Iceland trip report August 2026

After breakfast, we walked around the old town and bided our time until 10 am for our walking tour which started at parliament square. Next to the square is the expensive parliament Hotel, and we strolled in to use their restrooms, drink some water set up for guests and sat in their comfy couches in the large lobby to charge our cellphones. Lots of tour groups, including Viking Cruises, stay here. nobody kicked us out.

Free Walking tour

We love taking free walking tours when we first arrive in a new city, because the information the guides give us, like restaurant suggestions and things to do and see later are invaluable. We did reserve our spots with CityWalk Reykjavik.

Of course, the tour isn’t free. The company expects that you will pay them something for their 2 hour tour. Their website stated they would take any currency, including US dollars and that’s what I used to tip the guide.

I did not need to get Icelandic Krona (ISK) from any ATM machine as credit cards are accepted everywhere and tipping is not required nor expected.

In fact, since my iPhone was always in my hand or pocket, I never pulled out a credit card, but used apple pay to tap to pay, even on the city bus. It worked great in all the stores also, even the second hand clothing stores.

Our tour guide was excellent. He was funny and engaging. He imparted wonderful historical and social information like why Icelandic last names end in “son” or “dottir”.

Of amusing interest to us, was the fact that most all Icelandic people are related to some degree, and all are listed in a national database that tracks the lineage of Icelanders from the settlement period to the present.

So, when a dating couple gets serious, they have to check a genealogical app called “IslendingaApp”, to determine if the consanguinity is less than 5th cousins.

There was an Icelandic guest of dating age on our tour, who also had the app, and the guide showed us that by bumping the two iphones together when the app was open on each iPhone, the lineage result immediately appeared on both iPhones, leading to the app developer’s ad slogan to prevent accidental incest- Bump before you Hump.

The guide noted that all the top politic positions are currently filled by women.

And my favorite joke—Iceland doesn’t have a military- the guide said.--But we’re not worried. In two years, we’ll have the largest military in the world protecting us when we become the 53th US state. LOL

I highly recommend this free walking tour.

Jet lagged

By 12:30 pm, we were jetlagged, so we walked back to the hotel and our room was ready now instead of 3 pm and we checked in and promptly fell asleep until our dinner at Messinn, A high end seafood restaurant. Reservations required. It was amusing to watch people come into the restaurant hoping to eat there and being turned away.

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Day 2

After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, which was included in the room rate, We checked out and stored our bags in the storage area and walked over to the Harpa Concert Hall, to meet our guide for the 3 hour Food tour, with WakeUp Reykjavik.

We tried the Fermented shark and sipped Brennivin (Icelandic Aquavit, also known as “Black Death”). We ate lamb, Icelandic cod and the hot dog (made of lamb) , from the famous Baejarins Beztu Pylsur,2 as well as some other dishes. A wonderful tour that I recommend you take sooner rather than later in your trip.

After the tour, we walked down to the oceanside path, to see the sun Voyager3 sculpture and then back to our hotel to claim our bags.

We used the Hreyfill app to hail a taxi, and like Uber, we knew how much it would cost beforehand to take us to the Cruise ship. (There is NO uber in Iceland.) It was 2400ISK or about USD$20 to go the 2.5 miles. All the taxis took credit cards and apple pay. We used the [built in currency converter on our iphone’s calculator]5 to see what the actual price in dollars was, though we got a rough estimate by dividing the ISK amount by 100.

Day 3

The cruise ship, Viking Mars spent the day in port in Reykjavik and offered expensive excursions. Rather than pay $300 p/p, (so $600 for the two of us) that Viking was charging to go to Sky Lagoon, we booked it on our own on Sky Lagoon’s website and paid for the premium package with shuttle transfer by **Reykjavik Excursions.** The cost was ISK 22,489 (USD $187.41)per person, so almost a 50% savings to DIY.

The bus picked us from the cruise port at 11:00am, brought us to the main bus station and we transferred to the bus to sky lagoon.

If you go to Sky lagoon, splurge for “Ser” premium package which includes the 7 step ritual and private changing facilities. It was wonderful. We loved it. And when comparing the Blue Lagoon to Sky lagoon, we give a slight edge to Sky Lagoon. We spent two hours in the geothermal hot water and sky ritual, before we had to get dry and dressed for our shuttle ride back to the ship.

On the return trip, We thought we would have to transfer again at BSI, but the return shuttle stopped at Bus Stop #5 and we knew that Viking was running a private shuttle from Bus stop #5 to/from the ship, so we took that back to the ship. The ship left Reykjavik at 5 pm and sailed to……

Day 4 Isafjordur- Dynjdandi Waterfall

We took a third party 3.5 hour tour to Dynjdandi waterfall and Icelandic farm horse farm visit with Bus Travel Iceland. We found the tour on “Get Your Guide”, a third party consolidator., but booked directly with the tour provider. The bus tour took us to Dyndjandi Waterfall and also visited a farm so that we could pet the Icelandic horses.

On the way back, the bus tour allowed us to be dropped off in the town and we wandered around the town before walking back to the ship.

One of the items on my bucket list, was to visit the [3D zebra crossing]9 on Hafnarstraei street. It’s an optical illusion that makes the pedestrian stripes appear to be floating blocks.

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Day 5 Akureyri -Godafoss and Myvatn lake

We took a third party 6 hour tour from Akureyri port to Godafoss Waterfall, Lake Myvatn and other stops with included lunch at the Bird Musuem The provider was “Saga Travel” There was some confusion on where to meet as there were two meeting points. Our guide was late to appear, but walked us over to a parking lot nearer to the other cruise ship in port, where the bus was parked. But all went well after that.

The tour started at just after 9 a.m and was advertised as 6 hours, which meant a 3pm ish return. Our all onboard time was 4 pm. But at 3 pm, we were just leaving Godafoss, and other cruise guests were worried about making it back on time. Our guide reassured us, “see those other buses? Those are Viking Cruise buses and they are behind us. The ship will wait for them.” And we got back at 3:45 pm and the viking cruise buses arrived after us. So no worries.

Day 6- Seydisfjordur- Gufufoss and Stagoil canyon

It was Raining hard today. I took a 3rd party tour with BusTravel Iceland to see Stuolagil Canyon and Gufufoss. We booked through Star Travel, but actual provider was BusTravel Iceland.

Because it was raining hard, my wife declined to go and wanted to rest and stay dry on the ship.

Here, we had our first hiccup. The bus was late. It was nowhere to be seen at 10:00am. Other passengers called the company and was told they thought the meeting time was 11:00am. They had noticed the error at 9:30 am and told their driver and guide to get here ASAP. But it took over an hour for the bus to reach the port. But ultimately, they showed up at 10:30 am and brought us to the Canyon.

I guess I wanted to see this canyon because of all the photos on Instagram, where young Instagram influencers are standing on the basalt rocks with the canyon behind them.

But when we got to the canyon, it was raining so hard, that the walk down from the parking lot to the viewpoint was miserable. And to get down to the river canyon, I would have had to hike on an unpaved and gravel trail. It didn’t seem safe. So I stayed up at the viewpoints above the canyon. Would I do this excursion again? Probably not.

The bus did stop at Gufufoss, which was fine, but not as impressive as some of the other waterfalls.
The bus tour gave us the option to get off in the town and I walked around sightseeing in town before walking back to the ship.

Day 7- Djupivogur- Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach

A long day and a long 2 hour bus ride to Glacier Lagoon/Diamond Beach from Djupivogur Port.

But one of the highlights of our trip. We booked through Get your guide and the tour provider was Bus Travel Iceland.
This was a tender port, so all cruise passengers were tendered to the dock. The bus was waiting for us. It was raining and overcast. So the two hour bus ride to the Glacier Lagoon wasn’t as scenic as it could have been.

But once we got there, it was worth it. Glacier Lagoon and Diamond beach are next to each other, so we had 2 hours here to see and walk to both and also get lunch from the truck vendors. A hamburger cost about US$30.

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On the trip back, it began raining hard and though the tour guide was willing to stop at viewpoints and a stop to see the swans, most of us didn’t want to get wet further and we told him to just drive back to the town.

In the town of Djupivogur, he did detour from the port, so we could see the egg sculptures along the waterfront, as the rain had stopped.

A long day, but Glacier lagoon and Diamond beach were one of the highlights of our time in Iceland.

Day 8 Heimany on Westman islands -Puffin Tour with Ebbi

This port stop often gets cancelled due to the weather. But today the weather was Sunny and cool. It was tender port so we took the tender to Heimany.

This is the one port in which we took the Ship’s included walking tour of the town and Eldheimer museum. The walk was on old lava flow overlooking the town and the guides talked about the 1973 volcanic eruption from a 1600 meter long fissure that opened in the middle of the night. 400 buildings were destroyed by lava and ash. The museum is built over the remains of one of the houses that was destroyed. It’s a great little museum.

Viking provided a free shuttle from the museum back to the harbor. At the harbor we had lunch at Tanginn, which was very good. The restaurant was also located across the street from the meeting point for Ebbi’s Puffin tour, which was excellent. Ebbi drove around the island stopping at interesting spots, but the highlight was the Puffin colony on the side of the cliff. In august, we did see a lot of Puffins. We really recommend this tour, as does Rick Steves.

August 10, Disembarkation at Reykjavik

As it usual with most cruises, we had to be out of rooms by 8 am and off the ship by 9 am.
We used the Hyrefill app to book a taxi to our next hotel, Hotel Fron. We chose this hotel because of its location right in the heart of Laugavegur Street. The Taxi cost was ISK 3485 or $28.93.

The Hotel Fron is a wonderful little hotel recommended by lots of people on this forum. We booked a one bedroom apartment, but ended up with a 2 bedroom apartment, which was overkill for the two of us. The apartment was spacious and quiet. Because it’s in the back of the lot in its own separate building, we did not hear any noise from the street or the Lebowski bar nearby. It had a kitchen that we didn’t use.

As we couldn’t check in until 3 pm, we stored our bags in their basement luggage storage room and then walked to the bus stop one street over and took the # 14 bus to the bus stop closest to FlyOver Iceland. We used our credit cards and tapped to pay the bus fare. We used Citymapper and Google Maps to get transit directions.

We weren’t intending to visit FlyOver Iceland, but an ad on the bus going to Sky Lagoon piqued my wife’s interest and she said she wanted to go and I agreed, but only if we also visited the Lava Show, nearby. So we did both and we liked both shows. The lava show was very unique with Real lava.

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It was now lunchtime and we walked from the lava show to Grandi Matholl, an indoor food court, which had several independent food vendors to choose from and shared seating on picnic tables. Lots of locals here, so we didn’t feel we were only doing tourist things. I will say, even though everything is expensive, especially food, we didn’t think we were being price gouged because we were tourists.

From here, we walked to a different bus stop and took the bus back to the Hotel Fron, but took the long way, strolling along Laugaverger street visiting clothing shops. We went to Verzlanahollin, a used clothing store, and the red Cross shop, to shop for vintage (used) Icelandic sweaters. New, handmade Icelandic sweaters are expensive, as we found out when we visited the Handknitting Association of Iceland store.

But even if it was used or new, the decision to buy one or not came down to whether we would wear these sweaters at home in California. California has a mild climate, even in winter. So we came home empty-handed. But it was fun looking.

We had dinner at Skal, which was a couple of blocks from the Hotel Fron. Another excellent restaurant with reservations required. As was mentioned earlier, the handknitting Association of Iceland store was across the street and we looked at the new handmade Icelandic wool sweaters there. The one I liked was US$500. But I couldn’t justify the cost.

Even though it was after 8 pm, there was still daylight, so we walked along the street leading up to Hallgrimskirkja, the landmark Lutheran Church. We visited inside but did not go up the tower. There were lots of signs warning about pickpockets here.

Back on Laugaverger Street, We bought breakfast coffee fixings at the Bonus Supermarket and had ice cream at Gaeta Gelato, an ice cream store across from the Hotel Fron. How convenient is that?

8/11/26 South Coast Tour

Since we knew that the cruise would not visit the South Coast, we booked an all day South Coast Tour with Arctic Adventures 3. The bus pickup spot was #6, across the street from the Culture house, so we walked there via rainbow Street to catch the tour.

We had a small bus with only 19 people, which is what we look for in bus tours, if we can find it. The highlights of tour included the Reynisfjara black sand beach and the basalt cliffs. (they are still there, even after a past storm damaged the beach), the skogafoss waterfall, the solheimajokull glacier, the town of Vik (a snooze, we could have skipped this) and our favorite the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, which is the waterfall that you can walk behind. Loved it.

We got back late and we were too tired for a sit down dinner. And since we needed to get some food for tomorrow’s solar eclipse tour, we decided to buy foot long sandwiches at a Subway restaurant, eat half and pack the other half for the next day. Our apartment had a refrigerator. (and we are glad we did that.)

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8/12/26- Viking Pre-extension tour and the Hotel Marina Berjaya.

we needed to switch hotels to begin the next Viking cruise, Scandinavia Homelands. Viking had a 3 day pre-extension tour of Reykjavik that included a hotel room, some excursions and a flight from KEF to Bergen, Norway.

Because of the Solar Eclipse, we knew that hotel prices would increase and hotel rooms would be hard to find for cheap and that airfares and flights out of Iceland after the eclipse would be a hassle to book.

