After hiking the Laugavegur and Fimmuoroohal, itinerary question

It would help if you could better explain how many days you are talking about. I'm a little confused. I can try and guess. You're staying at Hotel Laxnes for one night, then Hill Hotel for one night, then Selfoss hostel for one night? Is it in that that order?

And I'm a little unclear why you're hiring a private driver if you have a car in Reykjavik.

At any rate, what I think is happening is that you are doing these two hikes, then you want to have your driver pick you up from the hike and take you to the Blue Lagoon, which is of course way in the other direction. Then wait for you there, and then come all the way back to the Golden Circle, which of course is another very long drive. That makes no sense at all. The Blue Lagoon is very nice, but there are so many great lagoons there. I don't understand why you would spend that much time and that much money on one place.

And if you have a car already, why do you need a private driver? That's just an enormous expense, and $800 for a driver and the Blue Lagoon is huge. I mean, it's your money, so of course you can pay it if you want, but I honestly don't think it's worth it. You could go to 4-5 different lagoons there for that much money.

Also, I'm not sure what you're doing while you're staying at The Hill Hotel and at The Selfoss hostel. Selfoss is not very far from the Hill Hotel, and the Hill Hotel is actually practically right next door to the Secret Lagoon, so you could easily make it to that lagoon just by walking from the Hill Hotel. I'm actually staying there with my daughter in July. Plus it's only 30 minutes from the Selfoss hostel. Why don't you just stay in the Hill Hotel for two nights?

It would really be helpful if you could just be very specific about what you're doing each day, because right now I can't make sense of it. It's probably me. I am easily confused. 😊 At any rate, here are my questions:

1. What are you doing the first day you arrive?
2. When are you picking up your rental car?
3. Is there any way you could just pick up your rental car when you get there so as to avoid having to hire a private driver?
4. Is there any way that you could go to the Blue Lagoon when you first get there? That would be ideal because it's very close to the airport.
5. Have you considered another lagoon as a replacement for the Blue Lagoon? There are any number of absolutely incredible lagoons there, and several that are in the Golden Circle area that would be much, much more convenient, less expensive, and just as good as the Blue Lagoon; including Laugarás Lagoon.

Hi,
Thanks for responding. Sorry for the confusion. I am not the planner, I had a lot going on and the planner is now hiking the Camino in Spain. The 3 of us are older hikers and met hiking in 2022 on the Appalachian Trail. We are from different parts of the country. One is coming in a day earlier 7/13 (from Spain), so going to the lagoon from the airport is not an option for all of us. Two of us land on 7/14. We are traveling by bus on 7/15 to the Laugavegur trail hike. I am leaving on 7/24, while the other 2 ladies are staying until 7/26. We get off our hike late on 7/20. The bus seemed to take forever so we looked into hiring a driver who is driving us to Reykjavik on 7/21 at 9 am to pick up a rental car. We could not find a rental car company near Skogar, Reykjavik was the only option. We thought we would stop at the Blue Lagoon in that it was on the way to Reykjavik. The $800 USC was additional for waiting for us and included 3 entry tickets into the Blue Lagoon ($95x3). $515 seemed like a high price to wait.

After my post I realized that perhaps we can renegotiate and be dropped off at the Blue Lagoon and catch a bus or taxi to downtown Reykjavik to pick up our car. I sent an email to Fly Bus, I did not see a Blue Lagoon to Reykjavik as a bus option. I also did not think it was too much to drive back to the Lagoon after we picked up our rental car either before or after the Golden Circle. By the hotel stays we are committed to a certain direction (have yet to put it into maps). You don't think the Blue Lagoon is worth it?

Re the rental car. It seemed a waste to have a rental car just sit for 6 days. We would also have to get a ride from the one trail head back to the start.

I would not hire a private driver for the way back from the hike. There are buses that will take you that most hikers use. Are you ending at Skogar? The buses to look at are Reykjavik Excursions and Southeast Adventures. We have used Southcoast Adventures from Thorsmark back to Bru Base as we left our vehicle there, but it does go to Skogar as well. So basically if you have a car ahead of time, the Southcoast Adventure bus is good, but Reykjavik Excursions will get you all the way back to Reykjavik.

Whatever you do, do not have a driver to take you to the lagoon and wait for you as that cost is crazy. I know that is the rate, but you can do it for a fraction of that. Are you set on the Blue lagoon? I ask because there are a handful of great lagoons right in the Golden Circle and would work with your itinerary much better. Or even do Sky Lagoon which is right in Reykjavik. In the Golden Circle there is Secret Lagoon, Fontana and Laugaras. We have been to all of these that I have mentioned multiple times and you can't go wrong with any of them, IME. If you are set on the Blue Lagoon though, I would get back to Reykjavik and rent the car, and then if you are not too tired head out to the Blue Lagoon.

Then in the morning do the Golden Circle and stay overnight and do whatever sightseeing that next day.

I would not, however, stay in Selfoss the night before a morning flight. That is too far and you could easily miss your flight. You could stay in Grindavik that night though and do the Blue Lagoon then and then in the morning you would only have a 20 minute drive to the airport.

You definitely need a good 3 hours at KEF before your flight. We have been many times and have learned the tricks of the airport, but still always allow at least 3 hours.

Tips for the airport. When you arrive you might be able to self check in and self tag your bags. If so, great, but the kiosks are not always working, so you may have to go to a desk. If you can self check in, you do that and then head to the self bag check Z(to the left of the main row of check in desks) and there is a scanner that you can scan the luggage tag and out it o the conveyor. Either way, after that you go upstairs to security, which that has never taken us very long at all. Then it makes you walk through the duty free store before you end up in a large area with shops and restaurants. Go ahead and grab a bite to eat here if you want, but don't hang out there. The reason is that they do not announce gates until 45 minutes before. So leave that area and head to Passport Control. This is where the really long lines can be. Get through there an then head down to the D gates. All of the flights to the US leave out of the D gates. Then hang out in this area where there are more shops and restaurants and wait for the gate announcement. Most of the time we get a notification on our phones of which gate before it even shows on the boars. When it is announced, head straight to the gate. Most of the time you will get there and then need to take a shuttle bus out to the tarmac to the plane. The gates get very crowded and there is minimal, if any seating, at them.