Final Thoughts

Please check our the Iceland Portfolio (best of) here with our full gallery (including all cell phone images) here.

Budget:

• Wow Air Flights $596 (taxes and flight combined)
• Wow Air insurance ($19 per person per flight, $76 total)
• Wow Air 1 checked bag both ways ($49)
• Camper Rental ~$1000
• Parking 5 days in Boston/Braintree
• Shuttle Bus to Airport $22 each, $44 total
• Fuel ~$200
• Food/Groceries ~ $200
• Dinner out $150
• Parking/Entrance Fee at Pingvellir & Oxararfoss 500kr
• Camping at Hamragardar (twice) 1.300kr per person per night.
• Showers at Gljúfrafoss 300kr each (twice)
• Camping Fee at Höfn 1100kr per person per night
• Shower at Höfn 100kr each
• Vestrahorn Entrance fee 800kr each

How to reduce costs even more:

• We never cooked in the camper.  We were there 3 nights/4 days so we did yogurts w/ breakfast fruits, snacks and sandwiches.  We used the cooler (ham, cheese, fruit, beer, wine) but not the stove.  Even if you wanted to use the stove to cook, both campsites we stayed at had a kitchen inside with a dining room (~3 picnic tables).  So you don’t need the cooking option even if you want to cook.  We probably could have gotten away with the cheapest van option since you’re basically just sleeping in the camper.  I will say a sink was very nice.  Without a sink I’d make sure you have some sort of water container with a spout so you can pour water easily for brushing teeth and other bathroom sink type routines.
• Groceries save a lot of money.  Eating out is VERY expensive.  Gas station food is quite good and reasonably priced.
• Following our route I’d suggest staying at the viking cafe in Vestrahorn so that your camping cost and entrance to their private road are rolled into on.  I do not think they have a kitchen for cooking though?
• Know Wow airlines baggage policy.  It’s $49 for a 44lb checked bag.  We knew we’d need to check one bag to get both our clothes there.  We used a massive duffel for all our clothes.  Nikki kept her clothes in her normal patagonia MLC carry on sized bag (her usual travel bag).  That bag went inside the duffel with my clothes so that we each had our own space but Wow only saw one bag.  We were just around 40lbs for our trip with 4 days worth of clothes.  We both came home with a list of things we didn’t need or would change clothes wise but a weeklong trip would make this much tougher.  Wow also doesn’t charge for a bag containing electronics because of the FAA guidelines about not being able to check a bag with lithium ion batteries. This means your camera bag flies free in the cabin w/o needing to be weighed.  Not only that but you ALSO get a free carry on bag <11lbs to go with it.
• I’d get travel towels for the above point (reducing weight).
• Make sure you book Wow tickets on the wow website and use their calendar tool that shows which days are cheapest.  Adding a day obviously adds another day’s rental with the camper which isn’t cheap but we were flexible as to what days we could fly.  We were going for four total days spanning a weekend but we could have flown on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and Back on Sunday Monday or Tuesday.  We chose the days we went by going with the cheapest combined tickets.  Any of the options had the same time in Iceland and the same vacation days used.
• Go outside of the peak times (June/July/August) if possible so things are less expensive (especially the camper).  But do some homework on what campsites open in off peak months (some open in May).  Also study which pools are open year round or at least for more than just summer.

Things I’d consider doing differently if YOU were to duplicate this trip:

