It had always been on the bucket list to visit Iceland, and whilst many automatically think of the northern lights whenever Iceland is mentioned this wasn't actually at the top of my list; I am actually a massive geography geek (if you hadn't guessed from my recurring flag quizzes on Instagram!)

At the start of the year we set out a list of places that we wanted to visit in 2024 and on that list was Iceland.

We recently returned from this trip and it was amazing, but given the general viewpoint that Iceland is an expensive country to visit I thought it would be helpful to give a breakdown of our experience; spoiler - it IS expensive but if you budget for it appropriately and know what to expect it can ensure you have a much better time! 

Flights (£301.58) & Airport Parking (£67.49)

If you are planning a trip to Iceland, I'd definitely recommend looking at booking flights quite far in advance and considering the price fluctuations based on time of the year and where you are flying from.

We typically try and fly from Bristol as our local airport but there weren't any flights to Keflavik so we booked flights from Luton with Easyjet instead which weren't too badly priced at £150.79 each.

Of course, airport parking is always a fun extra cost to consider and whilst you could use apps like JustPark to park on someone's drive nearby, the convenience and reassurance that the car is safe whilst travelling is worth the money in my opinion. Also, you can typically get 10-15% for booking the parking through the airport's site when you give them your email address which we did bringing this cost to £67.49 for Monday to Friday.

Keflavik airport is the international airport for the country's capital, Reykjavik and unless you are heading to the North this is likely where you will need to fly to.

Airport Lounge (£12)

If you have read my previous blog posts on my American Express card, you will remember that I was planning to use two of my four free lounge access passes on this trip, and I wanted to ensure that we would get access so paid the £6 each booking fee through my PriorityPass app and I’m glad I did as they were turning away anyone without a booking.

We visited the No.1 Lounge at Luton Airport and it was a really nice space; not particularly large but it was quiet, comfortable and the food was good. We had a morning flight and so had a few plates of cooked breakfast and some pastries which would have cost considerably more had we attempted to eat elsewhere in the airport.

I probably wouldn’t pay ~£35 each for entry (without my free passes) into said lounge but for £6 each this was well worthwhile, almost a little too comfortable as we nearly missed the final call for our gate! (We had received an email saying the flight was delayed by an hour, but then it wasn’t delayed when we got there, jumped on the bus transfer, only to be turned around and then in fact stood at the gate for the hour!)

Airport transfer (£107.50)

Whilst Keflavik is the city's busiest airport, much like the Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton debacle it isn't very close to the city itself and therefore you are left with two choices; get a taxi or a bus. Technically you probably COULD walk, but you'll be walking for a LONG time and I wouldn't recommend it based on the roads! 

Given the quote for taxis being pretty hefty, we opted for the bus route and pre-booked this via Reykjavik Bus Tours (FlyBus) for a cost of £107.50 return. Believe me, I was sat thinking that's pretty pricey but when it's that or walking for a few hours I think this is the best choice. Of course, you may be able to find a hotel which includes an airport transfer which would be a bonus!

You can’t book a time to get the bus from the airport, but they leave fairly regularly when flights are landing at Keflavik so don’t be afraid when it only lets you choose the “flexible” option for the bus into the city. We also opted to book the transfer directly to our hotel (or the bus stop opposite) which wasn’t much more. The way this worked is that you get on a coach that takes you to the city terminal and then get put onto a normal bus which heads to a few stops. This was the same process on the way back, but just in the opposite order.

Hotel (£626.71)

Based on what we wanted to do and see we knew that we wanted to be in the city but close to the harbour and stumbled across a gem of a hotel called Exeter Hotel.

Initially I found this on Mr & Mrs Smith which is a pretty swish hotel site which only includes handpicked hotels. Probably not the best place for me to start looking as I was getting a taste for luxury but the cheaper options weren't particularly appealing to us due to either a) being outside of the city centre, b) not having a manned reception, c) being in an awkward position to get onward transportation for excursions etc.

Therefore, this hotel which is right on the harbour’s edge, contains the best-rated bakery in the city (we got something everyday, and I can promise you it lives up to the hype), and a 30 second walk to Bus Stop 4 (used by the airport transfer company and all tour companies as well).

Sounds great, but the price wasn’t at ~£850 for 4 nights which is I suppose middle of the road in terms of pricing, but we thought it was a bit steep given the cheaper options were coming out at £400-£500.

I noticed that Mr & Mrs Smith price-match and thought I'd test this out. The same room without breakfast was available for £626.71 on some site I'd never heard of but I chanced my luck and contacted them; they matched it.

