My friend and I are heading to Iceland in October and have never been. From research, we are thinking of staying in Vik and Reykjavik. We arrive on Wednesday 10/2 at 6:45 AM and depart on Sunday, 10/6 at 5:00 PM. We'd love to hear some thoughts on the itinerary. Is a rental car needed? What is the weather like in October? All the questions! Please help!
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2040 posts
October can be nice or very wintry, so make sure you have plans a, b and c. You definitely want to be staying your last night pretty close to Reykjavik or Keflavik, in case of bad weather and road closures. On arrival day, do not plan too much and stay close by to get over jetlag. Do not try to drive all the way to Vik that day! You only have 4 nights, so I would do the day of arrival in Reykjavik, then head up the south coast the next day for 2 nights, then your last night closer to Reykjavik/Keflavik. As I said, weather can be anything, so decide if you want to drive or do a tour. Tours are a great way to go in the winter, and October IS winter there. I suggest Troll.is for this as they are a great outfit and we have used them for a number of excursions etc. Your only choice is a rental car or tours, as. public transportation outside of Reykjavik is extremely limited and just doesn't work unless you want to stay put in the tiny town you get dropped off at.
Posted by
Big Island of Hawaii
678 posts
I suggest that you do a lot more research. You can find discussions of itineraries, transportation, weather, etc. here, on the Travel Iceland FaceBook page, and on the TripAdvisor Iceland forum.
Unless you plan to spend all your time in Reykjavik (bad idea), then you'll need to either rent a car for take some tours. You can find various tours of varying lengths. For example, you could do a one-day tour of Golden Circle and stay in Reykjavik. Then you could leave and do a two or three day south coast tour.
Posted by
75 posts
I just spent a short amount of time with my elderly mom in Iceland about the same length of time you and your friend plan to spend there. We did no rent a car, we did tours. And we staying in one hotel in Reykjavik. My only regret was not spending enough time there.
Here is what my schedule was and it seemed like a good pace for me and my mom.
Day 1: Arrive. Explore Reykjanes (Krysuvik and Kleifarvatn Lake) and Sky Lagoon
Day 2: Golden Circle (Þingvellir, Gullfoss waterfall, lunch at Friðheimar, and Geyser)
Day 3: South Coast (Saljalandsfoss, Reynisfjara Beach, and the town of Vik where we hand lunch. Sólheimajökull glacier)
Day 4: Reykajvik (food tour, shopping, and museums)
Day 5: return (I walked around Reykavik in the morning, got coffee, and that sort of thing. We could have done more on this day, but mom was exhausted).