Iceland Travel Guide: itinerary, FAQ, prices and more!

About 2 years ago I traveled to Iceland, one of the most beautiful countries in the world, to celebrate my birthday! The challenge? To explore it as much as possible in just 3 days! Yes, since I only had that amount of time available for the trip, and Reykjavik was less than 6 hours (by plane) away from NYC, we decided to face it. Did we manage to do everything we planned to? Absolutely, and even more beyond it, but only because our return flight was canceled due to a storm, so we got two additional days in the city, all expenses paid. Since many people are curious about Iceland, I decided to share a bit more of our experience on the blog.

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HOW MUCH DOES A FLIGHT TO ICELAND COST?

That’s one of the key factors that led us to travel to Iceland in November: the ticket price. I paid almost US$ 500 for a round trip ticket, but it would’ve been US$ 300 if we were to come back a day before or after. Since we didn’t have that schedule flexibility in the beginning, we settled for the first option, departing Thursday night and planning to be back by Sunday evening.

I suggest you check how the rates change in different months of the year, it’s a good way to get a grasp of the average price and decide if a ticket sale is worth it in the future. My friends flew with WOW Air and we flew with Iceland Air. Both were great and WOW Airlines is a low-cost airline so my friend’s ticket was even cheaper.

VISA

You won’t need a visa to enter Iceland in case you’re only staying for up to 90 days in the country, whether for tourism or business. Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months when you arrive. If you’re going to make a connection in a non-European country, check if you might need a VISA at your layover’s destination.

MONEY

Iceland’s currency is the Icelandic króna. Kr 1,000 is equivalent to about US$ 10, so it wasn’t so hard to do the conversion. We exchanged some money, about US$ 200 when we arrived at the airport and the rest of the trip we used our credit card, once it doesn’t charge any foreign transaction fees. I suggest downloading a conversion app like Currency to help you out during your trip in case the prices get you confused.

ACCOMMODATIONS

There’s no shortage of hotels in Iceland, but they do tend to get packed and more expensive during peak season, so researching is a must! We stayed at an Airbnb (click HERE to create your account and get credits on your first stay) and at hotels in Reykjavik and Vik for an average of US$ 150-200 a day (cheaper options were available as well). If you’d like to save even more, check out the hostels in the area. Furthermore, options outside of the Reykjavik buzz include hotels located near Hot Springs or with a heated pool. Enjoying a bath while admiring the Iceland scenery around you is amazing! I recommend using Booking.com to research and book hotels in addition to reading reviews by previous guests.

HOW DID WE PLAN OUT OUR ITINERARY? HOW MANY DAYS SHOULD YOU STAY?

Most people going on a “full circle trip” to Iceland usually stay for about 10 days and drive around the country on the famous Ring Road, passing by all must-see landmarks before coming back to Reykjavik. We didn’t have time to do it. Instead, we stayed for only three days and ended up taking one of the shortest and most famous routes in Iceland: the Golden Circle. And it was so worth it!

I recommend staying for at least 4 days in the country, we risked staying for only 3, and yes, it was amazing, but we did miss a few spots. If you can’t afford to stay for 10 days, there are shorter road trips available, so you’ll still be able to get a glimpse of Iceland as a whole, visit amazing waterfalls, volcano craters, hot springs, glaciers, geysers, etc. Snæfellnes Peninsula, for example, takes only two days. The Golden Circle, 3-4 days. Driving through the mountains in the northern region, six. Click HERE to get a full itinerary for all of the options listed above. I totally recommend it!

HOW TO GET AROUND ICELAND?

There are countless paid tours available in Iceland. As soon as you arrive, right at the airport, you already have the chance to purchase your seat in some of them and book a bus transfer to Reykjavik (US$ 22-26 depending on where you want to get off), which is located about 50 minutes away from the airport (50 KM). Tours are usually by bus and stop by the most important landmarks. Longer tours include accommodations, while the shorter ones may show you the northern lights or an ice cave, for example, and other places you couldn’t find easily or wouldn’t risk going to on your own, especially during the colder months.

Since November is not so cold, we decided to save and rent a car. My top tip is to check Rentalcars.com (HERE) and look at rates for rentals with free cancellation included, so you won’t have anything to worry about in case plans change. That will also guarantee you get the best prices and models, instead of waiting until the last minute. Keep in mind that is was common to find cheaper options for manual cars than for automatic cars.

