Iceland: the low-down and dirty

[shewhomust]

Our holiday in Iceland was booked through Discover the World; it was effectively their Fly, Drive & Hike option, but modified and slightly extended (we flew from Manchester, flights are less frequent than flights from London, and we chose to extend our holiday rather than shorten it). We spent 17 nights in Iceland, staying in hotels with bed and breakfast prepaid, and the cost of flights, car hire and accommodation for the two of us was slightly over £4000. We don't habitually prebook to this extent, so the size of that sum rather took our breath away, but it compared well enough to what other firms were offering, and we were both very happy with our holiday (to the extent that durham_rambler is convinced that going to Iceland was his idea, and I think it was mine!). Would we use Discover the World again? Probably not, now we know how easy it is to deal with Icelandic hotels in English - another time we would probably travel independently.

There follows, for my own benefit and that of anyone else who might be interested (not to mention setting out some of the feedback I might want to give to Discover the World), a list of hotels, with our impressions:

Northern Lights Inn, Grindavik (near Keflavik airport)

This was the shortest of stops: we were collected from the airport in the small hours of the morning, driven through the lava field, decanted to bed, and taken back to the airport the following morning to collect our hired car. Too short a stay to say more than that the hotel seemed perfectly comfortable, and the staff were helpful and friendly. I have a good impression, though not an informed opinion.

Hotel Ork, Hveragerði

A large, rather anonymous hotel - it felt as if it catered mainly for business travellers, yet there were plenty of tourists there, including some school groups. Our room was comfortable, but the breakfast didn't give us any desire to try the restaurant! On the plus side, an outdoor pool, which we had to ourselves for much of our pre-breakfast swim.

Hotel Skogar

The opposite to the previous hotel in almost every respect - small and intimate. We may have been unlucky here: there was a certain flurry at the computer when we booked in, and I wonder whether the 'superior' room we had reserved was double booked. The room we were given was so small, it's hard to imagine another 'inferior' standard. Why would you build a new hotel with such meanly proportioned rooms, in the substantially empty country? I'm also irritated, rather than charmed, by the sort of decor that twines a wreath of artificial flowers round the mirror, but doesn't have room for a table large enough to write at. There was another flurry when we tried to check out - there was no-one on the premises capable of charging us for our dinner in the hotel's restaurant, and would we wait, please, while they were summoned? We were very glad to have an overnight stay in Skogar, which allowed us to take our time visiting the museum, and to walk up to the waterfall in the quiet of the evening, but didn't feel that the hotel delivered as well as it promised.

Fosshotel Skaftafell

The brochure was rather apologetic about this hotel, emphasising its stunning location but describing it as "simply furnished". But we found it comfortable, efficient and friendly, and the restaurant was very good. We were given a family room - we didn't have a view of the glacier, but we did have plenty of space, chairs in which to sit comfortably and read, and more chairs in which to sit at a table and write, and after the previous night we were grateful for it.

Hotel Staðarborg, Breiðdalur

A converted school (click the link for a picture), which worked surprisingly well, and clearly focused on riding holidays. We stayed one night, and didn't eat in the restaurant, so I have little to say about the place, other than that I warmed to it.

Guesthouse Álfheimar, Borgarfjördur Eystri

This, we agreed, might well be a pleasant place to stay once they have finished building it. As it was...
Despite checking the plan at the entry to the village, we drove round twice before deciding that the place right at the end of the road by the campsite must, indeed, be the guesthouse we were looking for: two long single storey buildings, one like a row of conjoined wooden chalets and one painted red, surrounded by broken stone and parked cars - I would have guessed this to be part of the camp site (and there may be some grounds for this - there seemed to be more people in the dining room than could actually have been staying on the premises). Once we went in, the welcome was friendly enough, and we were shown to a room with apologies that it wasn't really finished, hence the cloth fixed to a bar across the window as a temporary curtain. Hence, too, though this wasn't mentioned, the wardrobe carcase with no interior fittings, and the absence of anywhere to hang a towel in the bathroom. Once we managed to acquire an extension lead with which to plug in the bedside light, and a table which fitted perfectly between the two upright chairs, we felt perfectly at home (given that our own home arrangements, too, can be on the rough and ready side).
Our guide implied that the Guesthouse didn't serve an evening meal; since we couldn't find the restaurant which they described as '400m away', we were glad to be invited to dine - but the food was so heavily salted that we didn't return the following night. Instead, we ate excellent fish soup and rhubarb tart at the café (about half a mile away).
Spending two nights at this location gave us a magnificent day's walking in between. But it was very isolated, and if the weather had been bad, I'd probably feel less sanguine about it.

Sel Hotel Mývatn

was right opposite Lake Mývatn. Our room had a big picture window, which we enjoyed even though it didn't look onto the lake - instead we had a view of the mountains, and the farm next door. We couldn't understand, though, how a room with such a big window could be so overheated.
The restaurant was acceptable, but not inspiring - we had a much more enjoyable lunch at Vogafjós, a dairy farm where half the cowshed has been converted into a café, with a glass panel allowing you to see where the milk (and ulimately the cream, the skyr, the cheese) comes from. They also have a guesthouse - if I returned to Mývatn, I might investigate that...

Hotel Tindastoll, Skagafjörður

claims to be the oldest hotel in Iceland - a hotel since 1884, though the building is older. It has clearly been restored by an enthusiast, with enormous charm. Fitting a bathroom into a corner of our room made it smaller than was ideal, but the remaining space had been used intelligently, the furniture was old and interesting, with plenty of honey coloured wood and curious old light switches.
Service was friendly, durham_rambler enjoyed the hot tub, the restaurant was good and had an interesting wine list (the only time we encountered this in Iceland!)

Gauksmyri Lodge, Hvammstangi

At the heart of this new hotel is a horse farm; they offer the opportunity to visit the farm, there are riding tours and lessons, the decor is horse-oriented. We are not particularly interested in this, so we made the most of our overnight stay (there was barbecued foal on the dinner menu), but were happy to move on in the morning.

Hotel Framnes, Grundarfjörður

I'd have been happy to stay longer here, and not just because I loved Snaefellsnes. Grundarfjörður is not as picturesque as nearby Stykkisholmur, for example; our brochure describes it as a 'fishing village', but doesn't point out that this means somewhere where fish are landed and processed in modern buildings. On the other hand, it feels like a real place where people live and work, and the scenery is dazzling - the mountains on one side and the sea on the other. The hotel is comfortable, the restaurant good, the staff friendly and the proprietors extremely helpful, and enthusiastic about the area. We weren't allowed to leave until our map had been marked up with all the places we must visit on our way to our next destinayion.

Hotel Hellnar

was a real disappointment after this, especially as our contact at Discover the World had spoken highly of it. We discovered that we had been given a twin bedded room with a view of the mountain, instead of a double bed and view of the sea (though in fact, durham_rambler was particularly pleased with the mountain view - which had vanished the following morning, and only gradually re-emerged from the mist). The second time we queried this, we were told that the difference in price would be refunded to us (and this has already been done, without further action from us, and the cheque passed on by Discover the World, so good marks for that). There was no hot water for the duration of our overnight stay, and we were given various explanations of why this was, and how soon the water would be hot again. I found the lady who explained this to us - and who I think was the proprietor - rather brusque in manner, though this may be a cultural difference. These are all trivial complaints about a hotel which came highly recommended and seems genuinely committed to being green - but these are the things which coloured how I felt about the hotel. Oh, and the little self-improvement messages we found on our (twin) pillows: "I value every MOMENT of my life", "I think with my HEART as well as my HEAD".

Hotel Cabin, Reykjavik

Finally, back to a big city hotel. It wasn't exciting, but it was fine, gave us what we needed - the only thing we thought odd was that it charged (and not a notional sum, either) for wifi. It was an easy walk along the bay to the shops and restaurants of the city.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

We were quite content in the hostels we stayed in through much of the country -- I know feelings about hostels vary, but while basic, they were pretty universally clean and well kept -- and let us cook for ourselves more, which helped keep costs down. Plus, they're good places to get to talk to and meet other travelers.

My favorite hostel was the one beneath the a turf roof in the south, but that one probably really is too bare bones for many (our first night we literally slept on bare mattresses beneath said sloping roof; in a room just off the common room the second night)--the others were all more developed. I recall the ones in Akureyri and Stykkishólmur both being pretty nice, and of course the (much larger) one in Reykjavík as well.

Our very favorite places were various random guesthouses, though, come to think of it, mostly ones recommended by Lonely Planet. Price on those goes way down if you're willing to bring a sleeping bag, but I think is cheaper than most hotels either way.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I hadn't considered hostels - we like our comforts (not luxury, so much, but private space). Would that be a problem? But "random guesthouses" sounds good...

Shortly before we set off, we were given an old Lonely Planet guide, which we found generally helpful and reliable. It was passed on to us by helenraven, and I got a buzz out of being able to pass it on, in turn, to steepholm. I'd certainly get hold of a new edition if I were planning another trip.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Varies by hostel, but most of them seem to have private rooms ... we mostly wound up in our own rooms, except at the large hostel in Reykjavik and the turf-roof hostel--and Reykjavik has private rooms, too; we were just cost-cutting there ...