Would like some help planning Iceland trip please

[Sirrith]

I'm planning to go to Iceland for ~5 days toward the very end of April, and would very much appreciate any help you are willing to give!

Its going to be a photo trip, and I'm likely going alone (or possibly with 2 photog friends) because that way I have more freedom.

I understand that around that time the F roads are still mostly closed, so Im planning my trip mainly around the ring road with a couple of excursions where the smaller roads are open. I will most likely be renting a normal car, not a 4x4, because I only have a limited time there, so I won't have time to see everything, and I'm guessing there's enough to see that is accessible by the good roads to keep me occupied and happy. Has anyone used or heard of carrentalss.com? What other car rental companies from Keflavik airport would you recommend?

These are the places I've got on my list:
Day 1
-Geysir (must see)
-Landmannalaugar (if I can get to it, I think it should be fine?)

Day 2+3
-Skaftafell (must see)
-Jökulsárlón (must see)

Day 4 + 5
-Goðafoss
-Dettifoss
-Kirkjufellsfoss/Grundarfjörður (Would very much like to see, but is this place accessible in april/may in a normal car? Its quite far out, but then its a town)

I'm planning to stay in hostels where possible, or camp if I have to. Does anyone have any recommendations based on experience? And where to book through? Does my journey plan look feasible in the time I have? Would it be better to cut down on the number of locations this time round and spend more time at fewer places? What has your experience been like of hostels and photographer hours i.e. checking out at 5am to catch the sunrise, are there staff there, can you make arrangements etc...?


If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. I'm sure I've left out some questions I wanted to ask or haven't thought of yet, if you have any additional information I'd also very much welcome it.

Thanks!

[sparker1]

If you will pay my expenses, I'll be pleased to show you around. I haven't been there, but will research it thoroughly in advance. You'll have a great trip, I'm sure.

[Anzxio]

Have you got any further with planning the trip?

I am looking at doing something very similar this year, so am hoping for more ideas.

I do wish it was somewhat cheaper to rent cars though!

[Sirrith]

Originally Posted by sparker1

If you will pay my expenses, I'll be pleased to show you around. I haven't been there, but will research it thoroughly in advance. You'll have a great trip, I'm sure.

You'd probably end up being cheaper than any of the photo tours I could find

Originally Posted by Anzxio

Have you got any further with planning the trip?

I am looking at doing something very similar this year, so am hoping for more ideas.

I do wish it was somewhat cheaper to rent cars though!

I have - sort of. I'll probably be renting the car from SADcars based on several recommendations I've found on blogs etc... and as for accommodation, I'll be booking through hostels.is as they have a nifty little feature which allows you to book a number of different stays and basically plan your trip out on the site. They're owned by the "hostelling" group, so I believe they're reliable.

I'm surprised no one here has had any advice to offer though! I'd think on a photographer's forum there'd be plenty of people who have been to Iceland.

[Anzxio]

One of the biggest problems i have with Iceland is deciding on when is best to go!

June/July looks ok weather wise, but it's virtually 24hr daylight, so i'm not sure if it's really ideal for photography. It also appears to be the case that in mid July everything doubles in price!

[axxxaaa]

First of all you must know that april is a cold season for Iceland,you'll find probably snow . I was in July and I had a beautiful weather but the temperature was under 20°C. The other thing you must know is that Iceland is not very cheap at all. Reykjavik is a small and colourfull city. Beautiful.
You had two option. There are day tours to the most interesting places like Geysir, Gullfoss or South Coast to Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. The second option is to rent a car (and a GPS) to go where do you want. There are not motorways but the roads are very good . I discovered this second option too late so I visited by myself just the eastern coast . I plan to go again this summer for two weeks to see more.Iceland is absoutely wonderful and spectacular. You'll like.

[nordlysBW]

April + depending where exactly you wish to drive means you might have to think twice about which category of car you should be renting. Considering some extra insurance can be advisable if you are going to use unpaved roads (windscreens and lamps are at risk with those flying stones)

Sites like this one give you details about where you may/may not take the car you rent:

http://naturreisen.is/nature-travel-...r-rental-cars/

As to planning where to go, even if you cannot really book anything from them for a mere five days, I guess you can get some very good tips about where to go depending on your personal taste if you browse through the tour offers they make:

http://naturreisen.is/nature-travel-...st-of-iceland/

[Sirrith]

Originally Posted by Anzxio

One of the biggest problems i have with Iceland is deciding on when is best to go!

June/July looks ok weather wise, but it's virtually 24hr daylight, so i'm not sure if it's really ideal for photography. It also appears to be the case that in mid July everything doubles in price!

Indeed! I want to go to too many places, I've had to knock several off the list already I'm sure I'll be making another trip(s) there in the future though.

Originally Posted by axxxaaa

First of all you must know that april is a cold season for Iceland,you'll find probably snow . I was in July and I had a beautiful weather but the temperature was under 20°C. The other thing you must know is that Iceland is not very cheap at all. Reykjavik is a small and colourfull city. Beautiful.
You had two option. There are day tours to the most interesting places like Geysir, Gullfoss or South Coast to Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. The second option is to rent a car (and a GPS) to go where do you want. There are not motorways but the roads are very good . I discovered this second option too late so I visited by myself just the eastern coast . I plan to go again this summer for two weeks to see more.Iceland is absoutely wonderful and spectacular. You'll like.

