8 Tips for Visiting Iceland

So, before you go barreling off to Iceland to see all this beautiful country has to offer, I have come up with a few tips you should follow. Iceland is great but it is still a small country, with an even smaller population. While in Reykjavik and Akureyri, you'll feel right at home, with restaurants galore and plenty of music stations; but outside of the cities, it's a desolate and undeveloped land. Make sure you're well prepared for your trip and you'll be loving Iceland in no time!

1. Bring an eye mask.
If you are visiting between May and September, you might want to bring an eye mask. It stays light well into the sleeping hours and the suns rises extremely early. In the time that I visited, the sun rose at 4:30 am and didn't set until 10:30 pm and even then it wasn't dark. Sometimes your blinds may not be enough to keep all of the light out.

2. Stop Frequently!
Once you begin your journey, stops are few and far between. It could be 50 to 100 miles until you see the next small town or village. So, stop and fill up when you can and make sure to empty your bladder! Otherwise, you will be sorry.



3. Don't fly in on a Sunday.
We flew in on a Sunday and EVERYTHING was closed and what wasn't closed didn't open until fairly late (about 9 or 10).

4. Bring Snacks.
If we didn't have a few snacks in the car, I'm not sure what would have happened. When visiting the small towns and villages, most of the cafes were closed and when they pointed out one that was open, we couldn't even eat there. My mom is allergic to eggs and those "cafes" that they told us to go to, served nothing but pastries or coffee. I'm not sure if it's easier to find places when it's "in season" for them or what. But we drove around hours a few days looking for a place to eat.



5. Don't Trust Your GPS!
I recommend getting a map for your trip and using it instead of a GPS. Our rental car company provided us a Garmin for our trip and it didn't really do anything except get us lost... A LOT. The only time we got to where we were going without confusion was when we used our map. So unless you have a really good GPS that is updated, then using a map will be more than enough. Our's had all of the major points of interest on it and more.

6. Bring Your Own Music.
Near Akureyri and Reykjavik, there are plenty of stations to listen to. But once you get out and around the ring road, you only get to listen to talk shows in Icelandic or static. Most of the time it was just static. And quite car rides are difficult to stay awake for. If it weren't for my iPod and the informative CD's Hertz gave us, we would have had rode in a lot of silence.



7. Don't worry about exchanging cash or withdrawing any.
Credit cards were excepted everywhere we went in Iceland, even the tiny little guesthouses we were staying at and for any amount. So avoid those ATM fees and rip exchange rates at the airport. Just use your card (and make sure your bank knows about it).

8. Last but not least: Take your time.
There's so much to see in Iceland. Don't try to cram so much of it in at once. Give yourself time to enjoy everything so you're not so exhausted the next day when you get up and start all over again. If you do like us and do the ring road, make sure you prepare well for the first couple of days because there's so much in the beginning and it slows down towards the end of it.





This is part of the #sundaytravlerseries with Chasing the Donkey and don't forget to support all of the other participants! :)