Iceland - summer or winter?

SavingPennies_2

I'm thinking of visiting Iceland next year, but can't decide whether to go in Feb/March or July/August. The main pull of winter is of course (hopefully) seeing the northern lights, but I worry about it being to cold and not enough daylight to get out and about. Does anyone have any suggestions for either? and which would you recommend?Also, having said that I heard Iceland is not the best place for the northern lights anyway, any thoughts on that?

daveyjp

Dec and Jan are the very dark months. By late Feb mid March you get 10-12 hours of daylight.

A number of friends and colleagues have been in Feb and whilst cold, its not as cold as Scandanavia, they all saw the Northern Lights.

However if you want to see more than Reykavik (which after years of wanting to go underwhelmed us) go in summer and see more of the island.

SavingPennies_2

daveyjp - thanks, yes I'd want to do a bit of exploring, nothing too adventurous but I'd certainly want to see more than just the city.

I'm a fan of Scandinavia but only been to cities in the south, so wondering if northern Sweden/Norway might be better for the northern lights. I guess the appeal of Iceland is its so accessible, and seems to offer quite a lot to see.

glitterpuss

We went last February and saw the Northern Lights which were amazing. It wasn't as cold as we thought it would be, and although it is dark at 9am and gets dark again around 4pm the days don't seem too short. We went on several small group tours so spent a few days out of the city. The Blue Lagoon should also be on your to do list, although it is pricey it is a great experience.

I want to go back in the summer as well, as there is so much to do, but we didn't miss out on anything by visiting in the winter

blindman

glitterpuss wrote: »

We went last February and saw the Northern Lights which were amazing. It wasn't as cold as we thought it would be, and although it is dark at 9am and gets dark again around 4pm the days don't seem too short. We went on several small group tours so spent a few days out of the city. The Blue Lagoon should also be on your to do list, although it is pricey it is a great experience.

I want to go back in the summer as well, as there is so much to do, but we didn't miss out on anything by visiting in the winter

I'm in the same boat as the OP

Want to go in Feb and possibly hire a car, but do not want to be stuck in Reykjavik due to impassbale roads or lack of daylight.

Which tours did you go on , how longdid you stay and were the raods snowbound or oK?

Cheers

Shimrod

You can check sunrise/sunset times for reykjavik here: http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/iceland/reykjavik?month=2&year=2016
Travelling in February/March (or October/November) gives a good compromise between length of day and opportunity to see the northern lights. In December/January, there can be as little as four hours daylight.

If you hire a car, it will be fitted with winter tyres (possibly studded), and the main roads are ploughed, so you should have little difficulty getting to the main tourist attractions. However, you can get sudden heavy snow storms so if you are not confident driving in snow and/or icy conditions you might be better off taking tours. The first time we went to Iceland we based ourselves in Reykjavik and used tour companies, but every trip since have hired cars.

If you don't hire a car, you will want to get the flybus from the airport to your hotel - I recomend booking your tickets before you go to avoid the queue at the airport https://www.re.is/flybus/
Reykjavik Exursions who run the flybus are probably the biggest tour operator, and you could just book all your tours through them. As the biggest, they tend to run larger coaches so if you want a smaller group consider someone like http://www.gatewaytoiceland.is/ who tend to use smaller minibuses.

Most companies that run northern lights tours will offer you another trip free if you don't see the lights on your first trip out. The likelihood of see the lights depends on a number of factors (such as clouds and solar activity), so the longer you can spend in Iceland the better. If you are only doing a long weekend it is very possible that you will not see the lights, but that could be true of anywhere else as well. We tend to go for a week at a time - on our last trip the first four days we had heavy, low cloud with no chance of seeing anything.

Travelling in summer is a completely different holiday and not something I have done. If you want to go then, plan your trip well in advance if you want to stay in anything more than a hostel everything gets booked up. You might also want to check out the cost of hotels on booking.com or Expedia for different dates - prices are double or more in the summer months compared to autumn/winter.

blindman

Shimrod wrote: »

You can check sunrise/sunset times for reykjavik here: http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/iceland/reykjavik?month=2&year=2016
Travelling in February/March (or October/November) gives a good compromise between length of day and opportunity to see the northern lights. In December/January, there can be as little as four hours daylight.

If you hire a car, it will be fitted with winter tyres (possibly studded), and the main roads are ploughed, so you should have little difficulty getting to the main tourist attractions. However, you can get sudden heavy snow storms so if you are not confident driving in snow and/or icy conditions you might be better off taking tours. The first time we went to Iceland we based ourselves in Reykjavik and used tour companies, but every trip since have hired cars.

If you don't hire a car, you will want to get the flybus from the airport to your hotel - I recomend booking your tickets before you go to avoid the queue at the airport https://www.re.is/flybus/
Reykjavik Exursions who run the flybus are probably the biggest tour operator, and you could just book all your tours through them. As the biggest, they tend to run larger coaches so if you want a smaller group consider someone like http://www.gatewaytoiceland.is/ who tend to use smaller minibuses.

Most companies that run northern lights tours will offer you another trip free if you don't see the lights on your first trip out. The likelihood of see the lights depends on a number of factors (such as clouds and solar activity), so the longer you can spend in Iceland the better. If you are only doing a long weekend it is very possible that you will not see the lights, but that could be true of anywhere else as well. We tend to go for a week at a time - on our last trip the first four days we had heavy, low cloud with no chance of seeing anything.

Travelling in summer is a completely different holiday and not something I have done. If you want to go then, plan your trip well in advance if you want to stay in anything more than a hostel everything gets booked up. You might also want to check out the cost of hotels on booking.com or Expedia for different dates - prices are double or more in the summer months compared to autumn/winter.

Great info

My initial plan is to go for 5 nights based in Reykjavik, just didn't know if the tour companies run during February\March?

I'm a confident driver so snowy conditions do not bother me, just thought we may get stuck due to roads being blocked.

paulfarrugia

We went in April a few years ago. Sadly didn't get to see the Northern Lights but did loads of other stuff which you can read here: Things to do in Iceland.

Iceland is my favorite country in Europe. Great people, amazing food and stunning landscapes. You will have a great time no matter when you visit.

Enjoy!

donglemouse

if northern lights is your main objective your chances are increased by being further north e.g. Tromso in Norway which is a major northern lights destination

depends how much of a draw for you northern lights is

i've been to iceland and it's got plenty to recommend beyond northern lights in winter & summer

glitterpuss

The tour companies were all running in February when we were there.

We used this company
http://www.igtours.is
for 3 of our trips outside of Reykjavik :the Golden Circle tour, South Coast Tour and a Northern Lights tour. They're not the cheapest, but they were well worth the money. All tours were in a minivan with no more than 16 people, the guides were excellent, and we had plenty of time through the day to see what we wanted to see. We are not tour people, and much prefer to do our own thing but these suited us fine.
We used Reykjavik excursions to pick us up from the airport and take us to the Blue Lagoon, as for that all we needed was transport. I think they were possibly the cheapest, but again very professional.

wazza99

We went in November, so similar sunrise , sunset times. Car hire from airport then we took five days to drive down to Vik and back along the south coast, we went as far as the iceberg lagoon, Jokalharlson(spelling !). It was cold but never got below about -2, the sun shone all 5 days, but the wind was very cold. We hired a 4wd with studded tyres but encountered no snow all, but the jeep was great for offroad. We saw the smallest show of northern lights but the other sites made up for it.