THE #CHEAPTRAVEL DIARIES: Iceland

She was convinced we could do it cheaply and thus started our plan to pull off going to Iceland as cheaply as humanly possible at the end of September 2017.

We devised a plan of what all needed to be taken care and start really mapping it out about 3-4 months prior to us actually taking the trip.

1. Airline Tickets! - The plane tickets felt ridiculously cheap so this was a huge confidence boost in the initial planning phase. It was also the very first thing we purchased. I want to say we bought these around May-June, so decently in advanced.
Airline Ticket Cost: $399.98

2. Airbnb - We split an airbnb three ways. We were in Iceland for 6 days and our Airbnb cost $172 a night. We locked our Airbnb down around August.
Airbnb Cost: $1,032/3= $344 a person

The downside to the Airbnb we stayed in was that it was right outside of town. While it was only about a 10 minute ride into town and Reykjavík actually has a wonderful public transportation system - the buses do stop running around 11pm. I'd say my biggest complaint of the whole trip was that the busses don’t run nearly late enough if you want to go out at night and you will end up having to take a spendy cab home (around $40-$50ish). I try to always avoid taking cabs in New York so it bothered me the few times we had to for convenience. Also, In terms of getting picked up for tours and getting around I highly recommend swinging for a hotel in the city center. I would 100% stay in a hotel next time UNLESS I was renting a car.

3. Passport - Until about 72 hours before this trip I didn't have a passport! I applied for my first ever passport for this trip and found it to be a pretty painless process. Because I was freelancing for most of the summer getting my passport was a very last minute cost that I had been putting off. After paying for the plane ticket I actually almost backed out of the trip on multiple occasions because I was concerned I wouldn’t have enough money for the Airbnb, Passport, and actual spending money.
Passport Cost: $180 (I think...)

4. Tours! - We planned and booked all of our tours about a week and a half in advance through: Get Your Guide
We had a round table discussion of what tours WE HAD TO DO and what tours most interested us individually. Exploring the Golden Circle, chasing the Northern Lights and going to the Blue Lagoon were all high on our group to-do list. I was concerned about money of course since these all averaged about $100-$120+ but, coming from a competitive equestrian background I was dying to ride Icelandic Horses across lava fields.

The tours we took part in:

The Golden Circle $69.46
This tour was a get on the bus – get off the bus kind of situation. We had about 20-30 minutes at each stop along the way. These stops included: Þingvellir National Park, Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir and Strokkur. While this tour was a great way to get of the town and see the Iceland you see all over social media it did leave me wanting for a bit more of an adventure vibe. If I were to go back to Iceland – which I 100% plan on doing at some point. I’d want someone to take us on one of those adventure-esque hikes.

Northern Lights $60
I honestly could’ve done without this tour. To do this one I feel like you really have to be staying in the city center, unless you have a rental car. You get picked up around 9pm-ish and you don’t get back until around 12-1am. The first night we went out we didn’t see the Northern Lights. If you don’t see the lights on your trip they do offer to take you out again. We went out again the night before we flew back home and some people swore they saw them but, I sure didn’t.

The Blue Lagoon $150.28
The Blue Lagoon – so touristy – so wonderful. It’s literally the place you see everyone going to on Instagram and I am not ashamed to say it was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. It’s of course not recommended to stay in a hot springs for longer than a couple of hours but, we floated around whilst drinking hard cider for 6 hours in the lagoon. Not healthy, we know! It was so relaxing and with all of the employees going around offering different face masks and products it was a really wonderful experience. We left feeling very pruney, very tired, and very relaxed.

Horseback Riding Across Lava Fields $150
The exact tour we did is no longer on the Get Your Guide website. There are so many newer, more expensive options on there now that actually sound like a lot more fun! I’ve been riding horses since I was around 7 years old, so I was the most excited for this part of our trip. They split you up into beginner, medium and advanced groups. We choose to ride in the medium group since my friends are all beginner horse people. Again, if I ever go back I’d love to participate in a much harder trailer ride. In the medium level group though we did get to experience the “running trot,” gait that the Icelandic horses are known for so this was good enough for me the first time around. Riding across the lava fields was a surreal experience and I highly highly recommend it.

5. Spending Money - $520
I actually only took one whole week’s pay to Iceland with me. I don’t really want to disclose how much I make on here but, I believe in transparency. So I noted it above. I had converted about $150 to Kronos. When converting your money make sure they give you smaller change. We spent the most Icelandic money on buses and they only take exact change – of course. Most businesses do accept debit/credit cards. I’m not sure entirely the exact amount of money I spent while in Iceland but, I do know it was under $350. This included the groceries we initially bought when we got there, a few souvenirs (mugs, pins, and a phallus shaped bottle opener) and the two times we ordered dominos because it was cheaper than going to a local spot… sorry we were on a budget! We did eat out three times to experience the local cuisine.

6. Randomness
We took the bus into town daily when we didn’t have planned tours. We just explored the town, spent a lot of time down by the water and happened into a few random museums.

So how much did we spend exactly(ish)? ~ $1,873.90
This number looks so much more daunting when all added up! Paying for certain aspects over a period of a couple of months really helped break this up for me. When I see such large numbers I tend to panic and think, “how can I possibly pull this off?”

I always have such a hard time justifying spending large amounts of money on leisure activities when I should be spending money on things like rent, debt, and tools that can help get me ahead in my career. I’m so happy I was able to dedicate the time and money to take this trip because, it really opened up my eyes to what is possible in terms of travel and money management for myself.

I feel like from a super tourist-y perspective we pulled off just scraping the very very surface of what Iceland has to offer. As you can see from this post I'm already devising a game plan of how I’d like to do Iceland differently in the future.

If you have any cheap traveling tips, hacks, and destinations I’d love to hear all about them!