Jan

16

2012

#16 COMPLETE: Planned a Trip to Iceland, Hot Dogs & Hot Springs

Executions  Posted by / 6 comments

Resolution #16 of 366: Fake Plan Your Dream Vacation

A month before that stupid volcano blew up in Iceland, Patrick and I had started mentally planning our trip there. Sometime in March, we’d decided that we’d go in late October so that we could possibly catch the Northern Lights without getting completely stuck in the wacky seasons of Midnight Sun or Polar Night. And then Ejyafjallajökull happened and travel prices went through the roof. They doubled if not tripled. What was once a moderately affordable trip was now pretty much absurd.

Thankfully prices have died down a little bit, so let’s see just how reasonable it is now. November 1st-8th, hypothetically.

Iceland Air, Boston – Reykjavik, 5hr flight
$581 + fees roundtrip via Orbitz (it was $687 on the IcelandAir website!)
Before Mr. Ejyafjallajökull, flights were about $350 bucks.

 

  • This little cabin on Airbnb  in “Fljótstunga, Reykholt, Westland” for $948 a week isn’t the biggest (and looks a little chilly), but seems to be near some neat things like glaciers and lava fields.
  • For $580 a little further out there, we’ve got this pretty big cabin with a nice view too.

Northern Light Inn – $1288

In terms of hotels though, which we’d probably decide is for the best considering the language barrier and the fact that we have no idea where anything is, we really wanted to stay at the Northern Light Inn which is $184 per night, or $1288 for the whole stay. It includes breakfast, airport transfers, and a shuttle to the Blue Lagoon.

We want to hang a couple days in Snaefellsnes Peninsula, so Hotel Budir is reasonable at $229/night with more views of the Northern Lights. $318-$560/night for the Glymor Resort came by recommendation and sounds fun but seems a little more commercial than the other places I’ve liked.

In terms of places to visit, we basically planned on doing the usual sightseeing and plopping our butts in some hot springs.

According to the rumor mill, Iceland is an expensive place to be, about $80 per meal so it’s suggested that we get a place that has a kitchen. Maybe we’d just save a little more instead.

Sooooooo, considering that we’ll probably have breakfast wherever we stay and only need to pay for two meals a day, here’s an estimate for the two of us (not per person):

  • Food: $1500
  • Hotel: $1750
  • Flights: $1332
  • Spending money: $1000
  • Grand total: $5582

So the price all around isn’t all that expensive, I think it was more like $4k last I checked but I did add in a considerable amount of spending cash this time around since it’s a dream vacation and all.

OK, your turn. Where’s your dream vacation? Pony up the deets!