Iceland - summer or winter?

SavingPennies_2

Lots of great advice, thanks guys! I'm still undecided on when to go... but lots to think about and look into.

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.

I

So am (almost) committed to the first week of March.

5 nights or 7 nights? to see most of the place (hire car) and have a good chance of the Northern Lights?

teezie

blindman wrote: »

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.

Tour companies run throughout winter, as it's the best time for Northern Lights which is a huge draw for a lot of people. If you check out the websites of Grayline.is and re.is (they seem to be the 2 big companies) they show the months they run each tour - so things like the Golden Circle etc are available all year, where as horse riding runs Feb - Oct. The coaches mainly stick to the main roads so getting stuck isn't too much of a concern.
We've been twice in November and heading back this year again to do a similar trip to Wazza99
Saw the Northern Lights both times, first time on a dedicated coach tour, second time over Reykjavik whilst walking back to our apartment at midnight. Just pray for no cloud!

Your other option of course is to go midsummer and embrace the Midnight sun?

Shimrod

blindman wrote: »

So am (almost) committed to the first week of March.

5 nights or 7 nights? to see most of the place (hire car) and have a good chance of the Northern Lights?

I've never been for less than seven nights, so that would be an easy choice for me.

You'll want a day to do the golden circle. If you want to go to Jokulsarlon (the ice lagoon), allow for at least one overnight stay there (the Hali hotel is the closest place to the lagoon). It will take about 5-6 hours driving to get there - you can stop at Skogafoss, Seljalandsfoss and Vik there and/or back. Vik is about half way, and a good stop for some food.

There's enough in Reykjavik to spend a couple of days looking around if you like museums or want a day to relax.

Northern lights spotting: with a car, we drive out to here - it's the third parking spot on the main road to Gulfoss and Geysir.
viewing spot

If you stay Reykjavik, it can be difficult to see if the lights are starting because of the light pollution - we tend to stay on the edge of town. We've stayed twice at the Hotel Laxnes, which I think is a bit overpriced now but has the advantage that you can see the lights starting. It also reduces the time it takes to get to a dark bit of sky. The best display of the lights we've seen started at 7.00pm - if you go on tours, they won't even pick you up until 8pm, and you won't be out at a dark spot until after 9pm. Our next trip out we have booked a cottage just outside Thingvellir so we only need to step outside the cottage!

I haven't mentioned the blue lagoon as I've never been - it has no interest for me.

Car hire in Iceland isn't cheap, depending on what level of accomodation you want and how much your flights cost, expect the week's holiday to cost in the region of £2,000.

And if you get the chance, pop into a bonus (supermarket) and get some Freyju Mix - I think they're the best sweets in the world, and you can only get them in Iceland and the Faroe Islands!

blindman

Shimrod wrote: »

I've never been for less than seven nights, so that would be an easy choice for me.

You'll want a day to do the golden circle. If you want to go to Jokulsarlon (the ice lagoon), allow for at least one overnight stay there (the Hali hotel is the closest place to the lagoon). It will take about 5-6 hours driving to get there - you can stop at Skogafoss, Seljalandsfoss and Vik there and/or back. Vik is about half way, and a good stop for some food.

There's enough in Reykjavik to spend a couple of days looking around if you like museums or want a day to relax.

Northern lights spotting: with a car, we drive out to here - it's the third parking spot on the main road to Gulfoss and Geysir.

If you stay Reykjavik, it can be difficult to see if the lights are starting because of the light pollution - we tend to stay on the edge of town. We've stayed twice at the Hotel Laxnes, which I think is a bit overpriced now but has the advantage that you can see the lights starting. It also reduces the time it takes to get to a dark bit of sky. The best display of the lights we've seen started at 7.00pm - if you go on tours, they won't even pick you up until 8pm, and you won't be out at a dark spot until after 9pm. Our next trip out we have booked a cottage just outside Thingvellir so we only need to step outside the cottage!

I haven't mentioned the blue lagoon as I've never been - it has no interest for me.

Car hire in Iceland isn't cheap, depending on what level of accomodation you want and how much your flights cost, expect the week's holiday to cost in the region of £2,000.

And if you get the chance, pop into a bonus (supermarket) and get some Freyju Mix - I think they're the best sweets in the world, and you can only get them in Iceland and the Faroe Islands!

Once again, excellent advice :beer:

BTW
The link to the Northern lights spotting place doesn't work.;)
Any chance of fixing it?

Looks like we'll do the 7 day thing. Good tip about the timings and where to stay.
I spent £2k on a 3 week trip to USA :eek:

Hope to finalise things tomorrow.

Cheers.

wazza99

5 nights would see you do all the major southern sites, blue lagoon, golden circle, black beaches, numerous waterfalls and glaciers on way to Vik, stay in Vik and then strike out to the iceberg lagoon for the day, i recommend the Icelandair hotel in Vik. We took a car for 5 days from Blue Car rental at the airport, again highly recommended.

Our trip cost around £1400 for 5 days, flights, car(4wd) and 5 nice hotels b+b, we ate mainly in small cafes and petrol stations during the day along with supermarkets.

I think the flights we're about £500, car hire inc insurance £400, hotels around £100 a night...fuel was same as UK and snacks we're reasonable, restaurant prices for evening meals and in hotels can be eye watering !

Your welcome to pictures if you PM me or the hotels and route we took.

Whatever you decide you'll love the place !!

Shimrod

blindman wrote: »

Once again, excellent advice :beer:

BTW
The link to the Northern lights spotting place doesn't work.;)
Any chance of fixing it?

Looks like we'll do the 7 day thing. Good tip about the timings and where to stay.
I spent £2k on a 3 week trip to USA :eek:

Hope to finalise things tomorrow.

Cheers.

I think the link was a formatting issue with the forum - I've updated it and it should work OK now - you might want to fix the broken one in your quote (or just remove it).

blindman

wazza99 wrote: »

Your welcome to pictures if you PM me or the hotels and route we took.

Whatever you decide you'll love the place !!

You have a PM;)

BTW
SavingPennies
I apologise for hijacking your thread but hopefully you've got some good information too. :cool:

Shimrod

wazza99 wrote: »

5 nights would see you do all the major southern sites, blue lagoon, golden circle, black beaches, numerous waterfalls and glaciers on way to Vik, stay in Vik and then strike out to the iceberg lagoon for the day, i recommend the Icelandair hotel in Vik. We took a car for 5 days from Blue Car rental at the airport, again highly recommended.

Our trip cost around £1400 for 5 days, flights, car(4wd) and 5 nice hotels b+b, we ate mainly in small cafes and petrol stations during the day along with supermarkets.

I think the flights we're about £500, car hire inc insurance £400, hotels around £100 a night...fuel was same as UK and snacks we're reasonable, restaurant prices for evening meals and in hotels can be eye watering !

Your welcome to pictures if you PM me or the hotels and route we took.

Whatever you decide you'll love the place !!

Your prices are pretty similar to what we budget for - we have a Skoda Octavia 4wd booked, which is £408 for 7 days plus we'll need to add an extra driver. We're heading south again so I'll also play it safe and add the sand and ash cover.

We get the car hire from Hertz - it is cheaper to book on Hertz.is rather than .com or .co.uk sites.

blindman

Shimrod wrote: »

I think the link was a formatting issue with the forum - I've updated it and it should work OK now - you might want to fix the broken one in your quote (or just remove it).

Thanks

Sort of got it but the map pans out to just the road 36 with a junction to the 360 :cool: