The whole island on Route 1: 1330 kilometres, seven nights in seven places.
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Iceland is not a cheap country and we will not pretend otherwise. A beer costs nine euros, a burger twenty. This tour costs 1990 EUR, more than anything in our catalogue except Asia. What you get for it is a full circuit of the island, not three days in Reykjavik with a coach trip to a geyser.
We follow Route 1, all 1330 kilometres of it, right around the coast. We travel in a fourteen seat minibus driven by Roman, who has worked nine seasons here and knows which unmarked turnoff leads where. Each day covers 150 to 250 kilometres, which sounds like a lot, but we stop constantly. This is not a tour you watch through a window.
The south coast is the strongest stretch: Seljalandsfoss, which you can walk behind and get soaked doing it; Skógafoss, 60 metres tall with steps to the top; and Reynisfjara, the black beach where the waves genuinely kill people every year. Stay away from the water. We mean it. Then Jökulsárlón, the glacier lagoon where thousand year old ice floats past, and Diamond Beach, where blocks of ice glint on black sand. In the north, Mývatn has bubbling mud and hot baths that are half the price and half as crowded as the Blue Lagoon. In September and March the northern lights are possible, but we do not promise them. Four groups out of five have seen them. The weather changes every two hours and July hovers around fifteen degrees, so a swimsuit and a woolly hat go into the same suitcase. We stay in simple guesthouses rather than four star hotels, because in the north of the island those do not exist. The rooms are clean, the beds are good and the hot water smells of sulphur. You get used to it within a day.
We fly from Vienna via Copenhagen and land in Keflavik at 15:40. The transfer to Reykjavik takes 50 minutes. In the afternoon we walk the city: Hallgrímskirkja church, the harbour and the old quarter with its coloured houses. Dinner is on your own; budget 30 EUR for a main course.
Þingvellir national park, where the American and Eurasian plates pull apart and you can walk between continents. Then the Haukadalur geyser field, where Strokkur fires 20 metres up every eight minutes. In the afternoon, Gullfoss waterfall. We sleep in Hvolsvöllur.
Seljalandsfoss, which you walk behind and where you will get wet. Skógafoss and the 527 steps to the viewpoint. Reynisfjara black beach with the Reynisdrangar sea stacks, where the rule about staying away from the water is absolute. We sleep in Vík, a village of 250 people.
The Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon in the morning, while it is still empty. In the afternoon, Jökulsárlón, where icebergs break off the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier and drift out to sea. An amphibious boat ride costs 60 EUR if you want it. Across the road lies Diamond Beach. We sleep in Höfn, a town known for its lobster.
The longest drive of the tour, 260 kilometres through the eastern fjords. The road hugs the water and abandoned fishing villages sit on the slopes. We stop in Djúpivogur and at a cliff where several thousand puffins nest in June. We sleep near Egilsstaðir.
Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe, pushing 193 cubic metres a second and audible before it is visible. The afternoon is the Hverir geothermal field, all bubbling mud and sulphur. In the evening we soak at the Mývatn Nature Baths, entry included.
Goðafoss, the waterfall of the gods, in the morning. In the afternoon, Akureyri, the second largest town with 19,000 people, which in Iceland counts as a metropolis. Whale watching from Húsavík costs 95 EUR and in summer the sighting rate is about 95 percent.
We drive south across the highlands with a stop at the Grábrók crater. In the afternoon we transfer to Keflavik, taking off at 17:20 via Copenhagen and landing in Vienna around midnight. If you would rather not drive home at that hour, we can arrange a hotel by the airport.
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Give us a ring. We built this trip ourselves, so we can answer things the itinerary does not cover.
+421 918 473 422 Get in touchEight days around southern and western Iceland cost me 1,480 euros in budget mode. Here is the entire spreadsheet, plus the comfortable version at double the price.
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