Things to do

May 20, 2016 By Lora Leave a Comment

Friday May 20 Update

We are getting into the swing of the trip now—so we will start updating you about our adventures on the blog in (semi-)real time.

Today we traveled to the Westmann Islands by ferry.

(And before that we stopped to gawk at a waterfall.) [Read more…] about Friday May 20 Update

December 12, 2015 By Eric 1 Comment

Golden Circle: Tour Options

“Geysir Strokkur” by Klaus is licensed under CC BY 2.0

[Update: Be sure to check out our Golden Circle Tour with Kids post!]

In another post we discussed several “add-ons” you can see during your day touring the Golden Circle. Now the question is how best to see all of this. Options include:

Drive your car. If you have a rental car, I think you’re done with this post. Plan your trip, make sure you have a GPS, or a GPS program on your phone, or have a quality map and the knowledge to use it. See our post about using a GPS in Iceland.
Rent a car for the day. Here is an option from Reykjavik Excursions. Many other car rental options have a 2 day minimum, but this is a 24 hour rental. And it comes with a “pre-planned GPS route”.
A private guided tour. We won’t cover those here, but a family of 4 can expect to pay approximately the price for 6 adults on one of the bus tours. That’s about twice the price of one of the minibus tours, or about 3 times the cost of a big bus tour.
A small bus tour. You will be on a minibus with other groups, but the maximum number of people on a bus will be about 20. There several options, but here are two, which both cost the same:

December 12, 2015 By Eric Leave a Comment

Things to do near Keflavik Airport

“Keflavik, Iceland” by Nick is licensed under CC BY 2.0

When you arrive in Iceland, you will fly into Keflavik airport. Unless you’re flying in from Greenland, I guess, where you could land at the much smaller Reykjavik city airport. And most visitors seem to think there are only two choices for what to do next: either rent a car and head to Reykjavik or buy a bus ticket and go to Reykjavik.

But Keflavik is close to two other towns, Njarðvík and Hafnir. In 1995, these towns decided to … merge? … and create a new place called Reykjanesbær. In 2006, Reykjanesbær also annexed another town, Ásbrú, which used to be the location of a US Naval base.

November 11, 2015 By Eric Leave a Comment

Can I skip the Golden Circle?

We have to see the Golden Circle, right?

When you plan a vacation to Iceland, remember that the Icelandic government requires that you participate in at least one Golden Circle tour during your visit, and preferably more than one. Okay, not really. But there is a clear view that no trip to Iceland is complete without visiting the Golden Circle. [Read more…] about Can I skip the Golden Circle?