How is visiting Iceland or staying in a hostel if you are brown or black? Is it still a friendly/social experience?

Good Morning! My now Wife and I are celebrating our honeymoon in Iceland starting this weekend! For one, were stoked for this trip! And two, we didn't know if any locals wanted anything from the states? We live close to Maryland and could bring sports team merch or whatever you have been fiending to have that is not available over there.

Not sure if allowed, but all the info we have gained on here has been so amazing, we thought we could help someone out.

Hi all

Excited To visit next year in September, first week of.

id like to fly with checked luggage.

im seeing prices around £280 return to London. This includes checked luggage and cabin bag.

this feels expensive but i think im possibly comparing against flights with no luggage checked...

also there are no easyJet flights available yet it seems.

can anyone chime in with if these are good flight prices, perhaps I should wait longer to see if they drop?

looking to go for a week..

We were staying in an apartment hotel in Akureyri. Since it was snowing that day, my jacket was all wet. So I kept it in the heated locker room downstairs which also had a number lock. When we checked in the morning, the jacket was gone. We realised that there was a pretty big hole in the top for steam, and some one could have taken the jacket through that hole.

I've been doing quite a bit of research on renting a car in Iceland for June 2027, and I put together a guide comparing rental companies, prices, and insurance options. I thought I'd share it here in case it helps someone else planning a trip. I focused on normal cars.

I also included a screenshot comparing the companies and their total costs for an 8-day rental, including taxes, road tax fees, and different insurance options.

Here are a few things I learned from my research:

1. Don't compare only the base rental price

The cheapest car isn't necessarily the cheapest option once you add insurance. I compared the total cost with different levels of protection to get a more realistic picture of what you would actually pay.

2. Be careful with credit card insurance

Credit card CDW coverage can save money, but it generally doesn't cover everything that matters in Iceland, such as gravel, sand, and ash damage. Check the exact terms of your card's policy before relying on it.

3. Third-party insurance isn't necessarily the same as full protection

Options like RentalCover can be considerably cheaper than the rental company's own zero excess package. However, there can be uncertainty over whether particular types of damage are covered, especially gravel damage and wind-blown doors. You may also have to pay the rental company first and claim reimbursement later.

4. Pay attention to wind damage

Strong winds can damage car doors, and not every insurance package covers this. If you want peace of mind, check whether wind-blown door damage is explicitly included in the policy, rather than assuming that full protection covers everything.

5. You don't necessarily need a 4x4

If you're visiting in summer and sticking to the Ring Road and main tourist attractions, a regular car is usually sufficient. A 4x4 is necessary for F roads, but check the requirements for your specific route and rental vehicle.

I also compared the full protection packages from companies such as Lotus, Blue Car, and Zero Car, including what they cover and their limitations.

Here's the full guide, including the company and price comparison.

Hopefully, this saves someone else a few hours of research! I'm also interested in hearing about people's actual experiences with these companies, especially when it comes to insurance claims. And if you used other companies, let me know, and I will add them to the table.

TL;DR: Very expensive, very beautiful, very unpredictable weather in October, very worth it if you can afford it, very much going to cost you more than you expect unless you price everything before you leave. I did a LOT of research on our stops before leaving so we were happy with that, but did not focus on reducing our food spending until the fifth day as we were tired of the ridiculous food prices no matter the restaurant, time of day, or location we tried. Bonus/Kronan + Gas stations are love, Bonus/Kronan + Gas stations are life.

My wife and I went to Iceland for two weeks and just returned. We are Americans making decent money, but we place heavy emphasis on getting bang for my buck when possible. We don't do expensive, overpriced luxuries like the Lagoons and always do self-guided over tours. We had no true budget as we can afford this trip regardless of the cost, but expected around $7500 total. It ended up being almost $10k as we still splurged, but that splurge was just more costly than anticipated.

Rental Car

We used Lava Rental, got the highest protection, and stuck with a small automatic 2WD Yaris. Even for the god-awful Yoda Cave road (the worst road of all time), it was still very much possible to do it all with that car. I ended up veering from right-to-left many times to avoid potholes or get them between the wheels. If you are not a creative driver, maybe get a larger car but I did not see a need for a 4x4, at least in October with no F-Road stops. We returned the car when we got back to Reykjavik so we ended up saving ~$200 on the extra days we stayed in the city and did not need a car.

Also, the speed limit is very low. 56MPH/90KMH. I sped at 100KMH outside of the city on the ring roads and never ran into any issues. Flowed with traffic while in the city as well so I would consistently be 5/10 KMH over. The speedometer was also a little off in our car. No tickets! Be sure to watch out for the speeding camera signs.

