A few more Iceland questions

[Deleted]

Sorry that I keep asking questions, but I know a bunch of you have been!

We're going over Labor Day weekend.

1. Should I pack a winter coat? (Sadly, I think I threw out my black winter coat at the end of winter, so I may need to buy one in August for this trip!)

2. We probably won't do anything fine dining, but will go to restaurants and bars at night. What is typical attire for that?

3. (This is for my husband -- please don't laugh) What should we pack for the Blue Lagoon. We'll stop on the way to the airport. I know we need bathing suits... but do we need flip flops (he's obsessed with whether he needs to pack flip flops)?

4. We'd like to do the Golden Circle drive one day, on our own. How long does this take? How easy is it to figure out the route?

5. Beyond what we'll see in our guidebooks, anything cool to see/do in Reykjavik?

Thanks so much for all your help!

[msamyfarrahfowler]

2. Everyone dresses very casually. If you're gonna hit up a club, it gets a bit more dressy.
3. I think rubber flip flops are necessary for the shower/changing area, but that's just me.

[frlcb]

I would bring a jacket. It gets cool at night and it can be cooler if you go to a glacier. My friend was just there in July and she brought a jacket and wore it.

Bring flip flops.

[wanderlustfoodie]

1) A coat is good but it doesn't need to be a huge puffy down one. Something in between a windbreaker and a puffy coat would be fine, especially if you're wearing layers underneath.

2) MH and/or I have eaten at almost every restaurant in Reykjavik at this point. I would encourage you to do one "fine dining" meal because, honestly, Dill's tasting menu was one of the best meals of my entire 2012 anywhere in the world. It was terrific. Other highlights are: Fridrik V, Grillid, Fish Company

I would recommend you make reservations, even if you think you may end up cancelling them. As elsewhere in Europe, reservations tend to be essential even for more casual places.

People get decked out for the nightlife in Reykjavik. Like the little 19 year old boys wear full on skinny suits. It's because their season for going out is so short, they take advantage as much as they can. That said, if you just go to some of the dive bars which are great, you can wear jeans/whatever. Honestly you'll probably be fine in jeans anywhere but I'm sure the 19 year olds in their tight minidresses will side-eye you
(If you and your husband are into the Big Lebowski, the bar so named on the main street is great.)

3) I think you need to bring your own flip flops. You can buy them in the shop but I don't think they're provided for free. They do provide towels. I would recommend you keep your hair as dry as possible. I made that mistake of getting my hair wet on my first visit (got one of the in-water massages which sounds great in theory but was not a strong enough massage for me) and my hair felt like straw for 10 days after. Like could not even run a brush through it. I think it's from the silica (which you should totally put on your face while you're in the lagoon!) It's convenient that you're going en route to the airport. There are lockers to store your luggage and the locker rooms contain all the toiletries you'd need to wash/dry your hair, etc before going to the airport.

4) It depends on how long you spend at the stops. We did it in clockwise order so we first stopped at Thingvellir, walked around there for a while, then Geysir and Gulfoss. You could do the latter two pretty quickly if you wanted but it's also nice to take it slow while you're there, stop at the cafe near Geysir for lunch, etc. You can spend an hour or so at Thingvellir, since there are a few different sights to see and it's gorgeous.

We ended up taking the entire day to drive the Golden Circle since we wanted to end up near Stokkseyri for dinner at Fjorubordid before going back to Reykjavik. Honestly cannot recommend that restaurant enough. Aside from the food being fantastic, it's just a cute little town and a really fun experience. But you could also cram the golden circle highlights into a half day if you wanted to spend more time in Reykjavik. That said, Reykjavik itself isn't my favorite for sightseeing in Iceland; I'd much prefer just to sleep there and do more active stuff during the day.

[GilliC]

1. I think it's a good place for a 3-in-1 coat where you can change it up depending on the weather/situation. Honestly, I think a good waterproof/wind proof shell is most important, and if you could layer it over a thick fleece that's going to be on par with a light winter jacket anyway.

