Hi all! We are traveling with our adult children (28 and 30) to Iceland 8/31-9-6. We are planning to be in Reykjavik to start (the opposite of the Rick Steves itinerary, but we're coming off a week traveling through Scandinavia and will need a few relaxing days before heading out to explore the great wilderness!) and have a rental car. We plan to drive the Golden Circle, South Coast and Heimaey Island (although we aren't planning to bring our car to the island as we are planning to do the Ebby tour). How many days/nights should we plan for to see those sights? We are planning to finish up the trip by seeing the sights at the Rekjanes Peninsula.
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
3927 posts
First, I highly recommend taking your car to Heimaey. The reason is that if weather is bad for returning, the ferry goes to another port which is 3 hours away and they do not provide transportation. So you could easily get stuck.
So with 5 full days, I would only stay in Reykjavik for one night, either at the beginning or the end. If your flight home is early in the morning, do it at the end so you are not that far from KEF.
The Golden Circle is easily done in a day. Then Heimaey for a day, that leaves you with 2 free days which is perfect for the south coast. You can make it up to Jokulsarlon and back.
You mention the Reykjanes Peninsula. It has a lot to offer, and we have done it many times, but I would recommend seeing the big sights first and leave this for a trip where you have more time. Or if your flight home is an evening flight, then you could do this the day of departure.
Posted by
OP
32 posts
Thanks for the response. We had gone back and forth about taking the car on the ferry but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere that we could get stuck because of the weather- we'll take the car! We definitely need to two days in Reykjavik as our kids are both Neurodivergent and we don't want to stress them with sightseeing at a breakneck pace. As it stands, we are scheduled for three tours (food walk, whale watch and cat tour- don't laugh, it has great reviews!!) and between those and seeing the museums, walking around the city and seeing the other sights, we know we'll be busy. Do you have a recommendation for where we should break up our trip to the south coast? There are a few possibilities and we know we want to get to Heimaey early in the morning to try and beat the crowds, so we're looking for comfortable and (relatively) close to the ferry terminal for the night prior to the island visit.
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
3927 posts
If you want to try and stay in one area for the south coast, take a look around Vik. Iceland is one place that is really hard to base yourself in one location, but Vik works for 2 days. Yes, heading up to Jokulsarlon and back is backtracking, but I think in your case it makes sense. Lodging is very limited outside of Reykjavik, so get that booked asap. Don't just look in the town of Vik, but all around the general area. Most places are in the countryside. Take a look at either booking.com or google maps and use the map to zoom out to see all the lodging.