Would like some help planning Iceland trip please

[Sirrith]

Hopefully it won't be too cluttered in April! Grundarsfjordur for 2 days because of kirkjufell and snaefellsjokul which I want to explore a bit, and Reykjavik sort of as a stop over and because I want me one of those icelandic jumpers!

[JimAndersson]

You should stop åt the blue lagoon directly after arriving to keflavik too. Turist thing, I know, but very nice. Might be a problem to store your gear though.

[Sirrith]

Don't think I'll have time for the blue lagoon this time round, but that doesn't matter, I don't think its really something I'd want to do by myself anyway!

I've got another question though, regarding parking the car. Does anyone know if its OK to park the car on the side of the road and go off to take photos for a while (e.g. 1-2 hours)? Or do I have to find a designated parking spot?

[armis]

Never had a problem with that. Depends on the traffic obviously, but as long as you're not in the way I don't think there's a problem - besides, you'll find that designated parking areas tend to be rather far apart. Perhaps leave a note in the windshield so nobody starts freaking out about the abandoned rental car .

[JimAndersson]

I don't think it will be a problem at all.

[Sirrith]

Awesome, that makes things much easier

[Anzxio]

What are you doing for sleeping? Will you be using hotels/hostels? or camping? Also, outside of Reykjavik, is it easy enough to find small towns with restaurants? Silly questions maybe... but thought i'd ask!

I'm considering going for ~10 days in June.

[Sirrith]

Originally Posted by Anzxio

What are you doing for sleeping? Will you be using hotels/hostels? or camping? Also, outside of Reykjavik, is it easy enough to find small towns with restaurants? Silly questions maybe... but thought i'd ask!

I'm considering going for ~10 days in June.

I'm going with hostels this time round as its my first time there, so its probably going to be easier that way. I used this site which I believe has the most complete list of hostels in Iceland and has a very nice feature to let you book multiple hostels at once according to your trip plan:
http://www.hostel.is/

I have no idea about the small towns with restaurants

[armis]

I found Iceland not to be a mind-blowing food experience, to be honest. Thing is, there are towns spattered here and there, but most of them are tiny. I mean, the largest settlement after Reykjavik has 30,000 people... So you'll find some restaurants but you probably shouldn't expect them to have English menus (outside from the obvious tourists stops and larger towns, of course). Most of the food I ingested in Iceland was hastily made sandwitches from supplies we picked up in supermarkets and gas stations, to be honest - but admittedly we didn't make a real effort to find proper restaurants.

[Anzxio]

Originally Posted by armis

I found Iceland not to be a mind-blowing food experience, to be honest. Thing is, there are towns spattered here and there, but most of them are tiny. I mean, the largest settlement after Reykjavik has 30,000 people... So you'll find some restaurants but you probably shouldn't expect them to have English menus (outside from the obvious tourists stops and larger towns, of course). Most of the food I ingested in Iceland was hastily made sandwitches from supplies we picked up in supermarkets and gas stations, to be honest - but admittedly we didn't make a real effort to find proper restaurants.

This is exactly what i thought it would be like. It's just not so much fun eating like that after a few days when you're travelling!

[Sirrith]

Originally Posted by armis

Most of the food I ingested in Iceland was hastily made sandwitches from supplies we picked up in supermarkets and gas stations, to be honest

This is probably what I'll be doing. I won't be anywhere near a town, let alone a restaurant, for most of the days anyway!

