July Itinerary Review

Hi, Delaney5297, I myself will be in Iceland in early July with my daughter, although we will be renting a car and driving around so probably not much help to you. Plus, we’re there for a full week.

But there’s another frequent poster here on the forum that was there last year and generally did what you did, which is stay in Reykjavík and took tours out of there to other places. So you might want to read her trip report for some ideas: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/6-nights-in-reykjavik-a-trip-report

I did want to mention that I was on Arctic Adventures the other day just getting some general information about itineraries, I noticed that they have a tour to Heimaey, which is in the Westland Islands and they go to see the puffins. They’re pretty highly recommended so you might want to check out this tour. They actually go on the island and see some other things there as well as the puffins.

Of course, if you can get to where the ferry is, you could easily do it on your own. Keep in mind that the puffins are usually there early in the morning and later in the evening. During the day they’re out flying around. So it would be best to spend the night there, then you could easily walk down to them as it’s not very far from town. I’m sure you could probably get a bus to the town where the ferry is. I forgot the name of it off the top of my head, but it’s easily looked up.

Landeyjahöfn! I remembered it! It’s about a 30 minute ride on the ferry and from what I understand, you can see lots of animal life from the ferry as well. Puffins and possibly even whale, although you never know.

https://adventures.is/iceland/day-tours/sightseeing-tours/vestmannaeyjar-island-tour/

Are you completely against renting a car? The would make it so much easier, and you could see a lot more.

For your day of arrival I highly recommend the food tour. It is 3 hours and has plenty of food to cover you for both lunch and dinner. Plus you learn a lot about the country. There is also a Citywalk "free" walking tour that is excellent. That one starts taking bookings about a week in advance and they go fast, so if you are interested mark it on your calendar. It is free, but you tip what you want at the end.

For a lagoon on arrival day, I would head straight to Reykjavik and skip the Blue Lagoon. Yes, the BL is close to the airport, but IME, it makes me sleepy and on arrival I want to stay awake as long as possible that day. So in Reykjavik there is Sky Lagoon and you could do that that evening, or even do a local pool that night. This lagoon is in town, but not in the heart of town, so about a $35 taxi ride or you can do a transfer with Reykjavik Excursions. The regular city bus you can take as well, but you have do do a few transfers and still walk quite a ways.

The tour tours you mention, I would not book though as Get Your Guide is a third party reseller. It is generally better to book directly with the operator. On both of those, if you scroll to the bottom is says who the operator is. The GC tour is operated by Bus Travel Iceland and the Puffin one is Arctic Adventures, which Mardee posted the link to it.

The problem with the Westman Islands tour is what Mardee mentioned is that the puffins are only on land in the early mornings and later at night, so any day tour will only see them flying around, not up close.

Honestly though, I would rent a car and do both of these days on your own. At Westman Island, you definitely want a car for two reasons (if you are not on a tour). One is that if the ocean conditions are rough on the return trip, they will pull into a port 3 hours away, so if you don't have your own vehicle you are stuck as they do not provide transportation back to the usual port. Also, the puffin lookout is a good 90 minute walk from where the ferry pulls in (opposite ends of the island) and there are no sidewalks for most of the way.

So all that said, if this were my trip I would keep your first day as you planned, but then rent a car and do Westman Island the next day, staying overnight, then do the Golden Circle the next day and then head back to Reykjavik for the night.

Thank you both for your input- these suggestions are very helpful! I'm now thinking we'll still go on the Golden Circle tour on Saturday (primarily to have lunch at the tomato farm, which is otherwise fully booked for individual reservations), then rent a car for Sunday and drive to see puffins on our own instead of doing the Westman Islands tour. I know there are many places to see a lot of puffins- we would ideally like to be able to view them up relatively close, on land. The birdwatching area at Borgarflordur Eystri looks perfect, but is too far to drive. I am hoping to find somewhere similarly suited but significantly closer to Reykjavik (ideally within 2 hours driving). Can anyone please advise on locations to watch puffins on land that don't require more than a day trip?

We had a wonderful time in iceland! We ended up renting a car for the first day and a half, to get to and from the Westman islands. We spent the afternoon, evening, and following morning there. We were able to see so many puffins at the puffin lookout, which was glorious, and the scenery was incredible. We also had a fantastic dinner at Naes. After leaving the island, we spent a leisurely day driving back to Reykjavik and spent the afternoon enjoying a long beachside lunch at Hafid Blaa restaurant- would highly recommend a stop here. In the end, we were very glad to have rented the car, and also glad not to have it in Reykjavik center. We arrived in Reykjavik in the late afternoon and walked around a bit to get a sense of the architecture and the city. The third day, we took a small group day tour around the Golden Circle, with stops at Kerid Crater, Fridheimar tomato farm for lunch, Gullfoss waterfall, Strokkur Geyser ,Thingvelir national park, and ending at the Sky Lagoon. We did enjoy the tour, with the exception of the geyser, which we found underwhelming. However, it felt quite rushed and not particularly well-organized in terms of scheduling and communication. The tour company was very responsive to questions by text, even during the tour, and helped us reschedule transit from Sky Lagoon after we extended our time there. Next time, we would probably choose to drive ourselves and have a more relaxed pace than the tour offered. The tomato farm, waterfall, and Sky Lagoon were all especially beautiful and worth a visit. Our last day, we spent the morning and early afternoon exploring Reykjavik more. We had the famous cinnamon rolls at Braud, visited Fischersund perfumery and a few other shops, walked around Tjornin pond, and saw the sculpture garden at the Einar Jonsson museum. We thoroughly enjoyed all of these spots. Overall, we loved Iceland and had a truly lovely, if quick, trip. We hope to visit again!

Thank you so much for coming back and sharing how it went. Sounds like you had a good time:)

We did enjoy the tour, with the exception of the geyser, which we found underwhelming.

Delaney, thanks for reporting back on your trip! I'm so glad you had such a good trip, but this made me laugh. My daughter and I actually skipped the geyser. I had seen it before in 2018 and thought it was okay but not great. I asked her if she wanted to go see it, and she said she was good without seeing it. She'd been to Yellowstone, so she'd seen a geyser, and that was fine with her. So instead, we went to the Secret Lagoon and had a wonderful time there. We just got back about three weeks ago, and had an incredible time overall. I wrote a trip report if you'd like to read it. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/exploring-iceland-with-my-daughter-a-7-night-adventure-stockholm-and-norway-to-follow

I am with both of you and the geyser was not a highlight for us, even though we have been to it several times. We have been to Yellowstone. Anyway, on one trip that I took a friend, we only stopped because we had extra time. On my next trip, even though I am going with my SIL's sister, we are not stopping there, or at least that is the plan;)