Iceland - General Information

There were, of course, pros and cons to this method of travel. We were able to go where we wanted, for as long as we wanted, except we had a pre-determined (by Icelandair) place to be at the end of the day. We also had the stress of doing the driving and the navigating, as opposed to being able to relax as someone else performed these functions on a bus tour. Had we taken a bus tour, we may have been able to see some sights that we missed (since we couldn't find them!) - but we probably would have missed other sights that we decided on the spur of the moment, we wanted to stop and see.

Another possibility would have been to stay in Reykjavik as our base, and take day trips via air to some of the "not-to-be-missed" points of the country. We considered this briefly, until we realized that each day trip would cost $200 USD/person. Since there are five of us, this would rapidly become cost-prohibitive!

We booked our trip almost 5 months in advance, and a week before departure we received a list of accommodations, dates, and phone numbers. This was very convenient, since I was able to leave this list with relatives as well as our pet sitter - NOT! When we arrived that first morning in Reykjavik we received a revised list of accommodations that wasn't the same as the original list. Now what? Luckily no one needed to contact us while we were gone, but it could have been a problem if they had. I understand that accommodations may need to be changed, but I was quite surprised that the arrangements given to us 7 days before our arrival were still in flux at that late date.

Prior to our departure I did some web searches and posted some questions on a couple of bulletin boards. I received some sound advice from several wonderful people, including the Eye on Iceland website (although I can't locate the site at the present time), Al, Beeper9400, Tad, and Aðalsteinn. Thank you all again! You helped make our trip one we will never forget!