Therefore, for the sake of dropping breakfast we saved around £200. "Yes, but then you had to pay for breakfast" I hear you say. We did, but don't forget the bakery downstairs; they do an all-day deal where you can get a filled bagel and a doughnut for 1,500ISK which we did each day changing up the combinations each day. This came to £16.50 per day therefore only £66 for the 4 days, which is overall quite a colossal saving.

If anyone is looking at visiting Reykjavik and is considering this hotel, it’s worth noting the price match + added extras on Mr & Mrs Smith (you can also get cashback through TopCashback) OR if it works out cheaper via Exeter Hotel’s site drop me a message as I have a code that can bag you another 10% off.

Experiences (£573.03)

We knew before going that this was going to be a big chunk of our budget and so we booked quite a large chunk of these in advance so that we could be comfortable knowing we would be able to get tickets and also that we had some sort of structure ahead of time. You could do a handful of these and still have a great time, but since we were there we wanted to take advantage of that and certainly made the most of it.

Sky Lagoon (£118.86)

You will likely have heard of the Blue Lagoon but may not have heard of Sky Lagoon (I certainly hadn’t before planning this trip). However, it seemed like a lot less busy than the Blue Lagoon and the reviews online comparing the two all seemed to favour this one, and so we booked it. There are two options when booking online, with the only difference being that you have a private changing room; this was about 25% more expensive with no real impact on the visit so we went with the basic option.

It involves an unlimited amount of time in the Geothermal lagoon and then a 7-step ritual which consists of a variety of different experiences you could expect in a spa, although the huge sauna overlooking the sea was mesmerising (particularly so, as we went in the sauna without phones; they had two depending on whether you were there to let Instagram know you were visiting or whether you were there to experience it - on that note, we also didn’t take phones in and seeing dozens of people do the awkward shuffle to avoid getting their phone wet reinforced that was the right decision).

You can link your card to wrist bands when you check in and this can be used to pay for drinks in the bar there (roughly £10 for a beer or a cider) and it charges the card after you leave and check out.

It’s worth noting that this is not necessarily easy to get to from the city on public transport and therefore we booked a taxi (as we did for most things but I’ll come onto this and the cost of taxis slightly later on!)

It was busy but they only sell so many tickets so it wasn’t crowded and you could comfortably enjoy the experience; we visited at 7pm as it was slightly cheaper than the day time and it also meant we were able to watch the sun set over the sea from the lagoon with a drink in hand and it was quite frankly a magical experience.

Golden Circle Excursion (£146.97)

To see a lot of the sights of Iceland you do need to travel and we didn’t fancy the stress of hiring a car so we figured that it would be worth looking at what excursions were available which would take us where we wanted to go. Looking at BusTravel Iceland’s site was really great as they have a range of options on there.

We were keen to do the Golden Circle tour which was a whole day (9am pickup and 5pm drop-off) and since we were going to be on the tour for the full day decided to pay a little extra to do the tour in a small group which was a brilliant decision as we were on a pretty fancy minibus with only 7 other people for the day and it meant that we were able to see more as a result:

• Kerið Volcanic Crater

• Friðheimar Tomato Greenhouses & Icelandic Horse Show

• Gullfoss waterfall

• Geysir Geothermal Area

• Thingvellir National Park

All of these things were really fascinating, including the tomato greenhouse which sounds like a random stop-off but produces a large percentage of Iceland’s tomato consumption and offers a tomato-based restaurant including tomato beer which was actually quite pleasant. The cost of lunch wasn’t included in the excursion price but was reasonably priced and gave a good opportunity to get to know the others on the excursion.

Whale Watching Tour (£139.21)

Knowing that Iceland’s waters were home to a number of whales, I was quite keen to see if we could catch a glimpse of them whilst we were in the country and we therefore booked a whale watching tour with Sepcial Tours (right opposite the hotel) using a 10% discount from a site I’ll link at the foot of this blog.

The morning trip we had booked was cancelled due to bad weather, so we re-booked it for the 5pm slot which went ahead (although the “rough” description of the waters and the free anti-sickness tablets maybe should have turned us away as it was pretty choppy!) but it was a great experience as the bad weather meant there were only 25 people including us on a boat that could fit 200.

We managed to see a humpback whale, minke whale and a large number of whales on the trip and it was really good. If you have the chance to be picky with when you go, I’d definitely recommend a day with calmer waters though!

