8 Day Itinerary of Iceland

Tour Summary of Iceland

Starting location: Bangalore             
Tour Duration: 8 Days
Travel Month: April’24.

Must Carry: Thermal, hiking shoes, Thick Jacket (which can survive up to -5 degrees C), swimming costume.
Number of People: Total 2 families 7 people, 4 adults, 2 young adults, and 1 child.

Iceland is picture-perfect and is for those who love driving. There is no public transport available, and taxis are very expensive. We planned to cover the Ring road of Iceland (Route 1).

Expenditure for 3 people

Planning

We did the planning well in advance. We booked the air tickets 6 months before we traveled through Lufthansa Airlines. We selected the hotels considering that we would drive approximately 300 km every day. We evaluated the driving routes day by day, anticipated the weather conditions and temperatures at each place, and identified restaurant options for each day. We also located petrol pumps for each day.

Air Ticket

In general, there are few options available from Bangalore to Iceland, and air tickets are expensive. However, as this trip was well planned, we managed to get the air tickets for around 70k per person.

1. BLR – KEF via Lufthansa
2. KEF – BLR  via Lufthansa

Lufthansa Airways is terrible, I would rate it 3 out of 10. In Bangalore, it took us 2 hours to drop off our luggage as they had 2 flights (to Munich and Frankfurt) almost at the same time, and there were fewer counters. The flight took off late due to their delayed check-in process, causing us to miss our connecting flight from Munich. We had to wait an additional 3 hours to catch the next flight to KEF. Despite having 6 check-in luggage, we were only able to retrieve 1 at KEF airport. We learned that this is very common with Lufthansa and happens frequently with their connecting flights.  

Hotels

I like booking.com and I am a genius L3 member, I get good discounts on selected hotels/apartments.

1. Reykjavik Airport (KEF): Aurora Hotel for 1 night, very good hotel with good breakfast, huge space, good sleep, Excellent location, walking distance from the Airport and car rental. Highly recommended.

• Vik:  hotel Burfell, for 1 night, it was inside a village, close to a nature twin room, the restaurant is open up to 8:00 pm, and no other restaurant nearby. good space, good sleep, good breakfast. Recommended.

• Hofn: Milk Factory for 1 night. A lot of restaurants are available near excellent locations, good sleep, and good breakfast Highly recommended.   

• Seyoisfjorour : Hotel Adlan, for 1 night, This hotel is located lake-side with an amazing view. Excellent location, breakfast was average.

• Akureyri: K16 Apartment, for 1 night, it is at the central location in the city, and restaurants, and supermarkets are within walking distance. You can get a sea view room also.

• Borgarnes: Hotel Hafnarfjall, for 1-night. Excellent view on one side sea and the other side mountain. The rooms are not good but it is recommended to book the villa.     

Visa

Obtaining a visa for Iceland is always challenging, and you should start the process at least 3 months before your travel, as they have very limited slots for visa appointments.

Car Hire

We booked the car at KEF airport from Blue Car for 6 days, with pick-up and drop-off at the airport. It was easy and convenient. The following documents are required to book the car:

• Passport
• Driving license (from your home country)

During the car hire, they don’t ask for an International Driving Permit (IDP), but an IDP is required to drive in Iceland.

Tour Description of Iceland

Day 1: Our flight was from Bangalore to Reykjavik (KEF) via Munich. Due to airline delays, we missed our connecting flight to KEF. Eventually, they put us on Icelandair, and we finally reached KEF. Originally, we were supposed to arrive at 12:55 PM, but we arrived at 4:15 PM. As we lost our luggage and after discussing with Icelandair, we found out that we would get our luggage after 2 days. They also suggested that we should rent jackets and hiking shoes from “IcelandCover”, which is free for those passengers who lost their luggage. We had very limited clothes to wear during this time. We decided to buy some innerwear, but there was no shop near the airport. Our initial plan was to start our day from day 2 when we were supposed to hire our cars. However, due to this situation, there was a need for a car to go to the city. The city is 50-60 km away from the airport, and a taxi would charge us more than 20k for the round trip. We requested Blue Car to extend our booking for 1 day, but due to high demand, they were no availability. We then tried to book a car for 1 day from another car rental company, but most of them refused. Finally, we managed to rent an electric car from Avis Car Rental for 1 day.

Day 2: We rented 2 mid-size SUVs from Blue Car Rental to accommodate 7 people with luggage. We chose all-wheel drive cars as 4-wheel drive is recommended to cover Route 1. We started at 9:30 am. The temperature was 6-7 degrees Celsius. First, we went to “IcelandCover” to get jackets and hiking shoes. They also gave us pants and a beanie to protect us from the rain and cold. It was free for us; we just showed the details which we got from Icelandair. After that, we followed the route of the Golden Circle, passing through Thingvellir National Park and finding lots of good spots to take photos. Then we reached our first point, Geysir. I had never seen this kind of place before. There is a hot spring (with temperatures of 80-100 degrees Celsius) where water explodes every 5 minutes. Next, we went to our second point, Gullfoss Falls. This is a beautiful waterfall, and no trekking is required. We then went to the Solheimasandur Plane Wreck, but it is a 7 km walk (one way) from the main road, so we did not take the chance of walking 14 km, which would have taken 3-4 hours. After that, we went to Reynisfjara Beach. It’s a beautiful beach with black sand and stones. After that, we went back to the hotel.