• consider skipping the golden circle locations or at least go off peak
• Bruarfoss is WELL worth the visit though, and it’s smack dab in the middle of the golden circle trio…
• Thjofafoss was amazing but try to go later in the day
• Haifoss isn’t very photogenic.  Hard to say to skip it as it was the wife’s favorite waterfall but I really wish we’d gone to Gjáin (and hiked in).
• Lekafossar is a long drive away from everything else and requires at least a half hour hike each way.  Either give yourself a LOT of time here or skip altogether.  The wind here was brutal (20kt+ consistently) so good photos would have been very tricky even with more time.
• We’d skip Seljavallalaug and either go to the hot river (but I’d need to find more info on it first) or just go to hot pools instead
• maybe camp at the Viking Cafe instead of the Höfn campground to save money on entrance fees but Höfn is the much nicer campground (better facilities and not parked in a parking lot).
• I’d read that grocery stores only opened at 10am and were very much in Selfoss and closer to Reykjavik.  Because of this we planned to go to locations closer to town (Reykjavik) on Saturday morning so we’d still be close to grocery stores.  In reality there was a great grocery store in Vik and Höfn so we could have headed straight out this way.
• I’d make sure to have enough time to hike into Fjaðrárgljúfur a bit further.
• I’d leave more time at Svartifoss/Skaftafell to hike over to the glacier and maybe even do the upper loop above Svartifoss that leads the the view of the glacier from the mountainside.
• We didn’t hit a single “pool” and were a bit confused as to the difference between pools and springs before going.  Pools are pools in towns with water slides and warm and cool pools.  From what I now understand “warm pools” are basically what we call hot tubs in the states.  You get a shower (you HAVE TO TAKE) before going in so it’s a way to get showers as a camper.  This also opens up camping to more sites as you’re not tied to the campground having a shower.
• Basically I’d combine sites from days 1&2 into one hitting Bruarfoss Haifoss/Gjain and Thjofafoss and driving on 268 but skip the golden circle/circus.  This would give you more time on the stretch along the south coast.
• I’d camp one night in Gljúfrafoss as we did, probably after a modified day 1 in the point above but then I’d shorten the days out to Höfn and back and stay in Vik the other night.
• Hike further into Skogafoss, Fjaðrárgljúfur and Skaftafell

Suggested Itinerary:

• Day 1: South coast from Airport to Gljúfrafoss and Seljalandsfoss.  Hit up Skógafoss and hike above.  Go to Kvernufoss.  Stay in Vik for the night (possibly at Þakgil).  Go to Dyrhólaey if time allows if not go day 3.
• Day 2: Vik to Viking Cafe.  Hike at either Fjaðrárgljúfur (canyon) or Svartifoss/Skaftafell (do the other the next day).  Stop at both Jökulsárlón & Fjallsárlón (icebergs).  Stop in Höfn, visit the docks/harbor and hit up the pool.  Cross fingers for sunset at Vestrahorn.
• Day 3: Vestrahorn sunrise?  Head back towards the campground at Gljúfrafoss and Seljalandsfoss.  Hike at either Fjaðrárgljúfur or Svartifoss/Skaftafell (Whichever you didn’t do day 2).  Stop at Jökulsárlón again and see how the ice has changed on the beach.  Go do Dyrhólaey if you didn’t have time on the first day.
• Day 4: Go from Gljúfrafoss and Seljalandsfoss to Thjofafoss.   Pick between a 30 minute drive (each way) to Haifoss (double falls, very high, rainbows, but less photogenic) or the same hike to Gjáin (lower but more photogenic/colorful).  Stop at Hjalparfoss on the way by (you drive to where you see it so the only time is how long pictures take).  Head off to Bruarfoss on way to the airport.  This is 10 miles shorter than our actual route for our last day.

Wow Airlines?  Yes they’re the budget airlines of Iceland.  They basically make up the price difference on their faces by “nickel and diming” you on everything else.  If you don’t know the baggage policy and show up with a carry on over 11lbs and a checked bag that’ll be ~$75 each way or another $150.  You also pay for ANY and ALL food and drink on the plane.  Water, snacks, sandwich, EVERYTHING.  So bring food on the plane with you and bring a water bottle (although airport water isn’t cheap either).  The service was great and their flight times out of BOS were actually better for us -vs- Icelandic Air because they fly at night on the way there and late afternoon on the return.  We will use them again.

Rent.is.  This was an unknown going in and to be honest this made me VERY nervous.  They’re social media accounts were all new in early 2016 and their hashtag (#wohocamper) only had their own images on it when we booked the trip.  Their campers were so new to them (and brand new in general) they hadn’t even had a chance to get pictures for them for their website yet (they’re there now).  BUT!!!  They were the only camper option that was at the airport 24/7 for camper pickup.  Everyone else was either a free shuttle away or a flybus ride away.  But they all opened at 9am or something similar and we were set to arrive at 4:30am!  We ran through a bunch of options including renting a car for the first day and seeing things around the airport area to return the car and get the camper later in the day.  This would have saved some money as it would have meant a 3 day camper rental + 1 day car rental.  But what a hassle!  So we rolled the dice and went with rent.is for the simple reason that they had what we wanted available at the airport when we were set to arrive.  I will say the intro the the van is very brief (they could maybe use some paper documentation so we could read about the heater/batteries/camp stove later?) but the van itself was perfect for our needs.  As I mentioned above we DID NOT COOK in the van at all so we could have maybe gone with the smallest option to save some money (and cooked at the campsites in their kitchens) but we didn’t know that would be an option going in.  Happy camper is another company that gets a lot of great reviews and we looked at them.  Their airport shuttle policy is a free ride (and they’re right down the road, you’ll drive by and see all the red/yellow/orange campers) but at 9am so we would have sat for hours wasting time if we’d gone with them.  We were very happy with rent.is and will be using them again on return trips without hesitation.