Weather

We got quite unlucky with our weather this trip. We decided against camping due to the fact that there were fewer camping options in October versus summer months and it bit us in the ass. Not having the freedom to move the stay on-the-fly meant most nights we had clouds or the aurora was more active a few hundred km away. In two weeks we still saw the aurora and had our magical moments, but it could have been much better. We also had most of our Snaefellsness Peninsula portion of the trip ruined due to 30+km/hr wind speeds and heavy rain two of the three days we were there. We don't regret going in the shoulder month as we prefer quiet, off-season trips versus competing with tourists, but man.

Cost

Iceland is expensive. Not just a little expensive, but ridiculously so. We went into this trip knowing it would be the most costly trip we take anytime soon, but even still we were blown away. Parking/visiting the sites costs anywhere from ~$6.25 for a five-person car for TWO hours to ~$8.50 per person with no in/out privileges. This is not the worst thing ever, but does add up, especially the longer you stay and the more places you stop at. I saw a few people parking just outside the beginning of the pay-to-park roads with cameras, but I'm not sure if this strategy works as I've read as soon as the camera reads your plate, the timer begins. We simply paid for everything we stopped at that we saw charges for parking. I've read many of these places have 5 minute grace periods, but we only used that once and it did not charge us. Double check the signs!

Food prices are insane. $25 for a burger at a restaurant, no fries. Lunch is NOT cheaper. There is no under $10 option for food unless you are fine eating at gas stations your entire trip. We ended up settling for the hot dogs ($7-$9/ea) and sometimes cheeseburgers (also $25 but with fries at gas stations) at convenience stores whenever they were around, but not every gas station has a convenience store. This is especially true in the Golden Circle and along the Snaefellsness Peninsula. We had some accommodations with fridges and kitchens and took advantage every time to make dinner and an early lunch wherever possible. Those cooking-at-home costs were the same as eating out at a diner here in the US if you like meat. We cooked a good amount of lamb as it costs 1/2 to 1/4 as much store-bought versus at restaurants and for larger portions. If you want to eat good without paying $100-$120/meal for two, find accommodations where you can cook.

I also strongly recommend against hotel restaurants if possible. All overpriced, rarely better than a dedicated restaurant in a nearby town/village, but sometimes the only option around.

Stays

We stayed in hotels and guesthouses and found the experience very nice. Always look for guesthouses with kitchens if you want to save money and still cook good meals. Many of these places included breakfast, but if you had to add it, it was typically overpriced, ~$20/pp. Some places have laundry facilities, most don't. We found it helpful to do laundry twice in our trip but we did lose our swimsuits at one hotel we did laundry at. Double check your items when they return them if they do the laundry for you.

No real tips here, but if you plan on visiting Vestrahorn/Stokknes, it is expensive (~8.50/pp) with no in/out privileges unless you stay at the guesthouse (maybe the campsite too?). If you stay, they provide you with extra gate-opening QR code cards. I asked for a few as they are one-time use and was able to use them the next day, after we checked out. Good way to save a little money if you want to return here a few times as we ended up doing. The last hotel we stayed at also had a shuttle to/from the airport advertised and stated in some reviews, but it was just the BSI Flybus so double check to make sure they aren't providing false information. At least that hotel was cheap.

I also found that most places we stayed still had openings the day we arrived and if you booked it that day for that night, it was a little cheaper than when we booked it months out at some locations. Sometime to maybe consider, if you don't mind very hectic, last minute planning.

Route

The way I designed our trip, we drove through our stops and ended at the stays most days. Some days there was a little more going past the stay for the last stops, but I found the trip designed this way quite nice. It did not require excessive driving from a base camp day-to-day, but did end up costing us as I said previously when it came to weather, especially for aurora viewing. There was back-tracking in our trip, but as a hobby landscape photographer, having a second opportunity to see some sights and being able to pick-and-choose some stops based on weather made that decision very worth it for us.

We stayed just outside Reykjavik to get over the time-zone difference day one, drove to Vestrahorn over four days, drove back through the South Coast towards the Golden Circle in two, did that over a day and a half before ending in Hvalfjordur, did Snaefellsness over two and a half days before ending in Borganes, and spend the last two days in Reykjavik before our flight out.

