Iceland- help me decide between May or September

[brewco]

We're looking to plan a trip next year to Iceland. Our work schedules allow us to go the end of May or beginning of September. We can plan for anything between 7-10 days and we'll rent a car, for sure, or maybe a camper van. We love hiking, waterfalls, outdoorsy stuff- so we know we can't go wrong with this destination! The possibility of the northern lights are the only reason we're considering September, so is it worth it for that reason alone? Or is September better for any other reason? Anything we should consider for in May besides it being light all the time?

Another question- for lodging if we don't campe, is it better to have 1 central spot or to move around the island?

Thank you!

[buckeyegirl]

We just went for 4 days September 12-16. I can’t compare it to May but we had amazing weather in September. I guess it isn’t typical or what they had been having but we lucked out. We left Reykjavik right away and headed for the Golden Cirlce and Jokulsarlon and it was very nice. We had 3 nights and stayed in 2 different cabins. I’m glad we moved around to avoid backtracking. I think if you’re organized enough to book different locations ahead of time that’s the best but we booked in April for September and it was difficult to find affordable lodging. However from my research I don’t think you can go wrong with either time.

[rupertpenny]

May for daylight 100%. You MIGHT see the northern lights in September, but you will definitely be bummed when you have to stop activities by 4 because you’ve run out of daylight.

[brewco]

Oct 16, 2018 21:04:38 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

May for daylight 100%. You MIGHT see the northern lights in September, but you will definitely be bummed when you have to stop activities by 4 because you’ve run out of daylight.

The light definitely makes May appealing- I've read a few places that there may be areas that aren't accessible in May, is that something to think about? We haven't figured out lodging options yet and may look into a camper van rental. Do we need 4x4 to drive everywhere?

Thank you for your input!

[rupertpenny]

Oct 17, 2018 6:19:34 GMT -5 brewco said:

Oct 16, 2018 21:04:38 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

May for daylight 100%. You MIGHT see the northern lights in September, but you will definitely be bummed when you have to stop activities by 4 because you’ve run out of daylight.

The light definitely makes May appealing- I've read a few places that there may be areas that aren't accessible in May, is that something to think about? We haven't figured out lodging options yet and may look into a camper van rental. Do we need 4x4 to drive everywhere?

Thank you for your input!

I’m actually a terrible person for this kind of information! I’m an Icelandic citizen, have spent a lot of time there, and have lots of family in Iceland but I’m either never doing tourist stuff or I just let my dad plan everything, haha.

Anyway, I think you’d have to go pretty far off the beaten track to need a 4X4 or encounter closed roads in May. I’ve driven all over SE Iceland in my grandma’s Toyota Yaris in November and it was fine.

[GilliC]

Oct 16, 2018 16:23:32 GMT -5 brewco said:

Another question- for lodging if we don't campe, is it better to have 1 central spot or to move around the island?

Where are you thinking of visiting? If you’re just sticking to the south coast, you could get to most places within a day if you were based somewhere central like Vík. However, it could be some long days to get to/from some of the places at either end. Route 1 isn’t so bad to drive, but some of the curvier bits and the one-lane bridges can be exhausting after a long day.

There aren’t many hotels outside of Reykjavik, so book any lodging well in advance. We booked farm stays along our route, which gave us a few more options in some of the rural areas. However, we didn’t really plan our meals, so we ended up buying some emergency instant noodles, which were our dinner more than once!

[neonpink]

It's a gorgeous country. I went in December and it was a great place to spend Christmas. We had snow and had a small SUV. We made it to everywhere we wanted to go for the most part. A snow storm kept us from going to Vik. The small horses there are super cute.

[knavy]

We went for 10 days aug 31- sep 9. We didn’t get to see the northern lights sadly. However because so much of Iceland is the beautiful landscape I wouldn’t recommend going much later than I did. The weather becomes unpredictable and lots of roads close in late sept/oct.
We rented a camper van and explored the entire island on our own time and I highly reccomend it. We are not camping people at all, so I feel If we can do or anyone can. Not having the stress of having to be somewhere at a certain time or getting back to our hotel in a certain area was great. We also saved a ton of money on food buying stuff to eat at the grocery store and taking it with us since food in Iceland is crazy expensive.

