Reykjavik hotels and transfers

[schwabby]

HAL is not offering pre-night hotel stays for Reykjavik cruise departing in July 2025.  I have called HAL and asked if you will have them and no one can tell me.  Has anyone else had experience with booking a pre-night hotel and then doing some kind of transfers to the ship.  I'm seeing that HAL does offer transfers from the airport to the ship on day of embarkation for $99 per person.  Just looking for any insight I can get from anyone who has embarked a ship in Reykjavik before. 

Thanks for any info.

Schwabby

[McDeb2119]

15 minutes ago, schwabby said:

HAL is not offering pre-night hotel stays for Reykjavik cruise departing in July 2025.  I have called HAL and asked if you will have them and no one can tell me.  Has anyone else had experience with booking a pre-night hotel and then doing some kind of transfers to the ship.  I'm seeing that HAL does offer transfers from the airport to the ship on day of embarkation for $99 per person.  Just looking for any insight I can get from anyone who has embarked a ship in Reykjavik before. 

Thanks for any info.

Schwabby

For 2024 cruise they offered hotel a few months before sep but it was twice the cost I could have booked on my own. I booked my own hotel and ordered a taxi ahead of time. Was less money and Inwas in a nicer hotel right downtown vs the location HAL chose which was a little more than a mile I think from the downtown area. 

[schwabby]

McDeb2119, thanks for that info.  How far is downtown from the airport, and then to the pier?  I have eight people traveling and am concerned about all the transfer costs.  I figured the ship must be a long way from the airport since HAL is charging $99 for their transfer.

[McDeb2119]

5 minutes ago, schwabby said:

McDeb2119, thanks for that info.  How far is downtown from the airport, and then to the pier?  I have eight people traveling and am concerned about all the transfer costs.  I figured the ship must be a long way from the airport since HAL is charging $99 for their transfer.

It is 45 min for the airport. The pier is close took us 10 min. We used the airport bus transfer which takes you to a station downtown then we took a smaller shuttle to our zone. It was very easy.  https://www.re.is/tour/flybus/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9Km3BhDjARIsAGUb4nxVA9XLnM7nuLO2EcspLKuf9J6QHAd5BW8hmMBMX5-bT0vWO_QEy1caAsV4EALw_wcB
 

[CruiserBruce]

It might be helpful to do some research on the Iceland board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2705-iceland-and-greenland/

[schwabby]

CruiserBruce,Thanks for the link!

[3rdGenCunarder]

57 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

It might be helpful to do some research on the Iceland board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2705-iceland-and-greenland/

 

Good suggestion. Reykjavik is a wonderful city and worth a few days. We had a one-day port stop many years ago and decided right then that we'd go back and stay. 

 

I rarely take a pre-cruise package. Definitely do some research and find a hotel near what you want to see/do. We stayed across the street from the Hallgrimskirkja, the modern church. We did a land tour set up as a package, so I don't know prices, but I do remember that the airport is well out of town. Our flight got in around midnight, so we had a car service pick us up. 

[StLouisCruisers]

In 2018 we used Flybus to get from the airport which is quite a distance from downtown Reykjavik, to our hotel. I believe we were able to pay in USD.  You can pay when you get on the bus, or buy online ahead of time.  These days it looks like it costs $38.95 pp.  When you go to the booking site you can see which bus stop each hotel is near.  For instance we booked the Storm hotel which is fairly near the port.  The Flybus stops at bus stop 12 where you get off, gather your luggage and roll it to the hotel.  I don't remember it being far.  If my memory serves me well, I believe the bus stopped right there on the street near the hotel.

 

The next day we took a taxi to the ship and I don't think it was too expensive since we chose a hotel closer to the port.  The schedule for Flybus is they run when the flights come in.  There will be a bus outside the airport in the parking lot waiting.  There are also Grayline buses but I believe it's more expensive than Flybus.  There is also a shuttle bus to the car rental offices.  That bus was way overcrowded and some people have to wait for another one to come by.

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

Depending on number and mobility of people, Flybus is the way to go! 
have done it twice, one just this past February.

if you have a large group other options may be better.

its a 45 minute drive from international airport to any where downtown.

downtown hotels are not near the “large ship” port.

if you plan to spend any time, downtown is the the place to be however… just plan on a transfer across town to port (we were lucky as we on a ship that docked in old/small ship port).  However, there are shuttles from big cruise port to downtown area (Harpa center) that appear to run frequently (no experience but saw them frequently)

I don’t think that they allow luggage (may be worth looking into)so cannot be used as transport from downtown to ship…

in any case… if you are spending more than just “passing time til boarding “, downtown is best, and there ARE options 😄

 

[Skorpora]

Another vote for Flybus! We stayed for a few days in Reykjavik before our cruise in July, and we pre-booked a car with Iceland Highlights to take us to the the port. 

 

Our embarkation was the fastest and smoothest I have ever experienced. We arrived at the Port and were on the ship within 10 minutes. 

[WisRiver]

Two years ago we started a cruise from Reykjavik, but not on HAL.  We are a group of four adults.  A taxi from the airport is about $150 US for a minivan that held our luggage.  The taxi for four persons is. a little more than four fares on Flybus, but you get door to door service.  We booked a downtown hotel (Radisson Blu) for two nights and then rented a car for two nights and did the Golden Circle with two nights in Vik.  We rented the car from the Blue Cars downtown location.  We returned the car after dropping two people and the luggage at the cruise ship, returned the car and took a taxi back to the ship.  We boarded about an hour before departure.  Iceland is incredibly expensive, but the four days pre-cruise were worth the cost.

[Aexboeingdriver]

We flew in a couple of days before our cruise. The Edition hotel was able to arrange a mini van from the airport to the hotel and then to the cruise port a couple of days later.

There were many restaurants within walking distance to the hotel and we had a grand time exploring the town and nearby area.