R2I Club Member Hangout

So with Summer Winding down - there came the question what did you do for me as a parent - where did you take me this summer? from my kids.. to which honestly i did not have a good answer.

so we brainstormed and threw some options on the table DW suggested Canada and Niagara falls. as a one time Niagara falls theerth yatra specialist ( i must have visited the place at least a dozen times) i firmly put my foot down and said no to Niagara.
so then the option was, do we still go some place in the US and do the same homogeneous combo of staying in one of those hotels( residence inn/Wyndham etc.. and be presented with the same but different location - burger king/chipotle/ subway offerings while sight seeing our way across this beautiful country or was there appetite to see/experience something different.

The answer in my mind was very clear.. i wanted a different experience.. but where would you go given that you just had 7 days..

read on to find out more.. ( or not)

So thru the grapevine i heard that one of my friends was planning to visit Iceland. I knew virtually nothing about the place, yet it sounded very intriguing.

Actually the only thing that I'd heard about Iceland was Reykjavik as in World economic forum, world leaders gather in Reykjavik etc..the Volcano EyjaFjallaJokull which erupted in 2010 spewing volcanic ash and dust miles into the air causing significant disruptions to air travel and of course news articles about NYC investment bankers having wild parties there with underwear models.

So i casually threw out Iceland to the crew at home and the kids were like yes, that sounds like a brag-able destination to middle school/high school classmates. DW was like whatever, let me know when you have a plan.

So off we went to google flights to look at cheap tickets and managed to find some at about $400 per head. Having secured tickets i felt like i had done all the planning that was needed at least immediately and proceeded to chill.

Next on - where do we stay, what do we eat , how do we get around and most importantly what do we see...

Razz R wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 8:48 am So thru the grapevine i heard that one of my friends was planning to visit Iceland. I knew virtually nothing about the place, yet it sounded very intriguing.

Actually the only thing that I'd heard about Iceland was Reykjavik as in World economic forum, world leaders gather in Reykjavik etc..the Volcano EyjaFjallaJokull which erupted in 2010 spewing volcanic ash and dust miles into the air causing significant disruptions to air travel and of course news articles about NYC investment bankers having wild parties there with underwear models.

So i casually threw out Iceland to the crew at home and the kids were like yes, that sounds like a brag-able destination to middle school/high school classmates. DW was like whatever, let me know when you have a plan.

So off we went to google flights to look at cheap tickets and managed to find some at about $400 per head. Having secured tickets i felt like i had done all the planning that was needed at least immediately and proceeded to chill.

Next on - where do we stay, what do we eat , how do we get around and most importantly what do we see...

Iceland is pretty much the only place where we can go during summer as it has become hotter everywhere else. I have never been there and would love to go someday and it's only halfway to Europe. Wonder what we can eat, get around and what do we see, now over to you! Thanks in advance.

We recently went to Denver, CO and decided not to rent a car for our vacation. Denver has excellent public transportation system and the cost to ride are miniscule compared to private shuttles and rental cars. Did RMNP through public transportation (they have insane reservation requirements if you bring a vehicle to the Park). Did a trip to Glenwood Springs by Amtrak (the 6 hour ride offered some of the best views this country has to offer) and then on to Maroon Bells and Aspen all by public transportation. It was fun

Razz R wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 8:48 am So thru the grapevine i heard that one of my friends was planning to visit Iceland. I knew virtually nothing about the place, yet it sounded very intriguing.

Actually the only thing that I'd heard about Iceland was Reykjavik as in World economic forum, world leaders gather in Reykjavik etc..the Volcano EyjaFjallaJokull which erupted in 2010 spewing volcanic ash and dust miles into the air causing significant disruptions to air travel and of course news articles about NYC investment bankers having wild parties there with underwear models.

So i casually threw out Iceland to the crew at home and the kids were like yes, that sounds like a brag-able destination to middle school/high school classmates. DW was like whatever, let me know when you have a plan.