3. I didn't wear flip-flops. You certainly can wear them, but you don't have to. If you hate going without them at a public pool or (reasonably clean) public shower, you would want them. (And if it matters, the bottom surface at the Blue Lagoon is much smoother and not as rocky as at the Myvatn Nature Baths. I don't go barefoot all that often, so the pebbles there started to hurt my feet after a while.)

[osumelissa]

I didn't go to Blue Lagoon, but we did go to the Myvatn Nature Baths and I wore flip flops to go from the changing room to the baths. I would have done the same thing if we had gone to Blue Lagoon.

We did the Golden Circle ourselves and were gone all day. I think we left the hotel at 8 and got back after 6. We were exhausted at the end of the day - most people we traveled with stayed at the hotel for dinner, but my husband and I went out for dinner and then went back to the hotel.

We went to a gay club our last night and I dressed up a bit - skinny colored jeans, cute top, heeled booties and didn't feel out of place. The other nights we went out (we went to the Lebowski bar someone previously mentioned) we just wore jeans and sweaters and completely fit in. Of course we were there in November

Reykjavik is a one day city. We went to the top of the church and got a really nice view of the city.

[Deleted]

Thanks so much everyone!

Forgot one question -- we can use the same adapters/plugs we use in continental Europe, right? One of my adapter sets has a "Northern Europe" option that is throwing me off.

[chicago]

Hey v, will you do a detailed trip report when you get back? We're going over Thanksgiving and I'd love your recommendations!

[sunshinedaydreams]

Aug 19, 2013 10:38:39 GMT -5 wanderlustfoodie said:

3) I think you need to bring your own flip flops. You can buy them in the shop but I don't think they're provided for free. They do provide towels. I would recommend you keep your hair as dry as possible. I made that mistake of getting my hair wet on my first visit (got one of the in-water massages which sounds great in theory but was not a strong enough massage for me) and my hair felt like straw for 10 days after. Like could not even run a brush through it. I think it's from the silica (which you should totally put on your face while you're in the lagoon!) It's convenient that you're going en route to the airport. There are lockers to store your luggage and the locker rooms contain all the toiletries you'd need to wash/dry your hair, etc before going to the airport.

This x 1000.  I have waist-length hair and the lagoon water completely wrecked it.  I don't think I got a wide tooth comb all the way through for days.

We were there over Labor Day a few years ago and it was cold (50s) and windy but not frigid.  I'd recommend a windstopper jacket and a warm hat, but not a full-on puffy coat or anything.  The coldest we got was at Gulfoss because the wind just threw the water up in our faces pretty relentlessly.  I'd probably wear something waterproof up to the falls.

[sunshinedaydreams]

Aug 19, 2013 14:26:28 GMT -5 v said:

Thanks so much everyone!

Forgot one question -- we can use the same adapters/plugs we use in continental Europe, right? One of my adapter sets has a "Northern Europe" option that is throwing me off.

I'm pretty sure we used the Europe adapters in Iceland, but it's been a few years so I'm not positive.

[Susie]

1.  No, I don't think so.  I went in late August last year.  Looking at my pics, I walked around in jeans and long sleeves.  Even up on a glacier I wore a sweater + light jacket.

2.  I didn't get super dressy.  It's more so at night, but not crazy.

3.  Yes to flip flops.  Blue Lagoon was wonderful, btw.

4.  Can't help.

5.  The guidebooks seemed like they covered Reykjavik pretty well.  It's not a big city.

[GilliC]

A typical European plug adapter should be fine.

However, as a Northern Europe resident, I'm really curious to know what the "Northern Europe" option is like? Everything in Norway (and Sweden from what I've seen) uses the same 2-prong plugs you'd find down on the continent in France, etc.

