Iceland: Lots of Hype

I have heard wonderful things about Iceland and I probably wouldn’t have gone, except for a friend strongly recommended that I tried to get there.  Well, Lisbon isn’t too far away, so I made it.  Now I’m back to tell you about it.

Costs

Everyone says Iceland is so expensive, but I did not find it to be that bad.  The groceries at Bonus were similarly priced to America, but restaurants were about double the amount.  Like Norway, gas was $8 a gallon.  However, the car rental was much cheaper at $160 for a manual Fiat 500.  It was a tiny car, but it was fine on the Ring Road.  We stayed in hotels for $70 to $150, but the expensive one was because it was remote.

We were able to get one flight free from the Merrill+ card.  The price of flights showed up as $500 when I searched from Lisbon to Iceland going through London.  However, for my wife’s ticket we booked two roundtrips, Lisbon to London and London to Iceland and the price came to only $300.  It is a risk because if the flight gets delayed you will miss

The total cost without flights was around $900 for 4 days for two people.  Not bad for a pricy place.

Trip

Iceland was certainly cool, but it quickly began to look pretty similar.  There are waterfalls, snowy mountains, and tons of moss-covered lava rock.  One night we saw the northern lights which was definitely my highlight.  The lake full of broken glacier parts was also nice, but quite a drive.  If you want to see lots of nature expect to drive a lot.  There are some nice hikes.  We climbed up a small waterfall to take the picture above.

Alternatives

So if you are into nature I can think of many alternatives, but I’ll stick with two recommendations in Europe.  First, is the expensive choice which is Norway.  I found it amazing to see everything there.  The other choice is the Azores.  This is a cheaper option that has really cool stuff and none of the hype.

Conclusion

Amazingly the string of vacations isn’t over.  I’m off to Milan tomorrow morning.  As you can see, the flight and car rental have been a huge cost of trips, so if you can get a great deal on these, then your trip will be fairly affordable.