ROADS

The Icelandic roads are excellent and, since time was scarce for us, we decided to do things on our time and rented a car with Rentalcars.com. It was way the best option for us. Plus, it wasn’t extreme winter season yet, so roads probably wouldn’t be closed due to snow or ice during our stay. While in the city, we got around on foot all the time and, since Reykjavik’s touristic side is quite small, I was quite familiar with it by the third day. If you’re on a budget, I recommend skipping the taxi, it’s not cheap and you can do almost anything on foot anyway!

EXPERIENCES

Exploring the country’s natural beauty is amazing and, best of all, more often than not free! But if you’d like more comprehensive experiences, several companies offer guided tours, from snowmobile rides to ice caves exploration trips and helicopter tours. Blue Lagoon is a very popular attraction. It’s not cheap at all, the standard package costs at least US$ 70 and the whole thing is pretty touristy. But still, I think you shouldn’t leave it out of your itinerary, especially if you don’t have enough time to venture into other places by yourself. To be honest, even if I had taken more tours, I’d still go on Blue Lagoon again, I loved it! It’s also located close to the airport, so you could even visit before heading to the airport if you have a late flight! That’s what we did, we visited before we heading to the airport.

WEATHER

Let’s be honest, what comes to mind when you think about Iceland? Cold and a lot of snow, right? Well, that is indeed part of the reality of this amazing country, but it’s not the harsh winter people tend to think (I personally think Greenland is much worse!). Don’t get me wrong, it is cold, it snows, it’s tough in some areas, but definitely not bad enough to interrupt tourism during the winter! Sure, you need to plan well and there may be some limitations, but traveling at that time is a possibility and might be even a lot cheaper, in addition to showing you totally different wonders of the country you wouldn’t normally see during the summer. However, once I’m not a big fan of traveling during the winter, I chose to go earlier.

Icelandic weather is kind of unpredictable, so check the forecast a few days before your trip to update your itinerary if the need arises. If you’d rather travel on the height of winter, make sure to research tours to areas you might not be able to drive to due to the snow and STAY SAFE, there won’t be as many people driving around if you need assistance for example. Click HERE to get to know more tour options and tips about Iceland!

WHEN SHOULD YOU TRAVEL?

That depends on what kind of experience you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to spend! We went on the first week of November, I wanted to see the northern lights without turning into an Eskimo. It went really well, it was cold, but nothing too harsh most of the time, I’ve survived worse here in NYC! For those who prefer nicer weather, I recommend traveling in the summer, from June to August, when the weather is mild and the sun shines almost 24h a day. Everything’s more expensive, though. From September to November, colder winds arrive timidly, and though it gets a bit harsher in the end, it’s still possible to have a lot of fun, and prices are considerably lower. Severe winter, on the other hand, sets in from December to February, with little light during the day, rain and snow, but accommodation rates plummet and it’s still possible to visit! February to June is unpredictable from what I’ve heard; spring does make it warmer in some areas, but it’s necessary to be careful on the roads due to the snow.

PRICING AND COMMON EXPENSES

This is what hurts the most haha! Everything in Iceland is more expensive since it’s located far away from other countries and neither the soil nor the weather is good enough for agriculture all year round. If you’ve been watching my vlogs, you’ve seen what prices were like, whether for yogurt or a taxi to the airport. Just so you get the idea: a salad that would cost you US$ 14 tops in the U.S. is almost US$ 30 there. The same holds true for a burger, you’d easily spend US$ 25-30 there. Sure, there are expensive and affordable places, but that’s the average we spent on each meal. Rooms in November were around US$ 150 per night, I guess it’s more expensive during the summer. On the other hand, you don’t need to tip in Iceland and you’ll be able to pay with your credit card almost everywhere. Literally.

INTERNET

I strongly recommend purchasing a data plan before you leave. You may drive for long periods of time in Iceland and not see any houses or stores, so a reliable internet connection is a must, especially during the winter, when you might need to check road conditions to know whether they’re more slippery or even closed due to the snow. You could rent a pocket Wi-Fi or buy a SIM card at the airport’s convenience store in the main hall, right before walking out to get a taxi or shuttle. Since we were traveling in a group of 4, we preferred to rent a pocket Wi-Fi for US$ 10 a day because it could be connected to different devices.

LANGUAGE

Almost everybody speaks fluent English in Iceland. A lot of signs are written in Icelandic, but all the information you need to get around the country is written in English too.

RANDOM BUT HELPFUL TIPS

Safety. Iceland has become more and more prepared for tourism over the years, but you can never be too careful with nature. You’re going to visit many waterfalls, glaciers, rocks, trails… I advise to always be alert and get travel insurance.

Tip number two: a lot of people go to Iceland to see the northern lights. If that’s what you intend, I recommend bringing an SLR, DSLR camera with you, and learning the basics of long exposure to capture a clear picture. I also recommend researching where and when to see the lights, the Northern Lights Forecast is a great resource for that. The picture below was the closest we got to it, it ended up being kind of a fiasco haha.

HOW MUCH DID WE SPEND IN TOTAL?

We’re not 100% sure! We spent all the money we exchanged at the airport and also used credit cards that don’t charge any fees; all in all, we ended up losing track of our spendings. Once Ryu and I split a few expenses with a couple of friends, it’s not so easy to figure out how much each person spent. But just so you get the idea:

Flight tickets for a round trip (from NYC) cost US$ 500 each. We paid US$ 220 for an AirBnB (two-room apartment in downtown), splitting it into 4 people, US$ 110 for each couple — the average hotel room was US$ 150 a day. The car rental was US$ 170 for all three days, and we split it into four people. Oh! A stick shift car would have been a lot cheaper than the automatic transmission model we rented, but I don’t drive manual cars so… Gas cost us about US$ 100 for all three days driving the Golden Circle, as well as from the airport to Reykjavik and vice-versa.

For the two extra days we had all of our expenses paid by Iceland Air, since our flight got canceled. We ate three meals out each day, bought personal care items, snacks, and stayed at very comfortable but budget friendly hotels. It amounted to around US$650, in addition to the taxi (US$ 200) and bus (US$ 22) back to the airport, both reimbursed by Iceland Air.

At the end of the day, Ryu and I spent US$ 1,500 on average including accommodations, flight tickets, and a rented car for the 3 days we planned to stay (when we were still in a group of 4). Of course, estimates depend on how many people will be traveling with you. The extra days (US$ 650 + US$ 200 + US$ 22) were paid by the airline company. If I were to sum all 5 days up, I reckon it would amount to around US$ 1,200 per person in total, including EVERYTHING.

TIPS TO SAVE MONEY WHILE TRAVELING

Can you travel and not spend as much? Well, yeah, I guess you can always find a way to save a little more! Icelandic nature is beautiful and free, even if you don’t take any guided tours (we didn’t), it’ll still be worth it. There are lots of hostels in Iceland, so you can also save MUCH more on accommodations. If you’re staying in an Airbnb or a hostel with a kitchen, make sure to stop by the supermarket first so you won’t have to spend as much with restaurants; any meal will easily cost you US$ 20. If you like drinking beer, purchase alcohol before leaving the airport, at the duty free, since it is also more expensive in Iceland.

Save on water! Yes, bring a bottle with you and fill it up every chance you get. Icelandic water is pure and very clean, even if it doesn’t always smell as nice haha!

If you’d like to save even more with accommodations, in addition to hostels and couchsurfing, it’s also possible to camp during the summer. There are specific areas for it, but as long as the spot you’re studying doesn’t feature a sign prohibiting it and is not private property, I was told it’s okay to put up your tent in it!

Furthermore, you could also take a free walking tour in Reykjavik; you’d only have to tip your guide at the end of it.

If you can, rent a stick shift car, once the rates are lower, or take a bus from the airport to the city (ranging from US$ 22 to US$ 26 per person). Avoid taxis if you’re traveling with less than two people, a ride from the airport could easily cost you US$ 120 (ours was almost US$ 200 haha).

Don’t forget to bring everything you’ll need with you so you won’t spend unnecessarily once you’re there. With so much stuff to do in Iceland, such as going on a nice field trip or staying at a hotel located somewhere amazing, needless spendings can end up limiting your options in case you’re on a budget!

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