Thanks, and yes, I'm aware april is still "winter" there, but its the only time I'm free to go this year, and I'm hoping to maybe catch some of the last aurora.
I will be taking the second option and renting my own car, though probably without GPS.

Originally Posted by nordlysBW

April + depending where exactly you wish to drive means you might have to think twice about which category of car you should be renting. Considering some extra insurance can be advisable if you are going to use unpaved roads (windscreens and lamps are at risk with those flying stones)

Sites like this one give you details about where you may/may not take the car you rent:

http://naturreisen.is/nature-travel-...r-rental-cars/

As to planning where to go, even if you cannot really book anything from them for a mere five days, I guess you can get some very good tips about where to go depending on your personal taste if you browse through the tour offers they make:

http://naturreisen.is/nature-travel-...st-of-iceland/

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I'll be sticking to the main and secondary roads and staying off the F roads this time round, I'm sure I'll have more than enough to do anyway, and budget dictates that I must rent a small car!

I've managed to find this map though, which will prove very helpful I imagine:
http://www.vegagerdin.is/english/roa.../island1e.html

[nordlysBW]

I will be taking the second option and renting my own car, though probably without GPS.

A sound decision as you will hardly get lost on the paved roads. The small car you will be renting may not be driven on unpaved roads, I guess. I fully understand that choice: they do have steep prices for car rentals in Iceland, as for many other things.

[Assi]

I will follow this thread.

Im going to Iceland my self in April, but I haven't planned out so mutch yet.
Perhaps I will follow your advice? Seems like a lot's of fun the places you have found.
So far we have only talked about Blue lagoon, mountain safari with arctic trucks and perhaps safari to see some whales. We are 7 people that are traveling and only me that are more interested in taking pictures. My colleague is from Iceland, he will travel with us. We are gonna have a meeting in near future, if we find out some great places to visit I can post in this tread later. Good luck planning!

[Sirrith]

Well I've just booked my car with blue car rental, they have some glowing reviews and comparatively great prices. I would love to do the mountain/glacier trips with the 4x4's myself, but I think I'll wait for another trip to do those, this trip is just myself for photos, so I won't have time . It sure sounds like you'll have fun though, and yes, please do post places to visit here, more choice is always good! Good luck to you too.

[armis]

I went on a 2-week trip with friends there back in 2009, basically our collective introduction to photography.

What we did was basically drive around the island in a 4x4 and camp wherever we landed in the evening - we did have a rough idea of where we wanted to be in order not to be stranded in the middle of nowhere on day 14 .

Some advice: we went in August, and it was COLD. It'll be worse in April, plan accordingly. Also, we almost drowned the engine driving through a stream right at the entrance to Landmanalaugar, I'm not sure you'll be able to go through with a regular car. There may be ways to park before that and cross on foot somewhere, you might want to look that up.

The Fxx roads are already a bit rough on a normal car, forget about the Fxxx. You're probably right to just stick to the ring road (F1) and the main tourist places. As an FYI we didn't have a GPS but bought a fairly detailed atlas at the airport, and it was really accurate.

As far as planning goes, I'd try to squeeze in Vik if possible, it isn't too far out and there's really nice sights (though more in a rolling countryside and black sand beach sense than really impressive landmarks). You may be a bit optimistic in planning both Geysir and Landmanalaugar the first day, but I think you were a bit conservative for days 2 to 5 - I'm not sure Godafoss and Dettifoss are half-day excursions, for instance, so even factoring in the driving you might try to include another location.

[JimAndersson]

I had a vacation in Iceland october 2010. I got some really powerful photos even though I was freezing my butt off and only had my cheap olympus kit and a eenie-mini-micro table tripod with me.

I think we rented our car from Europecar or Hertz.

Don't forget "Gullfoss" while you're at "Geysir". It's practically the same place and definetly worth visiting. Maybe I can upload some photos later.

[Sirrith]

I've actually changed my itinerary completely now, so my first post is irrelevant! I decided not to go round the whole of Iceland in 5 days as that would be too hectic, so I'll be in the west and south for the whole time. I will actually be spending a night at Vik, so that will definitely be squeezed in somewhere, at least for one day! I've pretty much given up on landmanalaugar for this trip, I think I'll have enough to do anyway.

The only real question I have left really is whether or not its possible/allowed to drive up to Geysir with a standard 2WD car? Looking at the map it seems to be only small roads leading up to it, and yes, I will definitely check Gullfoss if I manage to get to Geysir photos would be great!

My new plan is:
-2 nights at Grundarfjörður
-1 night at Vik (I'll stop at Geysir on the way to Vik, its a ~3h drive according to google maps between Grundarfjörður and Geysir, then 2 hours to Vik, so I'll be able to spend a whole afternoon around there if I start driving in the morning)
-2 nights at Hvoll
-1 night at Reykjavik
flight back to UK

[armis]

Nah, there's a proper road to Geysir, don't worry. It's a huge tourist place, buses parked all over and stuff. Your main issue will be all the other people cluttering up your picture .

Why 2 nights at Grundarfsjordur? Why Reykjavik? (unless it's just a stop-over to drop the car and fly back)