ton of money floating around in our group so the cheaper we can do this, the better.
So what I'm really looking for is anyone who has experience camping in Iceland, renting a car/van in Iceland, driving in Iceland or just vacationing there in general. All advice is appreciated.
edit: Also, we all have backpacking gear and cold-weather camping stuff so that's not an issue unless we're talking far below freezing conditions.
XBL: heavenkils
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Everyone does the Golden Circle tour from Reykjavik to Thingvellir, Gulfoss, and Geysir. If you intend on driving on anywhere outside of a town or city, you'll encounter a lot of gravel roads. My wife and I managed to navigate the Golden Circle in a Volkswagen Polo, but I was feeling a little nervous about the whole thing (and rightly so, we got it stuck once...). If I were to do it again, I'd go with an 4x4 SUV (there might be a reason everyone in the country has one
No clue about renting a car (we were lent one) or camping (we retreated to the safety of a hotel room each night :winky:). In general, though, be prepared to pay some money. The kronur may be weak against the US dollar, but being a relatively small island, they need to import many, many things. The cost of importing everything is passed on to the consumer. For example, my wife and I ate at a Pizza Hut one night after exploring. We ordered a large, stuffed-crust pizza, a pitcher of soda, and a small dessert to share. The bill ended up being around $50. If you're alright with fast food, there are McDonald's (no breakfast, though, much to our dismay), Sbarros, KFC, Subway, and other American comforts.
But Iceland is a beautiful country. You shouldn't have any problems, but if you do, almost everyone there speaks English in addition to Icelandic. You'll definitely enjoy a trip there.
Also, and this is obligatory: What's the capital of Iceland?
Msuit's wife here!
There was a grocery store next to our hotel and it had a decent selection of produce, so if you can find a grocery store you should be able to stock up easily.
Just to reiterate the car thing, the countryside is not heavily populated. It's illegal to go off the main road in certain parts of the country because there are no people around who could come to the rescue if a person got lost or hurt. You don't want to wander too far without knowing where the next town/gas station/food source is. If there's any way for you to bring a cell phone make sure to do it. Not to put a damper on your trip - given more time we definitely would have spent more time exploring. Just make sure that you have back-up plans and provisions in case something goes wrong.
Sure, sure. By off-road I meant off-the-paved-road. I have no plans for going around destroying the landscape and getting myself stuck. I guess a cell phone would be a good idea because we will probably be going to pretty remote places, shouldn't be too expensive to split it between a bunch of people.
Driving on the main roads is not too bad, I rented a small 2 door car and managed to drive from one end to the other during March without too much trouble, quite a bit of the roads were 100% ice though... they seem to treat ice as normal road though =/
Also, I highly, highly recommend you pick up some Skyr... its soo good.
Oh god, Skyr.... Yum.