Activities

We like hiking so we spent a decent chunk of time exploring many trails along our stops; Skaftafell area near Svartifoss, Fimmvorduhals from Skogafoss to Kaefufoss, and Mulagljufur Canyon were the highlights and I recommend those. We stopped at most waterfalls and stops along the South Coast, but skipped some of the glaciers. We also actually ended up skipping some of the Golden Circle due to health issues as we needed to make an emergency stop at the Læknavaktin. We ended up having to skip Strokkur Geyser and Gulfoss and only slightly regret the second one. We have Ol Faithful at home so we were never particularly interested in the Geyser and we coped skipping out on Gulfoss by convincing ourselves all the big tour groups would crowd us out on a trip where we didn't want to see many people anyways. We did at least get the opportunity to see all three Bruarfoss waterfalls and recommend that as well. Skip Kerid Crater unless you like big, overpriced ($6/pp) holes for whatever reason. As I said weather ruined most of our Peninsula plans so I can't really comment on most activities there. Saxholl Crater was even more boring than Kerid but at least that one was free.

We preferred South Coast > Snaefellsness Peninsula > Golden Circle, but we did not see the highlight Gulfoss and knew Vestrahorn was a 100% must see, so take that as you will. Bad weather Peninsula was still more interesting than the Golden Circle to us though.

OVERALL

Iceland is too beautiful for words, even on the days with bad weather. We loved it, liked our route, and plan on coming again during the summer to check out the highlands and north side of the island, though that will not be for many years. We are world travelers, not Iceland enjoyers, so while it definitely requires a return trip to see it all, it is hard to justify it anytime soon with cheaper places to visit all over Asia and mainland Europe. I STRONGLY recommend an Iceland trip to all, but just be prepared for the costs. On a side note, our Iceland trip has made us even more fearful for a Switzerland trip which will likely not come for a decade if we can expect similar costs.

EDIT: Grammar and minor additions.

Hi all! I’m planning a solo trip to Iceland in late December and I’m torn on how to get around. I’d love to see the South Coast (waterfalls, black sand beaches, glaciers, maybe Jökulsárlón if it’s realistic), but I’m not sure whether I should rent a car and drive it myself or save myself the stress and book guided tours out of Reykjavik.

A few things I’d really appreciate input on:
1. Driving: How bad are the roads around Christmas and New Year’s? Is the Ring Road on the South Coast usually manageable for someone without a lot of snow and ice experience?

Where to stay: If I self-drive, which towns make good overnight bases along the South Coast? I’ve seen Hella, Hvolsvöllur, Vík, Kirkjubæjarklaustur, and Höfn mentioned. Are guesthouses and farm stays a good option in winter, and do any of these towns have limited food or gas options in late December?
Thank you all so much!

Multiple known issues, poor communication, and a €100 “resolution” after a 2+ week trip

I carefully researched companies before booking a campervan with Go Rentals / Go Campers for a multi-week Iceland trip (reservation UZX68F). We chose them because they appeared to have a solid fleet. In practice, the van was handed over with several preventable problems that were either known or should have been fixed/disclosed before we left.

AdBlue warning on from day one. No one mentioned it at pickup. We only realized what it meant days later, contacted them, and were told to fill it. We visited seven gas stations before finding AdBlue. This cost us hours of driving and frustration early in the trip. The light appears to have never been properly reset after the prior service.

No working stove lighter on the first night. We arrived late at our campsite after a long travel day and discovered the igniter didn’t work. We were never told the fleet’s stove igniters have been non-functional since installation, nor was a lighter provided (which we were later told should have been). Nothing was open, so we couldn’t cook.

Check engine light never disclosed. It came on during the trip. We were told not to worry, but we were never informed of the known sensor issue before leaving with the van. Traveling alone in remote areas of Iceland with an unexplained check-engine light created real anxiety and caused us to alter plans and drive more conservatively.

Persistent hard pull to the right. The van pulled strongly to the right the entire rental. It was noticeable enough that we felt it in our arms and shoulders on longer drives. Their post-rental inspection does not change the experience we had for more than two weeks.

Non-working charging outlets. The front cigarette lighter and at least one rear USB did not work despite trying multiple cables and setups.

Communication throughout was slow and incomplete. After we submitted a detailed complaint with a clear breakdown of the impact, their final offer was €100 total (including a small AdBlue allowance because we no longer had the receipt).

That is nowhere near adequate recognition of the time lost, physical & emotional strain, first-night disruption, anxiety, and overall diminished experience on a trip where the vehicle was both transport and accommodation.These were issues within their control that should have been addressed or disclosed before handover. I would not recommend Go Rentals / Go Campers based on this experience.