On the last day before flying, we explored the Reykjanes peninsular and that was cool – including a hike to see the latest lava flows. Hard but rewarding (took a couple of hours).

Hotels – these were all great except one.  They were all different, nothing fancy but all worked out well and we loved the breakfasts!  Loved the Fosshotels – especially the Nupar one where we saw the northern lights!

Trips – the hike to the hot springs was a definite highlight. Absolutely wonderful!  All of us rated it our top activity.  Great lunch too.  All the other trips were also excellent:  lava cave, boat ride, Secret Lagoon, Ice cave tour, Glacier lagoon boat trip, Lava show – all very worth doing and all ages enjoyed them and learned from them.  We also enjoyed the Blue Lagoon which we booked separately and loved Flyover Iceland.  We did a glacier hike too (with Troll) but didn’t love this – the ice cave tour was better.  Felt like we were wandering aimlessly around on a glacier finger on the hike although the boys enjoyed the pick axes!

Sights – so many wonderful sights to see. The landscape was out of this world.  We’re still processing it all and showing photos to anyone who shows a slight interest.

Food – we were prepared for it to be expensive so that wasn’t a surprise.  Basic repetitive options (burgers, nuggets, toasties) are available all over the place as well as the ubiquitous hotdogs and fish and chips but there are lots of good options that are more interesting too, where you can cater for discerning adults and kids.  

Information – great info and helpful.  I’d done a lot of research as well so having the info a bit earlier would have been better as I’d already covered much of the ground by the time I got it. Helpful as an extra though.

All in all – thank you for helping us to have an amazing holiday different from anything we’ve done before.  We plan to return to explore some more.

Thanks again.

Snorkelling at the Silfra Fissure was a unique experience, and for us well worth it, but it is expensive to do and not too sure if all families would enjoy it. We enjoyed it as we love water activities and are used to scuba diving (in warmer water), so to experience snorkelling in glacial waters with 100% clarity was superb.

Landmannalaugar Area – One of the real highlights of our trip; this area is simply stunning and the journey there was otherworldly.

Golden Circle to Skaftafell – Lots of great waterfalls to see, but also you need to squeeze through the crowds of tourists.

Katla Ice Cave Tour was one of our top three highlights of the trip. Fantastic company, a great tour guide (Thor) who was really chatty and engaged with our teenage boys. They loved the superjeep ride into the area, and seeing where various films such as Star Wars were filmed, which were pointed out to us. The Ice Cave itself was superb; 100% natural, unlike some others which appeared as though they had been carved out for tourism. Small tour group size which was perfect.

The real highlight of the whole trip was trekking to the site of the recent volcanic eruption (thank you for organising this!!!). It was an absolute dream come true to see an eruption.

Whale-watching trip was good.

Suffice to say that we loved the holiday and really appreciated all your work in drawing together an itinerary that worked so smoothly and gave us such a wonderful experience of Iceland and fun times together as a family. We are already thinking where next!!

New Year’s Eve is a spectacular night. Our hotel room was on the 5th floor so we had great views of the city and the fireworks! We didn’t really appreciate how much the city shuts down on that day from about 4 pm most things were closed apart from a few restaurants. Luckily we had pre-booked one!

Hopefully, that is all helpful. Thank you for your help pre-departure we had a great time.

The first hotel in Reykjavik was excellent, although the rooms a bit small. It was really fun with a cinema you can take over to watch movies and very good location, even with a huge ship dry docked outside reception! The Laundromat Cafe the best family place to eat.

Flyover Iceland was a great activity. 

Whaling boat trip excellent, and the boat we were on was quite big so had a cafe that was ideal for chilly kids! We saw about 4 humpback whales which was very special. 

Perlan Museum was excellent with an amazing revolving restaurant on top with views across the city.

The hotel on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula was perfect, with the most spectacular setting and super hospitable (as were all the Icelanders, all very cheery!) Excellent exploring around the immediate vicinity of the hotel and all the booked trips equally amazing. Lava caves very cool. We loved this peninsula as not at all touristy and felt much more genuine. So many of the sites with only a couple of tourists here and there. It was of course much busier in the Golden Circle. 

Very cool slightly more off-road detour between Buoir and the centre of the Golden Circle, which takes in Lake Uxavatn, a hot spring, and a waterfall along the Uxahryggjavegur road. We had no snow, but would want a 4×4 if snowy!

The Laugartvatn bakery was fun mainly because of the girl hosting it, but the kids enjoyed seeing how the bread was baked and eating it afterwards. Fun looking outdoor bathing area which we didn’t use.

The usual Golden Circle attractions all impressed but much busier however all free. 

Andréss was an excellent tour guide, although not a man of many words he really did take us off piste on a 45 min hike to a very secret unknown hot stream that he dammed for us so we could all bath in a 38-degree stream and rub clay into our skin and bake eggs in the water for a picnic…it was amazing!!

Travel was generally very easy, the food mostly decent and no end of things to keep kids engaged and adults busy. 

Thank you to everyone involved for helping organise pretty much the perfect holiday!

We also enjoyed the Blue Lagoon. We went at 9.00 am as it opened, so it was very quiet and we watched the sunrise while enjoying a glass of prosecco in the wonderful warm waters. The Perlan Museum was a real find with a planetarium show on stars etc and really good hands-on exhibits for kids, plus a great café in the glass dome roof, with views right across the city.

We were pleased to self-drive so that we could dictate our own pace rather than group tours and as soon as you left the main attractions, there was hardly a car on the road. The Foss hotels were excellent, a large family room with a tv/ sofa area plus the extra child bed and a very good breakfast buffet…. it was there that we saw the Northern Lights.

The drive to the Foss Glacier Lagoon was long and tiring after a day hiking a glacier. We split the driving so it wasn’t too bad and stopped to see the amazing black beaches on route.  As the hotel is so remote, everyone eats in the restaurant, so it would have been useful to have made a reservation in advance for our first night. We ate in the bar but the menu was quite limited. You also need to book the spa facilities; huge hot tubs on the patio, sauna, etc. Wonderful after a busy day.

The ice cave tour was fantastic as was Diamond Beach with huge lumps of ice washing up on the black sand.

We split the long drive back to Reykjavik with a stop in Vik (great town), Skogafoss, and then a trip to a hydroelectric power station which did a great audio tour. Husband is an engineer and son has been studying energy in physics so popular all round!

Overall we had an amazing family adventure, probably our best short-haul trip ever. We came home totally invigorated after a difficult 18 months due to the pandemic. We  would definitely like to go back in the summer months to do more walking/water sports etc,

Thank you for putting together a well-thought-out and balanced tour.