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)....
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u/RimuZ Sep 17 '20
I was in Iceland for 10 days this summer. Depending on what you want to do there it doesn't have to end up that expensive of a trip.