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Cruise and land

Posted by (Fort Myers, FL) on

So I out of the blue booked a 7 day cruise from Reykjavík to Reykjavík, with stops in SEYDISFJORDUR, DJUPIVOGUR, AKUREYRI, and ISAFJORDUR.
This will be July of 2025 and was wondering how much additional time to spend for land adventures after the cruise.
Just got my RS Iceland book and plan to study that soon.
So as open ended as this inquiry is, what opinion do you have for additional sites?
Was thinking another week after cruise and maybe not driving the ring road.
But rather trying to see some Puffins, south coast, golden loop.

I guess I'm wanting to book air as soon as I can, but for how long, then fill the blanks later.
Maybe use Reykjavík as home base unless you have another suggestion.
We lean towards renting AB&B vs. hotels.
Thoughts?

Thank you in advance!!

RC

Posted by
2168 posts

As much time as you can possibly take:)

You are smart to be planning this for a year from now, and that will enable you to have the best trip and not have to settle. IMO, a week is way too short for a ring road trip. We did it in 12 and that was still rushed. We did a lot, but there is just so much to see and do in Iceland and never enough time. I head back for our 7th trip soon, to give you an idea. If you have just a week, I would either spend in along the south coast or head up to Snaefellsness and the Westfjords. I would not use Reykjavik as a base at all. Just use that for the night of arrival if you are coming from the US, then the next day head out for the rest of the trip.

We had a great time in the Westmann Islands, but note that the first weekend in August is Icelands largest musical festival. The normal population is 4k, but that weekend they get an additional 22k people, so avoid that weekend if you can. We took the ferry back the day after it started and could not believe the amount of people walking off the ferry for it! There is a puffin lookout on the south end of the island which is a great place to see them.

We almost always use booking.com for our lodging in Iceland and also tend to get cabins/cottages vs hotels.

Posted by
711 posts

I've seen discussions, either here or on the TripAdvisor Iceland forum, about shore excursions for your cruise stops. Except for Akureyri, which is a bigger town, you probably won't be able to find rental cars or a local driver just because the towns are so small. At least you have plenty of time to research that.

For your extra week, don't use Reykjavik as a home base. Rent a car and go to Golden Circle and South Coast, but find lodging along the way and don't backtrack to Reykjavik. Again, read the many postings here and on TA about itineraries for seven days.

Agree with first poster about finding lodging on booking.com. That's how many of the smaller places handle reservations. We found great guesthouses and self-catering lodging that way; we also used AirBnB.

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