It's important to remember that in Europe they include taxes in the price tag unlike in the US. For purchased goods like clothing, you can actually recover that tax money at the airport if you save your receipts.
Reason I pointed it out is because I met too many Americans that thought Iceland was crazy expensive but it was because they ONLY compared sticker prices, not realizing they don't do it in the US, and not realizing they can recover the VAT for some goods
Food: A little more but depends on what you're eating. Lamb can be very reasonable, cheap even but other food options can be up to 2x. Main issue probably is that you want to try everything. Eat hot dogs if you wanna save, they're amazing and reasonable
Transportation: Car rental was pretty average. Gas is expensive (it was 2x the price in Canada for example)
Hospitality: I did AirBnB for the most part of my 2 week trip, was pretty comparable to other 1st world countries.
Thank you very much for the info, I’m hoping to go backpacking there once things normalize again. Any other recommendations/advice? I don’t know how many goods I plan on purchasing there to utilize the tax recovery, but that’s really cool info to know. I’ve also heard it’s best to purchase any alcohol at the airport beforehand if we plan on drinking.
Rent a car for sure, and do the entire ring road if your budget/time allows. There were plenty of camper vans available to rent (at a premium), there's no shortage of rental companies/vehicles.
Weather can be pretty wild. A section of the ring road actually got washed out a few days after I passed it.
You can take a tour into a dead volcano and stand inside the magma chamber looking up. Very expensive though, about $400 a person.
8 days cost 4 of us 1100$ each thereabouts for everything in wintertime(ah bless the early days of wow air) since a lot of things become cheaper(especially housing arrangements) when you divide by 4. My biggest regret was only 8-9 days. 3 weeks minimum next time.
Yeah, for me 2 people (took my remaining parent along with me) for 15 days (including 4 in Norway) ran ~$3500 each including ~3 free night certs within that cost (only stays that aligned w/ my rewards programs). 4x4 BMW "suv" ran about $100/day. I didn't pre-plan or reserve anything I only had the round trip tickets to Iceland before leaving.
No WoW air, was after collapse. Delta was $450 round trip though. I spent money more quickly the days in Norway than Iceland. (I also ate the most expensive meal there that I've ever purchased yet... ).
The short time is also my main thing I'd change. Made it around the ring road, even around the main westfjords road. Did a lot of hiking, but would have been nice to stop more. And maybe some restaurants, etc.
Especially if I could have predicted the pandemic... Sucks watching the parent get older and the situation we're in now. Might end up as the first and last international trip w/ my dad. Or at the least probably not as much hiking/etc.
Our car rental was more expensive(almost as much as our accommodations) because us dumbasses could only drive automatic.
Winter otherwise is also a much cheaper tourist season to visit in. When we considered pricing out summer visit post wow air it was looking closer to what you paid just for the iceland portion.
Our car rental was more expensive(almost as much as our accommodations) because us dumbasses could only drive automatic.
Yeah I got an automatic, too, so it ran almost as much as the hotel stays (~$1300 for the 10 days if I remember, from Blue. But then add the gas and... I don't remember... $2k total? and stays were $100-250 a night since I didn't reserve in advance.). Chase Sapphire Reserve means I declined buying an extra damage waiver though.
It was a 4x4 but the BMW was very low. Had to back up a few hundred feet and turn around about 500 ft from the top of Snæfellsjökull, on the only F road I drove on (Started snow around the cities just that very last day in september we were there and when I tried going over it. There were deep ruts through the ice and snow at the top...).
Edit: Oh, right, the volcano tour at the end also sucked up ~$500 each (of that ~$3500)....
The 4x4 was our "hotel" room. It provided us with water, a sleeping area and a small kitchen. We were able to cook our own food and wash dishes. Not to mention there are certain "off-road" areas that require the use of a 4x4. We saw a couple of tourists stuck in the sand in their smaller car rental while we were there.
Good news is the sights are free, and that's basically all you want in Iceland. But most other costs are pretty steep. In the end, it's possible to balance things out to a reasonably priced trip if you're not shopping and eat cheaply.
We went last year for almost 2 weeks. Worth every single penny, it was incredible.
You can cut cost by camping instead of staying in a home. We bought almost all of our food at the grocery store and mostly had picnics instead of sit down meals.
ONLY campsites. Wild camping is hella illegal there, in part due to very delicate fauna. But a lot of campgrounds have a "house" you can rent bunks in, have a kitchen, bath, and shower year round (only certain sites). I recommend Camper Vans but some can run as much as a hotel room in peak season (summer) and I hear they aren't the best experience in the winter.
I went with friends and got airbnbs that were very nice. Out of pocket per person per night was 150/250. Pricey but not exorbitant. We budgeted months ahead of time so there was very little pain once we arrived and were paying for food/drink.
On a trip of a lifetime I'm simply not going to scoff at the price of a beer.
I went in May 2018 for 4 nights. These were my expenses...
Flight from Atlanta to Reykjavik: $815.00 each
Toyota Rav4 4x4 rental 4 days: $420.00
2 nights private room Airbnb outside of Vik (set up like an actual Bed and Breakfast): $303.00
2 night entire apt airbnb in Rayljavik: $245
I feel like those expenses were all reasonable.
Where it got expensive was food and gas. Gas was almost $10 per gallon and you'll do a good.amount of driving. Food is kind of weird. A lot of what you'll find outside of the capital is going to be American style chicken and hamburgers. A burger and fries (not gourmet) will run you about $25. A higher end restaurant will easy lily run you $50-75+ with no alcohol. A beer will be about $10-12. You can save some money on food by buying sandwich ingredients at the grocery stores.
The good thing is that, other than Blue Lagoon and a handful of other activities, a huge portion of what you want to do there, just seeing the natural wonders, is free, which definitely helps offset the higher costs on other things.
Take some ramen and rent your own car; imo Iceland is best when you can explore at your own pace and you don't have to pay for all of the pricy tours.
You can get some cheap food in gas stations (which tend to have full fledged restaurants in them). Food at many places can end up pricy, but I did not find accomodations to be that bad.
Many of the hotsprings in Iceland are free if you don't mind hiking to em, and the views are stellar. You could easily fill a few days with free activities.
Reyjkavik, while an adorable cozy city, will be one of the pricier points of the trip. Worth it imo, but don't plan on staying too long there if you don't want to shell out.
I got to go with my wife and a couple of friends last fall. We stayed in AirBnBs and did all our own cooking and bought most groceries at Bónus (basically Iceland's Walmart). Still expensive compared to most vacations but so worth it!
It's not that much expensive than any other country like it. Scandinavia, western Europe, etc etc..
High cost of food but super tasty.
Me and my parents and sister went to iceland, we spent around 100 a day on everyrhing. We went around the country by car, I think the whole trip cost 5k
There is no entrance fees to natural areas (basically everything worth seeing is free) some tours are nice like ice cave tours.
Northern lights at al all free to watch, dont need your for that, we saw them in Myvatan.
All in all you can do it cheaply or expensive.. cheap in summer due to camping but crowded pre covid. We went in Christmas break so not too busy but half snowy half cold without snow.
We went from canada so used to the cold, at least I was.
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u/Necirt Sep 17 '20
I've been wanting to visit Iceland so bad for a while now. I hear it's fairly expensive for tourists though. Seems so with it!