Iceland Travel Reviews

The GPS did not work, while we received a credit for it, during the trip it created challenges. As an example, not knowing the distances between attractions meant that we missed a few because of time limitations. The breakfasts were marginal at best, cold eggs the norm. The hotels were as expected, some were much better than others. Prepare to know that when you get to the spot you are staying the night, that a few bus loads may slow down the food prep for the evening and that the nearest restaurant outside of the hotel may be quite a distance. Iceland is a beautiful country and not to be missed. There are compromises you should be prepared to make.

All services were provided exactly as was represented, on time and as prices. The tablet, though helpful needs improvement. We ended up using our phones more than anything else for navigation purposes. Accommodations were simple but clean and in good repair. The car worked great. The overall experience was awesome. Would use Iceland Travel again.

The hotels were all very nice and the food was excellent. I believe that the tour gave us a great feel for the country. The weather was perfect for Iceland in November. To top it off, we were able to view the Northern Lights on our last night. Our guide was very personable, knowledgeable and it was apparent that he had a great love for Iceland that he wanted all of us to feel the same. Excellent trip and I will recommend to anyone who wants to experience Iceland.

There needs to be better coordination between the rental car GPS and the tour company. Quite a few of the suggested stops did not show up in the GPS. The tablet provided did not connect to google maps. I was able to work around this with a paper map.

Travel agent customized road trip to your desires. You need to be open with them on exactly what you want (budget, mid-level or high end hotels) they can deliver on most request if available in the area. Most are little hotels in rural areas which are relatively small and personnel. Easy to contact and ask questions all by email. Planning of the trip was great in terms of pacing your activities and driving distances/time.

Loved the roadtrip option with Iceland Travel. They booked our car and hotels and we had the freedom to do what we like with our days. Having the logistics taken care of was a real stress-reducer. Most of the hotels were great, with one exception. And we got a little spoiled with our first two night in a hotel with a hot tub and wished all the others had too. My feedback there would be to allow that as an option. Hot pots are such an iconic part of Iceland and I would have loved to opt into a hot pot every night. All in all, I would use this travel company again.

Ring Road Confusion - The service prior to arriving in Iceland was good and the information was clear. Accommodation and food were good. It would have been helpful to receive more detail on the route prior to arriving so you could get a better idea of what you would be doing and "get your head around " the icelandic names.
The tablet you receive is poorly put together and does not provide directions to either attractions or to hotels. Neither of our tablets would charge 50% of the time and the tour on the tablet just quit half way through the second last day. The tablet was not properly connected to the internet when we received it, and since it its on wifi, it is impossible to use it properly while driving. We had to have a hotel clerk call Iceland travel to provide us with the password, and then Iceland travel would not give it to us, only to the clerk (for security reasons???) The GPS provided by the partner car provider (Hertz) was terribly out of date and at times it appeared we were traveling cross-country. The keyboard was in English, but the GPS was programmed to Icelandic alphabet so often it would not recognize what we were putting in, and it quit on us twice.

Simple Amazing

They were very helpful in booking and answering any questions we had. They were open to making small changes and kept in good contact with us over all the details and provided the gps and a tablet to help our travels and even had suggested stops and a full map of our trip it was an excellent perk to the package and it was a wonderful trip around ring road having the accommodations pre booked and waiting for us along with the rental car. My only issue was with the rental car company. They gave us a car not really properly equipped which meant we got locked out when the beeper on the key stopped working, the windshield wipers needed to be replaced and were not efficient in the rain. I would recommend the travel company. They provided all the information and were available to us anytime we had questions during our stay.

Very easy to travel as everything is ready in advance. Everything was booked in advance. Price are reasonable. Good in customer services. Prompt in reply in my messages. Thank you

