Traveling to Iceland

[user 304985]

Edit: Your card needs a PIN, not a chip. My card had a chip, but not a PIN number.

That's on my to do list, she thinks of everything ahead of time. I have no idea if my card has a PIN.

Come back with a lengthy report please. I'm going next month!

Absolutely!

 

[gunnarolis]

Hey guys!

If you want some local advice you can shoot me a message. Yes, the tourism has been increasing pretty heavily in the last few years. Will probably slow down a bit with the currency getting stronger.

The weather has been very nice for a December, best I remember for the 15 years I have lived in Reykjavík. Think it is supposed to stay that way...

If you wanna swap some bottles while here, also shoot me a pm!

Cheers,
Gunnar.

 

[matedog]

One tidbit that surprised me is that we had some amazing meals throughout Iceland. I expected everything to buy dried fish and pickled veggies. Great restaurants are expensive, but not hard to find.

 

[planbee1]

I'm going to be in Iceland in late February, coinciding with the Icelandic Beer Festival. It wasn't planned...it just happened that way. I'm pretty excited for that and a lot of other things, but I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with the event. It seems like a great deal at $85, even if i don't make it to all three days.

 

[gunnarolis]

The festival is really nice. Free pours for bracelet holders and a lot of nice breweries on the list this year.

 

[gregkoko]

Leaving tomorrow. Still torn on renting a car. Neither my wife nor I can drive stick, and an automatic transmission is dramatically more expensive. Weather looks like crap for driving. Would run us close to $400 to rent something thats essentially not a toy car. Between that and having to fill up a tank at least once, I feel like we're better off just doing a bus tour for golden circle or blue/secret lagoon.

 

[cneville1]

Leaving tomorrow. Still torn on renting a car. Neither my wife nor I can drive stick, and an automatic transmission is dramatically more expensive. Weather looks like crap for driving. Would run us close to $400 to rent something thats essentially not a toy car. Between that and having to fill up a tank at least once, I feel like we're better off just doing a bus tour for golden circle or blue/secret lagoon.

nothing better to learn stick on than a car you're not responsible for the transmission in!

 

[user 304985]

Leaving tomorrow. Still torn on renting a car. Neither my wife nor I can drive stick, and an automatic transmission is dramatically more expensive. Weather looks like crap for driving. Would run us close to $400 to rent something thats essentially not a toy car. Between that and having to fill up a tank at least once, I feel like we're better off just doing a bus tour for golden circle or blue/secret lagoon.

****, forgot to report back...
We rented a car and wouldn't want to do it any differently. Granted, I'm a functional male and can drive a manual...
I did mean to get a stick, but Hertz didn't have those in the Camry size I chose, ended up with a Passat. The lady at the desk said they don't have manuals in that size. Cost the same as the manual version. It's worth a shot, the bus loads of people looked awful. Being able to stay at some of the places at your leisure and without the extra crowd might be worth it if you're doing the Golden Circle etc. All those roads are legit and easy to drive, gives you the chance to sightsee, then go to the Secret Lagoon (the one in Fluđir?) after the sun sets.

 

[gregkoko]

****, forgot to report back...
We rented a car and wouldn't want to do it any differently. Granted, I'm a functional male and can drive a manual...
I did mean to get a stick, but Hertz didn't have those in the Camry size I chose, ended up with a Passat. The lady at the desk said they don't have manuals in that size. Cost the same as the manual version. It's worth a shot, the bus loads of people looked awful. Being able to stay at some of the places at your leisure and without the extra crowd might be worth it if you're doing the Golden Circle etc. All those roads are legit and easy to drive, gives you the chance to sightsee, then go to the Secret Lagoon (the one in Fluđir?) after the sun sets.

Maybe we will just go with the rental then. How was the weather when you were there? Just looks like rain our whole trip.

 

[user 304985]

Maybe we will just go with the rental then. How was the weather when you were there? Just looks like rain our whole trip.

Rained most of the trip, especially the 2 days we were out on the road. It wasn't heavy rain most of the time, but the kind of anoyying stuff that doesn't go away, mixed with downpours. Only got a little snow, the roads were fine, and all the cars have studded tires, so that helps too. Not sure how long you'd have the car for, but it was dramatically cheaper to have ours for 4 days instead of 5. We had one nice, clear night, and were in the middle of nowhere but still didn't see the Northern Lights at all.

I want to go back already.
Edit: if you're buying souvenirs, get all that crap in one shot. They'll give you an easy tax refund form if you're over 60 bucks or so. Would've saved me a bit

 

[gregkoko]

Rained most of the trip, especially the 2 days we were out on the road. It wasn't heavy rain most of the time, but the kind of anoyying stuff that doesn't go away, mixed with downpours. Only got a little snow, the roads were fine, and all the cars have studded tires, so that helps too. Not sure how long you'd have the car for, but it was dramatically cheaper to have ours for 4 days instead of 5. We had one nice, clear night, and were in the middle of nowhere but still didn't see the Northern Lights at all.

