My husband and I are outlining a December Iceland trip over Christmas and New Years. Right now our itinerary would consist of a one or two night stay at the Blue Lagoon in the beginning of the trip and then several days at the end in Reykjavik for NYE. Flying back on the 1st. On the ground 10 days total. We have the skills to drive in winter weather but are considering just booking a several day (4-5?) mini bus tour just to remove the stress of winter driving out of the equation. Looking for recommendations for tour operators? Anyone done a multi day tour in winter? I am also open to hearing anyones ideas on winter itineraries that we could drive ourselves. Hoping to see beautiful winter landscape, ice caves, glaciers, try for the northern lights, hoping to staying in small cozy towns for a different vibe from the city. Hot springs are a plus!
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Snohomish, WA
2655 posts
That sounds like a wonderful trip! I am itching to get there over the holidays. Our adult kids went one year for NYE and said it was a lot of fun.
As for tours, I really like wwww.troll.is . We have used them for excursions that require a guide and then we had a 2 day south coast tour scheduled with them one February. A nasty storm was rolling in though, so the 2nd day had to be cancelled. The way they handled that was so good and they refunded the 2nd half of that immediately, vs waiting like a lot of companies do. I highly recommend them based on our own experiences. They do have a variety of winter tours, but I would opt for their 5 day south coast and Snaefellsness tour. Those two areas are great, and this would let you see all of it in one tour without having to book several different ones.
For the northern lights, I really like Aurora Experts and we are using them again next week. They specialize in the northern lights vs just being a general tour company.
We have done an ice cave as well as a glacier hike and they are great excursions, IMO. When you are in Reykjavik, arrange to get to Hvammsvik. It is my favorite hot spring in all of our trips.