UKC

Hello,

An idea was born in my head this afternoon, we (2) would be going around November time for around a week. Plan would be to rent a car and go do some minor exploring.

Does anyone have any experiences/advice in how to make this possible and how much we should expect it to cost?

In reply to filip.kamycki:
Nice plan but have you considered that you will have 8 hours daylight at best?
I went in June and you have almost 24hr daylight. Much better for exploring?

In reply to filip.kamycki:

Have you read "Frost on my Moustache" by Tim Moore? Extremely funny account of his attempt to retrace the wanderings in Iceland of a 19th century aristo.

In reply to filip.kamycki:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=566026

That was my thread from last year. Lots of good advice and websites. The daylight won't be a problem. We only had 4 hours or so of sun up, but there was 2-3 hours of useful twilight each side of that.

We hired a Jeep Wrangler from Geysir rentals, it was brilliant, but didn't have studded tires, and off the main roads most of the roads were sheet ice which was ok, but we spun a couple of times once on a descent and once in a strong crosswind. So if you plan to go off Highway 1 you had better have good driving nerves!

Driving at night was difficult, there were regular drifts over the road of a few inches thick on top of the sheet ice.

Wind was a bigger problem in getting around than anything else, we planned on driving along the south coast, but it wasn't possible because of the crosswind, so had to book into our apartment for a few more nights.

Get hold of the rough guide, or LP and be realistic about how much driving you want to do, you won't be able to drive fast if it's cold and windy and dark. We found really nice apartment accomodation for about £70pn for a double, hostel in the capital for about £20pppn. Dinner in restaurants was about the same as you would pay in the UK outside of london. Groceries were again about the same as the uk if you stick to the cheap supermarkets.

Walking was ok on the main paths in the valleys, but we wanted crampons to get up to some of the higher ground.

Microspikes (little crampon type things) were brilliant for walking around looking at waterfalls etc, we could get to loads of places that the bus loads of tourists couldn't get to.

Northern Lights spotting was hard work on our own, cold and lots of waiting around and driving at night, but would have been much more rewarding that being with one of the bus tours from the capital which was a bit like a cattle market. (had we seen any)

Good luck. It's brilliant. I can't wait to go back.

In reply to Skol:

Thanks for the reply skol, problem lies in the fact I will be at uni as will be the girlfriend, we're both working to save up however season prices are likely to be out of reach (+ by that time the savings would be gone on sensible stuff).

In reply to mbh:

This is brilliant also,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Iceland-Defrosted-Edward-Hancox/dp/1781321086/ref=s...

We were inspired by his writing to try lots of the things he did.

In reply to filip.kamycki:
Sounds a good adventure though? Possibility of northern lights from the plane?

In reply to ablackett:

That looks good.

Moore's account is one of the funniest things I have ever read, from his dinner with the aristo's descendants to his account of the journey there on a freighter out of Immingham in rougher weather than you'd ever want to experience, it had me laughing out loud. His wife is Icelandic, and his affection for the place shines through.

Thanks for helpful replies!

The main struggle it would seem (at the moment) would be the budget, which is around 1200/1400 (for around a week) for the two of us which doesn't sound substantial enough to be fair. ablackett - mind if I ask how much the pleasure cost you?

Skol, adventure would be the key feature of this little holiday, wherever we may end up

In reply to filip.kamycki:

Sorry don't remember how much it cost. Flights + car hire + hotels + food and i'm sure you can come up with a budget that works for around £1400.

You could have a few days in the capital and drop the car off and use busses to save a few quid.