There’s lots to know about visiting Iceland – some things are good to know before going and some are fun to find out while on your trip. There are many good books out there with really valuable info – one of the best we’ve found is: Rick Steve’s Iceland.

It’s easy to read, follow and plan from!

However, here’s some first-hand thoughts and tips from our trip: (but remember this is only our experience. Everyone is different and experiences can and will vary!)

1. Money

Iceland has their own currency – the ‘Icelandic Krona’ (ISK, IK).  You can get an app on your phone that will convert handily from Krona to the currency of your country. They also use Euros(€) so best to make sure that you check price tags carefully as the 2 currencies vary quite a bit in value.

And … beware of the comma and decimal point in the amount.  Periods are used as thousands separators and commas are used as decimal marks. (e.g., 5.000 ISK, 25,5% VAT, etc.) That takes some head-scratching for us North American folks!

And what is ‘VAT’ you may ask? That stands for ‘value added tax’. Consider it a sales tax and don’t worry too much about it! It’s mostly included in the price. Rates are:

Reduced – 11%
Hotel accommodation and services; newspapers; foodstuffs; travel agents; and passenger transport; e-books

Standard – 24%
All other taxable goods and services

If you make a large purchase – such as one of their beautiful wool sweaters like the one I bought – you can apply for a VAT refund. Take your documentation (sales receipt) to a very convenient booth at the airport and fill out a form … and it will be refunded to the credit card you used to purchase the item. It may take months but in my case it was only weeks.

The purchaser must bring the goods out of the country within three months of the purchase. The purchase price of the goods, including VAT, must be at least ISK 6,000. (Do the math!)
On departure, the goods must be presented together with the requisite documentation.
The goods must not have been purchased for use in Iceland, so leave the price tags on. **So don’t wear your sweater to the refund desk!**

The most relevant thing to know about buying anything in Iceland is … they take credit cards everywhere and almost exclusively! We took along some cash ‘just in case’ and never had need to use it at all. Shops, restaurants, gas stations, attractions … everything and everywhere take credit cards! Even for very small amounts. Debit cards are also accepted but on both you need to have PINs. If you don’t have one on your card, I believe that you can ask your bank to let you put one on.

2. Driving

Our rental car came with a GPS – which we hear is standard on most rental cars. It worked fairly well, although using our phone and Google Maps was the best! With that combination we were able to find routes to even very small, out-of-the-way places easily!

Our car also came equipped with a portable wi-fi device that can be used in the car but can be un-plugged and carried around with you! Extremely handy when you’re wandering around trying to find a liquor store (or restaurant) in a strange city that has street names created seemingly by the Viking god of practical jokes! Great safety feature on hikes etc as there is cell coverage over most of Iceland.

Street sign with TWO names – try and find that on a map!

GPS and Google Map

Driving in Iceland is fairly straight-forward. Driving is on the ‘right’ side of the road – which made it easy for us but might challenge you if you’re used to driving on the left.

Speed limits are clearly marked (in kilometers per hour!) and I urge you – DO NOT exceed the limits as there are lots of speed cameras set up here and there to monitor your speed! If you’re renting a vehicle the ticket will be sent to the rental company and they WILL charge your credit card for it! (And also don’t speed because speeding is bad.)

The roads in the middle of the country are small, narrow and sometimes winding.

As you can see in the picture, there are no ‘shoulders’ to speak of. So no stopping in the road to take photos – even if you think there’s no one coming! And … if this kind of driving makes you uncomfortable, please do everyone a favour and take a bus! More than once we ran across tourists driving down the middle of the road! And, they wouldn’t move over even when trying to pass them and honking the horn! If you’re that worried about ‘falling off the road’ please don’t drive! We had a couple of close calls because of this and ended up with Linda unable to un-clench her hands each time for about an hour! (If there’s no one else around then fine … drive wherever you want! But not when there’s cars/busses trying to pass you!)

Also be aware for all the lookie-loos who’re wandering around the road staring at the beautiful scenery! And be on the lookout for sheep on the road! Other than that … it’s fun!

Driving through the country!

The major centers have round-a-bouts (or traffic circles) instead of stop signs. They do make for faster and more convenient travel but look it up and make sure you know the rules. Most have an ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ ring and there’s a ‘proper’ way to exit depending on which ring you’re in.

PARKING: A parking app that worked great for us in the cities as well as some of the tourists sites is: Parka. Easy to load and use, it saved our butts a number of times!

3. Language

Unless you’re very fluent in the Nordic languages I suggest you just throw your hands up in the air and give up trying to learn – or even pronounce – Icelandic words! It’s a very difficult language and has many unusual letters and combinations of letters. The pronunciation varies with where they are in the word, what other letters are around them and sometimes I think varies according to the way the wind is blowing! It’s HARD.

We met a girl at the airport in Chicago who was emigrating to Iceland as her boyfriend lived there … and she had been trying to learn Icelandic for TWO YEARS with limited success.

Go ahead – give that a try!

