Reykjavik, Iceland

[wnwr12]

Can you do Reykjavik on your own and see more in 24 hours?

[gerelmx]

If the ship overnights in Reykjavik

[Denny01]

You can look at private tours also, because I have a feeling it isn’t very easy to get around without a rental car, but you can do that too. 

 

And even if the ship doesn’t overnight, you can still enjoy Iceland for 24hrs, you just have to miss the departure!!! hehehe.

 

Den

[Miaminice]

Sure, you can see a lot there or from there... like the Golden Circle

We did all th tours in Iceland by rental car - waiting for us at the pier. Very easy!

 

Get some ideas in our review: 

https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Eclipse-Iceland-1/eclipse-iceland-1.html

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by Miaminice

[Ashland]

We did an amazing private tour in Reykjavik in 2018 with "Your Day Tours".

Hoping by the time you port there private tours will be allowed...not sure about the policy

with the different cruise lines right now.

[LGW59]

23 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We did an amazing private tour in Reykjavik in 2018 with "Your Day Tours".

Hoping by the time you port there private tours will be allowed...not sure about the policy

with the different cruise lines right now.

Exactly, the (understandable) uncertainty of shore excursions is why I will not cruise until 2022, 2x I hope.

[Ashland]

1 minute ago, LGW59 said:

Exactly, the (understandable) uncertainty of shore excursions is why I will not cruise until 2022, 2x I hope.

2022 x 5 I'm hoping 

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, Ashland said:

2022 x 5 I'm hoping 

2022 x 5 I'm hoping   Good on you!!!  I am contemplating retiring at the EOY, if I do I will def be cruising more than just 2x!!

[ScubesDad]

2 hours ago, wnwr12 said:

Can you do Reykjavik on your own and see more in 24 hours?

I am unclear as to your question; do you just want to tour the city of Reykjavik or start from there and go out into the countryside.

 

We did the Iceland cruise in 2019 and booked 2 tours in Reykjavik and Akureyri with a private tour company.  The days were long, to jam as much as possible into them.   The first day's tour was about 12 hours and we grabbed about 5 hours sleep and did the second day with about a 6 hour tour.  The days were long, and a great deal of time was spent driving. It would be possible to rent a car and drive yourself.  The main roads are paved however, some of the secondary roads are not.  Road signs are fine and most rentals will provide a GPS unit. It can be done, but it is doubtful if you would see more. The long tour out of Reykjavik took us well along the southern coast, and most of us in the minivan on the way back had a nap. 

 

If you are only asking about Reykjavik proper, then yes it is very easy to self tour the city.  We did a stopover for 3 days in Reykjavik on the way to the cruise embarkation and spent the entire 3 days exploring the city.  There is a shuttle from the cruise terminal into the city; however, I don't think it runs all night.  We took a walking tour and then explored the other days on our own.  We were looking to enjoy the food and get a feel for the culture.

 

The advantage for the time the cruises stop in Iceland is the midnight sun.  The sun does set until almost midnight, and it doesn't really get dark as sunrise is somewhere around 3 am.

 

We currently have Iceland booked for June 2022; however, we are seriously considering cancelling and just flying to Iceland and renting a car for 2 weeks and self touring on a circumnavigation of the island..

 

Iceland is an expensive country.  A car rental is probably $100.00 per day and gas is about $7.50 per gallon.

 

Iceland is a very beautiful country, and I am not sure you would see more if you were concentrating on driving.  Also, many of the "things" we passed, our driver/guide was able to explain what we were looking at.  You may miss some things not knowing what they are.

 

 

 

[cruiserchuck]

We also had an excellent tour with Your Day Tours in 2019.  However, Celebrity was only using one thin gang plank to exit the ship, and there was a huge line to go ashore, and it took a long time to get off the ship.  

[Arizona Wildcat]

3 hours ago, wnwr12 said:

Can you do Reykjavik on your own and see more in 24 hours?

Not sure what you are asking.  You certainly can see more if you have 24 hours instead of an 8 hour port call.  Iceland is easy to do on your own.  We have an August cruise in 2022 leaving from Iceland.  We will do a 2 week self drive.  Several companies offer trips from 5 to 13 nights.  Easy.  Most everyone speaks English.  Icelandic is very difficult.

[TeeRick]

We had the Ireland/Iceland 10 day cruise on Reflection planned for our 40th wedding anniversary in July 2020.  Looking forward to the overnight in Reykjavik among many other things.  No it did not happen.  We are thinking of just flying there in the future and doing a 2-week land-only tour.

[Nitemare]

Reykjavik is easily toured on foot in a day.

 

It's a very cute city, but I recommend to friends visiting Iceland that they spend as little time as possible in a city.  We've spent zero time in Reykjavik on our last 3 visits.

[Mary229]

We did one day on our own - very easy.  We did one day with a small group (12) tour we hired.  What was great about the tour was the guide knew those out of the way off the beaten track places to visit.  We saw the biggies but spent the rest of the day in quiet, peaceful areas.  Those areas are hard to find on a 1 or 2 day first visit.  The next time I go I will hire a private car with a specialist-guide.   The private tours are very affordable considering the cost of transportation and distances

[Nitemare]

Private tours with a car and guide in Iceland start at around $1000/day.   We did our 7 day trip in late 2019 with a small SUV and 2 full day small group tours for right around $2000 all in, not including airfare

[SueMo]

I see that some of you are thinking about flying to Iceland and renting a car and driving the Ring Road.  We did this in 2016 and were very pleased with Nordic Visitor dot com.  They pick you up at the airport,  get you a rental car, make all hotel arrangements, and provide you with a detailed road map, GPS, and will prebook tickets for things such as whale watching, lava tube exploration, glacier hikes, etc.  It was one of the best vacations we've ever done!

[springfire]

On 2/27/2021 at 3:12 PM, Arizona Wildcat said:

Not sure what you are asking.  You certainly can see more if you have 24 hours instead of an 8 hour port call.  Iceland is easy to do on your own.  We have an August cruise in 2022 leaving from Iceland.  We will do a 2 week self drive.  Several companies offer trips from 5 to 13 nights.  Easy.  Most everyone speaks English.  Icelandic is very difficult.

We hope to join you on this cruise!

[Nitemare]

On 3/5/2021 at 12:32 PM, SueMo said:

I see that some of you are thinking about flying to Iceland and renting a car and driving the Ring Road.  We did this in 2016 and were very pleased with Nordic Visitor dot com.  They pick you up at the airport,  get you a rental car, make all hotel arrangements, and provide you with a detailed road map, GPS, and will prebook tickets for things such as whale watching, lava tube exploration, glacier hikes, etc.  It was one of the best vacations we've ever done!

We did similar a couple years earlier with Trip.is and also were very pleased with their work.  But it's pretty easy to do this on your own with help from this forum and the Iceland board at TripAdvisor and using the published itineraries from companies like Nordic Visitor as guidelines.