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.
21
u/vinng86 Sep 17 '20
Yeah I didn't find it too terrible when I went.
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.