But not to worry as most everyone in Iceland speaks English. There are a few places in the smaller towns where they didn’t, but lots of hand gesturing and pointing and you are easily (usually) understood.  In fact the locals apparently find your attempts to speak anything in Icelandic hilarious or – sometimes offensive – depending on your garbled attempt to stumble through a word or place name. Just speak English. You’ll save a lot of time and embarrassment!

4. Food

Food is freakishly expensive in Iceland. At least to us. We had some wonderful meals at lovely restaurants but they were few and far between. We mostly gorged on the Continental breakfasts at our accommodation, grabbed sandwiches from a gas station or grocery store for lunch and sometimes cheese and crackers for supper.

I know … gas station food? Holy cow yes! Many have food that rival restaurant food at a fraction of the price! We had a collapsible cooler that we used to stock up on sandwiches, cheese & drinks etc. and then eat later while stopped and looking over the beautiful landscape! Or ‘moonscape’ depending on the area and how long it took to digest the massive continental breakfast from that morning!

Cheese, crackers & salami for dinner!

You can find most of what you’re used to eating but remember, Iceland is European and the food on offer reflects that. Lots of cold meats and cheeses, hard-boiled eggs etc. for example for breakfasts.

Portions are quite small but nicely offset by the price tag which was usually quite large.

Our $90 dinner of wings and beer!

We were excited to try the famous Pylsa (hot dogs) which are made mostly from Icelandic lamb, along with pork and beef. There are stands (trucks) in the main cities which are located by looking for long lines around lunchtime.  You can also find them in gas stations! They come with a variety of optional toppings such as raw white onions and crispy fried onions, ketchup, sweet brown mustard called pylsusinnep, and remoulade, a sauce made with mayo, capers, mustard, and herbs. We always had them with EVERYTHING because when in Iceland …

Hot dog menu!

They are good and tasty but after a few meals of them we got over the novelty and found them a bit ‘much’.

I was hoping for some good meals of seafood (well, we’re on an island!) but only had 2 meals of fish in some pretty swanky restaurants. Lamb is also on offer and while I don’t normally eat lamb … again I’m in Iceland so had to give it a try. It was amazing!!!

Restaurants in general are hit and miss. They can be difficult to find and figure out what they serve and when. Websites are often in Icelandic and can be difficult to figure out the menus. We didn’t go out much!

5. Alcohol

Alcohol in pubs and restaurants is expensive. Hit ‘Happy Hour’ in pubs and restaurants if you’re able as it saves a LOT of money. If you want to purchase wine, beer or other spirits for consumption later, it is only found at government run liquor stores – called Vínbúð (The wine store). They are usually open between 11:00 – 18:00 Monday to Saturday. In some towns the stores have shorter opening hours and there is no service on Sundays.

The legal drinking age in Iceland is 20. You may be asked for ID in restaurants or the liquor store so have your drivers’ license or passport ready!

6. Tipping

Tipping is not necessary in Iceland as the cost of service and VAT is included in all prices. You can tip if you choose, and it is appreciated.

7. Accommodations

We normally don’t book trips through tour companies – preferring to ‘wing it’ and stop when we see something we like. Being our first trip to Iceland we had no idea what to expect or how difficult it would be to ‘wing it’. We were arriving before the high tourist season but still knew finding places to stay on the fly would be difficult as it’s really not a large place. So we booked a self-driving tour through Iceland Tours. They did all the booking and gave us an itinerary. There are so many cool places to stay – some on working farms – that we might have been hard-pressed to find on our own.

Lamb Inn outside of Akureryi

If you do book places yourself, I suggest you do it as far in advance as you can because if you get to a place where you’d like to stay – and hope to get in at the last minute and find that it’s full – there’s not a lot of other options to choose from. You may be sleeping in your car!

There are some campgrounds for those wanting to drive an RV and camp – again, do your research and book ahead. We had friends go recently who were shocked at the price of renting a camper van when they got there. They decided instead to sleep in their car!! Not my idea of a fun trip!

8. Weather

Anything. Everything. Sometimes all at once. We chose the end of May because it’s ‘supposed’ to be less windy and have mild temperatures. Nope. The wind was howling pretty much every day of our 2 1/2 week trip. I mean sometimes gale-force wind. We saw rear windows in cars blown out, car doors ripped off, trucks overturned … and what’s worse … I couldn’t go out without a hat on as my hair was blowing horizontally! I know … right??

Where’s my hat??

A typical drive for us in Iceland

Basically be prepared for anything. It rained. It blew. And at times it was COLD. Layers, people. Learn to layer and make sure one of the layers is waterproof!

To be fair, I’ve had others tell me they had ‘wonderful’ weather for their trip. Obviously we had angered the Viking gods somehow. Or they were just bored and needed a laugh. Who knows?

9. Time

A great question is how much time do you need to spend in Iceland. It’s a small island, right?

Since we were traveling a long distance to even get there (about 16 hours total travel time there and about 38 hours home – but that’s a different story!) we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves enough time to ‘do it all’. Hahahaha. Give up that idea right now.