Guides and Maps!  I bought a lot of guides and maps for our trip.  Here’s a quick rundown with links:

• If you buy one map, make it this one: International photographer map of Iceland: This wasn’t cheap but it’s well worth it.  It’s designed by a photographer for photographers.  It’s got the route/road numbers on it you need with info on where and what you want to shoot.  It’s also got all the “good stuff” (photographically) labeled in yellow so you can tell which roads to choose to avoid or go on in terms of having great views the whole time.  The map is waterproof and tear-proof and it’s the map we had in the front seat for our entire trip.  The entire island/map is on ONE side of the page, the other has a single image.  This is great so you can see the whole map at once.  It also is VERY well designed to the point we might frame ours as a nice souvenir.  The guide is also very good but it’s not laid out in the clearest way (at least for me).  It’s very detailed in terms of how long it took them to get places though.  They traveled by F-roads a lot so if you’re not going to have a 4×4 bear in mind almost half the guide will cover things you can’t do.  His galleries are WONDERFUL and can be viewed for free so make sure to click the link so see them!
• My favorite guide: Top 10 Iceland (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDES): used for ~$8 with amazon prime.  Yes yes, I know, it says 10 best and it’s quite small…  But it’s got the 10 best waterfalls, 10 best highlights, 10 best in each national park, 10 best in each section of Iceland, 10 best places to eat, etc etc etc.  It’s also LOADED with great images.  But the #1 reason I bought this guide after seeing one is they’ve got a great fold out (small) map on the inside cover that’s Iceland with a grid and EVERYTHING they mention in the book has it’s coordinates on that grid on it!  So you can actually find all these places with names you can’t pronounce!!!   The back cover then has a closer view of the golden circle area and then inside that is a close up section for Reykjavik.  Combine that with a pull out separate map (same map but you can use it w/o the book) and it’s a winner.  JUST BUY IT ALREADY!!!
• Lonely Planet Iceland (Travel Guide): used for ~$14 with amazon prime.  If you want all the boring old details get this book.  It’s and the frommer’s below are practically identical.  Lonely planet is a black and blue text version and ties in with maps and has slightly better photos (but not a lot of images).
• Frommer’s EasyGuide to Iceland: used for ~$8.50 with amazon prime.  Basically the black and red text version of lonely planet.  I guess it’s a better deal for less money but I wasn’t thrilled with either.
• Iceland (Insight Guides): used for ~$11 on amazon prime.  This has a lot of nice (but older/dated) images in it to help you see where you might want to go and also to tell the history of Iceland.  For the history purposes it’s a great guide but LP and frommer’s both have more info in them.
• Iceland (National Geographic Adventure Map): new for $7 on amazon prime.  This is a very nice water/tear proof Iceland map.  I love it for the same reason I hate it…  It splits Iceland in half east and west and has one on each side.  It’s GREAT for folding up so you see where you’re going to be for the day with easy access to a smaller section.  It’s TERRIBLE for sprawling out on the floor or table with to plan a trip!!!  It’s very clear though and has lots of great info.  The split lines up with Vik with enough overlap that it goes west to skogarfoss for the eastern half.
• Iceland Road Map: New for $12.95 on amazon prime.  This is a massive scale paper map with LOTS of info/details.  But because of it’s size and the fact it’s made out of paper ours ripped the first night just folding it with a bit of a crease in it…  It’s so larger it’s a bit unmanageable to be completely honest.  This is great for sitting around planning where you want to go but I wouldn’t even bring it with you to Iceland.  The Nat Geo map has most of the same info (this has fuel stations Nat Geo is missing).
• Nature Photo Guides Forever Light: $20 e-book.  This is a great e-book with tons of great info on going to Iceland as well as very detailed location reports.  This is how I found Brúarfoss!  And honestly it’s worth $20 just for that info alone.  The images are great and they have all the EXIF info as to how to take them yourself which could be handy as well as a section on photography tips as well.  I bought it for the location resources and was glad I did but the general info on traveling in Iceland was well worth the read.
• Icelandic/English Dictionary?  This is one guide/book I wish I’d bought!  Some of the guides have some useful words/translations in them but I wish I’d had an actual dictionary.  Icelandic people DO speak english, but it’s like going to France or Germany and just expecting everyone to know what you mean if you start in English with them…  It’s pretty rude!  We didn’t realize this to be completely honest.  Call me an ignorant American, but from what everyone had said online and in person, “Everyone speaks English!”…  Well, yes, mostly, but it’s their second language and some tricky questions will NOT be understood w/o some help/work.