I want to go back already.

It's just the few hours that are screwing us with the rental. We would pick it up Thursday morning around 8am and return it Sunday afternoon at 2pm. They charge for an extra day at that point. If I just had to pay for 3 days instead of 4, or 3.25 or whatever I wouldn't care.

 

[user 304985]

It's just the few hours that are screwing us with the rental. We would pick it up Thursday morning around 8am and return it Sunday afternoon at 2pm. They charge for an extra day at that point. If I just had to pay for 3 days instead of 4, or 3.25 or whatever I wouldn't care.

I returned mine in Reykjavik the night before I needed to just because of that, a bus ride out to Keflavik was cheaper than another day, but that was only for my fare.

 

[gregkoko]

Beer here is not the greatest and ******* expensive. I know people have said that but I wasn't quite prepared for $13 pints of beer. Was quite excited when I saw Micro Bar had GCB for 5000 KR on their bottle list especially when Peche n Brett was 7500. Sadly they were sold out. Will have to hit Mikkeler tomorrow or Saturday. Didn't quite have the stomach to spend 4300 KR on a 12oz BA Vanilla Shake at Micro

 

[user 304985]

Beer here is not the greatest and ******* expensive. I know people have said that but I wasn't quite prepared for $13 pints of beer. Was quite excited when I saw Micro Bar had GCB for 5000 KR on their bottle list especially when Peche n Brett was 7500. Sadly they were sold out. Will have to hit Mikkeler tomorrow or Saturday. Didn't quite have the stomach to spend 4300 KR on a 12oz BA Vanilla Shake at Micro

I ran into a guy at Mikkeler that was buying the fancy bottles and splitting them with whomever was around. 7000ISK Westy and Loons. I tried returning the favor, but wasn't going that big.
The non-tipping thing evens it out a little.

 

[DougOLis]

Beer here is not the greatest and ******* expensive. I know people have said that but I wasn't quite prepared for $13 pints of beer. Was quite excited when I saw Micro Bar had GCB for 5000 KR on their bottle list especially when Peche n Brett was 7500. Sadly they were sold out. Will have to hit Mikkeler tomorrow or Saturday. Didn't quite have the stomach to spend 4300 KR on a 12oz BA Vanilla Shake at Micro

I had much better luck with the quality of beer at Mikkeller but even then they were Danish imports for the most part and still like $14 each.

For local stuff, I picked up some cans of the Borg Session IPA at duty free on my way in and thought those were pretty good.

 

[matedog]

Beer here is not the greatest and ******* expensive. I know people have said that but I wasn't quite prepared for $13 pints of beer. Was quite excited when I saw Micro Bar had GCB for 5000 KR on their bottle list especially when Peche n Brett was 7500. Sadly they were sold out. Will have to hit Mikkeler tomorrow or Saturday. Didn't quite have the stomach to spend 4300 KR on a 12oz BA Vanilla Shake at Micro

I remember Mikkeller being closer to $20 pints.

 

[cneville1]

Beer here is not the greatest and ******* expensive. I know people have said that but I wasn't quite prepared for $13 pints of beer. Was quite excited when I saw Micro Bar had GCB for 5000 KR on their bottle list especially when Peche n Brett was 7500. Sadly they were sold out. Will have to hit Mikkeler tomorrow or Saturday. Didn't quite have the stomach to spend 4300 KR on a 12oz BA Vanilla Shake at Micro

all i did when i was there was drink duty free brennevin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[user 304985]

all i did when i was there was drink duty free brennevin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[gregkoko]

I ran into a guy at Mikkeler that was buying the fancy bottles and splitting them with whomever was around. 7000ISK Westy and Loons. I tried returning the favor, but wasn't going that big.
The non-tipping thing evens it out a little.

Under $50 for GCB in a bar that includes til is a fantastic deal IMO, especially when the not so great stuff is gonna run you $15 a glass. Some of the local stuff has been decent. We haven't really been drinking in the hotel so I didn't buy anything at duty free when we landed.

I had much better luck with the quality of beer at Mikkeller but even then they were Danish imports for the most part and still like $14 each.

For local stuff, I picked up some cans of the Borg Session IPA at duty free on my way in and thought those were pretty good.

I remember Mikkeller being closer to $20 pints.

Yikes

all i did when i was there was drink duty free brennevin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Going to buy it on the way home and bring it to parties to **** with people

 

[gunnarolis]

Glad to see you all had a good time in Iceland. If you would have shot me a message I would have gotten you both the Vanilla Shake and GCB! I have some of both and didnt have to pay bar prices!

