Help Iceland

[DaGaffer]

Missus is taking me to Iceland for my birthday next summer. Need advice; stuff to do, good hotels, good restaurants, also is there anywhere outside Reykjavik worth visiting/staying at in the summer?

I know a few of you are Iceland regulars so any advice gratefully received. Ta

 

[georgie]

<cue comments about their lovely frozen gateaux>

 

[Hawkwind]

beer and alcohol is fucking expensive, that is all i remember

 

[Moriath]

Lots of things to do outside the capital. See glaciers and stuff. There's the harbour that got cut off by the volcano and the new volcanic island. Think they are all around the south ish. And my mum went to Akureyri I think it was they flew there from rek and went whale watching from there.

Don't know if you have to go at a certain time for that though.

Also he glaciers and the geysers as well as the blue lagoon hot springs place.

 

[TdC]

Akureyri is a place I've certainly been trying to get to. Driving RVK to Vik takes you through a nice and easily done bit of southern Iceland. Last bit in to Vik is awesome, though the place itself is a bit meh. You do get black sand beaches though.

My plans for Iceland the next time(s) I go is multi-day horse riding and super-jeep excursions. As for places to stay in RVK, I can recommend Room With A View apartments. Extremely central, well kept and not that expensive. Re foods, I've done everything from uber-budget soups to 4* meals. Since it's so subjective, I'd basically say go explore. I can reccy the Koffin bar's soup in a bun as a nice restorative after walking about (while Mrs Gaffer destroys your credit-card on sweet Icelandic designer stuff) when they serve it. I can also advise going to Kex Hostel to both see the hostel and have a meal/drink. Other than that, I can advise Perlan, basically because I haven't been there yet although I have tried to a couple times. It's a fairly cool place in it's own right, and there is also a restaurant there. It could be worth it to walk there (you're there in summer, yeah?), from the harbor, over the hill and cutting through some downtown central city. It will take you an hour, hour and a half or so. You could incorporate visiting Hallgrímskirkja on the walk, as that's basically the highest point in the downtown area.

A friend rented a (4x4) car and got really far out in the sticks. He has awesome pictures to show of it, and stories of bathing in natural hot springs, that kind of stuff. Speaking of hot springs, note two things: the HOT water in the city / all of Iceland has a fairly distinct sulfur odour. It's perfectly good, just smells slightly of volcano. Cold water is fine. The other thing is that during summer you're basically looking at 20 hours of daylight per day, sunup to down like 3.30AM - 11.30PM. If you're sensitive to day/night transitions, etc, best to bring one of those sleeping masks to shut out the light when you want beautiful sleeps.