Iceland Advice Needed

Hey duders!

So after some saving up and finally being able to get some annual leave, I'm finally visiting Reykjavik, Iceland this November! I was just hoping to ask for some wisdom from you lot, either if you've been there before or live in Iceland about what are the sort of things I must do and/or must eat.

I'm going to be there for a week and ideally my friend and I will be renting a car so we're not just confined to Reykjavik so it doesn't have to be things that are only applicable there!

As a follow up question, does anyone recommend any good video cameras for making a travelogue? I've never done one but figured this would be a good chance to try. Something in the sub $200 range if possible!

Thanks for any help!

Have you watched the Drew and Patrick videos?

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/giant-bomb-travelogue-iceland/2300-7330/

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/iceland-the-cutting-room-floor/2300-7362/

If nobody else chips in, I will give you some touristy suggestions. For now however, I will implore you to visit an incredible fast food place - Hlölla bátar. The one I frequented was located on Reykjavik's town square and this one will probably be the most convenient for you as well. Try one of their "boats", preferably with lamb meat, but most of them were great (I found the shrimp one a bit too salty).

LINKY

I love Icelanders and I miss the island very much, but honestly, I would personally press the "catastrophic volcano erruption" celestial button if it meant that the owners of the chain ran to seek shelter where I live now.

There's no better advice than renting a car and touring the country. Reykjavik is lovely, but it's not why you'd go to Iceland.

Moving to Off Topic - General is for topics about games and the site. Thanks.

Well, my advice would basically be the the same as ratamero's. Rent a car and take the road No.1. Make a small detour to see Snaefellsjoekull, a larger one for the Western Fjords (unless the weather is bad and you don't feel comfortable driving up and down 15% inclines on gravel) and some other natural wonders that are a bit further from the shore.

@fogh: @hassun: Yup saw it when it was posted! One of the biggest reasons i've wanted to visit Iceland actually. Just thought i'd see if there's any extra information I could get from you duders whilst planning.

@qrdl: Great, thanks!! I'll add that to the list. Just as well I love lamb :)

@ratamero: That's the plan,

@Mike: My bad, sorry!

My wife and I literally got back from a 16 day trip around Iceland on Saturday - let me know if you need more suggestions on stuff.

Initial suggestions:

• Skip the Golden Circle and get your ass to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula - it is amazing and gives you opportunities to see Icelandic horses, a seal colony on Ytri Tunga beach, a great lava tube (cave) tour at Vatneshiller, lava fields and craters (Budir, Saxholl [you can walk right up the rim of this one], Holaholar [you can drive IN to this one]) and more. Beware the #54 on the northeast side coming out of the peninsula though as it is rough and unsealed for many km's. (You likely would not be going this way out of the peninsula anyway if you're headed back towards Reyk but it's worth mentioning since changing a tire in the rain and mud was one of the more exhilarating but shitty parts of my trip)
• Check out the little arcade (Arcade Freddi) in Reykjavik if you feel like a little pinball or Street Fighter some evening. I played a bunch of Addam's Family pinball there one night.
• Eat the hotdogs. They are excellent.
• Blue Lagoon is very expensive but if you cannot get out to Myvatn to get a great thermal experience there, you are stuck with it if you want an amazing thermal bath experience. We got to experience both Myvatn and the newly heated water in the Holuhraun "New Lava" field up on Vatnajokull so we skipped the Blue Lagoon completely.

I live in iceland

dont eat at hlölla bátar unless you are very drunk. Eat a lot of fish and lamb. If ther is a fish of the day option you should take it.

Taste Skyr, rent a bike. Reykjavík not a big city and you can cover a lot of it on a bike.

If you plan on going out in the country the west fjords are in my opinion the most beautiful place in iceland (i'm from there, but live in reykjavík)

And listen to icelandic music!

@andriv: How dare you sir?! What a jaded life you live if you don't appreciate the majesty of fatty strips of meat in a bun! :)

May I ask were in the West Fjords you're from? I only visited Sudavik and of course Isafjordur. I left one of those ugly silver/gray steel-frame buildings in Sudavik, so I have to appologize for that.

@aku88, as far as Icelandic music goes, I think the 12 Tonar shop is a good place to get a souvenir CD. They introduced me to Hildur Gudnadottir and I'll be forever grateful (recommended if you like this mixture of ambient, drone and modern calssical music that all the kids are blasting in their cars nowadays).

I have no idea why the Icelandic hot-dogs are considered delicious by so many. They are the equivalent of the cheapest, shittiest wieners you can get in Poland.

