Iceland trip plans for September 2022- advice please

Posted by Travelingtwo (Iceland) on 03/20/22 05:56 PM

We are looking forward to going to Iceland in mid-September. We enjoy hiking - walking & perhaps kayaking mostly around the South Shore, Reykjavik and the Golden Circle. We are considering doing a self guided tour package that include a car and hotels for various days, NordicVisitor.com utilizes Hertz and Enterprise car rentals. I've heard wonderful things about Blue Car and Lotus on this forum.

Any thoughts about being limited with only being able to rent from Hertz or Enterprise with this company? I would prefer to have a self guided tour where we can pick up the car at the airport since we will be arriving so early so we can go to the Blue Lagoon before heading to the areas around the southern coast and Golden Circle. We plan to go to Reykjavik for a few days and may take a day tour to see the Northern Lights.

Your input would be very helpful. Thank you.

Posted by Badger

Uppsala, Sweden

03/20/22 06:20 PM

7246 posts

Don't count on the northern lights in September.

Posted by jermh

03/27/22 02:06 AM

3 posts

We just returned from a self guided tour to those same locations. We used Nordic Green Travel and I recommend them highly. From the first inquiry to leaving Iceland Daoi was responsive to each email request. We did use Blue Car and had a great experience with the rental car and navigating the roads in Iceland. The country has so much online resources, which I suggest becoming familiar with especially the road condition maps, as changing weather is a certainty. It was the most fantastic scenery I have ever seen, have a great trip.

Posted by mikliz97

Snohomish, WA

03/27/22 02:56 PM

2798 posts

We have used Blue car rental for two trips there. They have been great to work with and are professional and do not play games. I highly recommend them.

On our first trip, we just did day tours on tour buses. We MUCH prefer to self drive and to do the planning ourselves. It is so easy honestly.

If I were you, I would rent through Blue, or Lotus as they get good reviews as well, and then plan the trip yourself. No reason to pay someone as what you are looking to do is very easy and straight forward.

The Northern Lights will most likely not be out, but you never know.

Posted by douglas44

Ontario, Canada

04/07/22 10:07 AM

93 posts

Honestly, Iceland is about the easiest trip I've ever had to plan for; Italy(2)/Germany/Belgium/Paris(2)/Scotland(2)/England/Netherlands/Czech Republic/Austria/Morocco(aborted)Ireland(delayed). We're two 60+'s and book everything ourselves, flights, accommodation, things to do. Mr. Google is your friend and on top of that Iceland is a very English-speaking friendly country. We're using Icelandair, Blue Car & Booking.com and individual day tour operators for specific things to do. If you're nervous, most places/tours are offering full cancellation privileges up to just before the trip and as long as you don't overestimate your available time/capabilities you should be fine on your own. Part of the fun is the planning too. We'll be there the first week of October this year on an Icelandair layover for 7 nights. Blue car offers both airport & Reykjavik locations.

Posted by naalehuretiree

Big Island of Hawaii

04/08/22 05:42 AM

764 posts

I agree with Douglas. Personally, I see no need for anyone to plan my Iceland trip for me because it is all so easy. We just went in September 2022 and I did all the planning myself. We booked our car through Blue and stayed in a mix of hotels and guesthouses (and one AirBnB).

The internet is full of information to help you plan your trip. This site, TripAdvisor Iceland forum, and Travel Iceland Facebook page all have very helpful people to help you plan your trip. And there are some good guidebooks such as RS Iceland book and Lonely Planet. In fact, there's so much information out there that you can get overwhelmed. We started by figuring out what we wanted to see (waterfalls in particular), then plotted those out and found all sorts of other things to do along the way.

Mid-September is going to be difficult to see the northern lights. And I wouldn't go to Iceland any later than that because you'll be running into the possibility of winter weather.