Hi! Me and my bf are planning a trip between 27th march and 4th april (8d). We are gonna do that with spending as least as possible since we have some ither trips after as well.
So far found the roundtrip flights and accomodation in Reyjkjavik hostel for 450 eur per person.
Rent a car - is it reasonable to say car rental and gas for 8d would cost 600 eur in total (300 per person)?
Tours - since we will rent a car, we would love to do majority of sightseeing for free and do some hikes. However, the main thing we would like to try and pay for is aurora borealis hunt. Except that one, are there any other low cost tours that you recommend we must do, or those that are a bit pricey but really worth it? I dont think we can afford going above 300 eur per person on this category.
Food - we plan to buy basic food in market (oats, yogurt, milk, couacous, rice, some veggies, bananas...) and eat at hostel. We will cook lunch and take with us on trips. We really wanna avoid having to eat outside. We also plan to take some protein bars from our home town with us, coffee, tea etc. Do you think it is reasonabke 100eur per person if we will cook almost everything?
Other, souvenirs - we allocated 100eur for soivenirs and unexpected food/medicine costs.
You can just drive to someplace dark and look for auroras. If they are there and it is not cloudy you do not need a specialized tour to see them. If they are bright enough you can see them from downtown Reykjavík.
The cheapest car rental from Geysir (zero insurance extras) is 350 Euro for that period. By the time you add in gas and parking charges and any extra liability coverage you are easily pushing that 600 Euro total. Well over that if you want something with all wheel drive.
Take the budget you were going to spend on an aurora tour and treat yourself to one nice dinner somewhere (≈100-150 Euro for a couple). Lamb, fish, whatever.
As far as food goes, even if you are buying at a grocery and fixing everything yourself, 12 Euro per day per person is possible, you just have to keep an eye on it. Easy to go overbudget when you pass the chocolate/pastries aisle...:)
Bring all the over-the-counter medicines you might need. Some of them will be prescription-only items in Iceland.
Thanks so much for the details! Regarding the car rental, we would optimize for safety and robust car since i assume the roads will be snowy or icy in some parts still. What do you recommend?
That really depends on your experience and comfort level. A Dacia Duster is a fairly common rental, it has decent road manners and more than enough space for anything two people would bring. Its baby brother would be the Suzuki Jimny. Pretty sure you can get both of these in manual or automatic.
The main thing about driving in this season is knowing when not to drive. You could have nice weather and clear roads your whole trip, or it could be absolutely awful. Pay attention to the weather alert and road condition web pages. Make sure any lodging you pre-book has a cancellation policy you are comfortable with, that you are mentally comfortable with shifting gears on your plans, and that you are back in the Reykjavík area the day before you fly out. The road from Reykjavík to the airport is (almost) always going to be open, the roads from elsewhere to Reykjavík are not guaranteed. You do not want a plan that has you driving from Vík to the airport on the day you fly out. So, if you are budgeting a day to just explore the capital, put it at the end of the trip rather than the start.
I haven’t taken an Aurora tour but I’d say that is like the last thing I would spend money on if you have a car and want to save money. It’s not like you’re trying to spot whales or caribou and need expert knowledge to be in the right places at the right time. If you’re lucky enough to be there when it’s happening it will be right above you. If the skies happen to be clear drive somewhere outside the city.
Load your backpack with prepackaged bars and food.
Nothing is low cost in Iceland, and it’s definitely even more expensive than you’re fearing so make sure you have everything you will need.
One piece of advice from someone who has been all over the financial spectrum over the last 20 years while traveling, while you should respect your budget, don’t let your fear and budget totally screw up your trip by being stressed about every decision. If you are having a lovely day and you happen upon a cute bar or restaurant and feel like a $15 beer or if it’s day 4, you’re tired of Clif bars, and splitting an awesome burrito from a cart in Hvolsvöllur sounds like the best thing ever then do it. You will spend more than you intend in Iceland, and that’s alright.
Hi just went in December rented a car ..we used https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/ to see the cloud cover and drove to the none cloudy area to see the Northern lights..I also used https://auroraforecast.is/ ..we saw them at the Grotta lighthouse which was 20 min away from Reykjavík ..they were faint and Parking is crowded and we had to get and walk due to all the cars light pollution..We also did our own Golden Circle tour..just have to pay to park at Thingvellir..the other 2 stops were free parking