We had THE MOST AMAZING TRIP IN ICELAND! I think that overall Iceland Travel did a great job. The rental car was booked and the paperwork was correct and ready when we arrived. However the rental car return process was a bit of a nightmare. This is not the fault of Iceland Travel, but when partnering with Hertz, they need to work out a better system for the return, or at least a better way to explain the process to travelers. The hotels were all amazing. The check in and check out processes were fantastic. We ended up with a flat tire, and when we called the emergency number, we were able to get guidance on where we were to take it in the next city once we changed the tire. The tablet provided was helpful, but we were a bit disappointed with the lack of points of interests and the descriptions along the way. Maybe our expectations weren't correct, but we thought there would be a route planned (which there was), and then a ton of highlights and stops along the way to choose from. The spots were limited, and several were more commercial tourist spots that you wouldn't really stop at unless you were booking a tour. We also expected more details on the app re: things to look at along the way from the car, maybe more of a history of the areas, notes on cultural and geography, etc. Thankfully we did a ton of research ahead of time, so we had some good info, and along the way we used Trip Advisor to look at highlights and things to do and see- Trip Advisor was way more helpful than the app. When we saw *self guided tour*, we still assumed there would at least be more info for us to read and follow along the route. Finally, the communication from the company was great right before the trip, but leading up to that I feel like they were a bit slow to respond. We had emailed several questions about 1-2 months out and hadn't heard back for days, maybe even close to a week- we finally got a hold of someone though DM on IG, and they were able to have the representative contact us. Overall, a fantastic experience. We will definitely be back to Iceland, and plan to bring our children this time. We would definitely consider Iceland Travel to help plan our trip again.

Fantastic trip! The itinerary was thoughtful. Hotels and other services were amazing. While planning, Hildur was beyond amazing-- so responsive and friendly. They'll definitely be my first call when we go back!

Our guide is informative to let us know more about iceland. Also, he is patient and careful in driving. We are lucky to have him as our tour guide. We enjoy the trip a lot.

We had a problem finding only one lodging. It was on a loop road that looped to 1. We did not know it was a loop and turned down the first entrance to the road and went further than the distance specified and could not find the lodge. The GPS took us down that road. We asked directions from locals who go on their cell phones and explained to us what we had done wrong. The GPS we were provided did not or we could not figure out how to enter the latitude and longitude, only the town and street address. We also had a problem with the GPS finding the town where one of our hotels was. It said the town was not found. We also had a map though which showed the town.

Some of the lodges were sort of off the beaten path. I did not mind that if that one had been easier to find. The GPS was a Garmin. Somewhat of a piece of crap.

Ulfar was a very hard working and conscientious guide and group leader. The weather was against us which cannot be helped. I was disappointed not to have got closer to the glaciers. The admin prior to the trip was very good, but not perfect

Good process all the way - from modifying the standard route to picking up the car and travelling and booking into hotels and returning the car.
The tablet was handy for reference and navigation but recommend to reference to other information sources - eg online, Lonely Planet etc
Good response and support when needed.

Without them I don’t think we would have ended up going
It was a great experience

We had a lovely 9 day trip around the Ring Road in Iceland. All the hotel bookings and car rentals were perfectly arranged and we did not face any problem whatsoever. The tablet containing the travel app was easy to use and highlighted all the major sights around Iceland. The only notable exception was the the Abandoned DC Plane on Sólheimasandur but we were able to locate that via google. We only wish that the tablet would also display the actual GPS coordinates of each sight so that it can be fed into the car GPS which is more convenient to use while driving. Will definitely rate this as one of our best holidays and hope to be back someday in the future.

My experience was truly great. The car provided, the tips, the app, the hotels, everything was great... Except maybe for a couple of locations that were not properly set on Google maps, and either delayed our trip, or made us almost lose our track

We had an excellent experience with Iceland Travel. The itinerary, hotels, the sight seeing spots all were perfect. We highly recommend it to anyone considering travelling to Iceland.

Very enjoyable trip. Hotels were great and the food was breakfasts and dinners were very good. Good itinerary and plenty of stops.
Museums (sod house and herring museum) were great stops. Would have liked a little more time at the waterfalls to get to them and explore a little but understand the time restrictions.

Horse ride optional tour was wonderful and a lot of fun.

Whale watching was a good optional tour but we needed to be told that no food was available so we could have planned to bring our own lunch.

Only real negative was I felt that the activity level should have been rated so that mobility challenged people could have judged their ability to see some to the sights before hand Walking to some of the sights was very difficult or even impossible for some off the guests

Everything you ever want from a travel company - the selection of tours available was great. They were responsive to questions I had I before the trip. All arrangements went smoothly. Pick up at my hotel was on time and the guides were amazing - knowledgeable and friendly. I would use this company again in a heart beat!

Iceland travel made my trip to Iceland so simple. They connected me with every part of the journey required to have a smooth trip! Communication before the trip was excellent, and they sent a really comprehensive itinerary with car rentals, hotel stays, tours, and other pertinent information all in one online easy to read link. Trust they have excellent customer service!