Basically, buy the International Photographer’s map.  Buy the Top 10 guide.  Buy one of the guides after that (pick one from Lonely Planet, Frommer’s and Insight Guides).  For another $7 I’d get the nat geo map to use in the camper/car/whatever while driving.  Then Forever light is a toss up because it’s the most expensive guide on the list but it’s got great location guides in it…  I would 100% buy it again but I understand if that falls off the bottom of your list…

Camera kit thoughts and what I brought:

RS988

• I brought my a7rii, a6300, 10-18mm, 16-35mm, 24-240mm, 70-300mm, 28mm, 50mm and 15mm with a slew of filters and my travel tripod in my mindshift backlight 26l.
• I wish I’d brought my RX100 as a P&S to be in my pocket at all times.  I ended up taking a lot of photos with my cell phone that I knew wouldn’t be printed but in hindsight I wish they were higher quality than my phone produces.  The X70 would have been a good option here but I think the zoom on the RX100 would be a better fit.  The a6300 with the 16-50 would have also been wonderful and kept me to one type of battery.
• I also wish I either had the a6300 or a P&S setup for quick shots while driving.  See the above point but the key here is easy access to a small camera while driving.
• I wish I’d bought my wife an ollo clip setup for her iPhone so she’d have wide and tele options.
• Picking one between the 24-240 and 70-300 the 24-240 was much more important as the middle range between 35-70 is tough at some locations.  The 70-300 was great on the a6300 for the puffin and iceberg shots but the 24-240 would have gotten the job done.
• The 15mm voigtlander was hardly used.
• The 28mm and 50mm weren’t used at all…
• I really wish I’d brought a shoulder bag (specifically the peak every day messenger) instead of a backpack.  With all the in and out of the van and a lot of short walks to close locations setting the backpack down to get cameras out becomes tedious.  The ratio of short hikes to long hikes is such that I’d rather deal with a shoulder bag on the few long hikes (and take a few specific lenses) vs having to constantly be setting a backpack down to get cameras out.  The ground was also either dusty or muddy so the backpack is filthy where a shoulder bag would have stayed on my shoulder.  It would be nice if this bag had a rain cover though (the peak EDM does not) so thinktank photo’s city walker line might be the best bet (they’re very similar in size to the EDM options and come with a rain cover, it’s a bonus that they’re very light and have excellent padded straps).
• I used the “smooth reflection” app for the first few days for longer shutter speeds.  You get these weird duplicate ghosts from the way it merges several shots into one with people moving in a frame.  For this reason I switched to two 3 stop filters for the second half of the trip.  “next time” I’d bring a 6 stop 4×4″ filter.
• I really wish I had a laptop for the plane ride home to either start processing/culling images and or writing this post!
• I used 2 memory cards (one in each camera, neither were full) and 5 batters (killed 3 in the a7rii and then the two partially used in each camera).
• 2045 total images in the LR catalog. 979 from the a7rii (lots of 5 image brackets), 388 from the a6300, 377 from Nikki’s iPhone and 296 from my LG G5.
• Lens wise I took 864 images with the 16-35mm, 368 with the 70-300, 81 with the 24-240 and 34 with the 16mm.
• I brought my macro tubes and never used them.
• I DID NOT BRING my 150-600 and don’t regret it for a second.  The 70-300 on the a6300 was a perfect option and so much smaller/more manageable for travel and use.
• I DID NOT BRING my drone and I’m glad it stayed home.  It’s not fun to fly with (it takes an entire max legal carry on bag).  It’s time consuming to setup and break down for each flight.  It uses batteries quickly (so I’d need to buy the car adapter).  It’s windy in Iceland which doesn’t play well with drones (we ran into some guys who crashed theirs).  Waterfalls make this worse and add spray to the mix.  And finally we saw some people flying theirs and they draw even more attention there AND a lot of “look at that guy” type stares.  I don’t like that attention so for me it’s worth missing those shots.