💰 Budget Iceland: 15 ways to save money

Iceland, one of the most expensive countries in Europe and the world, opens our series of publications on budget travel. How to combine incompatible things, see the legendary country of geysers and volcanoes and not go broke, save on little things, but in no case on impressions, read our review.

Travel budget per person

• Flight Vilnius -Reykjavik-Vilnius or Warsaw -Reykjavik-Warsaw: from 80 euros round trip.
• Transfer from Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik: 54 euros round trip.
• Three nights in a hostel in Reykjavik: 100 euros.
• Food brought with you: 5 euros.
• Meals on site: 20 euros.
• TourGolden Circle
• Travel to Reykjadalur by bus e: 26 euros.
• Souvenirs from Iceland: 10 euros.
• Total: 430-445 euros.

Basic life hacks on how to save money when traveling to Iceland

My neighbors in a hostel in Reykjavik, guys from Poland, first of all admitted: we cry every evening, counting our expenses in Iceland for the day. Deciding for myself that Iceland would not see my tears, I began to zealously implement the savings plan. I am sharing it with you.

See Rome tickets in advance on the Wizz Air website

We also monitor promotions from this low-cost airline, blessed by Thor and Odin. There are simply no other budget ways to get to the island. Fortunately, Wizz Air offers a large number of flights from Vilnius, Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Gdansk and Wroclaw.

I flew from Vilnius on promotional tickets for 85 euros round trip. You can find it a little cheaper. But even outside of promotions, when planning your trip in advance, you can find tickets for 100-120 euros from Vilnius (late December – early January) or on the same dates, but for 90 euros from Warsaw.     

Hostel only

No Airbnb and, especially, no hotels. Housing in Iceland is very expensive and is one of the key expenses. Yes, of course, the hostel and the lack of amenities in the room are not to everyone’s liking. But as much as I love comfort, I still appreciate Icelandic hostels. Clean, thoughtful, close to the main tourist locations.

Get ready that your neighbors in hostels will be teenagers from all over the world. Countless school groups fly to Iceland on excursions. Each of them brings with them a lot of noise and turmoil, but at the same time they will share with you their irrepressible energy and lively mood.

We take our own food

Want to try local cuisine? Or do you still want to save money? It won't be possible to combine. You can put up with the price of 40 euros per night in a hostel, you can also put up with the cost of a transfer from Keflavik airport, which turned out to be more expensive than a bus to Vilnius. But I couldn’t come to terms with the cost of meals in a cafe at 30-40 euros. Therefore, I printed out a supply of instant noodles, cookies and hematogen – my faithful companions when traveling to expensive countries.

Some people think that without gastrotourism you can’t get the real vibe from the country. I preferred to spend the money on what people go to Iceland for, a trip to natural attractions. There was no desire to try the rotten (officially pickled) shark. Well, the “Atlantic herring” in our stores is no worse.

We walk a lot

The cost of public transport in Reykjavik is more than three euros. If you can’t link your card to the ticket purchase web application (as happened to me), then you’ll have to look for a few ticket sales points. And they sell tickets for at least 10 trips, which is completely unnecessary in the compact capital of Iceland.

I wouldn't call hiking in Reykjavik a forced sacrifice of economy. This is a pleasant pastime, in which you discover the city from an unknown side and stumble upon places unknown to guidebooks. Therefore, walking a lot and using public transport less often is the most pleasant way to save money in the country.

If you cannot do without buses, the website of the Icelandic bus company Straeto can help you. There is everything there: from ticket sales rules to a route planner.

Time is money

Each day spent in Iceland costs from 50 euros, taking into account housing, food and unstoppable temptations. Your savings are directly dependent on your time management. Fill every day with a complete and rich program. And you can sleep well at home.

Take an organized Golden Circle tour

I rarely take advantage of organized tourist excursions. But in Iceland this is as justified as possible. Even though the country has an extensive public transport system, moving around according to its schedule will take a lot of time. And you will end up spending more on additional days in the country than you would have spent on a quality excursion with a professional guide.

I recommend choosing a tour on the local travel aggregator Guide to Iceland or using the providers Tröll Expeditions and Iceland Travel.

Always remember the true purpose of your trip

High internal motivation will save your wallet. Remember that you can try licorice candies, herring and even Icelandic gin in your homeland. But nothing can replace the impressions of unpredictable geysers, roaring waterfalls and hot baths in the open frosty air. Spend your budget on this.  

What's Rome looking like?

Little Iceland turned out to be a huge container of attractions. Where literally every stone is a work of art. Therefore, even the most meticulous tourist is doomed to see Iceland only in passing. We will reveal to you a minimum plan when traveling around southern Iceland, its most touristy part.

Reykjavik

Reykjavik (literally translated as “smoking bay”) is the northernmost capital city in the world. It is also one of the most sparsely populated capitals in the world, with less than 135 thousand people living in it.

