Currently getting ready to go see Iceland for the first time. Wondering if anyone had any recommendations on where to eat, visit, or stuff to do, etc. We'll be there Monday-Saturday, staying in Reykjavik.
I'd really like to see the northern lights, and some whales. My friend recommended the golden circle and Jokusarlon.
Thanks!
Take a Icelandic phone book home with you.
Note that popular tourist spots hike their prices by 10 million times. Hafnafjörður is a beautiful place to be in
Perlan overcharges for you to go on their balcony (used to be free/cheap but tourism spiked the price).
Roadhouse is a nice restaurant but even fast food can be good. KFC in Hafnafjörður is the best.
I haven't been in Iceland myself but from what I've seen I'd tell you to spend as much time outdoors as you can.
Is this a joke, or is that a real thing to worry about?
It's a real thing, Icelandic moss is very fragile and it can become irreparably damaged.
Justin Bieber got tons of flak for stepping all over it during one of his music videos.
I'm ready to get charged ridiculous amounts to go do things. But I'm definitely looking for anything I can get my hands on that's outdoors. Hopefully we get a good bit of snow to whiten things up. I'm from Florida, so it's essentially summer hell here year round.
Roadhouse does look pretty good though, definitely a solid choice.
I guess I'll stay away from that... I had no idea that was a thing.
I was only able to stay in Reykjavik for a few days for a layover, but there are some neat things in the city itself. If you go up to the Perlan they have an observation deck on top that you have to pay to get into. I did't pay to go up because you can get a pretty fair view from just walking along the trails they have around the building itself. There is also a pedestrian/bike path along the north side of the City, and depending on the tide you can walk out to the Grótta Lightouse on the west side. I would also recommend seeing the Hjallgrimskirkja, and renting a car to do the Golden Circle. Do some research on the Car rentals though, I've heard some horror stories. We went through SADcars (which sounds like it would be pretty shit, right?) and got a fairly newer compact car and they didn't nickle and dime us on anything.
If you plan on getting alcohol, buy it at the Duty free in the airport. The liquor stores there close early. There was a bar called 'Olsmidjan' that had a good deal for a beer and a shot of some absolutely awful liquor but it may be closed now. Met a nice Polish couple outside there who gave us a bottle of Vodka. There's also 'American Bar'. I wasn't to fond of going there seeing as it looked like a tourist trap but this Icelandic kid was with us, most likely because we had a bottle of free vodka, and said it was his favorite place. It was surprisingly pretty nice, place was packed and they had a DJ. Don't remember how much the drinks cost because I was already pretty sloshed at that point. Ended up arm-wrestling some Latvian guy on the sidewalk at like 7AM and took a cab home.
Food wise we mostly bought stuff from a grocery store and cooked at the apartment we were staying at. Definitely try the hot dogs though, there's a stand called 'Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur' that was good.
Fast food is kinda expensive, buying groceries is much cheaper. Krónan and Bónus are the cheapest but close early, Hagkaup is more expensive but they have several stores open 24/7. Some places like Dominos have special offers on tuesdays and around noon if you want to save some money. Small shops like 10/11 are super expensive and i would only buy something there in an emergency.
Buying liquor at the bar can be expensive so i recommend buying alcohol at the state alcohol and tobacco store "Vínbúðin" and have a drink before heading downtown. But like Meat Ghost said they close early.
Tap water is clean and safe to drink, buying bottled water in Iceland is a scam unless you really need to. You should be able to ask for water at any restaurant you go to free of charge.
The country side is beautiful pretty much anywhere you go, driving the circle around the island can be very enjoyable if you like sightseeing. The highlands are very cool in that its just a huge black sand desert.
Esjan is a mountain right outside Reykjavík, its not very big but walking the trail to the top can give you a pretty nice view over Reykjavík.
Like some mentioned, try to stay on the roads unless you have a guide, obviously there are trails you can go where you can see other cars have driven but stuff like the moss can be a very touchy subject and driving on it can result in a pretty hefty fine.
Also, in the country side there are a bunch of single lane bridges, just be mindful of oncoming traffic when crossing one of those.
indeed. Literally best KFC on planet earth.
Could always check out The Icelandic Phallological Museum, which is in Reykjavik.
https://phallus.is/en/ (Probably slightly NSFW, obviously)
Well we just kinda drove around today and made it all around the western peninsula north of Reykjavik, and took this really crazy mountain road to get there. Went all around the Snæfellsjökull National Park. Did a quick lava cave tour and made friends with the guide who gave us a few other places to stop at, including this cool little restaurant in Olafsvik called Sker (and we ended up running into him again there, so I guess he wasn't lying about it). He also told us to go to a place I can't remember how to spell that was called "black rock beach", which is where they based Hardhome in Game of Thrones. As well as Kirkjufell, which is another location beyond the wall. I'm a huge GoT fan, so him recommending those places was amazing. I'd never have got around there otherwise.
Tomorrow will probably be the Golden Circle and Thingvellir.
Planning on doing Perlan sometime before we go for sure.
We got a Toyota RAV4 from Hertz. Been great so far with some of the off road and gravel paths we've taken.
Said tour guide told us about filling up from a stream rather than getting bottled water because it's a scam for bottled water. Took his advice since it was pretty much everywhere and I've done it before during hunting trips back in the States which is almost definitely worse.
I initially took this as a meme, but I guess I'm going to have to actually try it.
I'm here with my mom, not a chance lol.
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