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Iceland Itinerary Help

Posted by (Texas) on

I sure wish I already had the Rick Steves Iceland book, but as that won't be coming out until the end of March...

I've been pouring over Lonely Planet, Frommers, and the web. It seems like a 10-day drive of the Ring Road is very common, but I want a more relaxed pace. Not counting the days we fly into and out of Reykjavik, we will have 12 full days. I think we want to concentrate on the south between Reykjavik and Hofn and the north including Akureyri, Husavik, and Myvatn.

We'll be there in July. Since we plan to rent a car, one rough idea is to drive the Ring Road counterclockwise starting in Reykjavik and end in Akureyri, drop the car there and fly back to Reykjavik.

Another idea is to drop the car in Hofn, fly to Akureyri, rent a car for some days in the north, then fly Akureyri back to Reykjavik. Though I'm not sure we would really gain an appreciable amount of time doing this for the extra transportation shuffling and cost.

Would love suggestions. Thanks.

Posted by
172 posts

Nobody has answered you! We explored Iceland two summers ago spectacular- like another planet.
The ring road is a leisurely drive no matter how you plan it because you are always pulling over to take photos. Drive the whole thing. Two favorite places were Lake Myvatn and the iceberg Lagoon Jökulsárlón. If you like short to moderate hikes in incredible areas give Lake Myvatn 2-3 full days. The iceberg lagoon is 2-3 hours of “wow” and photo taking.

Spend a day visiting two sometimes overlooked sights near Vik. Drive to the end of road 215 and also 218, both paved and short and leading to amazing rock formations. We didn’t go to Husavik. We spent a day and night in Akureyri, worth going but nothing special. Of course you need to see the three so called golden triangle sights-one day.

Our third favorite area in Iceland was the Snaefellsjoekull National Park, but that adds two days to the ring road drive. If you like hot water the geothermal pool at Lake Myvatn is better than the Blue Lagoon. And do go to the local pools, every town has one, a great outside swimming pool, with big hot tubs and saunas and not expensive. The real Iceland.

Warning: Iceland can be cold and raining even in the middle of summer. And food is very expensive. But it’s worth it. Enjoy.

Posted by
8942 posts

I would go to a really active forum like Fodors or Trip Advisor for information about Iceland.

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