The city's most famous landmark is the cathedral of Hallgrim skyr kja. This 74-meter building, the fourth tallest in the country, will become your true landmark in the capital. The church, built between 1945 and 1986, was named after the poet and spiritual leader Hallgrímur Pietursson. In addition to frequent concerts of organ music, tourists are attracted to the inside of the building by the opportunity to visit the observation deck (cost 7 euros at the exchange rate).

In front of the entrance to the church there is a monument to the Icelandic navigator Leif Erikson. Icelanders are very proud of their compatriots. And on occasion they remind you: it was he who, 500 years before Christopher Columbus, became the first European to set foot on North America.

Several diverse attractions await you in the historical center of Reykjavik. And the first of them is Althing, the heart of the state. Icelanders use this word to describe their parliament, which is formally the oldest in the world (it was first assembled in 930). The Parliament building is very modest. The Icelanders also understand this, erecting a new receptacle for their deputies next to the historical building.

In the same modest style typical of Lutheran Christians, the main church in Reykjavik, Domkirkjan, was built in 1796.

It only takes five minutes to go from spiritual food to material food . This is how long it takes to get to the city's most famous eatery, Baejarins Beztu.. May the hungry tourist be fed here with delicious hot dogs. True, five euros each. Guides say the eatery sells 3,000 hot dogs a day. I recommend that you become the owner of at least one of them, despite the incessant queues.

On the edge of Reykjavik, jutting out into the ocean, is the Grotta lighthouse. Travelers come here not only for the postcard views, but also for the most coveted goal, the northern lights. The site, remote from city lighting, is ideally suited for this mission.

Reykjadalur Valley

The name of the valley combines mysticism and romance. It is translated as “smoking valley”. And when you arrive there, you will immediately understand why. Why go there? Because this is the cheapest and most logical alternative to the Blue Lagoon. A visit to the latter will cost 100 euros plus bus tickets. And Reykjadalur is free. Only your feet will pay the price. From the town of Hveragerði it is seven kilometers on foot to the valley.

City buses depart hourly for Hveragerði from Mj ö dd bus station in Reykjavík. The cost of a one-way ticket is about 13 euros. Unlike city buses, you can buy a provincial ticket with a card directly from the driver.

Getting to Reykjadalur is not an easy task. A constantly rising road awaits you. But at the finish line there will be a worthy gift: hot springs in which tired travelers soak. It’s a special adrenaline rush to lie in this hot natural bath when the temperature outside is sub-zero. In this case, be sure to take flip-flops and other swimwear with you. Coming out of the hot water onto the cold ground will be excruciatingly painful.

Iceland Golden Ring

The Golden Circle of Iceland is like a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because it combines all the most interesting sights of the country, man-made and natural. And also because it is constantly replenished. Every five to eight years a new source breaks through in Iceland, earthquakes occur with the same frequency, and sometimes volcanoes rage, forming new geological monuments. All this happens due to Iceland’s location at the junction of two tectonic plates, the Eurasian and North American.

You can see both of these plates, coming to the light of the earth, in Thingvellir National Park. It is located in an active volcanic zone, as evidenced by numerous melted rocks. The valley becomes wider by two centimeters every year – at this rate the plates are moving apart.

Thingvellir is also a cult place for the Icelandic state. Navi usa rock created a natural amphitheater for the ancient Icelanders. In it, since 930, they convened the people's council (parliament or Althing), baptized their country (in 1000), and then declared independence in 1944.

But first of all, Iceland is known as the country of geysers. Interestingly, Geyser is a proper name. This is the name of the country's most powerful hot spring in the Høikadalur Valley. This most noble representative of his kind gave the name to the entire geyser tribe.

The Great Geysir (Geysir) can throw boiling water to a height of up to 70 meters. But he rarely performs such tricks, once every few years. Therefore, you will have to marvel at the neighboring Strokkur spring. It delights its admirers with jets of 10-30 meters, bursting out every 8-15 minutes. In anticipation of the manifestation of his violent temper, tourists line up in a square, and their fingers freeze on the camera buttons.

A 10-minute drive from the Geyser awaits you another, in my opinion, the most impressive miracle of nature, Gullfoss waterfall. It is called the “Golden Falls”, but not for its significance for Icelandic nature and the tourism industry. And for the shades that it acquires in the sun's rays.

But even in cloudy weather the waterfall is beautiful. You can enjoy it from three different platforms, which offer different angles of the water flow. You will take the most beautiful pictures from your stay in Iceland here. It’s scary to imagine that half a century ago a hydroelectric power station would have been built on this site, which would have destroyed the waterfall.

The Kerid crater and the lake inside it testify to how unpredictable Icelandic nature can be. We are accustomed to the fact that craters are formed by meteorites falling from the sky. However, Kerid is volcanic in nature. Three thousand years ago, groundwater burst into the mouth of an extinct volcano, surprising today with its turquoise-blue hues. The volcanic lake lies at a depth of 55 meters, and its walls are made of red volcanic stone. A visit to Kerid costs 400 ISK (2.5 euros).

This is not a complete list of locations of the Golden Circle and South Iceland. Thermal springs and glaciers, volcanoes and valleys – the country has thousands of objects that can make you fall in love forever. But before you leave a lot of money there, leave your heart in it.