Month: August 2017

Traveling around Iceland working on our Rick Steves’ Iceland guidebook, I experienced some sticker shock. Here are my best strategies for keeping costs down in one of Europe’s most expensive countries.

1. Consider Airbnb. Airbnb and similar sites rent properties that are typically far cheaper and more spacious than a hotel room, provided you’re willing to forego big-hotel services (such as a reception desk and daily cleaning). Airbnb can also get you into more local-feeling neighborhoods; sleeping in a Reykjavík suburban home is both cheaper and more Icelandic than a hotel in the touristy downtown.

2. Be willing to “go” down the hall. While Icelandic hotels are pricey (starting in the $250 range), its characteristic guesthouses can be affordable (closer to $150). These typically offer basic rooms with a shared bathroom, which cost even less than en-suite rooms.

3. Have a big lunch and a small dinner. Even the fanciest restaurant offers excellent-value lunch specials for around $25 — allowing you to sample a high-end chef affordably. Savor a quality restaurant lunch, then picnic or grab cheap takeout at dinner (when most restaurants drastically increase prices — upper-midrange places charge $40-50 for an entrée). For Icelanders, takeout pizza, the IKEA cafeteria, or the corner hot dog stand provide a cheap and handy meal, just like back home.

4. Picnic. In general, cultivate the art of picnicking in atmospheric settings. Seek out Iceland’s discount supermarket chains — Krónan and Bónus — and use them to stock up. Be careful picnic-shopping at the ubiquitous convenience stores, which are far more expensive. And consider bringing a few staples from home. For example, in a land where a basic takeaway coffee costs $5 a cup, “importing” a few packets of Starbucks Via helps you caffeinate cheaply.

5. Know what’s included. Every restaurant happily provides a free carafe of tap water — just ask, and don’t feel obligated to purchase a drink. And if you’re paying for unlimited soup and bread, don’t be shy about going back for seconds. Since Iceland has no tipping custom, and taxes are included, you’ll pay exactly the price you see on the menu.

6. Economize on alcohol. Alcohol is priced at a premium, particularly in bars and restaurants. Seek out happy hours, when prices drop by as much as half. Stock up at the airport duty-free store on arrival — with the lowest prices in Iceland — or at a government-run liquor store (called Vínbúðin).

7. Consider renting a car. In many places, taking public transportation can save you plenty over the cost of renting a car. But in Iceland — where the best attractions are deep in the countryside, reachable only with a pricey excursion — this thinking is often a false economy. For example, a couple based in Reykjavík for three nights might pay for all-day excursions to the Golden Circle ($100 per person) and the South Coast ($150 per person), plus the transfer from the airport to downtown ($40 per person round-trip) — that’s nearly $600, compared to about $450 for a comparable-length car rental. To reduce rental costs, skip the options you don’t need: Since it’s cool and breezy even in the peak of summer, you can pass on the air-conditioning. And, unless you’re here in winter (when roads can be dicey) or plan to venture far off the beaten path, a casual tourist doesn’t need four-wheel drive.

8. Skip the Blue Lagoon. While the Blue Lagoon spa is famous, and a highlight for many visitors, a basic ticket in peak times starts at $80 — nearly ten times as much as Iceland’s many thermal swimming pools. Reykjavík alone has more than a dozen municipal pools with water just as hot as the Blue Lagoon’s, and that provide a far more authentic Icelandic experience. If visiting several pools, invest in a shareable multi-visit card.

9. Sightsee Selectively. Icelandic museums are typically quite small, well-presented, but expensive (admissions are often $15-20). To stretch your budget, choose carefully, and don’t assume every museum is a worthwhile investment. If you’ll be sightseeing a lot in the capital, consider a Reykjavík City Card. Fortunately, many of Iceland’s best attractions — its natural wonders — are free (though a few charge for parking).

10. Splurge where it counts. When you do splurge, choose an experience you’ll always remember: Naturalists invest in a whale-watching tour, foodies splurge on culinary walks and the occasional high-end restaurant meal, and adventurers spelunk through a lava cave or hike across a glacier.

For lots more advice on traveling to Iceland, check out the new Rick Steves’ Iceland guidebook. Thanks to that book’s co-author, Ian Watson, for his many practical, money-saving insights.

I’ve been mighty quiet on my blog the last couple of months. And when that happens, you know I’ve been working day-and-night on a new guidebook. Yesterday, I turned over the newest Rick Steves guidebook — Rick Steves Iceland — to our editors. It’ll hit bookshelves nationwide in March of 2018.

