Planning a Road Trip in Iceland.
Is Iceland the most beautiful country? I think it has to be up there from my personal experience. The West coast of Ireland is perhaps close only because some of it did remind me of Iceland.
It had been on my list of places to visit for a while. When my sister said she was coming over to visit from Australia, I wanted to take her somewhere that she would really enjoy, away from the bog standard European destinations. I thought now was my chance to research Iceland, exploring if we could do it without spending copious amounts of money. The more I researched, the more I realised you can.
I had this post sitting here for a while given the pandemic and a lot of time available now for planning, it may be worth sharing to inspire you to make Iceland on your road-trip list when travel and borders are open again.
Here is a break down on how I planned this trip for the four of us.
Travel Research.
I scoured through blogs and Instagram for recommendations on where to go (and where to not go).
The main message I got was not to cram too much in for the short amount if time you have. Unless you are there for two weeks, you can probably only do one part of Iceland properly.
We had six full days and managed to see the South coast sufficiently. If we had 10 days, we could have perhaps kept driving and explored the North coast.
A great excuse to come back though right?
Timing.
We arrived mid-April and in Iceland, this is apparently on the cusp of their Winter and Summer season. We were quite lucky and only had one super wet day out of the six we were there. You will get four seasons in one day so pack accordingly.
Some things aren't open in Winter i.e. walking behind the beautiful Seljalandsfoss. The day we went here originally it was super windy but we were passing it again en route back to Reykjavic when the weather was more favourable. To our delight the walkway behind it had opened as it turns out it was the first day of their Summer (18th April). It was still very icy and slippery with so many near stacks and holding on for dear life to the rails. It was pretty funny to be honest.
Getting There.
As soon as I knew we were going to Iceland, I booked flights. I book all of my flights early so they are cheaper. If you are super organised (or have somewhere you go to each year), you should keep this Easyjet link bookmarked. It is their release date for flights so you can grab a bargain. Take a look if other airlines also do this or sign up to their newsletters.
If you aren't picking up your car when you arrive or you aren't hiring a car, book your shuttle service online before you go. It is apparently cheaper than booking when you arrive.
Iceland Accommodation.
Air BnB is great if you are staying in Reykjavik however if you are wanting to stay outside of their capital, I highly recommend Booking.com. You will need to book earlier rather than later. I properly looked in January and a lot of the accommodation was already unavailable.
We did manage to stay in some awesome places, mainly farm stays so it worked out quite well as we enjoyed this style of accommodation. It was on average £40 a night per person with some including breakfast (which we doubled as lunch a few times..). Some also have their own restaurant attached as they can be in remote areas and from my experience, the food is usually delicious and well priced.
Getting Around.
We hired a car and as there were four of us, this helped to cut down on this cost and fuel. I used comparison websites like Go Compare and Travel Supermarket. Through my previous job, I was also able to receive discount through Europcar but I always looked at different websites to nab the best deal.
Buy your third party excess on a separate website too, this will save you money! Use the above comparison websites to do this also.
You must get a 4WD or SUV! Do not think you can get away with exploring Iceland in a small car. The roads aren't always paved and there are lots of pot-holes. We even saw some of the camper vans struggling on roads because they are so low set. Spend a bit extra on the car and it will be totally worth it.
Fuel was about £100 for the six days. We drove from Reykjavik to Stokknes then back along the coast to the Western Fjords before dropping the car back off in Reykjavik.
Icelandic Activities.
Perhaps the most expensive part of the trip were the organised group tours but they are totally worth it if you choose wisely. I shopped around for a bit just to see who had the better prices and they are all much the same.
We decided to do the Silfra snorkeling in a dry suit with Adventure Vikings and the Glacier Walk with Artic Adventures. We didn't do Blue Lagoon based on the fact it was so over-priced for what it is. You can find hot springs around the country to visit for free, plus some you have to hike to which is an extra adventure in itself. Be different, go explore.
Food.
The most crucial part…for me anyways. Food can be quite cheap if you want it to be. We readily listened to the advice of eating hot dogs at service stations which were actually really delicious. We also made sandwiches some days as picnics. Some of the farm stays had some delicious dinner on offer too for a reasonable price. I think we cleaned one out of their unlimited lamb soup offer.
When we did eat out, we didn't go anywhere too fancy. Probably averaging about £15-£20 a meal depending in what you ate or drank with it. Alcohol is v. expensive here so we bought some duty free to take along with us for the road trip.
Budget.
All in for seven nights including flights, car hire, accommodation, 2 x activities, fuel, shuttle bus; it came to around £700 per person.
Food you could budget around £30/day but some days you would not spend this if you didn't eat out.
Souvenirs are on top of that if you are so inclined.
So whilst it is not a cheap holiday, and it never will be, I think for just under £120 per day per person, we did pretty good.
It is worth every penny and you won't be disappointed.
Note this budget is from 2017 and is obviously subject to change - I am writing this for guide purposes only.
Check out more information on my road trip around Iceland in the posts below:
Day One - Reykjavik and the Golden Circle
Day Two - Glacier Hiking and Hot Pools
Day Three - Planes, Canyons and Dwarfs
