Reykjavik tour delimma please help me decide

[lynncarol]

On 2/18/2023 at 5:06 PM, cruisinqt said:

After your comment I looked it up and that sounds like a good solution. Blue Lagoon is much fancier with a restaurant, spa, and private showers but the Myvatn nature baths sounds nice too. I’m not sure how I feel about the open showers though. Were the open showers uncomfortable for you? I’m very shy about that stuff and where I come from everything’s very private. 

Funny story.  I too am shy and at the Myvatn Nature Baths felt uncomfortable about the shower (even though it was all female).  Just then a drop-dead gorgeous nude young woman strutted into the showers and I totally relaxed, knowing for sure that nobody would be looking at me.

[marbleski]

On 2/18/2023 at 12:51 AM, cruisinqt said:

We are family (parents and adult children) so we don’t want to split up. 

It looks like we are the same cruise. We booked quite a while ago but I have just started looking at the ports, flights, hotels and so on.

 

We are travelling with our two adult children too. Did you make arrangements for tours yet and who did you use? The Iceland Ports are the first ones I am looking at as we visited the other three ports on our last cruise in the good old pre-covid days. On our previous cruises across the pond (we live on the other side of the Atlantic directly across from Ireland) I arranged small group tours and found others to join on our roll call. 

 

I am way behind on this trip. I looked over the the FB posts during the last few days and I have now moved on to the CC ports of call.  I seen your post and figured I would ask what you have booked in Iceland so far.

 

I plan to check out the roll call once I read up the ports of call threads.

 

Thanks 

 

[cruisinqt]

21 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Did you make arrangements for tours yet and who did you use?

Finding tours in Ireland and Scotland were easy since the ports are large cities with a big tourist industry and lots of cruise ships visiting. But Iceland was challenging. Reykjavik was easy since it’s the capital and a very large city. But the other 3 ports are small with only one or two small cruise ships visiting occasionally so they mostly cater to land based vacationers who will be there for a few days. So most of the tours I found online were very lengthy with no pickups at the port mentioned. I did finally get some amazing tours booked for decent prices though. Here’s what I booked all prices are for four adults:

Dublin- Boyne Valley Tours. A private tour with just our family where we choose where to go for a whole day for $550 

 

Belfast- Giants Causeway Tour with Odyssey Coach Tours for $238 GBP 

 

Reykjavik- Golden Circle Tour with Saga Travel for 79,600 ISK which is $580 USD

 

Grundarfjordur- National Park, volcano, & waterfall tour with Sandra’s Cruise Tours for $476

 

Akurreyri- Lake Mayvatn Tour with Saga Travel for 79,600 ISK which is $580 USD

 

Seydisfjordur- We booked a private taxi with Asgrim’s taxi’s to Vok geothermal baths for 150 Euros or $163 USD

 

Invergordon- Dunsrobin Castle & Distillery Tour with Thistle Excursions for 500 GBP or $619 USD 

 

All of these have very good reviews online and have good ratings with TripAdvisor 

[marbleski]

10 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

Finding tours in Ireland and Scotland were easy since the ports are large cities with a big tourist industry and lots of cruise ships visiting. But Iceland was challenging. Reykjavik was easy since it’s the capital and a very large city. But the other 3 ports are small with only one or two small cruise ships visiting occasionally so they mostly cater to land based vacationers who will be there for a few days. So most of the tours I found online were very lengthy with no pickups at the port mentioned. I did finally get some amazing tours booked for decent prices though. Here’s what I booked all prices are for four adults:

Dublin- Boyne Valley Tours. A private tour with just our family where we choose where to go for a whole day for $550 

 

Belfast- Giants Causeway Tour with Odyssey Coach Tours for $238 GBP 

 

Reykjavik- Golden Circle Tour with Saga Travel for 79,600 ISK which is $580 USD

 

Grundarfjordur- National Park, volcano, & waterfall tour with Sandra’s Cruise Tours for $476

 

Akurreyri- Lake Mayvatn Tour with Saga Travel for 79,600 ISK which is $580 USD

 

Seydisfjordur- We booked a private taxi with Asgrim’s taxi’s to Vok geothermal baths for 150 Euros or $163 USD

 

Invergordon- Dunsrobin Castle & Distillery Tour with Thistle Excursions for 500 GBP or $619 USD 

 

All of these have very good reviews online and have good ratings with TripAdvisor 

OMG you are so good. Thanks so much for the quick reply. The Iceland tours seem to be the hardest to figure out during my first few days of research. Are your Grundarfjordur, Akurreyri and Reykjavik tours on the larger tour buses or small group tours? 