So off we went to google flights to look at cheap tickets and managed to find some at about $400 per head. Having secured tickets i felt like i had done all the planning that was needed at least immediately and proceeded to chill.

Next on - where do we stay, what do we eat , how do we get around and most importantly what do we see...

Visited Iceland for 3 days in 2017. Whole island cropped up in Atlantic due to volcanic eruption. So there is no soil, hence no vegetation. If you are going in summer you can go around the island and some places of interest if you are into geology:

- there is a place where NA and European plate meet each other. One step you in NA and second (though too far) you will be in Europe.
- Blue Lagoon -- spa made from natural volcanic activity. - https://www.bluelagoon.com/
- it is famous for Northern Lights though I went in summer.

Everything is expensive as most of the food is imported from EU. It is more like another Scandinavian country as Icelanders are of Norwegian origin. Did not find any Indian food as I was happy with local cuisine, so did not hunt for it.

Ahh the joys of planning a trip.. Thankfully i am not a planner.. when it comes to strategy and tactics.. I'm your tac unit. DW is all strategy.. so 2 weeks before the trip and we still have no clue where we are going to reside or how we are going to get around. I get this bright idea from my friend about a camper van rental.. Bingo 2 problems solved..the family is not fully convinced, the first question is will there be bathrooms - where will we shower. i have no answers to either.. so we look at different camper van options. still a little unsure, but also excited to be doing a camper van trip, i continue to research the option. while looking at the map of Iceland I'm fully convinced that this is the way to go especially if you have 7 days. You see, Iceland is an island.. there is a ring road that goes around the island ,it's about 1400Kms long.. if you want to cover the country or at least the different attractions,staying in one place and driving is not going to cut it.. the alternative is to have 5-6 hotel/airbnb bookings and a rental car. the sheer complexity of managing all that and lugging your suitcases in and out of hotel rooms was enough to convince me that a camper van would be the best option. So off we went and booked a high top Camper that can sleep 5 people ( about the size of an Amazon Delivery Van). So accommodations check, transportation check. flight tickets to Iceland check.

to all those questions about bathrooms et all.. Iceland has an extensive network of camping sites which has excellent toilet/shower/cooking/dish washing/laundry facilities. in fact some of the nicer campsites have swimming pools/ hot tubs and gyms.. but all that we found out later..

so the loose outline of a plan started to take root. the plan at a high level was to drive 200-300km a day ( note that I'm talking km not miles) on the ring road, take in attractions off of and get to a campsite at the end of the day. sleep the night there in the van, morning take care of business ( shower/shave, cook/eat breakfast) and hit the road , rinse repeat.

it gets pretty cold there so a good recommendation would be to carry thermals/gloves/beanies/ a fleece layer and a waterproof outer layer. Good Hiking shoes are a must.

before we left, we made a trip to patel grocers and stocked up on ready to eat/bfast curries and noodles, one checked in bag full of food including spices/ rice/ dal and a small pressure cooker.

Next up Keflavik - Here we come..

The flight to Iceland from NY is about 6-7 hours. add 5 hours timezone difference ( they are ahead of us) you are looking at an overnight flight.. i didn't realize it then but this is like almost flying to UK or Europe.. in fact 2 more hours and you are in Ireland.. Cheap-ass carriers like Play which we flew on don't even provide water on a transatlantic flight ( the water part surprised me honestly). you have to buy everything including water. there was no internet/ no jacks to even charge your phone, you can forget about that TV or inflight entertainment.. (it's bare bones budget alright). pretty uneventful flight and the early morning descent into keflavik was made spectacular by the volcanic eruptions in the Reykjanes peninsula, the bright red plumes were clearly visible as we were coming down and made for an exciting entry into the land of fire and ice..

so we landed in Keflavik at around 4:30AM local time.. still midnight as per our body clock.. nothing much to do other than potter around the small airport and gawk at the Duty free liquor shops till 8 AM (which is when our camper van rental place opened)took the time to try out some excellent coffee and chocolate croissants at the Bakad in the airport. changed some dollars to ISK (this is strictly not needed, we changed about $20 which will give you close to 3000Kronor just as a souvenir) and tried to charge our devices.. i said tried because, most of the chargers are European so you need those converters if you want to plug in your US devices.