A 2-week ‘leisurely’ drive around Iceland. Two nights in each location. Waterfalls, hot springs, puffins, black sand beaches … no problem! Wrong. First because we’re old (70 and 65) and because we like to stop and take pictures every 5 minutes. (In proper pull-offs tho of course!) And we like to stop and eat sometimes. And shop at little stores and souvenir shops. And sleep. And maybe have a glass or 2 of wine before we sleep!

Sure you can do it. People do it all the time. Our experience tho led us to wish we’d booked one or two places and done day-trips from each. I would have preferred to immerse myself in the culture and experience it more fully. It seems like we were constantly on the go and never had a chance to rest or just savor this beautiful place!

10. Shopping

Iceland is a small, scarcely populated island. There are not many towns that have what you might call ‘souvenir’ shops. I was hoping to find places with locally made crafts, but except for the wool sweaters – Lopapeysa – there was not much to buy.

There are a couple of places with stuff  to buy … a great shop at Gulfoss, the Icewool store in Vik, Thingvellir National Park gift shop, a nice small place in Husavik but in Reykjavik well … not so much. There’s the ‘flea market’ which was a letdown to us. Lots of ‘junk’ (sorry) and not much for local crafts. Perhaps there’s more there in the summer. Other stores lining the streets have lots of the same, tacky stuff and not worth buying.

Go for the amazing scenery but not for shopping!

Groceries are available in most towns and my favourite was Bonus. Lots of choice and interesting food to look at! (And … one of my favourite ‘souvenirs’ was my ‘pig bag’ I bought to haul groceries in! As you can see the logo for the store is a pink pig! Thus – Pig Bag!)

Bónus Grocery Store in Akureyri

11. Pharmaceuticals

I suggest you bring along a few essentials like pain meds (asprin, acetominaphen, ibuprofen, etc.), stomach remedies (pepto bismol, immodium etc.), cold remedies, benedryl, band aids etc. Pharmacies are few and far between and not everything is available over-the-counter like it is here in Canada. We had to ask the pharmacist for immodium! Better to have stuff on hand and not need it than need it and can’t find it!

12. Clothing

As mentioned before, be prepared for any kind of weather! Layering is most important! Always pack rain/waterproof clothing and shoes. On our trip I basically lived in my Northboung Gear “Adventure” Water Resistant Pants and waterproof hiking shoes. But this might be too much for warmer weather (is there such a thing??). Check the weather before you go and pack appropriately. But if the gods are in the mood for a laugh … weather reports and actual weather conditions can be drastically different!

Most places are very casual so don’t worry about bringing ‘good’ clothes. Not necessary.

And – this is so important – try on your clothing before going. I had a bad experience with the bathing suit I brought. Since I had my mastectomy I find it difficult to pull clothing and and off over my head. I thought I’d bought a  bathing suit that would work … I did try it at home first and it seemed ok. Wrong. I didn’t try taking it on and off WET. I struggled in the changing room of the Blue Lagoon for 30 minutes ending up in tears as I could NOT get it off. When I finally managed (with many bad words and contortionist-worthy maneuvers!) to get it off I immediately threw it in the garbage. So lesson learned.

I’ve thrown in my thoughts on clothing and the importance of packing clothing and trying it on well before your trip … because clothing/shoe stores are few and far between in Iceland. You don’t want to spend your trip looking for a shoe store because the shoes you brought hurt your feet. Be Prepared!!

Random Thoughts

There are a few things we couldn’t find readily in Iceland. One was … tissues (Kleenex etc.)! What’s up with that? In the grocery stores we would wander for ‘miles’ and finally would find a few boxes at the end of the toilet paper or paper towel row. Or sometimes in a random spot. Very weird. Another was deli meats. In all our stores here in Canada both big and small, they have deli counters to buy meats, cheeses etc. We never saw one in Iceland. A few packaged meats and cheeses but not a huge selection. Very surprised.

Bathroom/shower fixtures are a bit different than what we’re used to. I was slightly flummoxed over the shower controls at first. It’s usually a straight ‘bar’ with controls on the ends. One controls the overhead nozzle, one controls the hand-held nozzle, one is for the temperature and one for the on/off. Or sometimes a combination of both. Once you figure out the system it’s great!

Everywhere we stayed – even in very small guesthouses – there was always shampoo and soap provided. And every place had hair dryers.

Typical Iceland bathroom

Bedrooms can be very ‘spartan’. No ‘frills’ but most have lovely – albeit single – duvets on the top of the bed. No top sheets, only a bottom sheet and the duvet. Always (in our experience) in white. Luxurious and comfortable. I got totally used to having my very own comforter and Bruce had his. Superb idea!

Lamb Inn bedroom

In closing, it was an amazing adventure. Certainly much different than one of our ‘usual’ trips. I wish the weather would have been better, but that’s something you have to deal with no matter where you go. For our next trip I think we’ll stick with traveling in our RV … wandering here and there. I just learned a new word that describes our best trips: