Hotel recommendations along Iceland's south coast.

[Liz315]

Hello, we are disembarking NCL Prima on Thursday, Sept. 7th, 2023 in Reykjavik. We are thinking of then renting a car and exploring the south coast from there. We would like to go as far as diamond beach and Jokulsarlon lagoon. We would like to be back to a hotel near the airport by Sat. night to fly to NY on Sunday but we could stay and fly out on Monday if need be. I am looking for any recommendations for hotels along the south coast. We don't have a budget, looking for nice hotels with hopefully a restaurant on site. We are a family of 4 adults and a 16 month old baby (2 rooms). 2 of us want to snorkle at Silfra, we are open to suggestions on great spots to stop at plus hotels along the way. Looking to avoid the 5+ hour straight drive back from diamond beach, hoping for some stops on way back.  I was looking into this myself but I get confused by all the Icelandic names and locations, lol, it's a lot! Thank you for any advice you can offer.

[kstetser]

We will be visiting in August and are staying at the Stracta Hotel in a 1-bedroom apartment.  It's not a luxury accommodation, but it looks comfortable, spacious and has a private hot tub.

Stracta Hotel in South Iceland (stractahotels.is)

 

The hotel Vik might be an option.

Welcome | Stay in Vík (stayinvik.is)

 

Hotels book up fast, so I wouldn't wait.  They all have great cancellation policies.  

 

[SueMo]

We stayed at Hotel Laeker in Hroarslaek, Hotel Klaustur in Kirkjubaejarklaustur, and Fosshotel Vatnajokull in Hornafjordur near Hofn.  All were very Scandinavian in design, clean, good breakfast included in stay.  All were booked for us by our TA while on a 10 day Ring Road self drive trip.  If you go as far as Jokulsarlon lagoon, you may want to go just a little further to Hofn and get a lobster dinner there at Pakkhus!

Things we enjoyed along the south coast drive:

Seljalandsfoss (and Gljufrabui hidden waterfall behind it)

Skogafoss

Dyrholaey

Reynisdrangar

Fjadrargljufur Canyon

Skaftafell

Glacier Walk with Mountainguides

Svartifoss

Ingolfshofdi Hay Cart puffin Ride

Jokulsarlon boat tour

FYI:  "foss" is Icelandic for waterfall and "fell" refers to a mountain.

Silfra is up in the Golden Circle.  You may want to add extra day or two to your itinerary to include this.

[ljandgb]

FYI, google maps is notoriously inaccurate for Iceland drive times. Add 30%.  It's closer to 7 hours from Jokulsarlon to the airport.

 

Post over on the TripAdvisor Iceland forum.  You will get plenty of good suggestions for an itinerary.

[Liz315]

Thank you very much, these are great suggestions, we have decided to spend an extra day so we now have Thurs.(disembarkation day), Fri., Sat., Sunday and then fly out Monday.

[irvington]

We stayed in the Volcano Hotel in Vik. It was fairly plain but perfectly nice. The best part was that we booked a tour for the 4 of us in a 4 wheel drive vehicle that took us sightseeing places we could normally never drive to. This was through the hotel though their website has changed a lot since we visited in 2019.

 

We also stayed at the Milk Factory Hotel in Hofn. Amazing scenery along the way. Another pretty modern and plain hotel, but cool.