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Wandering Spud: I C E L A N D

ICELAND

Iceland was a bit of a disaster for us; unfortunately there was a crazy storm which threw a huge spanner in our plans and to be honest really ruined an eagerly anticipated and expensive trip. My sister Kate and I went from February 19th- February 23rd and 5 days was enough. Outside of Reykjavik was was beautiful but freezing, everything was super expensive and the city itself felt like a massive industrial estate. I think its safe to say that I'm huffing with the Icelandic gods of weather a wee bit.

AIRPORT TRANSFERS

We had booked our private transfer from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik through Thomas Cook for £80 return for the two of us, which actually turned out to be a bus transfer with Grayline Tours. I had asked specifically that a driver meet us in arrivals with a sign with my name on it and that didn't happen which was a greatttttt start to our trip. We ended up spending 2+ hours waiting in arrivals with 4 other groups who had booked transfers with Thomas Cook who were given no information whatsoever about their transfers, desperately trying to get in contact with someone at Thomas Cook and we missed our first evening in the city. Massive bummer and it was the tip of the iceberg.

HOTEL

We stayed at City Park Hotel.

It was really basic and was meant to be just a place to rest our heads. Had we realised we would be spending so much time at the hotel we definitely would have booked somewhere nicer with more facilities. By the time we arrived on the first night we were shattered, we just wanted to sleep. There was no food being served at the restaurant so I had a stale ham and cheese sandwich from their fridge which cost £6. Our first night in the room was freezing and crazy loud and we ended up having to move rooms because there was a massive crack in the window. There was also horrendous building works happening on the roof, right above our heads which was infuriating when trying to call all of the tour operators and travel agencies.


There were no minibars and no safes in the room so we ended up having to carry our passports everywhere. When I asked reception about this I was told that the crime rate in Iceland was very low. It took all my strength to not retort with 'but still existent'.





TOURS

We booked our tours through a company called Special Tours (found on Trip Advisor)

So due to the storm the whale watching was cancelled and the the Northern lights Tour wasn't but it really should have been. It was completely cloudy and we sailed through a snow storm- it was like something out of a horror movie. Everyone was being sick on board below deck or frozen to death above.

This 'tour' cost us approximately £220 and to be honest it really wasn't worth it. the sites were amazing but it wasn't so much a tour as it was transfer from place to place. The driver came in the back of the mini bus at each stop and spoke to us for about 3 minutes and some of that was about where we would meet him again so not a lot of information about the place and not a guided tour. The driver did handle driving in the snow storm brilliantly though. Also we thought (with the price being so high) that the Blue Lagoon was included, and we were devastated to be told that we needed to get tickets and that it had been sold out for months. We spent all day heartbroken, checking the website for availability and thinking we hadn't gotten in. It was meant to be the saving grace of the trip and I just remember sitting on the bus crying wanting to go home.


Tip: If I was to do Iceland again I would just rent a car as 3/4 of the stops were free entry.


First Stop- Thingvellir National Park




Second Stop - Geysir




Third Stop - Gullfoss Waterfall




Fourth Stop - Kerid Volcanic Crater


Final Stop- The Blue Lagoon

As I've already said we thought that our admission would have been included and it wasn't. This was the rotten cherry on the awful sundae of our trip but to the story of what happened and the hero of day Johann H. The Blue Lagoon was the last stop one the tour and we arrived at 4.45pm to leave again at 7pm. So we raced up the path and when we arrived spoke to a lovely guy called Johann H (Pretty sure the H stood for Hero). We explained the situation; the fact we were in Iceland for Kate's birthday trip and nothing had gone right and we thought admission was included and if there was anything he could do. He was really apologetic and explained that if he let us in then he would have to stop other customers who had pre-booked from going into the Lagoon. He said he was really sorry and you could tell he was gutted for us.


Kate and I were both upset but we went to sit in the cafe away from the windows as I could bare to look at the pool if we couldn’t go in and to be honest it had been such an awful trip I just wanted to go home. A couple of minutes past and my sister went to get a latte and I picked up the phone to ring Mark in tears and I looked up and there was Johann who had checked the cancellations for that day and had managed to get us two tickets! I couldn’t believe it! I seriously grabbed his arm and had to stop my self from hugging him. Entry was 20,000 ISK (£150) but it was worth every penny at that moment. We had the best afternoon in the Blue Lagoon; we had Prosecco, tried the mud masks, took loads of photos, it was amazing. So top tip, make sure you book well in advance or check if its included in your tour!


HOP ON HOP OFF BUS = £35 for a one day ticket

There are 15 stops on the tours (one is the bus station- give me strength) but it included:


1 Harpa Concert Hall & Conference Centre

We got off here (we started at 12) to go to the Sun Voyager which was pretty cool but the steps down were super slippy.



2 Lækjartorg

This is a short walk from 1 and is the 'city centre'. We got some amazing hot dogs here. We went into an Irish bar as well (because Kate needed a decent cup of tea)




3 City Hall

4 The Old Harbour

5 Reykjavik Maritime Museum

6 Whales of Iceland

It cost us £35 to go in for 2 people and that was with a discount. Not worth it. The Whales were impressive but with only 3 rooms and a cafe we left feeling ripped off.



7 National Museum

8 BSI Bus Terminal

9 Hallgrim's Church

Beautiful from the outside, we didn't queue to go up the Spire for the view as the storm made sure it was impossible to see

11 Kringlan Shopping Centre

12 Hilton Reykjavik Nordica

This stop was just outside of our hotel so it was really handy for us.

13 Laugardalur Valley

14 Höfdi House

15 Skarfabakki Harbour

FOOD

  • Fish and Chip cost £40- I shit you not.

  • Icelandic Street Food - this was by far the best place we ate on our whole trip. the guys running the place were lovely offering free food because 'no on goes home hungry'. We were even given a voucher for wine in the bar next door. The food was INCREDIBLE. We had lamb soup and the fishermans special and both were incredible and actually reasonably priced. The soup was served in a massive bread bowl and it was so filling.

  • Hotdogs - So imagine an IKEA hotdog but £5 instead of 79p. Again crazy expensive but apparently it was an experience not to be missed and to be fair it was lovely. I tried it with mustard, ketchup, mayo and tobacco onions and it was crazy tasty.

TIPS:

  • For the love off all that is Holy- BOOK YOUR BLUE LAGOON TICKETS WELL IN ADVANCE OR AT LEAST CHECK IF THEY ARE INCLUDED IN YOUR TOUR

  • Don't go in Jan/Feb

  • Bring a Tri-pod for the Northern Lights

  • oh and blister plasters

  • and use a back pack - youll need so much stuff when you are out and about

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