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How to plan a trip to ICELAND? Start here.

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

Traveling to a different country always needs planning. And some countries like Iceland – need a bit more thought and effort than others. Located at a distance of 1800 miles from the North Pole, locals in Iceland often refer to Reykjavik as the northernmost capital of the world. While thinking of a trip to Iceland the top fact to consider about this Nordic island is its dramatic landscape with volcanoes, glaciers, geysers, hot springs, craters, lagoons and lava fields.

Owing to its dynamic geography, when I started planning our trip this new year – I realized that a vacation in Iceland needs some strict decisions, made well in advance. From my experience – Iceland is not a country you can visit only once, or get enough of in a week or so. But it is not impossible to enjoy it thoroughly in a span of 7 days – if you plan like a pro! And therefore, we pinned down a list for you – of crucial questions you need to ask yourself before you book – and use them as your core plan of action:

Are you traveling solo? with family? OR with kids? 

Traveling solo or with company can significantly alter your Iceland experience and also lead to some serious changes in your stay plans and dents into your vacation budget. If you are planning to travel solo or as a young couple – you can achieve a lot more from your Iceland visit than traveling with kids.

Iceland is extremely cold in winter and therefore the terrains are often icy, slippery and dangerous for children or older-age family members. This means while you travel to Iceland with family, especially your young ones – you won’t be able to take up treks, walk on glaciers or do all the edgy adventurous stuff Iceland has on offer. In this scenario I would suggest visiting in the summers – the weather is much more welcoming and the roads are drivable and family-friendly. But if you are heading out solo or as a couple – Iceland is for you.

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

Do you need a Visa?

Iceland is Schengen Visa. And you will need a valid Schengen area Travel Insurance without exception. 

  • If you already have a valid visa stamping – go ahead and book your trip. I would still advice to check up on the visa website for any additional requirements.
  • Many countries have a visa-exemption for visiting Iceland. Check to see if you need a visa or not.
  • Looking for a reliable platform to get your insurance at cheap rates? We used https://www.insubuy.com/
  • If you are planning to apply for a visa – our advice would be to apply VERY early. The Danish embassy loves it holidays and with the amount of visa applications their receive in a year – trust me its a pain to get a visa on time if you are not pro-active.

Winter OR Summer?

Iceland in summer and winter are two different experinces altogether. While summers have ‘longggg’ days, winters have longer nights and hardly any daytime. While summers are comfortable and drive friendly, winters can be gloomy, wet, and cold with icy roads. But then winters in Iceland have their own charm and once-in-a-lifetime moments of witnessing the Northern lights.

This year we visited Iceland in January – yes, extremely cold and dark (approx. 2 hours of sunlight). But we loved it and honestly, it wasn’t bad at all. If you live in a cold city like us (Boston), you would probably not even feel the difference. To give you a bit more assurance, let me tell you I did hours of research reading if Iceland is a wise decision in the winter – and the conclusion was YES. The lagoons feel a lot more romantic, the trails are a lot more adventurous and the Northern lights of course! But in the end – the decision is yours. 

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

Drive yourself OR take up tours that include pickups and drop-offs?

So let me tell you, Mr. StreetTrotter hates driving on vacations. We prefer staying in the heart of the city and exploring the downtown and nightlife by foot in the evenings, and taking public transport in the day for all our sightseeing. But Iceland has NO Uber. And taking cabs is impractical and expensive. So yes we needed a plan.

Most visitors drive in Iceland. So if you are the driving type – go ahead and book a car. If it’s summer – you are good to go! BUT if you are visiting in winter – the roads are icy and dark, and the drive is slippery with heavy winds. You will need a heavy vehicle with special tires that are meant for icy roads. The one thing we observed this January in Iceland was that as you start going farther from the city – which you obviously will – there are no street lights and long stretches on the road when you will be the only car driving down.

Our advice: Take a car for backup. Park it in the city for shorter distances and getting around in the evenings. But for the sightseeing far into the island – take up tours and enjoy the view. There are a plethora of tour companies in Iceland for every possible location and all kinds of budgets. 

What did we do? – We used the busses, airport shuttles, and unguided tours with pickups and drop-offs. Mr. StreetTrotter is not much of a driver in a cold dark winter. 

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

Hostel? Hotel? OR Airbnb?

This was our first time staying in a hostel as a couple. And we loved every bit of it. Iceland has a huge inflow of solo travelers which makes its hostel life almost perfect and very welcoming. If you are the kinds who loves meeting new people, or if you want to escape the gloominess of the Icelandic winter and hang out in the company of fellow travelers – Try the KEX Hostel or something similar.

If a hostel is not for you, then Iceland is full of hotels from bread and breakfast, affordable prices hotels in Reykjavik, to luxury resorts kinds. Our advice would be to book early and look for deals well in advance. For Airbnb lovers – Iceland is for you too. Locals in the country are warm and very polite. The crime rate is very low and violent crimes are almost non-existent in Iceland.

What did we do? – We divided our trip half and half between the KEX Hostel and an Airbnb right next to the main street in Reykjavik. Both our accommodations worked out perfectly as everything was within walking distance for us and our location was always pickup and drop-off friendly for the tours we booked. In our experience, the closer you stay to the city – the more enjoyable your trip will be as almost 2/3rd of Iceland’s population stays in Reykjavik. The next town where you can stay and have fun is Akeyuri.

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

Do you have the right clothes to wear in Iceland?

Finally, we come to the most crucial point of visiting Iceland in winter. Do you have the right clothes? Iceland needs special clothes, much warmer and significantly beyond your average winter wardrobe. If you don’t already have that suitcase ready, then you must plan in advance and throw in some extra expenses into your trip budget.