4 years ago i was in Iceland for 8 days. We spent two nights in Reykjavik which wasnt very exiting, its a small town with a few shallow tourist traps and thats pretty much it. After that we rented a car and went on a roadtrip camping around eastern Iceland, basicaly a halfcircle along road 1, and then took a flight back from Egilstadir.

We went along all the usuals with the the golden triangle which i can recommend, its full of History and great nature vistas. The Blue Lagoon may just be a pool of cooling water from a powerplant but it kinda looks and feels surreal enough to warrant a visit. Camping beside an errupting geysir (strokkur) with hot boiling and smoking water just running naturally around you in streams was a cool feeling. Sadly you couldnt just scoop it up and make you some quick coffey becouse i thingk there was some sulfur acid in it or something like that. (im not a chemistry guy)

Jökulsárlón, a great glacierlake with icebergs floating around in it and alot of seals. Theres also a couple of movies that has been filmed there if you fancy that. We went on a boattrip that took us to the edge of the glacier Vattnajökul and gave us a close look. Being on a boat in the lake between icebergs was supercold (who would have guessed), we got thick overalls but even then it was icing my bones. Our boat also broke down (engine started to leak fuel) so we had to just drift around on the lake for 30min until another one could come and tow us back. All in all it was a great experience i can recommend.

Kárahnjúkar dam was a great sight if you like huge engineering and also as always on this trip the nature and canyons around it was stunning.

We took a one day trip up on Eyjafjallajökul, an active vulcano under a huge glacier (The one that halted airtraffic in europe in 2010). Again it was a very surreal sight with everything black and the ground still really really hot on some places. It took a day to walk up there and back so pack some food and be prepared, i dont know if its still hot and black but no matter it was a great trip with stunning views.

There was another 1 day hike near a glacier we took but i cant really remember where it was, doesnt really matter though becouse the nature is great for hiking everywhere if thats to your liking. We basicly just drove around aimless with a few planned stops. We found stuff like old cloisters ruins with a cake smörgåsbord, the only forest in iceland, speedtraps that automaticly added the fine to your rentalcar bill, smashed up bridges (by landslides and flashfloods), a crazy stoneguy in Höfn etc. etc.

It was a really great trip and i can recommend it to anyone that has interest in viking history and "man vs nature" stuff, you really feel small sometimes on that island. Besides nature there kinda is nothing else to see or do on Iceland however so be aware of that.

edit: The food everyone recommended wasnt very much to my liking (skyr, opal, hot burgerjoints etc) but i guess thats very subjective. I quickly just went on along the "fish of the day" method described earlier.

Random musings from my visit to Iceland:

• Damn it's quiet and desolate here
• Icelandic horse is delicious
• Waterfalls, so many waterfalls
• Akureyri is a gorgeous city (town?)
• I was promised puffins and there were no puffins
• So this is what two hours of night feels like

But yeah just rent a car and drive around the island. We spend two-ish days in Reykjavik and it was probably the least interesting part. The best part of visiting Iceland for me was just stepping out of the car at some random part of the highway to check out some random lake, and getting this incredible feeling of isolation. There were no cars or people or birds...it was so damn quiet.

It's an awesome spot! I was only there a couple of months ago for a week. I would recommend getting out of Reykjavik, having a week to spare I would probably try and travel as far as Hof. There is lots of Natural beauty (waterfalls for days) to take in for free. But things I did and recommend in order of expense cheapest to dearest:

Whale Watching (can be done from Reykjavik)

Glacier Walk

Blue Lagoon ( recommend for the end of the holiday to relax)

Dog Sledding, amazing.

Snow Mobile on Glacier, pricey but a real once in lifetime for me being from Ireland, different I imagine if you lived in north Alaska :)

Oh and the Bonus Pig Logo is amazing... you'll know.

So, I have a little bit of advice. I had some friends who went to Iceland, and I got a few pointers:

First and foremos, say you're Canadian. They love Canadians in Iceland. A friend of mine almost got in a lot of trouble at a bar because a few guys thought he was American. I don't think they're a fan of folks from the US in Iceland. I know it's almost cliche but that's what they experienced.

Also, bring a map. A good map. And put the points of interest on said map. Another thing my buddies realized is that Icelanders aren't very good at giving directions. Either that, or they like messing with tourists. They were going around for hours trying to find a tourist spot, and they were given conflicting directions the entire time.

Apparently Icelandic hot-dogs are absolutely fantastic. Brennivin is disgusting. And depending on what time of the year you go: there might be perpetual daylight.

My friends had a blast there, aside from the two incidents I mentioned before. I really wish I went with them. They had some marvelous pictures to bring back.