I’m hoping to post a blog series about Iceland closer to the book’s publication, so stay tuned for that. But I can tell you now that we think this book will be the perfect tool for people going to Iceland — whether for 24 hours, or for 2 weeks.

We’ve focused the book’s coverage on Reykjavík, where most people home-base, and nearby day trips — ideal for a quick visit. We believe the two best side-trips for getting a glimpse of Iceland’s dramatic landscape are the Golden Circle (linking both historical and geological wonders, in the country’s lava-rock interior) and the volcano-and-glacier-lined South Coast (where you can hike up to a glacier tongue, stroll along black-sand beaches, and walk behind a thundering waterfall).

We’ve also included ample coverage of the famous Blue Lagoon spa — a serene, milky-blue oasis in a volcanic landscape — and the West Iceland region around Borgarnes, with an eclectic variety of sights. And my favorite “Back Door” discovery was the Westman Islands, just off Iceland’s South Coast, where you can see the effects of a recent volcanic eruption and meet a real, live puffin (a weather-dependent day trip by plane from Reykjavík, or by boat from the South Coast).

 

For those with more time to explore Iceland, we’ve also written a chapter on the Ring Road, which curls 800 miles around the island’s perimeter, connecting virtually all of its must-see sights. It’s crazy to do Iceland’s ultimate road trip in less than five days; a week lets you slow down and actually enjoy it. My personal favorites on the Ring Road were Siglufjörður, a charming port town buried deep in a fjord on the north coast, with a more-interesting-than-it-sounds Herring Museum; Mývatn, a volcanic lake ringed by many of Iceland’s most fascinating and fun-to-explore natural wonders; Seyðisfjörður, a tiny, artsy little burg buried deep in a fjord on the east coast, accessed by one of Iceland’s most stunning mountain passes; and the breathtaking glacier lagoons, Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón, in the middle of nowhere along the southeastern coast. Just thinking about these amazing places makes me want to shout from the rooftops: “Forget a two-day layover in Iceland! Make it two weeks!”

Of course, producing a guidebook is a team effort. My part is done, and now our amazing staff of editors and mapmakers take over. But the MVP of this project was the book’s co-author, Ian Watson. Ian, who’s had more than two decades of experience writing guidebooks, actually lived in Reykjavík for many years. He became an Icelandic citizen, speaks the language fluently, started his family there, and knows the country as a local. Ian has an encyclopedic knowledge of Iceland’s history and culture, and a passion for debunking the clichés and half-truths that otherwise run rampant in Icelandic tourism…the perfect fit for Rick Steves’ Europe mission to teach thoughtful travel, while still having fun. And from a practical point of view — the nuts-and-bolts our guidebook readers rely on — only Ian could explain the nuanced differences between Reykjavík’s many thermal swimming pools, and know just the right places for a lunch-and-bathroom break on the long drive between Borgarnes and Skagafjörður. Ian’s also the one who suggested we include the Westman Islands, which is often downplayed by guidebooks but turned out to be one of my favorite places in Iceland. Well done, Ian!

Special thanks, too, go to all of the readers who posted suggestions for this book to Rick’s and my Facebook pages when we asked for tips earlier this summer. The day before I touched down in Reykjavík, I read over every single comment, added dozens of them to my notes…and many gems that might have been otherwise overlooked wound up in the new book.

Earlier this summer, Ian handed his work off to me, and I scrambled through Iceland for two and a half weeks to finalize the project, add a few discoveries of my own, and balance Ian’s insider savvy with all the bumpkin naiveté of a first-time visitor. Thank goodness it never really gets dark at that time of year, because I was out at all hours, tracking down just the right tips and details for the book.

As a seasoned traveler, I’m skeptical of anyplace that gets so popular, so quickly. On this, my first visit, I half-expected Iceland to disappoint. How could it possibly live up to the fuss? Imagine my surprise when it far exceeded my hopes. From this traveler’s perspective, Iceland is not an empty bubble. Iceland is for real.

Now that Iceland is in my rearview mirror, I’m already packing for my next trip. I take off tomorrow for a guidebook-update swing through some of my favorite countries: Croatia, Bosnia, and Slovenia, capped by some time in Greece (Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini). As time allows, I’ll try to post a few fresh dispatches from this beautiful and fascinating corner of Europe. And this winter, look for more reports from Iceland, in advance of the book’s March publication. But for now, wherever you may journey this fall…happy travels!