Iceland Offbeat

From the first time I reached out to KimKim and heard from Othman right through the trip, he was responsive, patient, helpful and kind. Our trip was amazing. Othman listened to what we were interested in doing, provided a highly flexible agenda, and yet he did so much more than just book things for us. For example, I don't think I would have booked excursions to both Blue Lagoon and Sky Lagoon but Othman did that and when I asked if doing Blue Lagoon right off the plane was the right thing to do, he pushed back (ever so gently) saying that it was a good tonic for jet lag. Boy was he right. His selection of accommodations was outstanding ... and again, he was very accommodating when I fluctuated between family rooms and two rooms. He checked in multiple times in the days before the trip and during the trip.

His ears were probably burning during the trip for the number of times my sons and I were singing his praises. I would absolutely use KimKim again. Also want to say that I thought this was an exceptional value for what I paid and the quality of service received.

Activity Reviews

Solheimajokull Glacier Hike

Iceland

This was really amazing ... and Elly our guide was terrific. She really read the group well; everyone was willing to be a little adventurous and so we got to use the ropes to see deep into crevasses. Lots of great information about how the glacier has changed.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Can't say enough about how knowledgeable Elly was.

Sky Lagoon

Iceland

So we did this on our last night in Iceland and it was a really nice way to end our trip. It's different from Blue Lagoon but very very nice. The seven step path is what makes it stand out as different from Blue Lagoon. The view from the sauna step is especially beautiful.

Blue Lagoon

Iceland

We did this right after getting off the plane, which was Othman's recommendation. It is, as he said, a miracle cure for jet lag. I was worried it would be kitschy but it's a must do.

Crystal Blue Ice Cave

Iceland

We really enjoyed this, especially Eddie, our guide who was a total character and an absolute hoot. The only complaint would be that the focus was heavily on getting photos -- which was great -- but it wasn't as adventurous as the glacier hike. Still, it was beautiful and a lot of fun.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Eddie was just such a character. Completely different from Ellie but very knowledgeable and just fun to be around.

Adam did a fantastic job understanding what I wanted to do and translated that into a very practical plan. The activities, which included hiking volcanic craters, black sand beaches, glaciers, and waterfalls, whale watching, and snorkeling were all exactly what I wanted. Adam did a great job mapping out stopping points such that we maximized fun with relaxation. Even the last minute requests such as places to eat and geothermal pools were fantastic. We had the best steaks I’ve ever had at a Efstidalur Farm. It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “farm to table” as we at our meal watching the dairy cows feed! Sumac, Ox and Moss was also a favorite/best meal experience. My favorite activities were the whale watching tour where we saw two separate orca pods and two different humpback whales. Ryan’s favorite activity was style Silfra snorkeling tour. We both enjoyed the geothermal pools and hiking as well, especially the Djupalonssandur black sand beaches and the Hraunfossar & Barnafoss waterfalls. I would love to go back and do many of the things we didn’t have time to do. Adam and Kim Kim were responsive, knowledgeable, and affordable. I highly recommend them and will definitely use their services again.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Iceland adventure and I'd like to give a big thanks to KimKim and Hanna (our Iceland expert) for their help in making it happen. In the runup to the trip, I was busy with work and living in Austin, TX and my daughter was living in London. My daughter had some ideas and worked with Hanna to put together the itinerary. Occasionally I'd want to change something. Hanna was always very pleasant and very helpful, she responded quickly to any questions or requests, had endless patience waiting for my daughter and me to resolve any differences. We very much liked all the arrangements for accomodation, car hire, trips and flights and everything went very smoothly. This was my second vacation organized with KimKim and would definitely recommend them and use them again.

We were very happy with Eric throughout the planning process. He was very responsive and sensitive to our technical challenges.
The itinerary met our required wishes. The 'Golden Circle' stay was a great way to begin our introduction to Iceland and the proximity to the airport of our first lodging helped us deal with the jetlag. The geothermal activity was a real attraction. Unfortunately I missed the planned activity at that location.
Our stay in Kirkjubaejarklaustur gave us exposure to the desolation and rawness of the country. The Diamond Beach day trip was a pleasant surprise. We loved the icebergs.
After the relative sparseness of humanity of the first two stays, Reykjavik was anything but. Unfortunately, Penny caught a virus of some sort two days before we were to fly to Iceland, and she couldn't partake of the Sky Lagoon pass. I, however, very much enjoyed the venue. It was splendid and I wish Penny had felt better and been able to accompany me. It was quite breathtaking.

