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Practical tips learned from our recent Iceland trip

Wife and I just came back. No need to go into details about the attractions as you can read about them elsewhere, but I do have some practical tips that I haven't read about it anywhere else before the trip.

  1. Cellular coverage when in Iceland
    Unless you have T-Mobile which provides free international coverage, you will want to buy an eSim card. Don't use Verizon or ATT's International pass -- at $10 a day, it's a rip off. I bought an eSIM from Airalo for $8 for 3 GB with a 7-day validity. I only used 2 GB of it. It would have cost $70 if you use the phone company's international pass. The key is to turn off apps that you don't need to use when you are out and about. If you don't disable their cellular data access, they will refresh automatically in the background and use up a lot of data. I only allowed cellular data usage for Google Maps and WhatsApp and AllTrails and Google Translate. Everything else is set to refresh on WiFi only. Wait until you are back to your hotel/Airbnb where you have free WiFi to upload your photos to the cloud or to access/update social media. I even found a discount code MINFEI4587 that gave me $3 off.. The $8 eSIM now only cost $5. I used the code twice on 2 different phones, so it should be good for multiple use.

  2. Gas price
    They have 4 major chains. The cheapest is ORKAN, with distinct pink flags. 200 ISK per liter is a good price. A different station across the street could be 220 or 230 ISK, so it pays to check the price before pulling into the station.

  3. Bathroom stop before Golden Circle or South Coast
    Selfoss is a town southeast of Reykavik about 1.5 hrs away. It's also about 1 hr away from attractions in either Golden Circle or South Coast. Everyday, we drive to Olis (a gas station with Green color scheme) and use their bathroom before continuing the trip. There are 3 other gas stations nearby, but the Olis station has the best bathroom setup - separate men/women/handicap. Orkan and Atlantasolia (blue color scheme) are self serve without bathrooms. N1 (red color scheme) is 2 blocks in town and has only 1 single unisex bathroom that often has a line of 7 or 8 ppl.

  4. Paying for parking at various attractions
    They must have some kind of camera at the entrance of each parking lot. When I went to the self-pay parking meter, I would enter the license plate number and the screen would show the exact time (down to the second) when I entered the parking lot, so don't try to skip out on paying for parking. However, you don't need to use the parking machine nearest your car. People tend to wait in line at the first machine they see, but often, there are several machines later (in the visitor center or further away from the parking spots.)

  5. Water refill station at KEF:
    When flying out, after security, a lot of people want to fill their reusable water bottles. There is one refill station right after Dutyfree, but the stream is very weak and slow. When we were there at 9 AM, there were close to 20 people waiting to fill their water bottles and each person takes 2 or 3 minutes, so you can imagine how frustrating that is. You can walk about 100 ft to the nearest bathroom, and there is a refill station too, but it will likely also have a line. What you can do is to go through Passport Control and straight to Terminal D (where all US and Canada bound flights are), and find a refill station by the bathroom there. Most people by then have already filled their water bottles, so the line is minimal.

  6. Boarding the plane:
    None of the flights at D terminal is using jet-bridge. When you scan the boarding pass and walk through the door, you actually walk outside to board a bus. The bus has very few seats and waits until everybody is boarded then drives to the airplane. So earlier boarding groups actually have to stand longer in the bus. You are better off being the last one boarding, then you can get off the bus first and actually get onto the airplane first.

Posted by
150 posts

Great tips, but I want to add…
Don't use Verizon or ATT's International pass -- at $10 a day, it's a rip off.
We just upgrade our Verizon plan for about $10 for the whole month, then we return to the lower plan when we get back. Cheap and easy.
Also, using the Parka app saves a ton of time parking at sites. There are a couple you may have to use the kiosk for, but that’s the exception.
Glad you had a good trip! 🙂

Posted by
19245 posts

Some of the "D" gates have jet bridges. I've used them.

If you don't want to wait on line to refill your water bottle, just buy a bottle of Icelandic water. It's really good.

Posted by
4051 posts

I am glad you had a good time:)

We always just use our Verizon and AT&T International plans. For us, the cost is minimal and is just part o any trip. I am lazy and don't want to bother with doing anything else:)

For fuel, if you rent through Blue they give you a key fob that gives you a small discount at Olis and OB.

You can also refill your water bottle on the plane. The FA's on Icelandair are great about filling your bottle if you go to the back and ask them.

Frank is right of course, there are some flights to the US out of the D gates that do use a jet bridge. We fly to/from Seattle and we have never landed right at the terminal, but when flying home we have had 2 flights out of 9 trip there, that we got to board from inside the terminal using the jet bridge. Otherwise it is the usual bus out to the tarmac.

Posted by
19245 posts

A few years ago I flew JFK-KEF-LHR. The plane was a 767.

We arrived at Keflavik at a jet bridge gate and departed from the same gate on the same plane. We had to deplane in between.

However, most of the time, it's bus to plane.

The strange thing is that if you are flying in Saga, you get to board the bus first. After Saga boards, everyone else gets on the same bus. No special treatment once you get to the plane.

One time, and I can't remember if it was icelandair or another airline, they boarded first/business in the front of the bus and economy in the rear. When we got to the plane, the doors for the First/business customers was opened first and we were allowed to board the plane before everyone else.

One good thing about the "D" gate area of Keflavik, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur has a hot dog stand there. So even those not dealing with Schengen can get a hot dog.

Posted by
19 posts

Has anyone gotten gas at COSTCO near the airport recently? I am a member and their prices are usually better than anyone else.