[brewco]

Oct 19, 2018 14:32:12 GMT -5 knavy said:

We went for 10 days aug 31- sep 9. We didn’t get to see the northern lights sadly. However because so much of Iceland is the beautiful landscape I wouldn’t recommend going much later than I did. The weather becomes unpredictable and lots of roads close in late sept/oct.
We rented a camper van and explored the entire island on our own time and I highly reccomend it. We are not camping people at all, so I feel If we can do or anyone can. Not having the stress of having to be somewhere at a certain time or getting back to our hotel in a certain area was great. We also saved a ton of money on food buying stuff to eat at the grocery store and taking it with us since food in Iceland is crazy expensive.

Thank you! Would you mind sharing what camper van company you rented from? We're definitely leaning this way but we are big time campers, so I am not worried about that part!

[brewco]

Oct 18, 2018 15:51:54 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Oct 16, 2018 16:23:32 GMT -5 brewco said:

Another question- for lodging if we don't camp, is it better to have 1 central spot or to move around the island?

Where are you thinking of visiting? If you’re just sticking to the south coast, you could get to most places within a day if you were based somewhere central like Vík. However, it could be some long days to get to/from some of the places at either end. Route 1 isn’t so bad to drive, but some of the curvier bits and the one-lane bridges can be exhausting after a long day.

There aren’t many hotels outside of Reykjavik, so book any lodging well in advance. We booked farm stays along our route, which gave us a few more options in some of the rural areas. However, we didn’t really plan our meals, so we ended up buying some emergency instant noodles, which were our dinner more than once!

We haven't gotten too involved with itinerary yet but we will have 8 days to plan. We're leaning towards a camper van rental but we are still trying to compare the options.

[knavy]

Oct 19, 2018 15:15:07 GMT -5 brewco said:

Oct 18, 2018 15:51:54 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Where are you thinking of visiting? If you’re just sticking to the south coast, you could get to most places within a day if you were based somewhere central like Vík. However, it could be some long days to get to/from some of the places at either end. Route 1 isn’t so bad to drive, but some of the curvier bits and the one-lane bridges can be exhausting after a long day.

There aren’t many hotels outside of Reykjavik, so book any lodging well in advance. We booked farm stays along our route, which gave us a few more options in some of the rural areas. However, we didn’t really plan our meals, so we ended up buying some emergency instant noodles, which were our dinner more than once!

We haven't gotten too involved with itinerary yet but we will have 8 days to plan. We're leaning towards a camper van rental but we are still trying to compare the options.

We used solstice campervans because I totally forgot to book until a month before and they still had rentals available. They were super easy, just a lock box on the door. Pick up And drop off on your own. I assume they are less popular because you have to fend for yourself getting to the van And dropping it off and getting back to the airport. We are pretty saavy travelers so this wasn’t an issue for us. The flybus is pretty easy to get to and from the airport from the city. I think happy camper vans does pick up and drop off at the airport. I adore Iceland and our entire trip was so amazing.

[dutchgirl678]

That sounds so amazing! How did you pick places to camp? Are they pretty easy to find and book in advance? I would love to go to Iceland with my family sometime and we love camping.

[brewco]

Oct 21, 2018 14:18:59 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

That sounds so amazing! How did you pick places to camp? Are they pretty easy to find and book in advance? I would love to go to Iceland with my family sometime and we love camping.

We've been researching this a lot, since we plan to rent a camper van, and you don't make reservations ahead of time for campgrounds in Iceland. You just show up and pay from what I understand. From photos we've come across it looks like many campgrounds are open fields where you park your vehicle or pitch a tent.

[knavy]

Oct 21, 2018 15:13:55 GMT -5 brewco said:

Oct 21, 2018 14:18:59 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

That sounds so amazing! How did you pick places to camp? Are they pretty easy to find and book in advance? I would love to go to Iceland with my family sometime and we love camping.

We've been researching this a lot, since we plan to rent a camper van, and you don't make reservations ahead of time for campgrounds in Iceland. You just show up and pay from what I understand. From photos we've come across it looks like many campgrounds are open fields where you park your vehicle or pitch a tent.

We took a skyroam hot spot and it worked very well. Once we decided where we were going to stop for the night we would just google campsites and head that way. They always had room and they were very easy to find. They were usually $10 per person per night.

[lya]

We actually just got back from Iceland! We went Aug 30 - Sep 7. We had a fantastic time: weather was good, daylight was reasonable as sunset was around 8pm or so, we didn't see the northern lights but we heard from others in different parts of the country did see them. I would suggest booking a northern lights tour that take you out on a bus or boat, they know where the lights will be that night and go there.