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Iceland - base in Reykjavik?

Posted by (San Francisco) on

Hi all!

We have wanted to visit Iceland and have a possible Home Exchange lined up for next summer! The house is pretty central in Reykjavik, and I believe we will exchange cars as well....

My question is - how realistic is it to base in Reykjavik, and how many days should we plan on? I am not opposed to spending a night or two elsewhere, but in trying to keep the cost down, the more nights we sleep in Reykjavik, the better. Day tripping out by car is fine, and even trip out-spend one night- then back, good too.

I have read some stuff, but it's hard to understand where everything is.... We are not really very outdoorsy, but would like to see the nature sites - I guess what I mean is that we would be good with seeing things, short hikes, etc... but we don't need to be the people that trek like 10 hours to see some amazing thing, if another thing that is easier to see is almost as good. :)

This will be next year, late June, early July....

Thoughts? Thanks! And any good Iceland guidebooks, since Rick does not cover?

Kim

Posted by
7054 posts

Reykjavik is perfect as it's the only "large" city in Iceland and it's very cosmopolitan. Most people do all day trips using Reykjavik as the base, while others spend a few weeks covering Iceland via the Ring Road. I would spend as much time there as you can (at least a week, preferably more), but it will only be truly worthwhile if you get to see sights outside of Reykjavik. Some things to see like certain glaciers are indeed remote and it takes many hours to get to, there aren't too many substitutes for some sites but there are plenty day trip ones from Reykjavik (granted it will be a long day depending how far out you go). You can probably cover all of Reykjavik in 3 full days or so (there are some really neat museums, even in the "suburbs" and tons of sulphur - and regular - pools). The best resources on Iceland are the online ones (just Google the city and country visitor centers) and Lonely Planet.

Posted by
1008 posts

Yes looks like I can maybe spend one night out here and there and then see other things... just not sure where exactly! I guess I will need a guide book... looks like there is a lot of stuff on south coast. Maybe that will be good enough for us without having to venture all the way east....? Not sure...

Kim

Posted by
123 posts

Reykjavik seems to be a good choice to stay and have a base for trips to other places in Iceland.

Posted by
2614 posts

Check out where the daytours go and duplicate their itineraries.

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