Our trip in and out of Keflavik using IcelandAir was easy. We were able to buy Flybus tickets for the journey from the airport to Reykjavik on the plane before landing - efficient service taking us straight to our hotel in the city centre (changed to a smaller mini-bus when we reached the city).Stayed at Hotel Odinsve and were really happy there. Reception staff were only to happy to help if needed. We stayed for 3 nights, in fact 2 would have be enough - it's a small city.We took advice and got booked for various tour/car/accommodation at the Icelandic Travel Market (tourist information) in the City. Superb advice and guidance and really friendly too.Really enjoyed the contemporary art gallery housed in an ex-fishmarket building. Oh and enjoyed Bistro 75 on "Beer Day" 2nd March.Since we wanted to get out of the city on our last day in Reykjavik we booked on Golden Circle Tour with a...
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Flying to Iceland
by toonsarah
We flew to Iceland with Icelandair, from London Heathrow to Keflavik. The plane was very new and like all of Icelandair’s fleet was named for one of the country’s volcanoes. In fact, ours was named for the now-notorious Eyjafjallajökull, which struck me as ironic given that it had been responsible for grounding most planes across Europe for a while back in 2010!The flight passed pleasantly enough. We had seat-back screens with a good selection of entertainment, which seems unusual for a short-haul flight, until you discover that the plane is going on to the US. One downside was that only soft drinks and coffee/tea are provided free of charge; if you want a meal or an alcoholic drink you will have to pay. So we ate at the airport on our way out, although we did buy a snack on the return flight.On arrival we found Keflavik Airport to be modern and not too big. It was easy to find our way...
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Car hire
by toonsarah
Our mini-break package included car hire with Avis and the agent recommended 4WD as we would be driving in February when even the main Ring Road can be icy. In the event it was not, although a week or so before our visit conditions had been quite difficult. But we were still glad of the 4WD as it enabled us to go on some gravel tracks that a normal saloon would have found very challenging, especially the road to the Sólheimajökull glacier. There were also a few icy patches on the Golden Circle Route, and a lot of ice in the car parks at Gullfoss and Geysir, for which we were glad to have the extra traction.We had requested an automatic transmission and were pleased to find our request honoured. The car we were allocated was a Nissan Qashqai, which was bigger than we are used to driving, but as our own car is a Nissan it was easy to get used to the dashboard layout and most of the...
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Some things to note on driving
by PotatoChips
Couple of things on driving in South Iceland. It is quite an easy drive where roads are well marked within the Golden Circle and the Ring Road. As road signs often appear only at the junction of the road (instead of several metres before), tendency to miss your turning is high. You will have to make U turns but make sure you only stop where there are clear indicators for car stopping. A good idea would be to bring a ruler and use the scale on the map to measure the distance between each location so that you can tell when the turn off is expected to come up (or invest in a comprehensive road map).The Reykjavik tourist office gives out free road maps which are pretty general which we used for 6 days although a more detail map (which they sells) would have been more helpful in tracking our driving progress.
Our faithful Toyota Avensis for 4 days
by PotatoChips
We got a Toyota Avensis which fits 4 people comfortably for IKR35600. We had to pay an additional IKR15000 as we had to drop off the car at a different location. The additional payment for different drop off point was in small print on Lastminute's website (so beware!). Hertz was the partner company renting out the cars under lastminute.Condition: Good. We were very grateful that the Toyota had a large boot that fit our big bagpacks and food we were carrying.We took a cab from Salvation Army (Reykjavik town centre) where we staying to Hertz for IKR1500.
Amazing pictures along the way
by PotatoChips
If there are couple of people to share the cost, I would highly recommend driving as we did so many things that we wouldn't had been able to do without a car. The sights along the road every day (we did 6 days) were absolutely amazing that we kept stopping the car to take pictures and some of the best pictures we have now were those taken along the road. Driving also allowed us to spend more time in different places. The only problem was that we needed to have the discipline to move on so that we can complete the itinerary for the day...and our poor driver had a difficult time keeping his eyes on the road when the rest of us kept gasping at different sights and the spectacular sky along the road.For example, this picture and the picture in my main Iceland homepage (and several others) were all taken when we stopped the car by the road in the middle of nowhere.
Another advertisement worthy picture
by PotatoChips
Driving in Iceland can be frustrating if you are not familiar with the roads as there are no road signs informing you that the road you want to turn into is coming up. The road signs are usually AT THE JUNCTIONof the road where you need to turn into and we found ourselves zooming pass the roads a couple of times. Fortunately there are not many cars in March, and we could do 3 point turns quite easily. There are also many proper stops at the side of the road that allows us to turn back.
Reaching Jokulsarlon Is Easy !
by coceng
We can easily reach Jokulsarlon because it is situated almost by The Ring Road !The Ring Road is the main traffic road that circles Iceland, say from Reykjavik back to Reykjavik !..In a circle, get the picture ?You can reach here by your car, your 4WD, your caravan, by bicycle, by your motorbike...even hitch hiking ! If people want to give you a lift from somewhere in reaching Jokulsarlon.I took the scheduled bus from Hofn, back tracking to Jokulsarlon...Though most people would reach here from Vik i Myrdal as it would be a straight way in reaching this place.
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