So why not let Viking Cruises take care of us, since they had hotel rooms and spots on the plane to Bergen already lined up. So we booked the Pre-extension tour of the Viking Scandinavia homelands cruise. Not cheap, but cheaper than trying to find a hotel room in Reykjavik during the solar eclipse. We saw some hotels jack up their prices to $800 a night.

We checked out of the Hotel Fron at 7:00 am and took a taxi to the Hotel Marina Berjaya, where Viking had hotel rooms for their guests. we thought we would have to store our bags until after our solar eclipse tour, which began at 8:30 am, but to Vikings Credit, since they had a slew of rooms already reserved for their guests, the hotel staff said, there was an empty room available and we could check in now.

We dropped our bags off in the room, and headed out to Bus Stop #4 for pickup by Reykjavik Excursions. The bus brought us to the BSI bus station, where hundreds of people, were waiting to board the twenty or so busses that Reykjavik Excursions had available to take us to the most Western point of the Snaefellnes Peninsula where they had a spot near the tiny village of Rif, to watch the solar eclipse.

I won’t go into detail about the day’s adventures, but after the 5:45 pm eclipse, we didn’t get back to the hotel until after midnight because of the traffic on these narrow roads. We were glad to have brought our sandwiches, which we ate on the bus for dinner, because the gas station/food place that the bus stopped at for bathroom breaks and food, had hundreds of other people mobbing the store. It was an adventure, but one I wouldn’t want to repeat again.

8/13/26
Viking’s included morning tour of Reykjavik was just a panoramic drive around with a stop at the Perlan observation deck for 20 minutes and a stop at Arbaejar, an open air museum of old historical buildings.

Since we had already been in Reykjavik for some time on our own, we opted to skip this tour, but took their bus to the Perlan Museum and then left the group tour.

What we didn’t realize was, the Perlan museum is so popular that you have to have a timed entry. we were there at 10:00 am and the next available entry was 11:30 am. We weren’t going to wait that long, as we knew Viking would take us to the Blue Lagoon at 2 pm.

Fortunately, we explained our plight to someone in Customer Service and after getting the OK from the head boss, they sold us tickets to the museum starting at 10:15 am. And we spent the next two hours attending the different shows.

We did the Forces of Nature 30 minutes show, which was excellent. We walked the Ice Cave. We visited the water and wildlife galleries and we did the planetarium Aurora northern lights show. We then had lunch at the revolving restaurant. The Perlan Museum is worth the 2-3 hours we spent there, plus lunch and we highly recommend it.

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There were taxis outside the Perlan museum, but something in my gut said to avoid them. I'm sure those taxis were fine, but we used our Hreyfill app to book a taxi that showed up in a few minutes. We took it back to the hotel.

In the afternoon, Viking took us to the Blue Lagoon and that was absolutely worth it. Viking paid for the Premium Package, which gave us a separate changing room from the comfort package, a bathrobe, an alcoholic drink, which we got at the swim up bar, and 3 facial masks. We absolutely loved the blue lagoon. It was so much fun and relaxing. Is it touristy? Yep. Was it crowded? Not on the day we went.

We got back to the hotel around 6 pm. The hotel is in the harbor area, so it was a short walk to the Harpa Concert Hall where we bought tickets for a one hour show called “ How to be Icelandic in 60 minutes.” Very funny. But the show was slightly longer than 60 minutes, and we were 20 minutes late for our 8 pm dinner reservation at Hofnin. But they still sat us. Excellent dinner and reservations required.

8/14/26 Golden Circle

Today, Viking took us on a tour of the Golden Circle. So we visited Thingvellir National Park, the Geysir geothermal area, Kerid Crater and Gullfoss waterfall. Lunch was provided at the Hotel Geysir. So we did not get to visit the Tomato farm. These are the same places a third party tour would visit and we saw many other tour buses at each of these locations.

We got back to the hotel around 5 pm. So for dinner, we were going to go to SeaBaron, which was walk-in only, no reservations taken. But the interior was dingy and the wife wanted a harbor view, so we had dinner at Harbor house

8/15/26 Flight to Bergen

The tour now over, it was time to fly to Bergen.

The experience of Flying out of KEF to BGO was horrific. The airport is too small for the amount of passenger traffic it now handles.
So when we arrived 2 hours before our flight, the airport was mobbed with people. We had to push and shove our way with our luggage to the Icelandic counters, and waited 45 minutes in line to get checked in and drop off our bags.

