So it begins

Decision made

Published Date : January 26, 2013

Today, I did something I haven’t done in far too long: I bought a Lonely Planet travel guide!  After a couple of hours of research I have a tentative itinerary and budget hashed out for my next trip.

Iceland and the Faroe Islands, here I come!!!

The basic plan is to fly to Reykjavik and spend about 10 days in Iceland, then fly to Tórshavn and explore the Faroe Islands for 4-5 days before flying back to Reykjavik.  I’ll spend my last couple of days exploring the Icelandic capital before flying back to Toronto.  I had hoped to catch the overnight ferry from Iceland to Tórshavn, but it only runs one day per week.  I just don’t have enough time on this trip to make a full week in the Faroes work.  Plus, it’s actually cheaper to fly than to go by sea.

I’m not sure when I’ll be going yet, but likely sometime in April/May or August, depending on what works best with my work schedule.  The other thing to consider is the buses in Iceland.  They don’t run regularly outside of the summer months and April/May is still early in the season.  Accommodation would be cheaper and easier to come by, but that’s not very helpful if I can’t actually get to where I want to go!

All things going to plan, I should be able to swing 16-20 days away for $3500 or less.  [Insert happy dance here] ��

Making plans

Published Date : January 30, 2013

And so begins the odyssey of making plans.

My holidays at work are now officially booked.  I’ll have 19 days in June to make my whirlwind trip through Iceland and the Faroe Islands.  As usual, costs are quickly adding up and it looks like this trip is going to be pricier than anticipated. 

I tried booking my flights today, but my free ticket isn’t working out.  They can get me to Iceland, but there are no seats available to get me home again.  Frustrating.  I’ll try again in a few weeks and see if any spaces have opened up, but the odds are not good.  Worst case, I’ll just have to pay for the flight.  It’s not too bad at $850, but that’s a heck of a lot more money than $0!

The other cost creeping up is transportation in Iceland.  I had been hoping to be able to stick with buses, but outside of Reykjavik, the only buses available are tour buses.  They go pretty much everywhere I want to go while I’m there, but the schedules and routes are seriously limited.  That leaves renting a car as my only real option and car rentals in Iceland are notoriously expensive.  Apart from the ring road that circumnavigates the country, there are few paved roads outside the major cities, so all-wheel drive is a must.  I can save a bit of money renting a manual over an automatic, but that only knocks $100-200 off the price.  The cheapest I’ve found so far is about $1200 and that’s with corporate and autoclub discounts.  If it comes to it, I can always save on accommodation by sleeping in the car if I have to.

Other than that, it’s all about the activities.  The big hit (both financially and figuratively) for sure is going to be Silfra.  Rated as one of the top scuba dives in the world, it’s an absolute must while I’m there.  Since it’s necessary to wear a dry suit in the frigid glacial waters, I figured I might as well complete my dry suit certification while I’m at it.  $400 later…

Teething pains aside, I’m really excited about this trip.  This is my first real overseas trip since I moved home to Canada six years ago and it’s long overdue!

Plan Made

Published Date : March 14, 2013

The flights are booked, the cars are rented and an itinerary is beginning to fall into place.

I’ve had the car for Iceland booked for almost a month now.  I hadn’t planned on organizing it so soon, but I stumbled across a great deal with Hertz – only $100 per day for AWD.  Normally I would consider that expensive, but by an Icelandic standard that’s actually quite reasonable!

For the Faroe Islands, I had originally planned on basing myself in the capital, Tórshavn, and exploring by bus.  As I’ve been nailing down my itinerary over the last couple of days, I’ve decided that it will just be too much hassle to fight with transit schedules.  So another car rental it is.  I’ve booked myself a little compact car with SixT for $75 per day.  Another deal that’s cheap by local standards, but expensive compared to North America.

I’ve also booked all of my accommodation for both Iceland and the Faroes.  Normally, I prefer to wing it a bit more when I’m travelling, so I’m finding it a bit strange to do so much pre-planning for this trip.  However, I’ve heard so many warnings about the limited availability of budget lodging in both countries that I decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  As I previously mentioned, sleeping in the rental car is always an option, but why rough it if I don’t have to?

In order to pre-book all the accommodation, I needed to figure out an itinerary.  To do that, I needed to figure out what I wanted to see and do.  As a result, the last couple of weeks I’ve been having a lot of fun researching all the cool places and activities in both countries!

This is the plan so far:

I’ll be arriving in Iceland at 06:30 on a weekday.  Straight off the plane, I’ll be heading to the Blue Lagoon to pamper myself – this is vacation after all!  Then it’s off to the capital, Reykjavik, to explore until I can check in to my hostel for the night.  Being June, I’ll get to experience the midnight sun.  What better way to experience it than diving Silfra?

After only a day, I’ll be leaving the capital behind and heading north to the Westfjords for a couple of days of kayaking and hiking.  Then it’s on to Dalvik and the tiny island of Grímsey, where I’ll be above the Arctic Circle!  Staying in the north, I’ll explore Mývatn and visit Dettifoss (considered the most powerful waterfall in Europe).  Continuing around the ring road, my next stop will be Vagnsstaðir in the shadow of Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier.  I’ll spend a couple of days there hiking, snowmobiling and generally exploring.  Returning to Reykjavik for a couple of days, I’ll explore the capital and take a day trip up to þingvellir National Park and Gullfoss.

Then it’s on to the Faroe Islands, an hour and a half flight from Iceland.  I’ll be staying in the tiny village of Gjógv (population 50) on the island of Eysturoy for 4 nights.  The plan is a bit more flexible on the Faroes.  I only have two organized activities in mind: a boat tour around the bird cliffs of Vestmanna and Grottekoncert – a live orchestral performance that takes place in the water filled caves on the island of Hestur!  The rest of my time there I’ll just go wherever the wind takes me.

Finally, another flight back to Reykjavik, where I’ll have one last day to explore before flying home again.  Three months and counting – I can’t wait!!