 

Thanks so much

 

[cruisinqt]

5 minutes ago, marbleski said:

OMG you are so good. Thanks so much for the quick reply. The Iceland tours seem to be the hardest to figure out during my first few days of research. Are your Grundarfjordur, Akurreyri and Reykjavik tours on the larger tour buses or small group tours? 

 

Thanks so much

 

Reykjavik and Akurreyri are with Saga Travel which uses mini buses that carry no more than 15 passengers. The reviews often say there were only 8-10 people in their groups. With Grundarfjordur I used Sandra’s Tours which uses the large tour buses with reclining seats and a toilet. It’s a long tour with lots of long distance traveling so I think that’s why it’s a bigger group. I’m not crazy about big groups but there’s not a lot of local cruise tours to choose from and this bus sounds pretty nice. 

[marbleski]

8 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

Reykjavik and Akurreyri are with Saga Travel which uses mini buses that carry no more than 15 passengers. The reviews often say there were only 8-10 people in their groups. With Grundarfjordur I used Sandra’s Tours which uses the large tour buses with reclining seats and a toilet. It’s a long tour with lots of long distance traveling so I think that’s why it’s a bigger group. I’m not crazy about big groups but there’s not a lot of local cruise tours to choose from and this bus sounds pretty nice. 

Thanks for the homework assignment lol. I looked briefly at rental cars for the two larger ports in Iceland but its a bit complicated and probably time consuming in Reykjavik.  Did you look into a car rental?

[cruisinqt]

5 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Thanks for the homework assignment lol. I looked briefly at rental cars for the two larger ports in Iceland but its a bit complicated and probably time consuming in Reykjavik.  Did you look into a car rental?

I never looked into it because I read some posts about it being a complicated and time consuming process in Iceland. But since we are in Reykjavik for 14 hours it might be worth it there. I just didn’t want to mess with traffic in a large city in a foreign country. 

[marbleski]

52 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

I never looked into it because I read some posts about it being a complicated and time consuming process in Iceland. But since we are in Reykjavik for 14 hours it might be worth it there. I just didn’t want to mess with traffic in a large city in a foreign country. 

Yep much more complicated than hopping on a motor coach on the dock. Plus the insurance and damage issues ... they seem to be mentioned often. I might dig a bit more and see if I can find a post from someone who rented a car last season.

 

Thanks once again

[cruisinqt]

3 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Yep much more complicated than hopping on a motor coach on the dock. Plus the insurance and damage issues ... they seem to be mentioned often. I might dig a bit more and see if I can find a post from someone who rented a car last season.

 

Thanks once again

I looked through my notes (yes I keep notes when I’m planning something like this) and I did look into getting a rental car in Seydisfjordur. I just didn’t like the tours offered they sounded boring and I really wanted to go to the Vok geothermal hot baths in Egilsstadir which is a 30 minute drive away. It has a swim up bar in the pools, a free hot tea bar, a sauna, and a really nice restaurant. But the only bus going that way left before we arrived and a taxi was super expensive. So I looked into car rentals but they aren’t available in Seydisfjordur. Then I found a private driver that will drive us round trip for $163 (that’s for a total of 4 people.) All we had to do was book Vok baths ourselves which was very inexpensive. He told me that there aren’t any rental cars in the smaller ports but it’s easy to get one in Reykjavik. Good luck. 

