When you’re planning a trip to Iceland it’s common to overlook how important the arrival day is. Nailing day 1 and making everything as easy as possible from the minute you step off the plane until you go to bed the first night sets the stage for your trip. My goal is to make that arrival day as easy as possible – that’s what we’re talking about in this video!
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26 Comments
Great! Very helpful. Had a great time when we visited in 2018
Super helpful! Thank you!
I discovered your channel today and subscribe. 🤩Plenty useful information. I've plan visit Reykjavik in May 2024 – so I can't wait! 😎Greetings from Copenhagen. ❤
I keep trying to get the free arrival guide but it never comes over….I have checked spam….
This would have been super useful when we visited – obviously we need to come back to try out these tips 😂
Greetings Jeannie. Your videos are so fun. I have a question about the Costco store there. You mentioned in a prior video that liquor sales are only for businesses. In the US there are two membership levels, the Gold Star and the Executive. For US members who have the Executive level, could they purchase liquor from Costco? Yep, us from North America are so lucky on our arrival times. Have fun.
We did blue lagoon after we landed, loved it and we could check our suitcases (since we hadn’t checked into our hotel yet). The only downside was we were tired from the red eye (coming from Toronto) then sitting in the warm cozy hot spring. I got sooo sleepy 😂
The airport at Keflavik is fairly laid out. The airport did throw me three curves. First, I wanted to drink coffee at the airport after arriving. I was refused service as they will only serve people who are going to fly, not people who have just arrived. Really odd and rude. Second, the passport control was deserted and I had to wave someone down. Lastly, the Flybus taking me to the airport simply drove past the stop and I had to order a $120 taxi to get back to the airport.
Iceland was great to visit, but they will not help you so be prepared to be frustrated.
I literally “LOLed” when you mentioned falling asleep standing up @ 4PM. Has happened to me on trips to Iceland and European destination multiple times! 🙂 Great advice as always!
We landed and had our Blue Car Rental before the sun came up, lol. Pretty full day before we made it to Reykjavik in the evening, including The Blue Lagoon and other sights close to the airport.
Very helpful information. We will be in Iceland next month for 1 day and have booked 2 excursions. I am sure we will be visiting again for a longer stay.
A possible alternative to the Blue Lagoon for those heading into the City is the Sky Lagoon, on the tip of the Kopavogur peninsula. It's an artificial creation, and smaller than the Blue, but the experience is very enjoyable, with some optional experiences that are invigorating, plus a fantastic ocean view. We also spent our first evening in Reykjavik at a concert in the beautiful Harpa Concert Hall, before heading out on the road the next day to Snaesfellsness. Can also recommend the camper van experience.
I purchased your course on Teachable. Why does it say, "This school is offline"?
Superb advice Jeannie for both visitors from the west and east, landing times are such a big determining factor in what you can do on day one. Planning day one is essential according to where you are coming from, we arrived from Europe and put off hiring a vehicle until the following day (simply wasn’t worth paying for a day where you can’t use it) better to get a taxi to your first nights accommodation, we chose Keflavik for that £15 from the airport, Reykjavik is nearer £100. So for visitors from Europe I would strongly recommend staying in Keflavik for your first night, then pick your rental up from the airport the following morning. The opposite may apply to visitors from North America (get your rental straight away and head for Reykjavik) 😉👍
If you get an air B&B make sure that you get the key-code BEFORE you arrive in Iceland. Unfortunately, we did not get the code and we couldn't contact our air B&B host due to bad cell service. We ended up having to bail on the air B&B and had to search Reykjavik for a hotel on zero sleep. After our accommodations were sorted, we had an amazing time and will go back for sure!!
My biggest mistake when I arrived in Iceland was going through customs. They asked if I had anything to declare, and I said, "War!!". 😜🤣
I would like to know where to eat breakfast affordably at or near Keflavik airport when arriving in the morning?
Great video by the way, we are going on Saturday and super excited for our first trip to Iceland! Coming from Canada. Totally plan to take it easy that first day, hitting the Blue Lagoon in the morning and then Reykjavík in the afternoon just walking around. Fully expecting that exhausting jet lag to hit at some point so probably going to bed early!
We started our trip to Iceland with a visit to Sky Lagoon in Reykjavik. We arrived at around 9:30 AM in Keflavik, picked up our car, and drove to Sky Lagoon. We ate brunch at the cafe inside Sky Lagoon introducing ourselves to some Icelandic food. We then enjoyed the lagoon doing the seven steps ritual and a couple or more glasses of Gull beer and white wine. Our jet lag was gone and we were ready for the next day's adventure.
A few years I flew into Iceland for a 5 days. I stayed at Hotel Berg in Keflavik(recommend highly) They picked me up at airport and stored my luggage as I got there at 0900. I got their rental car and drove to Blue Lagoon and vegged out for day until my room was ready in the afternoon. My cat naps at Lagoon gave me energy for the rest . Had a great arrival day!
Great tips as always. Your channel helped me a lot in my 2 previous trips to Iceland. Already planning a group travel for next year. If I may suggest one topic for a possible future video: Restrooms (public WC/Toilets or in service stations) that tourists can use across the intire country. We can drive for hours without finding a chance to relieve ourselves. In Iceland it's not possible to do it in the wild ;-). This is specially important when travelling with a group. I was unable to find a map of those facilities available across the country.
Yup – arriving in UK at 6 am following 24 hours + travel from New Zealand – totally booked the hotel room the night before. … but let's not talk about having to find an emergency dentist on day one, on a Sunday… after breaking a tooth eating breakfast at hotel… How much was that taxi Windsor-Reading return again? Lolz. Yay for travel insurance!
I've always wondered whether there was an advantage to using Gray Line vs. FlyBus for transpo to Reykjavik. We've done both but they seem to be interchangeable. Any thoughts?
Off to Iceland tomorrow, can't wait and almost can't believe we're doing it again a year later! Yeah the arrival time and checking in was an issue last year so I think we'll do Sky Lagoon and found a place that will let us get in quicker so I can crash before dinner. (last year we somehow found the energy to hike a mountain)
Your videos help me plan the most amazing trip last year! We absolutely fell in love with Iceland. We loved just wandering around Reykjavik, sitting in quaint little coffee shops, the harbour! Amazing, amazing city and country. The people are so friendly and helpful! I had emailed our hotel to see if we could store out luggage until check-in time and they said sure! When we got to the hotel at around 8:00am to drop off our bags, they told us that our room was already empty and cleaned so we could check in then! It was fantastic! Because of you I knew about the Fly bus so had pre-booked that, I knew about Kronan and Bonus, tours etc. Do thank you for your great and informative videos!!
Great advice, as always. Thanks for the video! When we came to Iceland in June 2022, we arrived at Keflavik airport at 9:30 am and then eventually made it to Reykjavik at around 12:30 pm. We were able to leave our luggage at our accommodations, and then walked around the city for a few hours. I agree about the later afternoon "wall" that you mentioned. We made it until 6:00 pm and then slept for about 10 hours! We were glad we didn't have any tours planned for that first day! The 24-hour daylight that time of year was something I didn't get used to during our 8 days in the country. Looking forward to the next video!
Hi Jeanie from Iceland already. Your videos and your guide has help me A LOT!! Thanks for your pieces of advice. For example today we have gone to a public swimming pool. Thanks!!!