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We just returned home to the United States after a week in Iceland and here is my review. If you’re thinking about booking the trip do it. We booked a package through Icelandair that included a hotel and two excursions (blue lagoon and northern lights boat tour). There were 4 adults in our group.

Firstly buy everything at the airport it’s significantly cheaper. All of the alcohols, salts, souvenirs, 66 north, candies, sodas were all cheaper there. Wait to buy your souvenirs there before leaving. They didn’t have some of the Reykjavik t shirts but mostly everything is there.

We rented a Dacia Duster from Green Motion, it was a manual speed transmission and diesel engine. The storage was small but we were uncomfortably able to fit 4 large suitcases 4 carry on size and 4 backpacks. When I say fit I use that term lightly as one of our passengers had no view from KEF to Reykjavik but we headed straight to the hotel (45 minute drive) to drop off bags.

Driving in Reykjavik and around Iceland we got good fuel mileage 3 tanks of diesel over 7 days. I know a lot of people talk about the round about’s but most roads we encountered had two lanes of traffic and never had anyone that I needed to yield to turning in front of me. I’m sure I annoyed locals following the speed limit; many of them drove over the limit. I kept to the speed limit to avoid camera ticketing. The speed limits in town were 30 km, around town were 50-60 and on route 1 80-90. We passed through a few smaller towns all of which had at least 1 camera in the 30 km areas but signage kept me alert. If you drive route 1 to diamond beach be aware of single lane bridges, none of which were hard to navigate if you’re courteous. You’ll pay for parking nearly everywhere 7-8 usd. Download the Parka app it’s a lifesaver. You can pay for a specific time duration which I liked because if you didn’t you had to check out of your spot when you left and if you didn’t you would automatically be charged a full days rate. Just look for the P1/P2 parking signs and select the appropriate one.

For accommodations we stayed at Cabin Hotel not far from the center of town. The room was small, very small. I’ve been on cruise ships with larger rooms and bathrooms. We could only have 1 suitcase opened at a time but, for basically just sleeping the beds were comfortable and the rooms were warm. We had to open a window which only opened about 4 inches no real air flow was coming in. At night after our adventuring we’d meet at the couches by the elevator for nightly drinks. We did one overnight at the Foss Hotel Glacier Lagoon and it was luxurious. The one restaurant had some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.

The food was expensive. We brought protein bars, snack bars and meat sticks with us which was breakfast most days. We did splurge and went to Braud & Co twice for the famous cinnamon roll which were as good as they’ve looked 10/10 recommend. We stopped at the local grocery stores (Bonus and Kronan) where we bought lunch meat, cheese and bread for some roadside lunches. I don’t recall how much we spent but it was money well spent. We ate at various establishments 1892, a food hall, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur hotdogs 2 times in Reykjavik. All of the food we ate was good, smaller menus than what I’m accustomed to in the US but finding something to eat wasn’t hard. We used credit or bank cards and didn’t have any issue. We are Black Crust pizza in Vik 10/10 worth the stop.

We went to a few bars and drinks are spendy as you would imagine. Bad Mickey Bar was my favorite it’s newly opened and wasn’t crowded they have bar style food too. The Bookstore was a fun as advertised but getting to the bathroom when it was packed was a chore.

We drove the south coast from Reykjavik to Diamond beach and hit as many stops as we could. We missed a few things but that’s ok too. We could have spent more time at the falls but had other things we wanted to see. Again you’ll pay for parking at all the attractions. We did a glacier hike which was fun, educational and entertaining that was probably my favorite activity it wasn’t challenging at all. Crampons were provided by the tour company we had no need for our own.

Clothing wise it was unseasonably warm while we were there. I wore jeans a hoodie and north face spring/fall water resistant jacket a stocking hat and gloves for most of the trip and was comfortable pretty much everywhere. I bought Pioneer camp fleece lined pants from Amazon and only used 1 pair of them on the glacier. I brought merino wool leggings with me and never used them. We really lucked out with weather.

The Blue lagoon was probably my least favorite experience but I’m not a sit around and relax person. We were there for 3 hours. It was fun to see and do but wouldn’t go out of my way to go back. We wanted to go to Sky Lagoon but ran out of time. We also wanted to find free hot springs but never really ran across any while sightseeing. I’m sure there’s things we missed. We spent a day going to Geysir it was fine, glad we did it but wouldn’t need to see again. We stopped and asked a farmer if we could pet his horses and he obliged.

All in all this was an amazing trip and I can’t wait to return. Feel free to ask me anything if you want any additional details it was hard not making this post longer.