[jubilatu]

1.do not miss Blue Lagoon. taning on 4degree celsius on a light rain, with a beer in your hand, siting in a hot blue-milky water it's quite an experience.
2. whale watching in april it's a big joke. 3 hours no whales (in fact nowbody saw one in 4days)
3.i rented with rhinocarhire. the car was ok (toyota avensis, 90euro/day). they say would give the gps for free but didn't have one when i arrived - travel with the map could be quite catchy becouse all the street names are finishing with mfdkfjehfuefn-fur and beginin gwith jfkfgjrirj.
you will not need an all wheel drive in that period.if you are intending to go on the wilde do it with a speicalised company. the rest of the trip you could do it by yourself (google for "golden circle" to see the points of interest). be careful at the distances - maximum speed on their highways is 80km (50 miles)/hour.
4. near godafoss is a bar (in the parking). do not miss the lamb soup.
5. we stayed in reykjavik. 1 day for blue lagoon, 1 day - trip to glacier (climbing is fun, but the road is 2 1/2 hours), 1 day whale watching (big joke), 1 day geysir and godafoss. All in the morning - so you have the afternoons for the city and surroundings (the roads on coast and the little villages are beautifull).
6. if you have clear sky in the night DO NOT MISS the AURORA - april is quite at limit but you have a chance - i saw it in the 1st night at 2.00am.
Fantastic country, i envy you...

[futura]

Thats a really tight schedule. From your list I think its easily possible to to 5 days in just Landmannalaugar, if I recall its actually quite a bit of a treck (by car) to get the campsite where i think a lot of people start their walks, so I'd probably take that out of the schedule.

Jökulsárlón is well worth spending a few hours and on the other side of the road you get bits of ice washed up onto the black beach.

The waterfalls maybe busy with tourist buses (and there will be loads), best to time your visit so they don't get in your way... dawn and dusk, there are hardly any people around.

Guess last thing from me is enjoy your experience, Iceland has drawn me back for summer and winter landscapes, its truly beautiful.

[Anzxio]

http://www.international-photographe...days_index.htm

That looks very helpful for planning where to go.

[Sirrith]

Originally Posted by jubilatu

1.do not miss Blue Lagoon. taning on 4degree celsius on a light rain, with a beer in your hand, siting in a hot blue-milky water it's quite an experience.

4. near godafoss is a bar (in the parking). do not miss the lamb soup.
5. we stayed in reykjavik. 1 day for blue lagoon, 1 day - trip to glacier (climbing is fun, but the road is 2 1/2 hours), 1 day whale watching (big joke), 1 day geysir and godafoss. All in the morning - so you have the afternoons for the city and surroundings (the roads on coast and the little villages are beautifull).
6. if you have clear sky in the night DO NOT MISS the AURORA - april is quite at limit but you have a chance - i saw it in the 1st night at 2.00am.
Fantastic country, i envy you...

Great to hear from more people who have been there
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I am going to give the blue lagoon a miss. I will undoubtedly be returning to Iceland sometime in the future (funny how I've not even gone once yet and I'm already thinking of going again!) with friends, at which point I will be sure to visit it.

I've altered my trip itinerary so I won't be trying the lamb soup as nice as that sounds

Re: Reykjavik, would you happen to know any nice shops that sell the traditional wool jumpers? Cheers!

And I really do hope I get to see the aurora, I've never seen it before.

Originally Posted by futura

Thats a really tight schedule. From your list I think its easily possible to to 5 days in just Landmannalaugar, if I recall its actually quite a bit of a treck (by car) to get the campsite where i think a lot of people start their walks, so I'd probably take that out of the schedule.

Jökulsárlón is well worth spending a few hours and on the other side of the road you get bits of ice washed up onto the black beach.

The waterfalls maybe busy with tourist buses (and there will be loads), best to time your visit so they don't get in your way... dawn and dusk, there are hardly any people around.

Guess last thing from me is enjoy your experience, Iceland has drawn me back for summer and winter landscapes, its truly beautiful.

Yeah, I decided the original schedule was too tight so I've changed it now, I'm sticking around the south & southwest. Hopefully that'll give me more time at each location. Landmannalaugar will have to wait until another time, much to my regret, probably best if I return during summer at some point!
And hopefully there won't be that many tourists that time of year.

Originally Posted by Anzxio

http://www.international-photographe...days_index.htm

That looks very helpful for planning where to go.

That link is amazingly good, thanks for giving me another few hours of reading to do thankfully I can read French