Hi All,
We'll be in Iceland from 8/24 - 9/2. We're thinking ring road, and there are many tour companies that offer a car / hotel combo, but the itineraries are fairly non-specific. Since RS doesn't offer a tour here (we've done My Way Italy and My Way Spain), we're looking for recommendations on a company to use to book the self-drive tour.
Thanks!
Is there a reason you don't want to book this yourself? It is very easy o do and you would save yourself a significant amount of money.
That said, you are very late to planning for this summer. Most places in Iceland book out 9-12 months in advance in a regular year, but with the eclipse on August 12th, things booked out even further and prices skyrocketed. Your dates will still see some of that effect.
Ten days is the shortest amount of time that I would do a ring road trip. The time we did it we had 12 nights and still felt a bit rushed. We did a lot, but also missed a lot, hence we have returned many times.
If you are willing to plan it yourself, I am happy to help. If that interests you, please share the number of travelers, what your interests are, etc.
I'm taking a guided 10 day Ring Road tour with Nordic Visitor (who I found recommended on this forum) this summer. They also offer self drive tours. I didn't look into those details, but my own tour communications have been very detailed (appreciated by type A me!) and I can tell much of their information is the same provided to both guided or self drive customers! They also had a lot of tour availability even though I signed up "late" for this summer, so hopefully that's also true for their self-drive arrangements!
I would recommend following Rick's book on Iceland and watching his Iceland videos. My friends and I used his book extensively for a 3-week trip last year. Sites as well as lodging! Our trip was perfect. For the number of days you have, I would concentrate on Reykjavik, the Golden Circle, and the South Coast, including the Westman Islands, for a day trip.
We’ve decided to plan the tour ourselves, since the total expenses for lodging and a car are a couple thousand dollars lower than using even the least expensive tour company. We’ve read Rick’s book and watched several videos, so it doesn’t seem that difficult. We checked , and there are still enough viable lodging options available, including some of the same hotels that were offered by the tour companies! Also, we want to do Westman island and that wasn’t included in any of the plans offered by the tours.
Honestly, I am not a fan of Rick's videos etc for Iceland. The resource that I have used for our last 8 trips and swear by is Iceland With A View. She is an expat that moved there 10 years ago. She has a You Tube channel as well, with some fantastic videos. Everything she has ever suggested was spot on. There is also a Ring Road book by Lonely Planet that is excellent. Even if one is not doing the ring road, it is chuck full of great information.