Where to begin? KimKim helped us plan an 11-day ring road trip and we hardly scratched the surface of this beautiful place.

Lodgings: Eric and his team did a great job finding us off the beaten path places to stay within our budget. We especially loved Frost & Fire in Hveragerdi - cute room, great view, nice restaurant and their own hot springs tubs on the side of the hill. We also loved Gistihsid Lake Hotel in Eglisstadir - really nice rooms, views, great restaurant too. They had an indoor spa/hot tub too. Also of note were the Stracata apartments near Kirkjubæjarklaustur - it was an adventure arriving in the dark to discover the next morning that we were in a lava field filled with pools of water. It was raining that night so hard to tell where we were. Would be fantastic for Northern Lights! Also, the Mork Cottage in Hvammstangi was so cute, only 1.7 km from town but felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. We wished we could have stayed there a few days - the Northern Lights over the fjord were amazing. We would have liked to explore this part of Iceland more. The other lodgings fit our budget but were more standard hotels, met our needs, and had comfortable beds.

Excursions: We did 3 guided excursions. Horse back riding at Eldhestar stables outside of Hveragerdi, Glacier hike with Arctic Adventures on Sólheimajökull, and a crystal blue ice cave super keep/hike with Blue Iceland. Riding 2 hours in the rain was an experience in itself. We are glad we went - the horses are wonderful and the scenery beautiful even in the rain. The glacier hike was great too. We learned a lot about glaciers and climate change from our guide, Tin. Finally, the Ice Cave tour was beautiful. We went late in the day and had the cave to ourselves. It wan’t a sunny day but the blue in the cave was gorgeous. We would recommend spacing excursions out (we had one each of our first 3 days) - this felt rushed to us, but they did fit within the schedule.

Maps, Sites, Options - the maps were fantastic and linked right to google. The hardest part was letting go of all the things we could see but didn’t have time. The final trip plan contained 50-60 pages of site descriptions, recommended sites, and optional activities. Some of the most memorable - the South Coast Lighthouse trail on our first day, Hveralaug wild hot springs afterward. Skaftafoll Nature Reserve and Svartifoss waterfall (2.5 m hike). All of the East Fjords drive & Stokkanes beach (we missed the South black sand beach because the wind was crazy when we arrived). We also loved Húsavík and Akureyri.

Hot Springs - we asked Eric & team for a hot spring almost everyday. We had hot tubs at many of our lodgings. We visited Fontana Nature baths near Gullfoss, Geosea in Husavik, Lake Mývatn Nature Lagoon, and Forest Lagoon. All were wonderful - Forest lagoon was probably our favorite.

Food - Amazing! We tried it all. 3-4 different tasting menus including ending with Michelin Guide restaurant Matur of Drykkar in the Saga Museum. Also, hot dogs, burgers, tomato, mushroom and Icelandic soup. Most days we made sandwiches for lunch because they gave us flexibility to eat in the middle of nowhere.

Our car was great. Enough 4x4 to get us over gravel roads, puddles, pits, and snow.

Fortunately, we did not need to flex schedule because of weather. We just did everything in whatever weather we got. We saw the Northern Lights twice! The biggest gift of Iceland to us.

Thank you Eric & team!

Activity Reviews

Horse Riding

Iceland

I’m only giving it a 4 because it poured rain. Horses were great, scenery was wonderful and they waited for us when we took a wrong turn and ended up 15 minutes late

Quality of Experience

Nice facilities, great location, beautiful horses.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

GeoSea Geothermal Baths

Iceland

Again, super windy. Great view.

Quality of Experience

So windy no one stayed long.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Fontana Geothermal Baths

Iceland

Lovely. We were there late 7:30 pm, so didn’t get to really see the lake, but the pools and facilities were top notch.

Quality of Experience

Solheimajokull Glacier Hike

Iceland

Perfect for what we wanted (easier hike). Great guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Crystal Blue Ice Cave

Iceland

So beautiful!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Crazy driving the super jeep where we did!