Just imagine living here all year round and having to buy at these prices! (Even though the salaries are good, the booze is also pretty expensive for us locals)

Cheers!

 

[Frank1]

I ended up doing most of my drinking at Kex hostel during their happy hour. Nothing crazy beerwise but some did local offerings for ~$5 a pint if I remember correctly.

And if you go to iceland and don't hang with gunnarolis you're doing it wrong.

 

[gregkoko]

Glad to see you all had a good time in Iceland. If you would have shot me a message I would have gotten you both the Vanilla Shake and GCB! I have some of both and didnt have to pay bar prices!

Just imagine living here all year round and having to buy at these prices! (Even though the salaries are good, the booze is also pretty expensive for us locals)

Cheers!

I ended up doing most of my drinking at Kex hostel during their happy hour. Nothing crazy beerwise but some did local offerings for ~$5 a pint if I remember correctly.

And if you go to iceland and don't hang with gunnarolis you're doing it wrong.

I'll be sure to say what's up next time! We were only in town for a few days. Rented a car, did the Golden Circle, Secret Lagoon. Lights tours were cancelled Thursday/Friday. They were on Saturday even though the forecast seemed worse than Friday. We had a reservation at Grillmarket that we didn't want to cancel, so we just hopped in the car after dinner and drove south for about 90 minutes looking in various pitch black spots for anything but no dice. Reykjavik is a lot of fun, but so damned expensive.

 

[jeevo]

Sorry for the noob questions here but:

Is 5 nights a long enough time period to visit Iceland?
Are there any "ice bars" or whatever it is they are called that I could visit? Hot springs?
Any suggestions just in general?

I am 50/50 on booking a flight out to Reykjavík during Labor Day weekend, and wanted to get a little insight here. I just thought of Iceland within the last week or two, so this is kind of a spur of the moment thing that I didn't get to research. I'm great when it comes to traveling in the US, seemingly having every minute of every trip planned, but Iceland is a different beast.

I love driving more than 99% of the population, so if there are any places outside of Reykjavík to visit, I'm all ears.

 

[matedog]

Sorry for the noob questions here but:

Is 5 nights a long enough time period to visit Iceland?
Are there any "ice bars" or whatever it is they are called that I could visit? Hot springs?
Any suggestions just in general?

I am 50/50 on booking a flight out to Reykjavík during Labor Day weekend, and wanted to get a little insight here. I just thought of Iceland within the last week or two, so this is kind of a spur of the moment thing that I didn't get to research. I'm great when it comes to traveling in the US, seemingly having every minute of every trip planned, but Iceland is a different beast.

I love driving more than 99% of the population, so if there are any places outside of Reykjavík to visit, I'm all ears.

Wife and I did Ring Road (goes around the entire island) in six days. That was a bit aggressive though. We had a few days of 6 hour drives which might be your thing. You are staying at a different place every night too which isn't always fun. Five days is doable, but I would focus on two or three areas. Reykjavik and surrounding areas is an obvious choice, the north and south both have a lot of notable locations. The East is probably the least touristed.

Blue Lagoon is the big touristy hot spring. We went there right at opening because our plane landed at like 4am (I think it opened at 8am), so it was not as crowded as it could have been. You have to book a good bit ahead too. Not sure what summer crowds are like either.

 

[gunnarolis]

The official ring road is 1300km ish. If you have 5 days, I personally would rather be located in Reykjavík and do day tours from there, but different strokes for different folks. Feel free to shoot me a pm if you want advice.

 

[GetchaPull]

Wish I checked this out before coming here...having a great time regardless.

Hitting Golden Circle on Sunday, including Secret Lagoon.

Drinking at Mikkeller now. 900ISK 7oz pours. **** me.

HIGHLY recommend Ostabúðin for lunch or dinner. Try the minke whale and thank me later.

 

[falc0n26001]

Wish I checked this out before coming here...having a great time regardless.

Hitting Golden Circle on Sunday, including Secret Lagoon.

Drinking at Mikkeller now. 900ISK 7oz pours. **** me.

HIGHLY recommend Ostabúðin for lunch or dinner. Try the minke whale and thank me later.

That’s the same price as SF, not bad! Most places in downtown Reykjavik are like 1000-1200+ for a light lager. The Lebowski bar charges 2500 or so for a White Russian. ****** insane

 

[Frank1]

Seriously, happy hours are the only way to get decent prices on beer. That said, being on vacation and drinking Zombie Dust 3 years ago in Reykjavik was soooooo worth a $12 pint. ZFG.

 

[ExcuzM3]

Damnit, totally missed the fact that Iceland likes to close on Good Friday AND Easter.

Off to Skuli Bar I suppose!

 

[hjaul7]

Damnit, totally missed the fact that Iceland likes to close on Good Friday AND Easter.

Off to Skuli Bar I suppose!

Everything is essentially closed on Easter monday too