Iceland: 2 travelers, 5 days: $1984

Iceland was the very first international trip my travel partner and I embarked on and it’s also where we got engaged. 10/10- would travel to Iceland again and not just because I returned wearing ice of my own. Iceland, if you’re on a budget, is possible.

Reasons we wanted to go:

• Iceland is beautiful! What is particularly wonderful about Iceland is that the landscape (the heart of why you go) is the best and least expensive if not totally free portion of the trip
• Iceland is safe
• Iceland is a great beginners traveling destination. We did a short 5 day trip. It was a perfect warm up for a lifetime of travel!
• Iceland is a short flight of 6.5 hours from BWI with little or no jet lag

Schedule

BWI>KEF

First, we found cheap flights from Baltimore to Iceland. The airline we chose, WOW, no longer exists*. However, despite the negative reviews–our flights were great.

Here’s the thing about budget airlines-we go into it with zero expectation of perks or special treatment. When we purchased our tickets we expected two things: a seatbelt and the occasional bathroom break. That’s it. We had extremely low expectations and ended up being impressed with zero delays and great customer service all round. We packed one bag each which fit under the seats.  I packed snacks to avoid the pricey sandwiches sold in the air and my travel partner pre-downloaded the entire series of our favorite show and brought a headphone splitter. We were happy campers on the 6.5 hour flight to Iceland.

Total for two round trip tickets: $840

*For present day readers I recommend Aer Lingus   for inexpensive overseas flights from the east coast. They have pretty good customer service and still exist!

Car Rental

We wanted to drive around, but not into the wilderness of Iceland. We figured because it was our first trip, we would stick to the popular ring road and not worry about driving on F roads (save something for next time!). To do so, we only needed a tiny little car. We rented from a company called Sad Car. I’m guessing the name didn’t translate well, but what it didn’t do was make our wallets sad. For four and a half days we explored Iceland in this cute, automatic, green car for $160. They answered all my questions via email before we arrived, gave us a 15% discount for asking AND picked us up from the airport. This company is a budget no brainer!  I would definitely rent from SadCar again in the future…just a 4x next time (for the F roads!)

We spent roughly $80 on petrol. Not cheap, but not unbearable.

 

Lodging

We Airbnb-ed ourselves during this trip. Simple and easy. Here are the totals:

• $90
• $72
• $128
• $252 (x2 nights)

Total lodging costs: $542

It’s worth mentioning that one of my favorite stays was in Heidi’s adorable cabin. She also gave us insider Icelander info on cool natural spots to check out in the area.

Food

Look for the piggy- they are hard to miss flying on the multiple bright yellow flags outside Bonus stores. We grocery shopped for the majority of our trip and loved it. I had some of the best yogurt and our picnics were top notch! You guys, there’s walk-in fridge at Bonus and it’s FULL of amazing things like lots of beautiful cheese and Icelandic butter to butter all those those cheap breads! Skyr yogurt and Icelandic butter are now available at Whole Foods in the US for a premium markup…enjoy it for less in Iceland!  In addition to grocery shopping, we enjoyed a cappuccino and a few beers along the way. We also ate a few hotdogs because when in Reykjavik…! Total spent on groceries, coffee, beers and hot dogs: $362

What we did

Explored. Enjoyed private moments of just taking it all in. That part was free!

 

So, there you have it! Our total cost for our first international trip: $1984 ($992 per person) Next time, I want to do a camper van! But for a first time international budget trip I think we did pretty good. You can too! Happy travels!