Re:My own private Iceland
by alistairSH on Thursday October 24, 2019 @11:45AM
(#21345779)
Interesting. I visited in the same time-frame (Jan 2017) and the main tourist sites were crowded. Not uncomfortably so, but there were definitely 3-4 busloads of tourists at each site. And KEF was packed (standing room only) when we departed. Immigration inbound at KEF was busy but efficient.
Reykjavik itself didn't feel any more crowded than any other major European city. Far less so than London or Paris. Probably more like Amsterdam, but with a smaller overall footprint.
Our rental was a Golf Polo (the small hatchback) from a name-brand agency (Hertz or somebody like that) and it was in fine condition.
It was expensive, no question. But, that's also fairly well documented in travel brochures (online or otherwise). So, it shouldn't be a surprise. We opted to rent a flat and cook for most meals. The only problem that caused - the grocer has a wall of milk of varying degrees of "sourness" and we grabbed something that, to my American palate, was rotten. Oops.
Blue Lagoon was definitely touristy. We went at dusk in a snow storm, so the atmosphere was nice (the mist and snow made it less obvious we were swimming with a few hundred other tourists). We enjoyed it, but there's no need to go twice unless you really like a spa experience.
We went snorkeling in Silfra Fissure, which was neat. Nothing at all like snorkeling on a coral reef.
I'd love to go back and do the whole ring road around the island, with a bit of hiking and camping mixed in. We only had a long weekend, so stayed in the city and all the sites we visited were fairly close. We didn't get to the northwest or southeast.
Reykjavik itself didn't feel any more crowded than any other major European city. Far less so than London or Paris. Probably more like Amsterdam, but with a smaller overall footprint.
Our rental was a Golf Polo (the small hatchback) from a name-brand agency (Hertz or somebody like that) and it was in fine condition.
It was expensive, no question. But, that's also fairly well documented in travel brochures (online or otherwise). So, it shouldn't be a surprise. We opted to rent a flat and cook for most meals. The only problem that caused - the grocer has a wall of milk of varying degrees of "sourness" and we grabbed something that, to my American palate, was rotten. Oops.
Blue Lagoon was definitely touristy. We went at dusk in a snow storm, so the atmosphere was nice (the mist and snow made it less obvious we were swimming with a few hundred other tourists). We enjoyed it, but there's no need to go twice unless you really like a spa experience.
We went snorkeling in Silfra Fissure, which was neat. Nothing at all like snorkeling on a coral reef.
I'd love to go back and do the whole ring road around the island, with a bit of hiking and camping mixed in. We only had a long weekend, so stayed in the city and all the sites we visited were fairly close. We didn't get to the northwest or southeast.