Icelandic Tour operators

Hi all,

We're on a cruise in a couple of weeks visiting 3 Icelandic ports; Akureyi, Isafjordur and Rejkavik. We've decided to explore Isafjordur ourselves. The cruise ship offers tours, but we are interested in a couple that we can source much cheaper directly, and wonder if anyone has had any dealings with the following companies:

Elding Whale watching (Akureyki)

Rejkavik Excursions (Golden Circle tour)

Many thanks

Martin

Hi all,

 

We're on a cruise in a couple of weeks visiting 3 Icelandic ports; Akureyi, Isafjordur and Rejkavik. We've decided to explore Isafjordur ourselves. The cruise ship offers tours, but we are interested in a couple that we can source much cheaper directly, and wonder if anyone has had any dealings with the following companies:

 

Elding Whale watching (Akureyki)

Rejkavik Excursions (Golden Circle tour)

 

Many thanks

 

Martin

Hi,

we're looking at doing the Golden Circle tour with a firm called Icelandic Guided Tours. www.igtours.is/

I like the idea that they will tailor the tour to fit in with the ship times, which is always a slight worry when you are doing a non-ship excursion. I don't want to be a 'pier-runner' :D

We've not done anything yet but feel we need to make a decision within the next couple of days. Regarding the other stops, I don't know what we will do; possibly one of the ship excursions, or maybe our own thing.

We used Elding and they were fine. There are a few whale watching companies there, they all seemed to use the same boats.

Reykjavik Excursions is the big player in town, find out if the Golden Circle tour is on a big bus -- you're better off in a smaller vehicle so you aren't chained to the slowest person getting back on a big bus all the time. We used Iceland Horizons for our Golden Circle and were very pleased.

I don't want to be a 'pier-runner' :D

Me neither!! Always a slight worry in the back of my mind when doing things ourselves. Can't help but keep half an eye on my watch.

We used Iceland Horizons for our Golden Circle and were very pleased.

Thanks for this. I've emailed them asking for some details as their website's not the most helpful.

Any more info most welcome!

p.s. Apologies for misspelling Rejkjavik.

Martin.

Martin, had a quick look at website for Iceland Horizons and as you say its not helpful at all. My only concern would be that they are quoting a trip duration of 8 hours. Do you know how long we will be in port and would they take that into account when showing people around.

Babs,

The P&O Golden Circle excursion is 8 hours too. The one offered by Rejkjevik Excursions is also 8 hours. This looks to be the norm for this tour.

Martin

RE also does an afternoon Golden Circle tour. https://www.re.is/day-tours/gullfoss-geysir-thingvellir-afternoon-tour

Martin,

would be grateful for any info you get from Iceland Horizons.

Martin,

 

would be grateful for any info you get from Iceland Horizons.

They're fully booked on the day we're docked. :(

M.

RE also does an afternoon Golden Circle tour. https://www.re.is/day-tours/gullfoss-geysir-thingvellir-afternoon-tour

Indeed. This one was the one I was interested in. https://www.re.is/day-tours/the-golden-circle

I've now emailed re.is to see whether they have availability etc.

M

Decided not to wait any longer as we don't want to risk missing out on the trip. We have booked with igtours and hopefully everything will be fine.

we have booked with GeoIceland tours for our trip on Oriana at the end of June. they are number 2 on trip advisor so will see what we get;)

Hi all,

 

We're on a cruise in a couple of weeks visiting 3 Icelandic ports; Akureyi, Isafjordur and Rejkavik. We've decided to explore Isafjordur ourselves. The cruise ship offers tours, but we are interested in a couple that we can source much cheaper directly, and wonder if anyone has had any dealings with the following companies:

 

Elding Whale watching (Akureyki)

Rejkavik Excursions (Golden Circle tour)

 

Many thanks

 

Martin

Hi Martin, we used Elding in Rejkavik, if you book online, they will pick you up from the ship, just make sure you know where your ship will dock..

At Akureyri, we used Ambassador for a whale watch there. They are only a couple of hundred yards fro where your ship will probably dock. Again, we booked online and paid much less than the ships excursion, which was on the same boat. The ships excursion staff walked their passengers to the Ambassador and did not provide any "added value" as far as I could tell to justify their much higher charge. We got to the Ambassador quicker than the ships excursion and got the best seats on the higher deck at the front

we have booked with GeoIceland tours for our trip on Oriana at the end of June. they are number 2 on trip advisor so will see what we get;)

We've gone with GeoIceland too. All getting a bit close now!!! :D

M.

Decided not to wait any longer as we don't want to risk missing out on the trip. We have booked with igtours and hopefully everything will be fine.

We used them 2 summers ago and they were wonderful. We had 3 vans with 16 people in each van. It was a wonderful excursion.

We are doing a one night stopover in Reykjavik prior to our cruise out of Amsterdam. In light of the short time, we booked with Iceland Luxury Tours to pick us up at the airport and take us on a Golden Circle tour prior to dropping us off at our hotel in Reykjavik. Very expensive, but I think it will be worth it given our limited time.

Thoughts?

They get great reviews on TripAdvisor. If you think it's worth the cost then you did well!

They get great reviews on TripAdvisor. If you think it's worth the cost then you did well!

That's what really pushed me to book with them. Figuring we'd be pretty tired, we thought a private tour was the way to go.

we have booked with GeoIceland tours for our trip on Oriana at the end of June. they are number 2 on trip advisor so will see what we get;)

Last June, we did a stopover in Iceland and did the Golden Circle tour with GeoIceland. Very Good, plus they work with smaller groups, 19 or less people. :)

Hi all,

 

We're on a cruise in a couple of weeks visiting 3 Icelandic ports; Akureyi, Isafjordur and Rejkavik. We've decided to explore Isafjordur ourselves. The cruise ship offers tours, but we are interested in a couple that we can source much cheaper directly, and wonder if anyone has had any dealings with the following companies:

 

Elding Whale watching (Akureyki)

Rejkavik Excursions (Golden Circle tour)

 

Many thanks

 

Martin

We will be in Akureyri Iceland on July 7,2016 from 10 - 6pm arriving on the Rotterdam. We have tickets for whale watching at 1:00 Pm to 3PM with Ambassador. The cost was 22.980 Kr ($180) for 2 paid by credit card. Covered boat looks very nice and has bathrooms and their dock is just a short walk from the ship's pier so no other transportation needed. Good TA reviews and I have high hopes that this will be a good thing to do. Found Ambassador on the Akureyri tourist web site.

Good luck in finding your activities. If you go before us please come back and report on what you did and how you liked it.

Not used either company but can thoroughly recommend IG tours for the Golden Circle.