Hello! Just got the Rick Steves Iceland book, and usually I plan vacations myself. But, I'm thinking that Iceland might be easier with a tour. Is that so? My husband really doesn't like to drive in foreign countries anymore. I've read that "Hidden Iceland" is very good and "Nordic Visitor" (this one with reservations. Any other ideas? We're thinking 6 - 7 nights at the end of September, 2022. Thank you for any and all thoughts. (We like to do moderate hikes. We're in good health and in our late 60's. Hoping to start off in the BO of Switzerland for a week and then take a plane to Iceland.)
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17418 posts
It appears that Hidden Iceland mostly does one-day tours. Here are the only multi-day tours:
https://hiddeniceland.is/category/multi-day-tours/
So you could combine the 4-day tour and one of the 2-day tours; with a night in Reykjavik between the two, that would be 5 nights. Note that the cost they list as “from” of 249,990 ISK is per person for a triple; for a double room it is 269,990. The price does not include lunch or dinner, so you would have to allow extra $$$ for that.
End of September would be good for the chance to see Northern Lights; just be prepared for cold and wet weather!
As moderate hikers, might you consider a fairly active, nature-based trip, with hikes in the range of 6-8 miles?We really enjoy guided hiking trips for destinations like that (although we have not yet been to Iceland). Take a look at these 8 day/7 night trips offered by well-regarded active adventure companies:
https://www.wildernesstravel.com/trip/iceland/skaftafell-hiking-trip
https://www.mtsobek.com/trips/europe/iceland/
We have used MT Sobek several times, including most recently for a walking-focused trip in Japan. The groups are small (like 7-9 people on the trips we have done with them) and the guides, accommodations, food, and transport arrangements have been uniformly excellent.
Posted by
Indianapolis
201 posts
We used Nordic Visitor in 2018, a 7-day self-driving trip around the country via the ring road. Lodging was excellent, meals were on us. It was a great trip that we would do again in a minute.
Posted by
10 posts
We're going with Imprint Tours (Reid Coen) in early September, 2022. The tour is 8 night/9 days in length and circles the island.
https://imprinttours.com/iceland-itinerary
Posted by
OP
73 posts
Thank you for those suggestions. I will check them all out !
Posted by
Snohomish, WA
2640 posts
We have been to Iceland twice so far and I personally think it is easier to do yourself vs a tour. The first time, we did not rent a car and did day tours. The second trip was just this past August and we rented a vehicle and did the entire ring road ourselves and it was much more enjoyable. That said, late September can be winter as this year the weather was awful at times and the roads did close.
With 6-7 nights that is not enough for the ring road, but a nice amount of time for the south coast or Snæfellsnes. You could easily do a mix of day tours and self drive, which would be a nice way to go IMO.
Take a look at Troll.is as well as https://adventures.is which are very reputable tour companys. They have multi day tours that might work for you if you are not up for doing any of it yourself. These are highly recommended by posters on Trip Advisor that have used them.
Posted by
OP
73 posts
Thank you all for your replies. We're going to look into doing a couple tours and a few days renting a car.
And, we decided to stay in Iceland and do the BO in Switzerland another year. So, now we can stay longer in Iceland! Retirement is great !
Posted by
Big Island of Hawaii
756 posts
We just recently went to Iceland, from August 30 to September 9. We had been once previously and had taken a tour of the Golden Circle, which provided a great introduction to the history and geology of the country. This time we decided to self drive the Ring Road, which was pretty easy for my husband who loves to drive. If you do decide to take a tour, then take a multi-night tour out of Reykjavik that covers a good portion of the Golden Circle and south coast. I would not advice day trips from Reykjavik as you'll just do a lot of backtracking.
We had great weather for our trip. However, the week after we left the weather turned bad and there was snow, gale force winds, and lots of road closures. So I suggest that you look at going no later than mid-September. Even if you go on a tour and someone else drives, you still have to contend with possible bad weather and no-one goes anywhere when roads are closed.
Posted by
7 posts
My friends and I are leaving for Iceland on Friday. I actually went to Trip Advisor to look at all the tours and their reviews. We booked all of our tours through there which is just a front end for the actual tour companies. We have tours booked everyday from the 23-29. All tour companies have been great with communication even the one that got cancelled which was the active volcano hike. They allowed us to just switch, seamlessly to their day tour.
Posted by
Reno, NV, USA
2547 posts
Odysseys Unlimited has an Iceland tour. We have traveled with them 5 times and just signed up for their Costa Rica tour in late January. They are a really good company. But we did Iceland on our own and got to see what we wanted to see. We had a package deal with Iceland air which I don’t believe they offer any more. They chose the hotels, provided the car and GPS. We drove the ring road for ten days. Two weeks would have been better. The ring road is good and not difficult. There was not a lot of traffic when we were there. We went in midJune and had good weather. Iceland is less expensive on your own. September might be more challenging weather wise for driving. We did not have the car in Reykjavik and just walked everywhere. PM me if you want more info.
Posted by
8242 posts
Nordic Visitor was fantastic. Highly recommend that tour company.