Lava Show (£55.38)

This was a really random one that popped every now and then when researching, but I am so glad we did it. Again, we grabbed a 15% discount using the site linked at the bottom of the blog, but it is the only live lava show in the world set up by a husband and wife where they take cooled, hardened, lava from an old Icelandic volcano eruption and heat it back up to the point where it becomes flowing lava in front of your eyes.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect but it is quite possibly one of the best things I have ever seen and the husband doing the show was incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining. It isn’t a long show but it is well worth the money; and down the road from here is a place called Omnom which sells delicious chocolate and ice cream (if you need to cool off after being in a room with lava!)

FlyOver Iceland (£53.38)

Also near the Lava Show (as it’s on an industrial estate about 15 minutes walk away from the hotel) is FlyOver Iceland which we ummed and ahhed about seeing as it seemed like it might be a bit of a tourist trap. We managed to get a discount for this too, and I’ll admit it is a bit strange at the beginning of the experience as you have to watch a few random bits which seemed a little out of context.

However, you then get put into a row of seats which move and give the sensation of flying over Iceland’s beautiful landscape including the scents and sprays of water which was a really good experience. That experience itself seemed to be around 10 minutes with the whole thing being around 20-30 minutes so it depends whether you would deem it worthwhile but we thought it was quite good.

Perlan (£59.23)

This was something that we weren’t planning to do as it seemed like it was quite awkward to get to, but we pulled the trigger and got a taxi there and back (see later). This is effectively a museum showcasing Iceland’s history with a highlight on its nature and geography which was interesting. Additionally there is a 360 degree planetarium show about the Northern Lights, an indoor 100 metre Ice Cave that you can walk through, a short film on volcanoes and the ocean, alongside a revolving restaurant and café at the top of the museum.

We ended up spending around 4 hours here which made it well worth the money in our experience and if you have half a day free and are unsure what to do (especially if it’s bad weather) then this is well worth thinking about.

Taxis (£91.20)

The recommended way of getting around to places was via taxi and both the hotel and tourist attractions were happy to order taxis for you, all of which came from the largest taxi firm in Iceland so we were quite relaxed that this would be safe and easy.

However, taxis are expensive in Iceland, but it is better than walking and the reviews of trying to use a public bus weren’t great so we stuck to taxis where we needed them (only for two trips):

• From the hotel to Sky Lagoon: £31.07

• From Sky Lagoon to the hotel: £29.69

• From the hotel to Perlan: £16.32

• From Perland to the city centre: £14.12

Food & drinks (£335.82)

Depending on where you went, it wasn’t massively expensive to eat and drink in the city. I would say it is somewhere between normal prices and those in London.

I won’t break down where we ate everything as there was quite a list but some great places that we ate were:

• DEIG (Bakery in the hotel)

• Le Kock (Restaurant in the hotel, also really good)

• Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (famous hot dog stand, expensive but tasty)

• Friðheimar Tomato Greenhouses (really good tomato soup - a shock, I know!)

• Anywhere near the harbour that serves fish

Miscellaneous (£36.74)

We paid city tax on arrival of £14.72 and then spent £22.02 on other bits and pieces including some souvenirs, postcards, etc.

All costs of snacks, etc. are included in the food and drinks total above.

Discounts

We stopped at a services during our excursion where we picked up a guide to Iceland and as a bit of a fluke it had loads of discounts in it for tourist attractions and restaurants, we used the discounts in the book for whale watching, the lava show and FlyOver.

Here is the website in case you don’t stumble across the book: https://visitorsguide.is/discount-coupons/

What card I used

As many of the cards with foreign spending (Zing, Revolut, etc.) didn’t necessarily have an option for Iceland’s currency (ISK) I used my Chase debit card when spending in Iceland and didn’t need cash anywhere.

I had funnelled £1,500 through the account in August to ensure I earned 1% cashback on our spending whilst abroad as well.

Is this budget realistic?

£2,152.07… this seems like a LOT of money for 4 nights and it is. However, we knew far in advance that this was going to be an expensive trip and we wanted to make the most of it whilst we were there. This involved waking up early and going to sleep late at night to cram in a lot and it was a very busy trip but it was a phenomenal experience.

We had originally budgeted £2,000 overall for this trip and therefore went over-budget whilst we were over there. This was largely from under-estimating the cost of the taxis and the food but this wasn’t too horrendous.

You could do this a lot cheaper and it may make sense to spend longer in Iceland to travel around the whole country but don’t be fooled by how it looks on a map; Iceland is a BIG country to try and travel around.

It’s also worth noting that we side hustled pretty hard in July and August to lessen the burden of this cost which is why we were able to spend quite freely whilst we were in Iceland. If you want to see how I side hustle, check out my recent blog posts on my extra monthly earnings.