[marbleski]

44 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

I looked through my notes (yes I keep notes when I’m planning something like this) and I did look into getting a rental car in Seydisfjordur. I just didn’t like the tours offered they sounded boring and I really wanted to go to the Vok geothermal hot baths in Egilsstadir which is a 30 minute drive away. It has a swim up bar in the pools, a free hot tea bar, a sauna, and a really nice restaurant. But the only bus going that way left before we arrived and a taxi was super expensive. So I looked into car rentals but they aren’t available in Seydisfjordur. Then I found a private driver that will drive us round trip for $163 (that’s for a total of 4 people.) All we had to do was book Vok baths ourselves which was very inexpensive. He told me that there aren’t any rental cars in the smaller ports but it’s easy to get one in Reykjavik. Good luck. 

I noticed you are from Texas. Big day for basketball fans as the NCAA finals are on tonight live from Houston. Our family was hoping the Longhorns would be in the final. I still can't believe they gave up the nice second half lead they has last weekend. 

[cruisinqt]

49 minutes ago, marbleski said:

I still can't believe they gave up the nice second half lead they has last weekend. 

Yeah it was a real bummer. People around here are pretty sore about it. 

[marbleski]

4 hours ago, cruisinqt said:

Yeah it was a real bummer. People around here are pretty sore about it. 

 Our oldest son spent a winter term at UT Austin in 2016.  We put our name in the NCAA lottery draw and scored four tickets to the Final Four the last time it was held in Houston 2016. Wonderful friendly people in Austin.  I was hoping our son was going to stay for good so we could move in and spend winters with him lol. Seven years later I still suggests he should move to Austin because the winters are too cold in Ottawa where he lives now. 

[cruisinqt]

3 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Seven years later I still suggests he should move to Austin because the winters are too cold in Ottawa where he lives now. 

Oh my Ottawa has extremely cold winters. I don’t blame you I’d do the same thing. October through December it’s usually in the 50’s-70’s. January and February is our winter with a few cold snaps then it’s back to the 50’s-70’s until June when summer hits. We do have incredibly mild winters. It was in the 80’s today. Austin is a great place to live with lots of growth and job opportunities. It’s a couple of hours from where I live. I’m 30 minutes south of Fort Worth. 

[marbleski]

20 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

Oh my Ottawa has extremely cold winters. I don’t blame you I’d do the same thing. October through December it’s usually in the 50’s-70’s. January and February is our winter with a few cold snaps then it’s back to the 50’s-70’s until June when summer hits. We do have incredibly mild winters. It was in the 80’s today. Austin is a great place to live with lots of growth and job opportunities. It’s a couple of hours from where I live. I’m 30 minutes south of Fort Worth. 

We live way out on the very eastern edge of Canada on the Atlantic Ocean …  we think we hit the jackpot on few days summer days we hit 80 degrees lol 

[gnome12]

15 minutes ago, marbleski said:

We live way out on the very eastern edge of Canada on the Atlantic Ocean …  we think we hit the jackpot on few days summer days we hit 80 degrees lol 

I was in St. John's at the end of June 2016. I had expected the weather to be cool, but I threw in a pair of capris at the last minute. I think that I wore them every day I wasn't at my conference. The weather was in the high 20s (Celsius), until I went up to St. Anthony's and L'Anse aux Meadows where it was so cold I wore all the layers that I had. In addition, I had to buy a pair of gloves to wear on my iceberg/whale watching cruise.

[marbleski]

12 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I was in St. John's at the end of June 2016. I had expected the weather to be cool, but I threw in a pair of capris at the last minute. I think that I wore them every day I wasn't at my conference. The weather was in the high 20s (Celsius), until I went up to St. Anthony's and L'Anse aux Meadows where it was so cold I wore all the layers that I had. In addition, I had to buy a pair of gloves to wear on my iceberg/whale watching cruise.

Yep that’s us lol. One never knows what the weather will be like, especially May and June. Some days there is a10 degree temperature difference  from the east and west ends of town.  My son and his CFA (come from away) girlfriend visited us for 10 days near end of June last year and they lucked out with mid 20”s all but the day they arrived. It made for great east coast trail hiking, whale watching, puffin watching and so on.  

[Nitemare]

On 4/3/2023 at 12:06 PM, cruisinqt said:

I never looked into it because I read some posts about it being a complicated and time consuming process in Iceland. But since we are in Reykjavik for 14 hours it might be worth it there. I just didn’t want to mess with traffic in a large city in a foreign country. 