I wavered for quite some time between selecting 3 or 4 stars please see why below:

Firstly, the dreaded tablet and GPS.
I was surprised when we picked up the vehicle that we were also given a GPS. We were told the tablet would have 4G data, so were confused why a GPS was necessary, but figured it was for safety purposes (easier to use while driving).

We quickly realized that wasn't the case. The tablet is essentially locked down in such a way that you can only use the IcelandTravel app, which we figured would be the case. Within the UI of the app, there were links to View in Google Maps which we were originally ecstatic about, but quickly learned that was just a tease, because google maps did not work. Even if we connected the tablet to wifi in a hotel, we could not use any part of the tablet other than the given app. So we were left to use the GPS.

The deduction in my star rating is entirely attributed to this GPS and tablet synchronicity(lack thereof). The maps were not updated recently in any way, the GPS was extremely difficult to use, the touch screen did not work well, many of the places on our itinerary could not be found on the GPS search, or they could but they brought us to the wrong place. Multiple times the GPS told us to go down roads what were not roads, or even in Reykjavik down one way streets or streets blocked off for pedestrians. The tablet was clearly not configured for concurrent GPS use because firm addresses were not provided. We wasted so much time driving to the wrong places or literally just sitting in the car trying to get the GPS to work.

There were also times where there was a suggested point to travel to that was wayyyy out of the way but the description seemed alluring so we wanted to check it out. The GPS would then give us the run around after hours of traveling there, and we would be out of the way, confused, and couldn't find the attraction because the GPS's given point and the tablet's given point for the attraction were both different, and neither of which could we find said attraction. Again, a lot of wasted time.

Additionally a lot of the attractions required "a short hike" to get to them, which we were all for. However, I only recall one time where the tablet actually told us how long the hike would take. This made planning pretty impossible. Sometimes a short hike meant 5 minutes, other times it meant an hour or more each way. And when you're on the second attraction of the day with 5 more to come, all with a "short hike" the pressure is really on.

Another frustrating aspect of the tablet was a section where you could book a tour or attraction/activity. There was no search function within that so you literally had to just scroll through them, and NONE of them had a location on them. It was literally impossible to plan ahead to book anything within the tablet UI because it never gave enough information. Some would appear as "near your location" but still not give the exact location of the tour. For example there was a horse riding tour that sounded great and said it was nearby, and the name of the tour was something generic like "See Iceland on a Horse!". So there was no way to google the tour and get more info on it. Just confusing and useless. There were also tours in there that we saw and tried to do and got excited for, that are only offered during certain months, excluding while we were traveling. So again, another tablet tease!

Accommodations:
We picked the second tier accommodation level (economy something - which guaranteed us no shared bathroom/kitchen). What we ended up getting seemed to be super bare-bones, standard tiny hotel room with bathroom and no kitchen, often no refrigerator, so I would hate to see what the true base economy would get us. It was totally fine since we didn't spend much time in the hotels, but worth mentioning.

Of all the hotels our first one was by far the best, very kind staff and very accommodating. This was in Hvergerdi. They even had their own pool/waterslide and hot tubs! We kind of wish our trip ended here, because it was by far the best hotel we stayed in, and set the bar way too high for what was to come. On top of that, after spending 5 days away from civilization, we really wished we had done Reykjavik first. We weren't really prepared for the transition from the ring road to big city with people everywhere and no guaranteed parking near what we wanted to see.

Other than that we absolutely loved the tour and all the places we got to see. We did feel a bit pressured because there was so much to see and A LOT of driving to be able to see it all. We didn't wanna miss out so we literally did everything suggested, but it was EXHAUSTING!

Overall I recommend this tour, just prepare yourself ahead of time when you have internet. Be prepared to need to charge the tablet overnight every night (the battery was awful) and then spend your breakfast using your hotel wifi to get exact locations for things and googling information that the tablet leaves out (like length of time spent at places/to get to places.)

Overall I have to give 4 stars here because the company was responsive and helpful to us, the tour was great and relieved a lot of planning stress, and ultimately the issues that we encountered are easily remedied and I am confident IcelandTravel will do their due diligence on it. I would totally recommend this tour to a friend, as long as they have this knowledge ahead of time about the wacky GPS/tablet, and to not rely so heavily on the proposed tour points and to do some more of their own research in preparation.

Best experience ever! The trip planner tablet is excellent!