Traveltalkonline.com Forums


TTOL Sponsors
Forum Statistics
Forums39
Topics38,433
Posts310,110
Members26,538
Most Online2,218
Jan 21st, 2020
Top Posters(30 Days)
RonDon 115
pat 42
Todd 40
jazzgal 40
Member Spotlight
pat
pat
Brookfield, CT.
Posts: 14,635
Joined: April 2001
Show All Member Profiles 
Today's Birthdays
LONGISLANDSHARON, Sca2la
Who's Online Now
26 registered members (cbinparadise, Todd_Melinda_K, Carib_Ian, jrw, snman31, bailau, nevar37, Whale Tail, ARC, 706jim, JeanneB, RatmansWife, Kennys, SXMScubaman, PML, xrayman67, YachtReprise, ambmike, Instigator, 7 invisible), 939 guests, and 55 spiders.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
ICELAND part 1 #166779
07/28/2018 01:07 PM
07/28/2018 01:07 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
B
BEERMAN Offline OP
Traveler
BEERMAN  Offline OP
Traveler
B
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
ICELAND RING ROAD, part 1 (July 14-25, 2018)

Iceland, The Land of Fire and Ice! It is summertime in July and we experienced a range of temps from 6-20 celsius/43-68 fahrenheit. We definitely saw lots of ice, but no fire...just a bunch of steam and bubbling pools of geothermal activity including a large "Geysir" which rumor has it all others are named after. The last volcanic eruption was actually pretty recent in 2010 at Eyjafjallajokull in South Iceland, "Eyjafjallajokull" google how to pronounce this one! I vaguely remember 2010 news reports stating air traffic was suspended for a couple days in parts of Europe, resulting from the ash in the air. Later in our road trip a farmer would tell us that they are currently monitoring another active volcano deep beneath a glacier...standing by to stand by for that!


[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]



So...why Iceland for a summer vacation? Well to start, our part of Virginia has already seen 100 degrees with high humidity, so cooler temps was sounding pretty dang nice! Traveling in latitudes between 64th and 66th parallel north during summer solstice will provide 24 hours of daylight allowing as much sightseeing as our bodies can handle! Actually we originally considered a Yellowstone/Glacier N.P. trip, but figured that area might be more our speed during the shoulder months when the crowds are less. More about the Icelandic "in season" crowds later. We are a family of wanderers, enjoy hiking, the great outdoors and the flexibility to change course on a whim...Iceland proved to be the perfect destination for us.

[Linked Image]



Planning for this 12 day off the cuff road trip started in late May, nothing like waiting until the last minute aye! If you are planning to go to Iceland in summer, now is the time to grab a pen and paper.... July is the PEAK of their tourist season, so if you have specific lodging requirements you'll probably want to start your planning much further out than we did. Car rentals did not prove problematic, however if you have a specific vehicle in mind , then reserving earlier is also recommended. We chose to circumnavigate Route 1 "The Ring Road" in a counter clockwise direction starting at the Keflavik International Airport. Now the tricky part, how to plan our overnight stays in the very small to fairly moderate sized towns and villages...


[Linked Image]



Considerations were of course given to the distances between lodgings, driving would be a HUGE part of this kind of trip, trust me... if you don't like being in a vehicle for hours on end, perhaps consider staying in Reykjavik and do day trips from there, but then again I feel that you won't really get the full experience of the vast ever changing landscapes and the really friendly people you'll meet along the way. My rough estimates included our longest leg at 300 kilometers or roughly 200 miles and shorter legs of less than 100km, but in hindsight these estimates proved to be rather conservative really with all of the side trips. The Ring Road is described as being 830 miles...I actually assumed we would cover about 1200-1400 miles...in the end we discovered that we had traveled 2,100 miles!!

[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]



We began searching available lodging on AirBNB and Booking.com. Our choices were pretty limited in several areas, they included a mix of guest houses, micro hotels and farm stays. Finding available rooms that accommodated 3 guests also proved to be challenging, but in the end we were completely satisfied with each of our choices. My wife described one guest house as "perfectly imperfect"! All of the property managers were very responsive and provided local info and directions to the properties, my navigators did an outstanding job and finding the various properties was a breeze. Fyi, GPS in the car is not necessary, we picked up 3 SIM cards at the airport duty free so we would have our cell phones. Only lost service a couple times when traveling way off the beaten path. Check in times all started around 2pm, but with the travel times and sightseeing we were more interested in how late we could check in, most were typically 8-10pm and some had self check in with lock boxes. The 3 of us searched random lodging in various towns and put them on a map, many had free cancellation so we had the convenience of tweaking our itinerary in the weeks leading up to departure. This process took a little effort, comparing the many "must sees" with the distances...where to stay 1,2 or 3 nights at a time to try to get the most out of our 12 days. Fyi, we quickly realized that we could not see it all! Fast forward a bit, we met a couple at the end that rented a camper and did the whole Ring in 7 nights, that's crazy...but the whole camper rental experience really intrigues us!