Day 3:  We started at 10:00 am. Our first stop was Fjadrargljufur. The place is beautiful with a small waterfall, and no trekking is required to reach this spot. There is paid car parking available. After that, we went to our second point, Skaftafell, a part of Vatnajokull national park where trekking or walking is required for about 2 hours. It’s possible to do with family and small kids. Next, we visited Diamond Beach (Jokulsarlon meaning glacier lagoon), an iconic beach of Iceland, and we were fortunate to spot a few seals there. After that we reached our hotel. Hofn is a very small town with a beautiful landscape. During our visit, daylight was available until 9:30 pm, allowing us to explore the town in daylight. Finally, our luggage was delivered to our hotel at Milk factory, as committed by Icelandair.

Day 4: We started our day at 10:30 am, feeling very happy to have our luggage back. Our first stop was Vestrahorn Mountain, a mountain on the beach where we experienced the combination of mountain and beach views. It’s not a must-see site, but it’s a good place to visit. Next, we visited Djupivogur. On our way there, we discovered a beautiful beach with a lighthouse and spent some time there. Djupivogur is a very small town where we found some good restaurants with sea views to have our lunch. After that, we went to our next spot, Nykurhylsfoss, a small but beautiful waterfall. Our next stop was Egilsstadir, a very small town on the bank of the Lagarfljot river. Then we started our journey towards our hotel. The road (93) was not good, but the driving experience was excellent as we drove through the ice for the first time. Finally, we reached our hotel. The view from this hotel was excellent as it is located just in front of a lake with mountain views.

Day 5: The temperature at Aldan Hotel was very low, below 0 degrees Celsius, and in the morning, we experienced snowfall. The weather was gloomy, with snowfall and strong winds and no sun. We checked the weather conditions online for our route and found it okay to proceed. We then started our journey towards Dettifoss. On our way, we encountered a small waterfall, Rjukandi, and driving through the fully snow covered mountains and  with low visibility with -5 degree centigrade was an excellent but memorable experience. There were no places to stop for coffee or lunch along the way. Dettifoss is the biggest waterfall in Iceland and is the largest waterfall in Europe (its coming from glacier) , and a 1 km trek through the ice is required to reach the viewpoint (one side). Our next stop was Hverfjall, a tuff ring volcano (it is trekkable), whose crater diameter is 1km where we found some good restaurants for a late lunch, also there we experienced active volcanoes with water boiling and methane gas coming out from those craters. Then we visited Geiteyjarströnd, a spot near the lake (Lake Myvatn), followed by Skutustadir, another spot near the same lake, which was frozen. Next, we visited Godafoss (god of falls) Waterfall, where no trekking or walking is required to reach the viewpoint. This is also coming from a glacier river. Finally, we reached our apartment in Akureyari, but we were late, arriving around 9:00 pm. Although daylight was bright (here during end April, daylight starts from 6 am to is there till 9.30 pm), most of the shops were closed, with only a few restaurants open. We found one within 100 meters from our apartment to have dinner.

Day 6: Akureyri is a relatively larger town than the previous towns we visited. In the morning, we spent some time in the town and had our breakfast since there was no breakfast available in the apartment. Then we started for Kolugljufur Canyon. It is a small waterfall but with a beautiful view. The temperature was in single digit and there was no ice on the road, but it was cold due to heavy wind. After that, we went to our next spot, Seal Beach. Though the beach is beautiful, we did not spot any seals there, and the road (15 KM) is not good. Then we returned to the town at Seal Center, which is a museum. A few of us went inside. After that, we went to Borgarnes. It’s a beautiful town, and the view from Brakarbraut was very good. We watched the sunset and took some pictures from the last point of the town.

Day 7: The view from Hotel Hafnarfjall was superb; this hotel is located on the beach. We booked a villa there and had a kitchen to cook breakfast. I would recommend booking a villa as the room sizes are very small. Today was the last day of our trip. We went to Reykjavik, returned the rented clothes, and visited the city. The city is not very big, and a Hop-on-Hop-off bus is available for city tours. Although I usually like to travel with a Hop-on-Hop-off bus, we found it convenient to visit the city by car. The parking that we paid for was not expensive. In the afternoon, we went to see the famous church, the Eriksson statue, Perlan, the seaside, the Harpa city building with great architecture, and the most awaited Blue Lagoon. It is expensive but definitely recommendable as it is a geothermal spa and has a lot of benefits to your body by allowing the body to soak essential minerals plus sand mask to apply on the face, the water temperature was 38 degrees centigrade when the outside temperature was between 6 to 10 degrees centigrade with a cold breeze blowing throughout the day. Now it’s time to say goodbye and we reached the Keflavik airport. Our route one Iceland route is finally complete.

Hope you enjoyed the Iceland virtual tour.