Extra special Thank You to the experienced travelers who gave us advice ahead of our Iceland trip.
We will post also under the Trip Reports section but wanted to give y’all some feedback.
- Taxis are very cheap between 8am-3pm compared to other cities. We used taxi to go from a hotel to across town to Perlan. Fare was 12 Krona for 3 people. We took Perlan’s free shuttle (free shuttle service with admission) to Harpa after a show at Perlan. Highly recommend Perlan. Highly recommend taxi service Hreyfill. Local bus service pricey, confusing, complicated, and time tables are perhaps a delusional dream. Instead, we opted for Reykjavík Excursions’ red double decker Hop on Hop off buses. These are a better value for tourists to go directly to locations of interest rather than the challenging local bus. Better yet, rent bikes. This city has the best bike path system anywhere.
- Food was not any more expensive than in Northeastern USA. In fact, Netto or Krónan stores are cheaper than we spend in USA. We had no trouble finding our favorite food. One member of our group is vegan; this is a very vegan country so no problem there. Restaurants are affordable for lunch. Dinners are expensive and need to be booked ahead. Before ordering, always ask what the meal includes. Often we got unlimited salad bar, soup, and bread along with the entree. Portions were large enough to share. Also ask if there are any discounts that day.
- Loved the RS suggestion to bring empty water bottle with you. Was great tip everywhere we went; free fills of their fantastic water.
- Weather changes every 5 minutes. Seriously. Makes Scotland look tame in that regard. You get enough exercise changing layers. We took LlBean and North Face Packable Puffer jackets, polar fleece jackets, and a rain layer. You especially need the rain layer for Golden Circle. Have one person in your group agree to carry an empty bag for the layer shedding exercises.
Also learned:
Need to have a sense of humor and patience regarding the airport. Departure process is haphazard. Not every country handles departures as badly as Keflavik; it definitely ranks near the bottom of list of passenger ease of navigation.
Bus service from airport and return trip: Personally, I cannot imagine why people use this service if not traveling alone. Using the taxi is not much more money if you have a group.
The buses take you to a hub, then you have to transfer to the smaller bus system. If the bus at the airport is not full, you sit there waiting until it is. And that occasionally can be a while.
We paid for the round trip taxi which was only $20 more than the bus for a group of three. We had great drivers in clean Mercedes vehicles. Was like having a private tour guide.
And finally, towels. We took cheap washcloths because one person in our party cannot go without. Not an item usually found in accommodations in Iceland. We will take small quick dry camping towels next time for drying off benches at bus stops or along walking excursions. Since it rains a lot, would have been nice to be able to dry off an occasional bench along our walks.
Again, thanks to those folks who helped us!