Transport

Crowded

Myvatn Nature Baths

Lake Mývatn

Super windy. These pools are heated through rocks and gravel under foot - warmer/cooler depending on where you stood. They are also expanding so view wan’t quite as good as it could be.

Quality of Experience

Great facilities. Construction so not as pretty/wild. Got a free drink for Women’s Day!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Forest Lagoon

Iceland

Gorgeous, new, and very quiet at 2 pm.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our trip to Iceland was absolutely amazing! We would have never been able to design a roadtrip like the one Eric did for us on our own. His expertise was invaluable when it came to seeing as many sights as we could within our 9 day window. His itinerary gave us the confidence to venture out on our own with a rented car, eliminating the need to go on any large group tour buses. The tours that he did book for us, like the glacier hike, ice cave tour, and walking tour of Reykjavik were small and the guides were engaging, accommodating, and knowledgable.

It was a seamless experience. We started at the blue lagoon right after picking up our rental car and then headed straight to the Snaefellsness Peninsula where we were able to see a spectacular glacier volcano, Snaefellsjokull, explore lava caves and endless lava fields, and walk on cliffs and black sand beaches. From there we spent a couple days in the Golden Circle seeing all the major sights like Thingvellar National Park, Geysir, Kerid Crater, and Gullfoss. We had a few days exploring the waterfalls, beaches, gorges, lava fields, and glaciers to be seen on the south coast before ending our trip in Reykjavik. All of the sights and driving instructions were in a logical order that kept us moving forwards, never wasting time backtracking.

We appreciate the time and care it took to design an itinerary specially made for us. We had told Eric that our main priorities were seeing the northern lights, soaking in hot springs, seeing nature, and learning some history. He booked us rooms at hotels with excellent views in case we might catch a glimpse of the northern lights; he fit 3 different lagoons into our itinerary (Sky Lagoon was the best); and we had a good balance of experiencing nature as well as making time for museums and history. We also tried some of the restaurants he recommended all of which were delicious! Thank you Eric for designing a trip we will never forget!

Eric did an amazing job planning and timing everything. All our tours were small groups, so to get the most of every experience, we work with tourists in our everyday lives also, so we know how important that is. . We liked the Troll expedition company that was chosen for our tours on the glacier. Beda was amazing hiking on the glacier, Bearney at the ice caves. Bearney was especially patient since the weather was so extreme and uncooperative with blowing gravel and pouring down rain. We also appreciated that our companies vehicles did not break down, while we watched many that did.
Horse back riding with Julia was a fantastic experience and learning about the Icelandic horses and getting to experience their Tolt (walk trot). And finally meeting Paul for our local walking culinary tour, you can see he truely lived Icelandic culture. As a fisherman his whole life, his tour gave us a true view of what it was like to grow up in Iceland.
Our first hotel at Fire and frost was amazing and such a perfect way to ease into our vacation. It helped us adjust to the time change while appreciating the beauty around us. I really liked staying in each location two nights so there wasn’t too much chaos packing and unpacking.
I will use KimKim to plan my vacations anytime I can. Even with all the info online, there would have been no way to plan things so smoothly, no way to know which tour companies to use, and no way to know how much time we would want to spend in each site.

Activity Reviews

Solheimajokull Glacier Hike

Iceland

Better with Beda!!! What a great time! Once in a lifetime experience! Nice small group attention while we watched some guides with 35+ on the glacier. Lucky with the weather.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Better with Beda!!

Crystal Blue Ice Cave

Iceland

Bearney was great with our small group, the weather was so miserable that day, but we all made it. We watched so many vehicles break down returning to base. It was comforting to know we chose the right company.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Horse riding tour

Iceland

Julia was knowledgeable and our small group made it a quality experience. Truely enjoyed learning and experiencing the Icelandic horse Troit. Having the horse riding suits available to us made the cold windy weather experience enjoyable.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Julia was knowledgeable and made sure everyone felt comfortable as we proceeded.

Reykjavik Food Walk

Reykjavík

Paul was a fisherman his whole life, he showed us a tour from a true local and not just someone working in Iceland for a few months. I appreciated the small group interaction so we could really get a feel for Reykjavík.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport