APCLurker

Anybody here taken a trip to Iceland?

I am looking for travel tips and a crash course on best places to visit, stay, etc there for a possible very last second trip.

Thanks

crewdawg

Had to divert a 4-ship into there once and only got one day to travel around so I can't provide tons of details. One guy in the group really wanted to go to the Blue Lagoon, which I found to be a waste of time and money. I think there is another lagoon which is much butter but can't speak to that. Oh and bring money, lots of money...like a wheelbarrow of cash! Expensive place!

MilDriver

Well, buy all your booze in the airport, I promise you. A fifth of JackD is like 65 bucks outside of there. It's all imported and all incredibly expensive. The food is pretty underwhelming so I'd honestly go to a store and make like pizza's for dinner or anything quick and easy if you have a stove. Dont go to the Blue Lagoon, well you can, just very touristy. The "Secret Lagoon" is not so "secret" but definitely a better experience. Walk around Kef and Rejk a bit and find some good pubs. The Black Sand Beaches out by Vik are very cool depends on your transportation as its a bit of a drive. Also, there is an old DC-3 that crashed off the south coast, fairly easy google, bit of a walk, went 5-6 years ago pretty neat. Seljalandsfoss Waterfall is awesome, I'd go check any of the falls out, they are all nice. Biggest secret / most remote thing was Seljavallalaug Pool, if you're going during a warmish month its awesome. Anyways that's all I have.

Capo2ndFret

Stayed in Reykjavik for a week once.

If you dive, a must is Silfra. It’s a shallow, cold, dry suit dive between the American and Eurasian tectonic plates and you’ll actually touch both at the same time for a little photo snap. Gin clear water, very cool reflections of some of the vegetation as seen from under the surface and you can actually drink the water since its glacial melt that just spent the better part of a century being filtered thru the volcanic rock.

Fjaðrárgljúfur (pronounced “Smith” probably) is a canyon on the southeast side of the island that the drive to is an adventure in and of itself. Saw gliders doing ridge soaring, interesting critters and there’s a stop on the shore that reminds one of the Goonies rocks looking into the ocean. Once you’re there, it’s a big canyon carved from a stream that looks like some pristine trout waters in the western US. Glaciers, farms and waterfalls also dot the landscape.

The food was excellent and folks were friendly. If you fish, you won’t go wrong getting a guide or at least some gear and a few tips on where to go. World class trout fishing. I rented gear because there was a sterilization requirement for any fishing gear you bring in and while I don’t remember exactly what it was, was more of a hassle than I cared to deal with at the time. Their currency is cool and when you take out of the ATM, you’ll get 5,000 Krona bills and feel like a baller til it’s time to buy something and your lunch was 15,000.

You can get unpasteurized cheese at the grocery story and they grow a lot of their own fresh produce on the island so it’s all pretty delicious. Skip the blue lagoon and you can go to the public pools for significantly less money and get a great experience and interact with locals. Unless you want the touristy photo in which case go and have a great time doing it.

Speed Select

Can confirm, Blue Lagoon is a waste of time.

Also brought a six-ship through. Reykjavik is neat for about 30 minutes. Everything is super expensive ($30 for a typical European pizza back in 2016). There’s really not much to see on the “inner ring road.” Typical European stuff… Aldi, two lane roads, no trees, lots of lava rock.

Tbe coolest part was drinking in Keflavik in June and it staying very light all night. BTW, stay clear of Keflavik, the Russian mafia must have a chapter in town and all they want to do is fight Americans, and they’re all Ivan Drago size, and probably Intel agents.

Also, Puffin and Whale are not delicious.

beernutt

Brought a 13 ship through there. Drank all the Russian Intel Mafia agents under the table. Had sex with Bjork. Single-handedly won the Cold War and wrote a book about it called ‘I Did All This Cool Stuff And Nobody Figured Out I Was US Military Until I Told Everyone’. Then I woke up and realized it wasn’t 1958 and I wasn’t a character in a spy novel.

Iceland is pretty ok. I’d go to Ireland instead.

Speed Select

I liked your follow up novel better, “30 hours in Buffalo with a Slam-Clicker.”

Hey APCLurker, go look at Trip Advisor for ideas. This thread is already down the tubes. Ha!

Ground Point9er

"Brought a 13 ship through there. Drank all the Russian Intel Mafia agents under the table. Had sex with Bjork. Single-handedly won the Cold War and wrote a book about it called ‘I Did All This Cool Stuff And Nobody Figured Out I Was US Military Until I Told Everyone’. Then I woke up and realized it wasn’t 1958 and I wasn’t a character in a spy novel.

Iceland is pretty ok. I’d go to Ireland instead.[/QUOTE]

Oh Beernutt...Classic . In fairness you guys kinda had it coming. You gotta laff these days

Anyway I agree. Go to Ireland instead...but I'm from there so....

smtx123

Girlfriend and I did a recent trip and we did a 5 day driving trip around the southwestern part of Iceland. Our favorite part was the Snaefellnes peninsula. Gorgeous and not particularly crowded. We did BnB type places and it was mostly great!

APCLurker

Hey all.

Thanks for the replies so far.

The nature/hiking/scenery is what we would be mostly looking for. This would be with my kid. Ireland would be interesting as well... who knows.