I've heard so many people say that they had problems with their hair after the Blue Lagoon, but I didn't have any issues.  I used a boatload of conditioner and probably did two rounds of conditioning during my post-swim shower, but I didn't have any noticeable problems later.  I love floating in warm water, so trying not to get my hair wet (especially since it was down to my lower back at the time) would have been a bit of a disappointment for me.

[CloudBee]

- We layer with tees, ls shirts, thin fleece, and a shell. You might find yourself constantly adding/removing layers.

- Bathing suit and flip flops for the lagoon.

- Even the fanciest restaurants are pretty casual for dress. Jeans and a decent top.

- If you're stating at the Hilton or similar, they should have a couple US outlets.

[Deleted]

GilliC -- this is the adapter set:

www.amazon.com/Travel-Smart-TSM-1875CK-International-Converter/dp/B0010BNV7M

I can't tell by looking at the picture what the difference is between the Northern Europe adapter and the South Europe etc. one. But for some reason, Northern Europe is singled out!

[GilliC]

Aug 20, 2013 10:52:33 GMT -5 v said:

GilliC -- this is the adapter set:

www.amazon.com/Travel-Smart-TSM-1875CK-International-Converter/dp/B0010BNV7M

I can't tell by looking at the picture what the difference is between the Northern Europe adapter and the South Europe etc. one. But for some reason, Northern Europe is singled out!

Weird. India uses a similar plug with two thicker round pins, so maybe the Southern Europe/Asia/etc plug is that one?  I'd definitely take both just in case.

[lahoagie]

I just looked at my pictures from Iceland. We went at the begining of September in 2007 and in a lot of the pictures I am wearing fleece lined pants, a winter jacket, and a hat. In Seydisfjordur we even got a pretty heavy frost and there was snow at the top of the hills/mountains. We were told the weather was unusal and it rained almost everyday that we were there. We also camped out most nights which is probably why I felt cold most of the time. We still loved our trip. Have a great time (but I would recomend bringing a jacket)!

[anasara]

1. Should I pack a winter coat? (Sadly, I think I threw out my black winter coat at the end of winter, so I may need to buy one in August for this trip!)
We were there in May & were fine with just fleeces.

2. We probably won't do anything fine dining, but will go to restaurants and bars at night. What is typical attire for that?
Casual.  Jeans/khakis & a shirt/sweater.

3. (This is for my husband -- please don't laugh) What should we pack for the Blue Lagoon. We'll stop on the way to the airport. I know we need bathing suits... but do we need flip flops (he's obsessed with whether he needs to pack flip flops)?
I brought flip flops.  Didn't "need" them, per se.  Ditto everyone on your hair being a wreck for a week after!

4. We'd like to do the Golden Circle drive one day, on our own. How long does this take? How easy is it to figure out the route?
We did the Golden Circle.  Super easy drive with a GPS.  We left aroudn 10 am & got back around 8pm.  Didn't feel rushed.

5. Beyond what we'll see in our guidebooks, anything cool to see/do in Reykjavik?
I was sad we did not get to the penis museum.  A friend went & said it was awesome!

[GilliC]

Aug 23, 2013 12:58:35 GMT -5 anasara said:

5. Beyond what we'll see in our guidebooks, anything cool to see/do in Reykjavik?
I was sad we did not get to the penis museum.  A friend went & said it was awesome!

We didn't have time for the penis museum either, and I admit that I was a bit disappointed. Especially since they finally got their human penis a few years ago.
satwcomic.com/brand-new-equipment

[PinkSquirrel]

Aug 24, 2013 18:27:46 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Aug 23, 2013 12:58:35 GMT -5 anasara said:

5. Beyond what we'll see in our guidebooks, anything cool to see/do in Reykjavik?
I was sad we did not get to the penis museum.  A friend went & said it was awesome!

We didn't have time for the penis museum either, and I admit that I was a bit disappointed. Especially since they finally got their human penis a few years ago.
satwcomic.com/brand-new-equipment

The Penis Museum is on our must do list for when we go in late September