Travel

Flight

Iceland Air

Iceland Air has a great deal where you can "stop over" in Iceland on your way to somewhere else in Europe for up to 7 days for free....each way! We did this on our way home from Amsterdam once. Would highly recommend looking into this if you have flexibility to fly somewhere else before or after the wedding!

Flight

Hopper App for Flights

We know there are a million billion ways to book travel but we really love using the Hopper app to track when flights are the cheapest. Right now (February) roundtrip flights on United are about $377 which seems pretty fair. We love Hopper because it can alert when fares are low and we've gotten some real steals with this app!

House Or Rental

Our AirBNB

This is the Airbnb that we'll be staying at and hosting at! We have a sauna and a hot tub, so be sure to pack a swim suit!

House Or Rental

Icelandic AirBNB

We've compiled a list of Airbnb's that are 15-20 minutes or less away from the "reception" airbnb. There are a lot of great Airbnb's that are a little further in each direction, if you're up for drives explore away!

Hotel

Hotel Grimsborgir - 5 Star Luxury Hotel

This hotel is the closest to the airbnb where we will be gathering and hanging out, if you're more of a hotel person than an airbnb person.

Travel Note

Airport to Reykjavik

If you are not renting a car at the airport, you can take this shuttle from Keflavik to Reykjavik to meet up with your crew! It should be noted that Uber is not a thing in Iceland and that cabs are pricey and hard to come by, so our recommendation is to rent your own car or rent a car with someone else whose coming and rideshare!

Travel Note

Monies!

If you have a credit card that doesn't charge you a foreign transaction fee (we have a United card and it doesn't charge us a foreign transaction fee) we would say you don't need much cash. Almost every place you'll visit will take a card, but maybe exchange about $100 USD just in case there's a store that only takes cash, etc. We've read online that you'll get a better exchange rate before you reach Iceland.

Travel Note

Buying Gas! Beware!

We don't know if this has changed but while we were in Iceland we found that if you purchase gas with a debt card (from what I remember you *must* use a card with a PIN number, so cc won't work in a lot of circumstances and gas stations are few and far between so you don't want to get stuck!) it'll put a $200 hold on your card. You can get around this buy purchasing prepaid gas cards, which you can purchase with a credit card if you're all about those points like we are!

Travel Note

Food!

Iceland has a really interesting and diverse food scene that seems to be growing and growing. Think shark, puffin (sad face), distinct yogurt, breads, sea food, lamb, etc. I know a lot of us are vegetarian / vegan and they def have options there for us too! There aren't many fast food restaurants, take a peek at what's offered in Iceland and if it isn't up your alley plan on grocery shopping and eating most meals at your airbnb! We loved Bonus, which seems like a larger Aldi. Food and drinks (I believe the beers we had were about $15 a pint) are rather pricey and we aren't prioritizing nightlife / restuarant trips when there's so much to see and do that is outside! Interestingly, Iceland puts a tax on alcohol content so the stiffer the drink, the pricier the bill.

Travel Note

Weather!

Chicago folks, you should be good to go on having the right clothes to wear. Iceland has a lot of micro climates going on. The last time we went we experienced sun, rain, SNOW, and two double rainbows ALL IN ONE DAY! I would say pack layers! Bring something warm for our ceremony, it will be outside (weather permitting) but we plan on having a relatively short ceremony so you can leave the snow suite at home. The internet says the average temp in Iceland in October is 41 F, so not too bad, but it could always be colder! Bring shoes that will allow you to adventure. We've mostly traveled with snow boots and sneakers, so again if you're in Chicago- you should be good to go. Our friends traveling from out of state please reach out and we can lend our advice on what to pack. We've gone in January and September and have found the temperatures to be tolerable and less cold than Chicago, believe it or not!

Travel Note

Site Seeing

Azuree here, I will say that on my first trip to Iceland I was expecting long hikes to get to scenic stuff and boy was I wrong. There is a lot of cool stuff to see that you literally just pull off the road to take in. Tons of very accessible waterfalls, etc from the car. Of course there is hiking, you have to go out a ways to get to the glaciers, etc, but so so so much is very do- able! Honestly just driving around the Golden Circle or on highway 1 down to Vik is a serious glorious thing to see and almost all of it has parking and you just have to walk a teenie bit if you want to be in the heart of it. I was honestly so surprised how much was just off the parking lots / parking areas! A bit of encouragement to those who don't think of themselves as outdoorsy like me!