Would arriving sooner have helped? Maybe, but the check in counter didn’t open until 3 hours before the flight.

Then we had to push and shove our way to the security line, which was out the door of the airport. There is a long 100 foot long covered walkway to cover those in line from the outdoor elements. It took 40 minutes to get through security and we had to run to our gate, and made it with minutes to spare

Because both KEF and BGO are both in the Schengen area, we did not have to go through EES. That would have taken another hour or so.
So if you fly out of KEF, arrive 3+ hours early. From my experience, KEF is on my list of worst airports.

Conclusion

I believe you can absolutely see most of the sites in Iceland via cruise ship, as long as the cruise is specific to Iceland. We visited 5 ports and did day tours from each port, so I feel we saw the same sites that travelers who drive the Ring Road in 8-10 days would see.
But cruisers should spend some time either pre-cruise or post-cruise on their own in Reykjavik in order to see what the cruise ship cannot visit, such as the Golden Circle, and the South Coast and Snaefellsnes peninsula.

Hope this trip report helps others plan their Iceland trip.

Hi, Derek, and thanks for the tour report. I really enjoyed reading it. My daughter and I were there for a week in mid July and saw a lot of the things you did and especially loved the Blue Lagoon. I agree that it’s touristy, but it’s also fun and very relaxing. We also got the premium package and it was worth it.

But I am sorry you had that experience at KEF. I think it depends on the day you’re there. When we left to fly to Stockholm (on July 16) it didn’t take us long at all to go through security. And we had plenty of time to get breakfast and leisurely go through the duty-free shop. But I know others have had issues, so it really just depends. Glad you made it through, though.

Great trip report. You did an excellent job with your planning. I loved the comment about the “bump before you hump” app. Who knew. But once you explained the situation it made perfect sense. Hopefully they expand the Keflavik airport at some point. I remember it as very small from our visit years ago and now with the EES situation it sounds very untenable. Pushing and shoving to get to the check in desk sounds miserable.

Wonderful report! We are considering Iceland and this would be a convenient way to see it. We loved our only Viking cruise on the Orion.

It sounds like it was a good trip and you did a lot! Baka Baka and Messinn are two of our favorite restaurants. Also really like Skal!. Too bad you didn't take the elevator to the top at Hallgrimskirkja. The views are great, and looking down the street it is like a mirror image of the church. I never notice that until like our 6 or 7th trip. Not sure how I missed that before, lol.

Gufufoss is nice, but I am kind of surprised it is included in a tour since it is literally on the side of the road and not really a big attraction, like you said.

As for cash, yes in the cities it is not needed, but we have always needed at least a bit once further out. Toilets and hikes are the usual places we have needed it, but also roadside stands and such. We don't use a lot, but when you need a toilet it is good to have;)

Funny, we had that same 2 bedroom apartment at Hotel Fron. We too did not have any noise. My husband is staying there right now:) I love the location.

Eldheimar Museum was a real highlight for us! I am not much of a museum person, but this one was so fascinating.

Yikes, you were brave to be there during the eclipse! I just cannot imagine the crowds. Did you see anything?

I can see why you did not buy a sweater. My parents used to live in WC so I know that weather and yes, you wouldn't get much use out of it. We have a few, and I did have the Handknitting Association make me a special one on our last trip in March. I could never find what I had in mind, so they made it for me and shipped it. I am anxious for fall weather to hit so I can wear it;)

One thing to note though, you did miss much more than what people typically do on a ring road trip. I am not trying to rain on the parade here at all, but it is one of those things that you don't know what you are missing when you haven't seen something if that makes sense. The first time we did the ring road we had 12 nights and still missed so much, which we didn't know at the time. Thus many return trips, and we are still exploring more new to us areas. You did do a great job with your tours and the time you had though:)

Yes, KEF can be a mess. We always recommend a minimum of 3 hours there. We learned the hard way on one trip and were running to the gate. For flights back to the US, we figured out to not linger in the restaurant/shop area but to head to the gates whenever the passport control lines were short. That its the usual hangup. They don't announce the gates until 45 minutes before, so everyone rushes to passport control and lines get long. The fights to the US always leave from the D gates, so we had down there and then wait. I know this is not what you were doing but thought I would share for others that are. BTW, we almost always get the gate assignment on the Icelandair app before it shows up on the boards in the terminal.

My husband flies home tomorrow night. He has already gone to the Handknitting store to pick up some yarn for me and I requested a cinnamon roll from Braud;). Not sure if he will figure out a way to bring that home intact.