So the plan was to take a free shuttle from the airport at 8:15 to the rental place and start our adventure soon after.. but things seldom go according to plan.. the shuttle guy came around 8:30 AM, the first shuttle was already full so had to wait for the next one which took another hour before we started off from the airport around 9:45 AM.. finally arriving at the camper rental around 10:30 AM..

there was a big line and a whole lot of paperwork involved before we could rent our van, I would recommend a 4x4 Van and the internet router, power inverter at the least.. but you have the option to add additional sleeping bags, camping gear etc.. for an additional fee. they give you a tour of the van including how to convert the rear seats/table to a bed and how to set up the overhead sleeper. also a tour of where the water tank for the wash basin is and extra batteries, gas stove, fridge/rear cabin space heater etc.. It's all pretty simple and is not complicated as it sounds. if you have driven U haul vans, you got this.. my only concern was making sure that there is a rear camera on the rig as it is not easy to see behind you when you are backing up. thankfully the VW Crafter 4x4 that we rented had one and had full apple car play on the dash.. so pairing your phone for navigation etc worked like a breeze..


So by the time we got out of the rental place it was already 1:30PM and everyone was pretty cranky by now.. Not the 8:30AM start to the first day we planned for..

first stop on the camper was the local super market (Kronan & Bonus are really nice) to pickup a crate of water and some veggies ( tomatoes/onions/garlic / bread milk/ yogurt ) .. there is also a Costco in Reykjavik I'm told but we did not check that out.

once we got our groceries, we dialed in the nearest campsite on GPS ( which happens to be Vogar) and set sail. Our first meal cooked in the camper stove was a huge success and decided to take a nap before doing anything else.. So eating in the van and sleeping in the van - Check

Next up a trip to the blue lagoon..

Play airlines is only palatable if a frugal one is travelling solo and it's a big risk flying with the family, glad you made it out unscathed! Guess you took the flight from New York Stewart airport - I did about a year ago and missed the R2I meet due to flight delays. Iceland is extremely expensive as I remember it from the airport food courts and can't imagine how much a liter of gasoline costs there!
Your chronicles are very interesting and informative, keep them coming!

so after a good home cooked lunch in the camper van we pulled the blinds on and slept like kings for a couple of hours.. Our friends who traveled earlier had complained about the near 24 hour daylight during summer. But we did not have to deal with that, as we traveled towards the end of the Icelandic summer. the days were still long with daylight up-to about 10PM and and it used to get bright by about 3-4 AM. We set the alarm for about 4:30PM and got freshened up, after a quick coffee and some hot chocolate hit the road to go to Blue lagoon, one of the destinations in my DD's list..

Now a little about the camper van, the van is equipped with USB ports(std/USB C) for charging all your devices, it also has a nice propane tank fueled stove, refills are available in gas stations for the small tanks, but we did not need any due to our shorter 7 day trip. Gas is indeed super expensive, Our VW van took diesel which costs about $8.84 per gallon - so almost double what you pay for in the states. every fill up of the van would be about $200 USD

the van has 3 seats in the front - bench style in case anyone wants to ride shotgun.. the other folks can chill in the back. my kids had a nice time sleeping and surfing their hearts out in the back, which brings me to the internet.. I was simply blown away by the speeds thru out the country. when you rent the van - you have the option to add on a 5G router.. which is like a wallet sized gizmo that you plug into one of the USB power outlets, for about $40. the one that we rented was from Huawei ( apparently the Chinese invasion has already happened). I do not know where they hide the 5G Towers but the speeds were unreal. I had constant GPS/Google maps, DW was on video conference calls with folks back in India, kids were blowing up youtube and Netflix and the thing worked without a hitch thru out our trip at blazing speeds. I had enabled AT&T international data on one of the phones - just in case, but really did not end up using that much due to the internet and VoiP apps

