My wife and I spent 3 days and 2 nights in
Reykjavik, Iceland on the way to London, from San Francisco. We were there in
July. It was a worthwhile stopover to get a small "taste" of Iceland. Be warned,
Iceland is very, very expensive. It's on par with other Scandinavian countries.
Getting there
From San Francisco, a direct flight to London on BA was going to cost us
$1000US. A flight with Icelandair with a 3 day layover was only going to cost us
$1200US, so we figured, why not. The only catch was that we had to go through
Minneapolis, with a 7 hour layover. (We pulled out our trusty Let's Go USA, and
it turns out the only thing worth doing in Minneapolis is the Mall of America.
Conveniently located a 10 minute bus ride from the airport, it was a great way
to pass some time!)
On the way there, we got a free upgrade to First Class. We had checked our bags
all the way through in Minneapolis, so we figured we didn't need to show up
particularly early to the gate. We showed up with 45 minutes to spare. The gate
agents were furious, said they had been paging us, etc etc., that it's an
international flight, and you have to show up 2 hours in advance. Pretty
ridiculous, since our bags were already on the plane! Obviously we were coming
back. They probably were just annoyed that we didn't follow the 2 hour rule and
kill time in their airport shopping mall rather then the mall just down the
street. Anyways, bottom line is, we got the last 2 seats on the flight, which
happened to be first class bulkhead. :)
Icelandair service was average - equivalent to an american carrier, but not at
the same level as Air Canada (I'm biased, of course). Even first class wasn't
anything that special. We arrived in Iceland at 7am. We had tried to sleep but
were mostly unsuccesful (despite having been bumped to first class since we were
last ones to check in in Minneapolis - actually, first class probably meant we
slept less, as we were so busy taking advantage of all the perks and drinking -
I still have the slippers)
Getting around
The airport is located in Keflavik, about a 40 minute bus ride from Rekjavik.
Make sure to ask for a return ticket to save a few kroner. They drop off at
almost every hotel in downtown. Almost everyone we spoke to in Iceland spoke
fluent English, by the way.
Getting around is extremely easy. There is an excellent bus system, and every
tourist service (airport shuttle, guided tours) will all pick you up at your
hotel, for free.
Hotel Esja - $75 per PERSON?
As part of our air ticket, we had made a reservation at Icelandair Esja hotel,
which I thought was going to cost us $75 a night. What I didn't know is that it
was A) a 45 minute walk from downtown, and B) $75 per PERSON per night! This
hotel was clean, but the rooms were fairly small. The hotel itself had a pretty
drab exterior. Reception checked us in fairly quick.
Luckily, we were able to bail out on our reservation. I told them that their own
web site had told us it would be $75 per night (I was wrong) and kicked up a
fuss. They didn't try to charge us - not even for the phone calls we made to the
budget hotels trying to find somewhere else to go. I would primarily not
recommend this hotel due to it's inconvenient location. It's a pretty long walk,
unless you want to shell out a lot of money for a cab, or wait outside for a
bus.
Salvation Army Guest House
Where do you go when you're short on your dough? Well, the Salvation Army of
course! They ran a backpacker's hotel in the thick of downtown so we headed
there. We got a double bed with common shower for $70 US for two people. (!!) It
was very nice, clean, and quiet. The owner was incredibly nice and helped us
with everything we needed. The common showers were a little mucky - bring
flip-flops. Some of the showers had little chairs in them to put your clothes
on, others didn't. They have a big luggage storage room for people checking in
early.
Safety
I have never felt as safe traveling as I did in Iceland. Iceland has an almost
nonexistant crime rate. We saw no homeless people at all. Even at the swimming
pool, locals didn't think twice about letting their young children out of their
sight. I guess there has to be some advantage in living in a place as cold as
this!
Temperature and Surroundings
Cold. Very cold. Especially coming from California! Even in the middle of their
summer, temperatures barely cracked 70 when we were there, and most of the time
were in the 50's. Iceland is mostly barren (Canadians: think Sudbury), rocky,
and forboding. It used to be 90% tree covered, but they had a little problem
with deforestation. There is a big effort undererway to restore the vegetation,
but they're definitely not there yet. The mountains and hills are beautiful, but
it's a pretty desolate place (or at least the parts we saw in the southwest).
Sights
We had two days to see everything we wanted to in Iceland. We were exhausted
from our flight, but were determined to resist taking a 'short' nap.
We made our way to the tourist bureau, where we got a 24 hour visitor's pass,
which got us free buses and admission to a lot of museums. In addition, we
bought tickets for a 1 day guided tour the following day - "Golden Circle". The
visitor's pass got us a discount on the guided tour, so before we left the
tourist bureau we'd already almost broken even on the pass!