[Linked Image]



Our very reasonably priced flight departed Dulles Virginia at 2030hr and we arrived Keflavik International after 0600hr Iceland time, 4 hour time difference for us. Clearing C&I was easy and our checked bags were retrieved quickly as well. We took the advice of bloggers to pick up some beer, coconut rum, red wine and cheap 1G Sim cards at the duty free in the airport. We also exchanged cash at the airport for a prepaid bank card (Visa) that came with a coupon booklet for various things, saved 9 cents a gallon with the card and a free coffee with every fill up, every little bit helps!! Exchanged a little cash for Krona's, but we really didn't need a lot of cash, credit cards are used for everything. Iceland has high costs on alcohol and it's sold only in state owned stores called Vinbuden, hours of operation and selection varied around the island, so arriving early it proved to be wise having our vehicle well stocked. Plus I carried on a large soft sided Polar Bear cooler, priceless! Our car rental company Lagoon had a van ready to take us to our car just 10 minutes away. The rental paper work was easy, but extra insurance was a concern...I had read plenty of worst case scenarios with Icelandic rentals so I opted for the extra wind, sand, gravel insurance. This actually gave us piece of mind on side roads when cars passed pelting us with gravel, us doing the same to them I suppose!, people drove fast on dirt/gravel roads! We opted for a 4X4 because its required if you venture well off the beaten path on "F" roads...do you need one in the summer months? not really, a 2 wheel drive will get you to just about everything, but we did need it a couple of times.


[Linked Image]



With the Subaru Forester 4X4 loaded up with Donna, Sydney and me we headed out into the big scary world of unfamiliar traffic and street signs with names like Skolavoroustigur! Our first lodging was less than 2 hours east in Selfoss, but it was so early we decided to drive 45 minutes north to Old Town Reykjavik for coffee and breakfast. We also wanted to find the AirBnB we reserved for our last 2 nights to make the end of our journey a little smoother regarding parking etc. Driving the roads was easy and relatively stress free considering I drive the dreaded beltway around Washington DC. Nobody tailgates, nobody cuts you off and I only heard a car horn once at the very end of our trip...nice! (Our actual red Subaru rental below...not the previous big 4x4 ha!)


[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]



We expected to find a typical Capital City with people everywhere and parking to be a pain, but Reykjavik was sleepy on this Sunday morning. We arrived at 0900hr under cloudy skies and a few drizzles. We had been told that the area has experienced the wettest summer they've seen in years, locals repeated that since the beginning of June they had only 7 sunny days...ugggh! Most stores seem to open up at 1000hr, but we found a funky little Kaffihus' for coffee and breakfast. Stretched our legs for a couple hours with a little window shopping...and more coffee, felt great to walk! Old Town area is very nice with wonderful pedestrian streets, shops, cafes etc. More about the Capital City later.


[Linked Image]


[Linked Image]



Our first AirBnB was a self check in with a 3pm check in time, so back in the little red 4x4 and off to Selfoss, a mere hour and 45 minutes away...looked so much closer on our map!! Speaking of maps, we grabbed a very detailed map at home and the always helpful Lonely Planet pocket guide, both were extremely helpful. Along the way we caught our first glimpse of the geothermal activity, white plumes of steam dotting the landscape. We were all feeling the impact of the overnight flight and minimal sleep, so we stopped at a gas station for another coffee! My daughter and I are big coffee drinkers and enjoyed even the gas station coffees! We rolled into tiny Selfoss and found a well stocked Bonus Grocery Store to provision, great selections especially the fruit and produce! Funny thing in Iceland...it's hard to find bags of ice! I was told to go to the Oli's gas station for "free" ice and there it was ready to scoop into the cooler...cold beer! Our cabin was north of town about 20-30 minutes on route 35 towards "The Geysir" , soooo back in the vehicle...starting to get the picture regarding driving distances?!


[Linked Image]



Our cozy 3 bedroom cabin sat in the middle of nowhere nestled quietly within the thick pine trees. A friend had texted asking me to take a photo of the tallest tree we saw, apparently when he was here in the 80's trees were scarce. We would learn later that just 20 years ago the government pushed a huge reforestation project and from what we saw they have succeeded in many areas. It was around 6pm when we finally unloaded the car and settled in. Time for a little dinner, a cold Gull beer and a soak in the soothing geothermal hot tub! We forced ourselves to stay awake until 10pm, beer-hot tub, hot tub-beer! There is so much to see in South Iceland that we decided to spend 3 nights in this cabin. Lousy hot tub cell pic, but it shows what 10pm looked like!


[Linked Image]



[Linked Image]



This will certainly be the longest post of this report, hope I didn't make you sleepy. The remaining posts will be picture heavy, showing as much of this amazing Nordic island countryside as possible. Here's a teaser of what's to come..........


[Linked Image]

Sponsors
Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: BEERMAN] #166786
07/28/2018 03:15 PM
07/28/2018 03:15 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,482
Central Florida!
Carol_Hill Offline
Traveler
Carol_Hill  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,482
Central Florida!
Wow, amazing stuff! I am sure I will never get there, so enjoying travelling along with you!!


Carol Hill
Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: BEERMAN] #166817
07/29/2018 07:49 AM
07/29/2018 07:49 AM
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 600
Eastern NC, N Topsail Beach
S
SXMFOX Offline
Traveler
SXMFOX  Offline
Traveler
S
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 600
Eastern NC, N Topsail Beach
That is super cool! My sister vacationed their several years ago and had a blast, other than her feet killing her from all the hiking they did. Looks like fun times!

Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: SXMFOX] #166903
07/30/2018 10:15 PM
07/30/2018 10:15 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
B
BEERMAN Offline OP
Traveler
BEERMAN  Offline OP
Traveler
B
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
Thanks guys!
SXMFOX, last couple of years I've struggled off and on with heal problems, bought new hiking boots and broke them in before the trip...feet did great!!

Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: BEERMAN] #166906
07/31/2018 08:14 AM
07/31/2018 08:14 AM
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 600
Eastern NC, N Topsail Beach
S
SXMFOX Offline
Traveler
SXMFOX  Offline
Traveler
S
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 600
Eastern NC, N Topsail Beach
Yes, my sister did the same thing also, but her feet still kill her on those long hikes! Luckily she is seeing a doctor!

Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: BEERMAN] #167307
08/07/2018 11:14 AM
08/07/2018 11:14 AM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 3,447
Virginia wishing STJ
TomB Offline
Traveler
TomB  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 3,447
Virginia wishing STJ
Sorry for joining late... Life has been blur this summer!

What a great start! Cannot wait to get on the road with the Beermans.
Your shots are breathtaking

When you mentioned of Eyjafjallajökull it brought back memories for us. We were one of the lucky ones to be stuck in Amsterdam (on per diem) when the volcano let loose.
Flash back from TTOL entry - Stuck In Amsterdam!


“Every time I open a bottle of wine, it is an amazing trip somewhere!” José Andrés
Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: TomB] #167315
08/07/2018 12:33 PM
08/07/2018 12:33 PM
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,482
Central Florida!
Carol_Hill Offline
Traveler
Carol_Hill  Offline
Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 82,482
Central Florida!
Tom--thanks for that link to the flashback! Great reading, then and now!!


Carol Hill
Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: TomB] #167330
08/07/2018 04:19 PM
08/07/2018 04:19 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
B
BEERMAN Offline OP
Traveler
BEERMAN  Offline OP
Traveler
B
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
Tom, better late than never! You know me, I have a few more to write....part 6 in the works.

Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: BEERMAN] #175644
11/18/2018 03:27 AM
11/18/2018 03:27 AM
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,408
Yonkers, NY
fabila Online content
Traveler
fabila  Online Content
Traveler
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,408
Yonkers, NY
I'm late in reading your report s on Iceland. Amazing photos and story telling.

Re: ICELAND part 1 [Re: fabila] #175891
11/19/2018 10:48 PM
11/19/2018 10:48 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
B
BEERMAN Offline OP
Traveler
BEERMAN  Offline OP
Traveler
B
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,493
VIRGINIA
Better late than never!


Moderated by  Eric_Hill 

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.6.1