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5 Ways to Travel better In iceland

Tips and Tricks for Traveling in Iceland

By Ashleigh Cropper

July 4^th, 2018

The country of fire and ice

It is insanely gorgeous, but don't be fooled, it comes with a rather large price for travel.

There are always major deals with airlines to Iceland, but once you arrive, you may be as shocked as we were with the costs!

To give you a quick overview of just how expensive Iceland is... The country ranks 3rd as most expensive country in the world! The price of restaurants and lodging in Iceland are 44% more than the EU average. Alcohol is 123% more as well! YIKES! (source here from Iceland's official page.)

Since my husband and I live in Denver, we found some killer tickets with Iceland Air! We booked it without much thought since we have traveled so much throughout Europe, and then reality sank in... fast. Friends who had been started to warn us of the costs ranging from where to stay, to excursions, and food!

We booked our trip for almost 20 days! I thought,

"Crap!!! What did we get ourselves into?!"

But I we learned a ton and did some math when I was in Iceland! So here are my 5 ways to enjoy Iceland and not come home a pauper!

1. Lodging

The two best options I found that saved us hundreds and hundreds of dollars was Airbnb and Bookings.com.

Airbnb- Obviously. We have used it often with our travels, and always love it. We made sure to stay away from the city (our first stop was Reykjavik). It saved us anywhere from $50-$100 a night. We also made sure our place had a kitchen. Again, saving us so much money on food costs which are very high. The area I highly recommend staying at a little outside of the city center is Seltjarnarnes. It is a peninsula with a lighthouse, walking areas, and cute neighborhoods. If you are there during the winter, it's the best spot to see the Northern Lights within Reykjavik since it's a lot less busy and has far less light pollution.
Bookings.com- When you adventure outside of Reykjavik, the Airbnb options become very limited. That's why Bookings.com is great. We found some really solid options for $100-$125 per night (yes, that's on the less expensive side) as we traveled the South Coast. Make sure to book a place that includes breakfast! The cities, and therefore restaurants are few and far between.

NOTE: You really don't need to stay IN Reykjavik. There are plenty of connected areas and neighborhoods that are very accessible with great bus routes (if you're into that sort of thing... see point 4).

2. Food

Simply put, JUST AVOID EATING OUT!

We are HUGE foodies, but honestly there was only one place that was worth the amount of money it cost. If you go to the South Coast and make it to Höfn, then make sure to splurge here. Otherwise, we really felt like the food was not worth it. I mean, it was fine, but everything was DOUBLE what you would want to pay for it. Even if you try to eat fast food, it will be expensive. In the off season,(we went during February-March) a pizza cost us around $45, a burger was $28, and fish + chips (a common local dish) was about $35-$45 a person.

"$45 for fish and chips??!! Were they the most AMAZING fish and chips of your LIFE???!!!"

"no... not really"

Again, book a place with a kitchen on Airbnb, and then you are set for saving at least $100 per day! Think about it, you'll spend a whole lot less staying at a place that has a kitchen than you would if forced to eat out for every meal.

3. Grocery STORES

Grocery stores, grocery stores, grocery stores...

They will become your best friend! We made sure to book an Airbnb near a grocery store. The grocery is very easy to navigate and has most everything you would need. They are not as big as in the US, but easily your best option for food. Bonus and Kronan were our go-to's.

We found that fresh fruit and vegetables were prohibitively expensive (remember you are on an Island just outside the arctic circle so it's not like they've got apples growing everywhere.) But, frozen veggies were pretty cheap and a great way to get some greens! They also for some reason LOVE their hot dogs, so those are inexpensive as well.

The butter is also so delicious! We pretty much lived a full week where 85% of our calories came from butter 'n bread, and drinkable Icelandic yogurt.

And since you're probably going to be driving everywhere and doing day trips, make sure to get some snacks too!

4. Rent a car!

We were the idiots who took the bus from the airport to Reykjavik (never again!) Then another bus from Reykjavik out to our Airbnb. Then dragged our bags in the snow (again we were there in February) up a hill and 4 blocks down to find our place. It was HELL! The first bus from the airport into Reykjavik took 1.5 hours to just leave the airport because they wanted to fill up with more passengers!

We had previously rented a car for our second week in Iceland for our drive along the south coast, but we thought we might as well use the bus to get in and out of town during that first week.

Then we happened to be in Iceland during a cold spell with snow and we realized that relying on the bus would add up to roughly $36 a day! Transportation isn't cheap in Iceland. So after one round of bus travels, we decided to rent a car while in Reykjavik.

The smaller, non-4x4 car (we were staying in town, so we weren't' worried about not having a billion horse-power) cost us about $30 a day, and made our life so much easier. We could come and go as we pleased into town. You never know what the weather will do, so it was such a huge help during the storms. Grocery shopping was much easier too! Car is the best transportation option in Iceland. Also, there is no Uber, so don't plan on that!

If you're determined to use the bus though, you do so by downloading the app (Android, Apple) that will give you the routes, times, and also acts as the ticket (you show the screen to the driver after activating the ticket).

5. Off Season/IN-BETWEEN Seasons

This may be a given, but traveling in Iceland during off season, and in-between seasons can save you a ton. Lodging was anywhere between $50-$100 less than during their busy season from June-August. We found some excursions that were also discounted anywhere from 15-25% too. Overall, it helped with our budget that we were not fighting other tourists for bookings.

On one of our excursions the guide said that last year (2017) Iceland had 2 million visitors, and over half of those came during June-August! The country is picking up on this pattern, so lodging went up immensely, as well as any tours or excursions. I will add on a personal note, I cannot imagine being in Iceland with that many people during the summer. Even in the "off" season, it was way busier than I expected, so the thought of having to share every attraction with 2,3,4 times as many people would just be awful. I loved having places to myself along the South Coast. Even being at the popular waterfalls and attractions had numerous people (see those images with everyone!?)

Fantasy -------------------- Reality

Bonus tip: A lot of iceland is free

If you sign up for the ice cave tours, and the snorkeling and the puffin boat ride or marinate in the multi-racial broth of Blue Lagoon and everything else, you'll feel the dent in your wallet for sure. Just a few guided tours/excursions for you and your travel partner can add up to thousands of dollars, but you don't really need to do ALL of it.

Pick one or two things that you really want to do, then spend the rest of your time appreciating Iceland's natural grandeur.

To visit the iconic waterfalls, walk on glaciers (carefully and not too far!), look up at the northern lights, sit along the black sand beaches, and even bask some off-the-beaten-path hot springs, pretty much all you have pay for is parking.

So enjoy Iceland, but don't feel like you're missing out if you haven't done everything the Icelandic Board of Tourism lists on their site.

Iceland is worth visiting at least once in your life! It is full of outdoor adventures and every corner has something new to look at! Just know it will not be your cheapest trip, but definitely a worthwhile one that you will hopefully now save some money on!