We walked up to Hallgrimskirkja, a cathedral at the top of the hill. It's
a modern concrete affair, but with interesting curvy architecture from the
outside. There's an elevator to the top of the clock tower with great views of
the area. There's the standard souvenir shop at the entry. You have to pay to
take the elevator to the top, but it was only $2 apiece, if memory serves. To
get a good photo, stand a little ways down the street that it faces.
Next, we checked out the National Gallery of Iceland which is a small
gallery right downtown with too much modern art for our taste. There was 3
floors, and a temporary exhibition on the first floor. No pictures are allowed,
which was a shame, because the painting we liked the most was nowhere to be
found in the gift shop. It was an interesting little taste of Icelandic art, and
made us feel cultured.
Next we took a bus out to an �rb�jarsafn Open-Air Folk Museum. (yes I cut
and pasted that name :) ) The local buses run frequently (even on Sunday), and
the driver was very helpful in getting us to where we wanted to go. The folk
museum was an interesting collection of old buildings detailing the history of
Iceland, with some very honest admissions of a lot of mistakes that have been
made. There is your usual collection of original-era houses, with volunteers
knitting, baking bread, the usual. A few houses with grass roofs, some people
cutting grass in a field with a scythe, and we were done. (what was ironic was
that we would see the scythe being used later on in our trip in Turkey, but it
wasn't just for show then) Don't mind my lack of enthusiasm - we were barely
standing by this point - I think the King himself could have been in one of the
buildings and we wouldn't have been that impressed! Note that most displays are
now translated (loosely) into English, for those of us whose Icelandic is a
little rough.
After a much-needed nap at the hotel, we headed to one of the public swimming
pools: "Laugardalur" . This was no regular swimming pool. Yes, it was
geothermally heated, like almost all of Iceland, but it was more of a 'spa
experience' than a pool. There was a few large hot tubs, a cooler swimming pool
with lanes for swimmers, a huge bath-tub warm pool with a 6 story high
waterslide emptying into it (with no adult supervision - oh the humanity!), and
several "hot pots". The hot pots are like small circular hot tubs, with
temperatures varying from 65 to 110F. All for $2 apiece - it was the only
reasonably priced attraction in Reykjavik! We met lots of other tourists here,
and it was a great way to wind down the day.
The following day, we took the Golden Circle Tour. We are usually averse
to guided tours, but it was the best way to see a lot of the southwest of
Iceland in a short amount of time (even our backpacker's guide, Let's Go,
recommended the tour). The tour takes in the geologic and historic highlights of
the area. We saw many volcanoes, a greenhouse area (with a stop in a souvenir
shop of course), a magnificant waterfall called Gullfoss, an active geyser area,
and Thingvellir, where the Icelandic parliament was formed. For more information
on this tour, just do a google search on "Golden Circle Iceland". It was
definitely worthwhile.
To cap off our sightseeing in Reykjavik, we visited The Blue Lagoon. In
true Icelandic style, this turns out to be the runoff from a power plant that
they've turned into a tourist attraction! (www.bluelagoon.is) It's not a cheap
trip: it ended up being about $65 for the two of us, including admission and a
public shuttle from downtown (30 mins away). The lagoon is a large silica-filled
pool with purported healing powers. Everyone rubs these salts over their face
and body as an exfoliant. It's the only time you'll see men in public
exfoliating! The water is very warm, but not uncomfortably so. We stayed in for
quite a while. The facilities are incredibly modern, with electronic passes to
open your locker, very clean, and very well organized. There is a boutique gift
store that sell a lot of spa type stuff. There is also an expensive restaurant
where you can sit and enjoy a view of the lagoon.
Even on a rainy overcast day, this was a great thing to do, as it so warm. One
last tip: even on a very short layover in Reykjavik (less then one day) it may
be possible to visit the Blue Lagoon. It is located very close to the airport,
and there are a few direct buses from the airpot.
Dining
We went out for 2 meals in Reykjavik. The first meal was at Thrir Frakkar Hja
Ulfari (Address: Baldursgotu 14, Telephone: 552 3939 ). This was a small
cozy restaurant in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. Prices were
outrageous, but apparently were very reasonable for Iceland. The restaurant
featured a lot of local dishes - I had puffin as an appetizer, and the most
delicious salmon I have ever had as a main course. My wife had a vegetarian meal
which was also excellent.
Our second meal was at One Woman Restaurant (20b Laugavegur 552 8410).
This was a self-serve vegetarian restaurant located along the main strip. Prices
were a lot more reasonable here. The dishes were flavourful and filling,
although they were not fresh. The restaurant is on the second floor and offers
good people watching below. Of course, this being Iceland (even in the summer)
everyone seemed to be scurrying to get to their destination. The atmosphere is
relaxed and open, with interesting vegetable and fruit artwork up on the walls.
Well, we saw a lot in a two day visit. Despite the miserable weather and our
exhaustion on the first day, we had a great time. We couldn't have afforded to
stay more than two days, but there also wasn't too much more to do around the
capital.