Iceland's Blue Lagoon is like a giant heated swimming pool.

Beyond the Guidebooks: Five Tips for Visiting Iceland

By Oscar Davis

With its strange, barren lunar landscape and extraordinarily civilised and cosmopolitan city culture, Iceland is one of the most fascinating and alluring countries in Europe.

Most people who visit here find themselves drawn back by the people, the culture and even the changeable weather.

No Need For a Longboat

Fortunately, with the slew of low-cost flights available it’s even easier to get to than ever before.

No need to charter a longboat as the first settlers did in 874, just hop onto one of the many travel sites such as Travelzoo or Lastminute.com and you can find holidays and travel packages including whale-watching.

If you could do with cutting your costs check out a site like Hostelbookers for cheap and cheerful hostels – you should be able to find somewhere for less than 30 euros a night.  

Five Tips For an Enjoyable Visit

However, before you take the plunge and book your holiday here are five tips that should make your time more enjoyable:

Icebreakers

Iceland’s very own low-cost airline Iceland Express offers flights from both London Stansted and Gatwick, and from many other European cities.

If you're flying from the UK and you're planning on parking at Gatwick it pays to book in advance through a company such as Essential Travel – they offer up to 60% discount on the list price of Gatwick Airport Parking.

Danger: Hot Water!

Iceland is situated on a geothermal hotspot and the islanders use this very much to their advantage with Geothermal power plants supplying much of the island’s electricity and hot water pumped straight into the home already pre-heated.

This disadvantage of this to the uninitiated is that the water is very nearly boiling when it comes out of the tap – a scalding 80 degrees in fact. Exercise caution when turning on the shower – and don’t mind the faint whiff of rotten eggs, it’s just the natural sulphur in the water.

When Dining Out, Ignore the Guidebooks

Most of the guidebooks that cover eating out on the island list the famous “old school” restaurants like Tveir Fiskar or Einar Ben. These are good for experiencing Icelandic specialities like puffin or whale, however eating there midweek or off-season you can easily find yourself the only table in the restaurant.

If you want something a bit more lively, take to the streets and see where the locals go – the restaurants in downtown Reykjavik are funky and cosmopolitan with modern European bistro food taking center stage rather than rotten shark.

Don’t Faint When You Get the Bill!

Eating, drinking, shopping and pretty much everything in Iceland is more expensive – hardly surprising when you realise that most fresh produce has to be imported.

However, unless you choose to dine at the most expensive restaurants in the capital, you can expect to pay slightly more than New York prices – around $80 meal for a three course with wine would be typical.

Pubs too are slightly more expensive with beer coming in at around $8 a pint – not far off the typical $6-7 we’re getting used to paying in the US.

Nightclubs are a different story – you could easily pay around $20 for a beer but it’s common for Icelanders to do their drinking at home before heading out.

They Grow Bananas in Iceland

Oh yes, despite being on the Arctic Circle, Icelanders have rather cleverly used geothermal springs to heat large greenhouses – and grow bananas!

Finally, one last tip that stands for pretty much any destination is: make sure you have adequate travel insurance. Specialists such as AA Travel Insurance can provide appropriate cover whether you’re planning on going bananas in Iceland or you're just there to admire the scenery.

Oscar Davis is the editor of GoNOMAD Travel Picks.

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