9 Days in Beautiful Iceland May 18-26
Iceland
|
May 18 - May 26, 2022
Trip Planning Experience: Typically I plan our trips and I enjoy the planning (I’m a Project Manager by day), but given this was a unique country with so many wonderful places to visit, having little time to plan, and not knowing the country very well we decided to use KimKim. I filled out a questionnaire about our trip preferences (budget range, types of sleeping accommodations, how we like to travel, etc). After submitting our info, we received a message from Preeti shortly afterwards with a recommendation based upon our preferences and what wanted to do in Iceland. This was an “out of the box” trip plan, but Preeti made us aware that we can customize as much as we wanted to. We spent about 2 months doing our own research and working with Preeti to fully customize our itinerary at which point we booked/paid for our trip. Then Preeti spend about 6-8 weeks planning our trip: reserving vehicle, hotels, excursions, refining our itinerary. There were times I had to reach out to Preeti because it had been awhile, but she replied soon after. In the end, after reviewing our detailed itinerary and comparing to our list of must have and nice to have places to visit, Preeti worked our itinerary to best suit our wants and we were pleased with the results.
Trip Experience: Snaefellsness Peninsula, South Coast, Westman Islands May 18-26
When we arrived in Keflavik, we picked up our rental car without an issue, we ended up upgrading our vehicle to an SUV and all the insurance possible based upon reviews we had read elsewhere. We’re glad we did because some of the roads in Iceland are very offroad and we ended up getting a fast leak in a tire to where we had to use the Roadside Assistance. Highly recommend getting all the insurance offered.
The whale watching excursion with Laki Tours was so much fun. While the first few hours we didn’t see anything, in the last hour we saw orcas (including a baby). Since we saw them so late, the tour operator stayed out another 30 minutes so we could watch the whales. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 40 or more people on this excursion. This may be what is typical for small group tour size, and we were not aware.
The Katla Ice Cave Tour excursion with Southcoast Adventures was not what I had envisioned. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 20 or more people on this excursion. The Katla Ice Cave collapsed last year (and we were not aware), so the first part of the tour was seeing what was left of the Katla ice cave (not a whole lot) and then hiking to a baby ice cave to walk through it. The baby ice cave made up for the first part of the tour. Even though it didn’t live up to what I had envisioned, the total experience of trekking to the glacier, hiking the glacier a bit to see what was left of the ice cave, and hiking through the baby cave was a unique experience. It was amazing to think how old the glacier was and the volcano ash we were walking on, we took it in. I wish we had known about the Katla Ice Cave collapsing, and we would’ve selected a different excursion (like a true glacier hike).
The Kayaking in Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon was AMAZING. This tour was a true small group tour of 5-7 people (2 people arrived late and had to go on a different tour), and what we would’ve expected with a small group tour (around 10 people). Once kayaking in the lagoon, we had the freedom of taking pictures and kayaking at our own pace. We were fortunate with the weather, and seals were swimming all around us. The seals were friendly and swam up near us, a few seals were on an iceberg sunbathing. This was by far my favorite excursion to be up close to the beautiful icebergs and seals.
Preeti recommended several different hikes and we thoroughly enjoyed them, the ones that stand out to us are Glymur Waterfall hike, Mulaglijufur Canyon, Nauthusagil Waterfall. There were a few times where I thought we should do something else but should’ve listened to Preeti in her recommendations.
Preeti recommended several restaurants throughout our trip and she was spot on. All the food in Iceland is delicious. I highly recommend the following restaurants: Bryggjan in Grindavik, Sjavarpakkhusid in Stykkisholmur, Hotel Rjukandi Restaurant in Borgarnes, Mjolkurbuid Eatery in Selfoss, Wok on Vik in Vik, Ice Cream from Vikurskali in Vik, Messinn in Reykjavik, Gott in Westman Islands (ate there twice), Ice Cream from Isbud Huppu.
There were a few times that either an excursion got cancelled, we decided to make a change to our itinerary due to weather, or we had questions, that we had to rearrange our itinearey. I’m thankful for Preeti and her team for being able to quickly adjust our schedule and rebook for different excursions or ferry tickets. It was a seamless process, no questions asked, and reworked our itinerary. Thank you for the quick response! We were able to enjoy our time in Iceland instead of having to rearrange our time and schedules. Totally worth it!
Overall we had a wonderful vacation, it is our best one yet! I am thankful that we used Kimkim and we had Preeti to assist us throughout the process. We would not have had such a great time had we planned ourselves and not had Preeti and her team. We hope to return to Iceland in the coming years and we will use Kimkim (and Preeti) again!
Hotel Reviews
This was our favorite hotel on our trip! The rooms were very spacious, clean, and the shower was amazing! The room temperatures were comfortable compared to other hotels on our trip. I only wish we had stayed one more night!
We stayed at this hotel for 2 nights. This is a small town where a lot of establishments close at 9pm, including the hotel restaurant. The rooms were not as clean as I would've preferred. After our first night, the cleaning staff did not tidy up the room only refreshed the toiletries, which seemed odd to us and we had not experienced before. The room was small and our room was right near sitting water outside with a ton of bugs. The room was warm, so we had to crack the window, which meant a lot of bugs got into our room. If we were to stay in this town again, we would look for a different hotel. The hotel provided breakfast here was amazing.
We stayed at this hotel for 2 nights. The hotel provided breakfast was amazing. There is a cafe attached to the dining area where they offer espresso, pastries, sandwiches. We had the best coffee on our trip in their cafe (Cortado). Highly recommend getting one of their cafe drinks. There is not much around this area to choose from a hotel, but our rooms were clean and open. The room temperature was a little warm, but we cracked the window to keep the air circulating. The room was on the smaller side, but I expected that. The bathroom was a bit dated and could use an update. The beds and pillows were very comfortable. We ate at the onsite restaurant and had one of the specials and it was AMAZING. Some of the best fish we've ever had. Overall pleasant experience and we would stay here again.
Activity Reviews
The Kayaking in Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon was AMAZING. This tour was a true small group tour of 5-7 people (2 people arrived late and had to go on a different tour), and what we would’ve expected with a small group tour (around 10 people). Once kayaking in the lagoon, we had the freedom of taking pictures and kayaking at our own pace. We were fortunate with the weather, and seals were swimming all around us. The seals were friendly and swam up near us, a few seals were on an iceberg sunbathing. This was by far my favorite excursion to be up close to the beautiful icebergs and seals.
The Katla Ice Cave Tour excursion with Southcoast Adventures was not what I had envisioned. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 20 or more people on this excursion. The Katla Ice Cave collapsed last year (and we were not aware), so the first part of the tour was seeing what was left of the Katla ice cave (not a whole lot) and then hiking to a baby ice cave to walk through it. The baby ice cave made up for the first part of the tour. Even though it didn’t live up to what I had envisioned, the total experience of trekking to the glacier, hiking the glacier a bit to see what was left of the ice cave, and hiking through the baby cave was a unique experience. It was amazing to think how old the glacier was and the volcano ash we were walking on, we took it in. I wish we had known about the Katla Ice Cave collapsing, and we would’ve selected a different excursion (like a true glacier hike).
The whale watching excursion with Laki Tours was so much fun. While the first few hours we didn’t see anything, in the last hour we saw orcas (including a baby). Since we saw them so late, the tour operator stayed out another 30 minutes so we could watch the whales. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 40 or more people on this excursion. This may be what is typical for small group tour size, and we were not aware.
