Hiring a car is always a challenge, you think you’ve covered every eventuality, then the hire company find another to take your funds. In Iceland, it is trying persuade you to take extra insurance cover against damage from sand and ash. Usual insurance doesn’t cover this and you take a risk if you drive on the south coast which has unpredictable winds. We chose not to take it and, luckily, Avis were happy with the state of the car when we returned it!
Our apartment was a good choice, we’d stay there again. We were a 2 minute walk from the bus station and all of the tours picked up from the hotel around the corner from us. Now that we’ve see the Northern Lights we probably wouldn’t hire a car again. It was extremely useful being able head to out as, and when we wanted, especially on clear nights.
Several of the sights we visited has signs banning drones which was a hazard we hadn’t considered. That didn’t stop some inconsiderate, lazy people using them to save the walk or climb. The noise a sort of high pitched buzzing was extremely irritating and felt very intrusive.
We did try Icelandic Skyr (and, yes, we know you can buy it in the U.K.!) Its a cross between yoghurt and cheese and comes in a variety of unusual flavours including liquorice. It was very thick and smooth and made a nice change at breakfast time.
We decided not to try roast puffin, whale or horse steaks.
We definitely need to come back to do a glacier walk. There are many museums, art galleries and geothermal pools and we didn’t visit a single one. Neither we did we see any Puffins except as ornaments in the shops. We were too late in the season so that’s on the list for next time too.
braysabroad 