There is no equivalent word for "traffic" in Icelandic.

 

 

I kid, they probably have a word, and there might be some traffic in the city proper, but once you get out of the city, "traffic" is likely sheep on the road or horses alongside, or a few cars pulled over taking pictures of something glorious.

 

Insurance is important in Iceland as it is easy to get a car scratched or dinged, so shop carefully, but the only extra thing you should do in Iceland is to thoroughly document the condition of the car when you pick it up and when you drop it off.  Pictures or video of all surfaces to show all existing dings and scratches will save you from possible bad surprises upon or after return.   Once you've done this, driving in Iceland is pretty simple

[cruisinqt]

3 hours ago, Nitemare said:

once you get out of the city, "traffic" is likely sheep on the road or horses alongside, or a few cars pulled over taking pictures

We live in the countryside on a couple of acres in a small town so that sounds wonderful to me. I figured seeing various animals along mostly deserted roads would be the case in Seydisfjordur and Grundarfjordur (our other ports) since they are so small. But with Reykjavik being much bigger and being the capital I figured there would be a lot more traffic to deal with initially right there in the city. Being from the countryside I hate big city traffic, especially if it’s in a foreign country with different traffic laws. But driving in the rural areas of Iceland sounds wonderful. 

[ljandgb]

I'll just add that there really aren't "various animals" to see in Iceland.  You will see sheep, more sheep, some horses, and more sheep. There are reindeer and foxes native to the island, but it's not very common to see them.

[Capt_BJ]

just sayin'

 

thanks' for the info here ... we're on a cruise that ends in Reyk' and plan to spend a couple of days.

 

I looked at the site for the Golden Circle tour and see a price for 'small group'

as 16.900 IKR / person which is $123.25 US if my app is giving me the correct exchange rate.

 

You CAN book it as a private tour as well and the fare goes up SIGNIFICANTLY

 

https://sagatravel.is/gil203-golden-circle-small-group-tour/

[cruisinqt]

8 hours ago, Capt_BJ said:

 

I looked at the site for the Golden Circle tour and see a price for 'small group'

as 16.900 IKR / person which is $123.25 US if my app is giving me the correct exchange rate.

I booked with Saga Travel for our stops in Reykjavik and Akurreyri. They have some of the best prices out there. And they have really good reviews too. Our cruise lines tour is the exact same itinerary but double the price. I’ve gotten to where I really dislike booking with the cruise line. It’s so crowded and you’re always waiting on someone that’s wandered off and can’t be found. I can’t wait to see Iceland 

[FreestyleNovice]

A bit late to the party but you can swap Blue Lagoon for the smaller and newer Sky Lagoon, which is also located more convenient in Reykjavik. That might save you some time perhaps.

 

Enjoy Iceland, it's a beautiful! 

[ljandgb]

Our first cruise I was hesitant to book our own excursions, so did half with the ship and half on our own.  We were traveling with the kids and my parents, so a group of 8, which made it cost effective to do private tours.  We all agreed our private tours were significantly better than the ship ones, for the reasons you mentioned, and then some.  

 

Enjoy Iceland.  My daughter liked it so much she just did a semester abroad there, and we're going back in May for a week, renting a car, and exploring the west coast.

[Nitemare]

16 hours ago, ljandgb said:

I'll just add that there really aren't "various animals" to see in Iceland.  You will see sheep, more sheep, some horses, and more sheep. There are reindeer and foxes native to the island, but it's not very common to see them.

Also cows.  Lots of cows.  Some dogs.  We saw a walrus once on Diamond Beach..  Tons of birds, too.

[cruisinqt]

On 4/6/2023 at 3:02 AM, FreestyleNovice said:

A bit late to the party but you can swap Blue Lagoon for the smaller and newer Sky Lagoon, which is also located more convenient in Reykjavik. That might save you some time perhaps.

 

Enjoy Iceland, it's a beautiful! 

Thanks for the info. We booked the Golden Circle tour in Reykjavik and decided to do the geothermal baths in Seydisfjordur at Vok baths instead. But we will be in Reykjavik for 14 hours so it’s nice to know about Sky Lagoon if we decide we want to hit a geothermal bath that evening.