My wife and I and another couple are going to Iceland on Sunday for 8 days. I'd sure appreciate any suggestions of places and events to see from those that have been there. I guess we're on our own and not part of a tour group, staying at B&B's and renting a vehicle.

Will you be going around the whole island or staying in the Reykjavik area for 8 days?

For recommendations, are you outdoorsy type, museum-y type, bar type, etc. people?

Do you have proper footwear for outside of the city? Regardless of the season, waterproof hiking boots are pretty much a must for Iceland outside the Reykjavik area. I'd also suggest easily donnable rain pants and rain coat. You won't get snow at this time of year (probably), but weather can change quickly and rain is very likely over the span of 8 days.

I'm pretty sure we'll be mainly in the Reykjavik area, though we can be pretty mobile since we have a rental vehicle. I'm more of an outdoorsy type who enjoys natural wonders more than man made things, though I do enjoy those a lot, too.

Some of the things I put on our list are:

1 - Snaefellsjokull glacier
2 - National Gallery of Iceland
3 - Mount Esja
4 - whale watching
5 - National Museum of Iceland
6 - Viking Festival
7 - Gullfoss waterfall
8 - Geysir

The abandoned DC3 aircraft on the beach at Sólheimasandur is an iconic place. Not sure how far that is from where you will be.

My son went to Iceland last year on his deployment and has raved about it ever since. He wants to go vacation there on his own time soon. He said its spendy, but worth the trip.

Enjoy yourselves!

Esja is a great hike and offers some excellent views of the city way in the distance. It's also a place where the locals go to hike, so if you go on a weekend, you'll see a bunch of Icelanders trail running, etc. Be aware that there may only be the one porta-john at the parking lot if the cafe isn't open...and it may not have toilet paper (ask me how I know...).

Most of the things IN Reykjavik can easily be done in two days, and that's if you are spending like 2 hours at a museum. It's a mostly residential city, so most all of the tourist stuff is located in the Laugarvegur area and around Tjornin. Those areas of the city are very easily walkable. Most of what you'd want to see is in the Western portion of the city, not far from the harbor.

The Grotta lighthouse is not walkable, however, If you want to see that, you'll want to drive.

Driving in the city is easy, parking not so much, FYI.

For museums, my fave is the 871 +/- Settlement Museum on Tungata. From a purely museum-science standpoint, it's incredibly modern. Simple, just two rooms, maybe an hour in total, but a lot of information in a museum built around an actual archaeological site.

My two restaurant recommendations are Laekjarbrekka on Bankstraeti for a nice dinner. Good food and very well priced by Iceland standards. For lunch, Care Loki right on the square with Hallgrimskirkja is good and low-key. They offer a lot of sampler meals with traditional Icelandic foods. Service has been very quick in the two times I've been.

The Blue Lagoon is a tourist trap and obscenely expensive to sit in a pool that was created to collect bore hole lubricant from geothermal boring. Not my cup of tea at all.

I'd avoid the plane wreck at Solehimasandur. It's a VERY long walk out there and it's very anticlimactic unless you're a professional photog. It's covered in tourists jumping up and down on it and mugging for pictures. Definitely not worth like 2.5 hours of walking round trip.

Can offer more suggestions later.

Thanks much, OAM and np149, your suggestions are very helpful!

Never been but, high on my list. Hope you've got a full bank account as the costs for things there is the highest in all of Europe, sticker-shock is pretty common for visitors. Much like any other small island communities (Faroe Islands, Hawaii, Guam..), most everything has to be shipped-in, with very few domestic agriculture or, production. Hope you enjoy the country and bring back some pictures.

Nb either. But the name (Iceland) sounds SO refreshing this time of year. (I hate summer). Sounds like a great trip. Enjoy!

You have to get out to Glacier Lagoon, Jökulsárlón. Was there for 4 days and did it the last day in the evening. It's amazing out there. Best place we visited IMHO and that's considering that every day we had world-class scenery.

Make sure you have some way of having the internet on the road. Some people get sim cards. We rented a hot spot with the car. It was just a few dollars a day but well worth it. We connected our phones and had google maps and internet available in most places.

Iceland is amazingly beautiful. Once you get out of the city everywhere you go is spectacular scenery.

Have fun and be prepared for sticker shock. Enjoy that $40-50 burger. Pretty place though.

Great place, friendly people.

If you like seafood try Kaffi Duus down at the harbour in Kef.


http://duus.is/?lang=en

I second Jökulsárlón. One of the high spots of our trip.

Since you're going to Gulfoss, I presume you'll be doing much of the Golden Circle. I might take more than a day to do that. Geysir is maybe 15 minutes drive from Gulfoss; not as impressive as Old Faithful, but it blows quite frequently.

If you can swing it, snorkeling in Silfra in Thingvellir is really an amazing experience. Highly recommend. Oxararfoss is nice, but hardly the experience of Gulfoss. It is located very conveniently to the main Thingvellir visitor center, so it's easy to get to. I'd spend ample time just driving around Thingvallavatn and taking time to stop as often as possible for photos. If the day is clear, the views are absolutely stunning.

If you're headed east, not too far outside the town of Selfoss (which is the place to be for horseback tours, if that's your thing) is a really picturesque waterfall, Urridafoss. Not the place any tours stop, even though it's immediately off the Ring Road. Nice place to have a picnic.

Also south of Selfoss is a really charming town, Eyrabakki. Nothing touristy about it, just an idea of what small-town Icelanders live like. Super charming and off the books. No need to get out of the car, just drive around. Maybe take a gander at the old folks home or the prison. Lol.

For some other hiking in the greater Reykjavik area, try Reykjadalur, which has hot springs feeding into the creek, so you can actually bathe along the trail. Bring your own towel and the only changing spots are more or less visible to any passersby. Not a real tough hike unless there's knee-deep snow and 40 mph headwinds (ask me how I know...lol).

Between Reykjavik and Selfoss there's a cool lava tube cave, Raufarholshellir. Not real expensive and they have tours of varying length.

If you go north, doable in a day's drive roundtrip from Reykjavik, Kirkjufell is a cool mountain view with some nice coastal drives. If you're going to Snaefellsjokull, you'll be in the area.

Presumably you'll go east (i.e. if you want to see Jokulsarlon). If you're going all the way out to Hofn, stay out there. Way too long a drive to get from Reykjavik and back.

Along the way east are Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. Both are clearly visible from the Ring Road and there's no admission, so no reason not to stop. If you walk behind Seljalandsfoss, you WILL get wet. Dress accordingly. You pay to park at Seljalandsfoss, maybe 5 USD. I think parking at Skogafoss is free. There's also a cool museum there too.

I've never had a chance to go to Thorsmork, because it's been snowed in the two times I've been, but I'd love to see it. Stop at Reynisfjara and Dyrholaey outside the town of Vik.

If you go all the way out to the Hofn area, you could see Svartifoss, which is pretty spectacular.

The north is very pretty and totally empty of tourists (well, maybe less so in the summer). Totally different vibe than the south. Just know that the distances seem short to an American, but they take way longer to drive than they would here. If you want to go to the north coast, budget two or three days.

While I've never been myself, I've heard good things about this hot dog stand.

http://www.bbp.is/