A quick checklist includes a waterproof, windproof, extra-warm and heavy-duty PARKA; Heavy-snow BOOTS meant for -10 to -30 temperatures, a FLEECE jacket as your middle layer, WARMERS for both upper and lower torso, 100% wool SOCKS, GLOVES, a woollen BEANIE cap, and WATERPROOF TROUSERS.

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

What kind of traveler are you? – Adventure? OR Sight-seeing?

Did you know? – Iceland tourism’s share of foreign exchange earnings has grown from 18.8% to 31.0% between 2010–2015 according to measurements of the export of goods and services. At present, tourism accounts for more foreign exchange income than the fisheries industry and aluminum production. To put it in numbers – revenue from foreign tourists amounted to ISK 208.4 billion in 2015, i.e. ISK 49.3 billion more than in 2014. This represents a year-on-year increase of some 31%.

By now you know that Iceland is a place for every kind of traveler – with numerous options to save or splurge. If you are a sight-seeing kind of person start looking for tours – one a day. The tours take up more than half a day each and you will end up exhausted by the end of it. Alternatively, if you are the adventurous kind, you will need to plan your trip differently, looking for activities like glacier walks, hikes and treks which may go on for a couple of days, after which you will need to rest for a minimum of 24 hours. Putting all this in a single itinerary of a week or so is impossible and you will end up hating your trip – exhausted completely.

Get my point? – You need to know the kind of trip you want to take up in Iceland which will affect everything from your budget, staying options, and comfort to your overall experience. Our advice: Do not over-indulge or try to over-achieve from your vacation. You really can’t do everything at once. 

Iceland - photo by streettrotter

What is your budget?

I will keep this short and simple because “budget” as I see is highly individualistic. But for a general idea – a fun trip to Iceland from the East Coast, hostel and Airbnb stay, with affordable tours and splurging on food is all possible within $4,000 for TWO or less.

If you want to have a detailed idea of our itinerary and how we planned our budget – stay tuned for more upcoming posts. 

Iceland - photo by streettrotter


 

STREETTROTTER

StreetTrotter is a Travel, Culture & Lifestyle blog, inspiring people everyday with real stories to look good and travel even better. Founded in 2012 by Shraddha Gupta, Founder & COO, this space is all about experiencing new things in life, be it a daring mountain trek, a frugal backpacking trip, a runway look made local, or simply anything that scares you enough to live a little more deeper.

  1. mark wyld says:

    We recently visited Iceland in January and can attest to the prices for sure. One thing to remember is that food and accommodation might be expensive but if you hire a car all the sights are free as you are mainly exploring nature

  2. Stefinia says:

    I read in papers that tourism industry gives lot of revenue to Iceland and Govt. wants to restrict tourist numbers because they are exceeding the number of population in Iceland but maybe I am wrong, read it quite sometime ago. It’s not a place you can travel without planning, so nice to plan ahead, your blog provides good things to consider and do for going on a trip to Iceland.

    It’s tempting the adventure to have considering its terrain, icy and having glaciers and stuff, should visit it.

  3. Rank My Hub says:

    Nice getting started guide, will look forward to your budget post. Hope, you will publish it soon as well. Hope you had a nice trip. I prefer to visit in summer, as I am not from a cold country.. Let’s see what is ahead.

  4. Some very good points for anyone starting to plan their trip to Iceland. I did some similar research to you and decide that while it would mean missing the northern lights, a summer visit was better for us. We spent two weeks and combined a few nights in Reykjavik with the rest of the time driving around the main ring road of Iceland. For us, we live driving there conditions are good and the views are spectacular, and we stopped often to see those landscapes. But I would not have wanted to drive in winter both because of the dark and also icy roads. Hopefully we will go again for a short trip one winter to see the other side of Iceland!

  5. I want to go to Iceland and this is definitely a good start for me. I’ve heard AirBnB is particularly good there so that is what I was planning. Great advice on clothing – it’s so hard to know what to pack!

  6. Christina says:

    Iceland is such a hotspot at the moment and judging from your photos I can certainly see why. I love glaciers so I’m sure I’m going to love visiting Iceland.

  7. Barb says:

    Iceland is one of the few countries I havent visited in Europe. I would love to go there. The photos look amazing! Thanks for all the tips. Nothing can stop me now from going.

  8. Natasha says:

    Wish I had seen this before I messed up planning my trip to Iceland. We did a terrible planning and missed out on most things. Great tips in here to help people avoid the same mistakes we made

  9. Nisha Jha says:

    First things first. Some of your photos are spectacular. I agree lot of planning is needed if you are going to a new country. Especially in Europe as it could put a serious hole in the pocket. Nice tips though. 🙂

  10. This is such an amazing comprehensive guide. I love that you included visa information, since that’s something that’s often so easily forgotten. $4,000 for a couple with a bit of splurging seems like a great deal!

  11. Lauren says:

    Wonderful travel guide! I did a two week summer trip of Iceland, around the Ring Road and Westfjords. It was the most amazing trip of my life. I can’t wait to return in the winter sometime!

  12. Iceland is a veritable white wonderland. The sheer range and beauty of its landscapes is mind boggling. Iceland is a place where we have been wanting to head out to for some time now and hope our plans materialize soon. You have shared a wealth of information about the place which is going to be invaluable for us.

  13. Mike Cotton says:

    I really really, really, reallllllly need to visit Iceland. The photography opportunities are next level. This is a great guide and just further fuels my desire to travel to this beautiful country.

  14. Pingback:48 Hours in Reykjavik, Iceland | Bel Around The World

  15. Pingback:2 Days in Iceland: A Guide to Explore and See Everything

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