Tomato Farm - Worth it in a tour?

We visited the "tomato farm". It was a very interesting visit, especially if any in your group have any interest in gardening. Plus there is the bonus of having a chance to enjoy some tomato soup (or other menu items) in the restaurant. After the official tour of the growing area our tour allowed enough time for viewing the plants, enjoying a light lunch, and shopping in the gift shop. I highly recommend it!

We had lunch there when we did the Golden Circle on our own. I had the tomato soup and my husband had the tortellini. Delicious! And the bread!!! Oh, my. We ate outside on the patio as we did not have a reservation. Luckily it was not raining. We also had a quick tour of the greenhouse. It was worth it IMHO.

IME, it is worth it. We loved it! They recently opened a wine bar there as well, and there are horses on the property that you can see. So all in all quite interesting, but the restaurant is good and a lot of fun to walk around. Check out the bees too. They do have the soup and bread recipes for sale, very inexpensive.

Like Ronald Reagan said, “A Tomato is a Tomato. How many Tomato’s do you need to see?” 😂

I think that seeing the Tomato Farm would be fascinating. Partly because my husband's great grandparents immigrated to the US from Iceland. But mostly because greenhouse growing of vegetables in locations not hospitable to any other way of growing them year round is brilliant. Well, and maybe because I love tomatoes.

I knew about the similar greenhouses in the Netherlands, but I was totally ignorant about the Tomato Farm. Here's a link for others like me: https://www.fridheimar.is/is/um-fri%C3%B0heima Click on English at the bottom of the screen.

This is a link to a 2018 basic article about Dutch greenhouses which says, "the Netherlands has become world leader in agricultural innovation and is the globe's number two exporter of food as measured by value, second only to the United States, which has 270 times its landmass."

It was included on my tour and I didn't think much about it before we went, but it was truly an amazing place. So glad I got to visit here. It is beautiful, the food is outstanding and not very expensive. Loved the huge, Dutch bumblebees. We got to visit the horses after lunch.
I say go for it. It is a totally unexpected and different side of Iceland.
Went on the Golden Circle tour with "Bus Travel Iceland", which was a small bus, just for 19 px, but we were only 5. The tour ended at the Sky Lagoon.

I had zero expectations but was glad we did it. The food was delicious and it was a fun environment. That and Thingvellir NP were highlights of the Golden Circle (which we didn't decide to add on until the last minute). With that being said, it's only "worth it" if you plan on touring the Golden Circle regardless. I found the GC to have some interesting aspects but not a "must see" in Iceland, generally speaking.

It's really, really hard to get an independent dining reservation here, in season. I thought it was interesting, especially the fact that the same tomato vines are years old, and are liquid fed in a tiny bit of soil. But it's a time-consuming stop on a busy day. And I don't really want a tomato-based lunch. They were gracious about letting us take a self-guided look at the place, so I bought a Bloody Mary (and left half of it, because I was driving.)

Thingvellir NP deserves as much time as you can get (I know that you don't have much leeway on a tour) on the Golden Circle. We went to Fontana thermal baths in the GC area, which was a great living-local experience. I though our (self-drive) GC was very worthwhile, but I got tired of driving so much.

Tim--That has not been my experience at all regarding reservations. You. just have to book far in advance. We have done that twice for high season and no issues at all. Also, just an FYI, Iceland is very strict in regards to drinking and driving and there. The limit is .02 BAC, so even half of a Bloody Mary would put most people over the limit.

For my weight, an online BA calculator offers 0.016% one hour after a 1.5 oz. 40% alcohol spirit consumption, and I only had half that.

I am aware that NYC visitors have to buy Statue of Liberty "crown" tickets in the first day or two they are released for sale, and Amsterdam/Anne Frank House tickets in the first few hours they are released. But a restaurant and greenhouse? C'mon.

We don't have enough sun to grow tomatoes, but we both exhibited at the Philadelphia Flower Show for ten years. Otherwise, our stop at Friðheimar would have been a let-down. But I think it has "non-quantifiable luster", like Blue Lagoon, where we did not enter the bathing experience, just looked. (I used quotes there because I'd like a better, but still non-judgemental-neutral, term than "non-quantifiable luster".)

Tim--That's just the way it is, whether or not any of us think a restaurant/tomato house is a big draw. Any bit of research will give this advice about booking early. There is a restaurant in the Westfjords that you have to book months in advance. And one near Selfoss that you need to book far in advance as well. I am sure there are others, but these are the ones we have personal experience with.

I've been to Fridheimer several times and enjoyed it each time. Two of the trips were on organized tours, once alone, once with a friend who loved it, as she is an avid gardener. The third trip, a group of six went there for lunch on our self-drive Golden Circle tour. We booked in advance, and also included the stable visit where they will demonstrate the five gaits of the Icelandic horse. My friends all loved both activities there, and they all thought it was right up there with their favorite activities. I don't think I would book a Golden Circle tour that didn't include it. It's an interesting place, and everyone raved about our lunch there.

Thanks for all the great feedback! I booked the Golden Circle Tour with the Tomato Farm :-)

Have fun! I hope you do a trip report when you get back.