Blue lagoon is a short distance away from the Keflavik Airport and is close to the golden circle which was supposed to be our first day's itinerary. on our drive there, we could see the volcanic eruptions from the side of the road. it was like Diwali fireworks out in the distance. now if that does not blow your mind, blue lagoon will, it is a first class spa experience where you soak in acres of thermal pools all heated by Geo-thermal activity. while overlooking some dramatic scenery. the included drinks in the cost of the admission is cherry on top. it is a really nice experience to be able to soak in your tired jet lagged body after an overnight flight and just relax.. the bath and facilities are top notch and we totally enjoyed it.. they give you silica mud masks to apply on your face which is supposed to come from the base of the lagoon and is said to have skin revitalizing properties.

you can easily spend 3-4 hours at the lagoon and it was quite late by the time we got out.. decided to go back to our campsite and call it a day..

Razz R wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2024 11:50 am so after a good home cooked lunch in the camper van we pulled the blinds on and slept like kings for a couple of hours.. Our friends who traveled earlier had complained about the near 24 hour daylight during summer. But we did not have to deal with that, as we traveled towards the end of the Icelandic summer. the days were still long with daylight up-to about 10PM and and it used to get bright by about 3-4 AM. We set the alarm for about 4:30PM and got freshened up, after a quick coffee and some hot chocolate hit the road to go to Blue lagoon, one of the destinations in my DD's list..

Now a little about the camper van, the van is equipped with USB ports(std/USB C) for charging all your devices, it also has a nice propane tank fueled stove, refills are available in gas stations for the small tanks, but we did not need any due to our shorter 7 day trip. Gas is indeed super expensive, Our VW van took diesel which costs about $8.84 per gallon - so almost double what you pay for in the states. every fill up of the van would be about $200 USD

the van has 3 seats in the front - bench style in case anyone wants to ride shotgun.. the other folks can chill in the back. my kids had a nice time sleeping and surfing their hearts out in the back, which brings me to the internet.. I was simply blown away by the speeds thru out the country. when you rent the van - you have the option to add on a 5G router.. which is like a wallet sized gizmo that you plug into one of the USB power outlets, for about $40. the one that we rented was from Huawei ( apparently the Chinese invasion has already happened). I do not know where they hide the 5G Towers but the speeds were unreal. I had constant GPS/Google maps, DW was on video conference calls with folks back in India, kids were blowing up youtube and Netflix and the thing worked without a hitch thru out our trip at blazing speeds. I had enabled AT&T international data on one of the phones - just in case, but really did not end up using that much due to the internet and VoiP apps

Blue lagoon is a short distance away from the Keflavik Airport and is close to the golden circle which was supposed to be our first day's itinerary. on our drive there, we could see the volcanic eruptions from the side of the road. it was like Diwali fireworks out in the distance. now if that does not blow your mind, blue lagoon will, it is a first class spa experience where you soak in acres of thermal pools all heated by Geo-thermal activity. while overlooking some dramatic scenery. the included drinks in the cost of the admission is cherry on top. it is a really nice experience to be able to soak in your tired jet lagged body after an overnight flight and just relax.. the bath and facilities are top notch and we totally enjoyed it.. they give you silica mud masks to apply on your face which is supposed to come from the base of the lagoon and is said to have skin revitalizing properties.

you can easily spend 3-4 hours at the lagoon and it was quite late by the time we got out.. decided to go back to our campsite and call it a day..

Out of curiosity, I did a rental car search and even the auto transmission car rentals are cheaper than in the US which I did not expect. It may also be because it's off season now. So, here's the question that's on everyone's mind -How did you book the camper van and how much was it per day?