Now, I don’t really like to talk about money because some may deem it vulgar but in this post, I’m going to share the costs involved in my Iceland trip in answer to some of those who have asked me. Besides, I always love a good bargain and would want to know of any myself.
While planning for my Iceland trip, I was looking at a few dates: end-December 2011, end-January 2012 (this was before I planned my Padang/Bukittinggi trip) and early-February 2012. I was looking at travelling alone at first and as a first step, checked out the Iceland Air website. Now, Iceland Air has a few package deals (include return flight from your starting point, hotel stay (extendable should you so wish at extra cost) and a tour. You can also add on other tours to your selected deal. The search yielded that end-December would cost me the most (not surprisingly since it’s peak period).
Having looked at that, I next searched the flight fares only for those dates. I reckoned I could perhaps book my own accommodation and arrange my own trips. In fact, I had found a website that could help me do the latter. And it turned out that it’d actually cost me less if I make my own arrangements.
I procrastinated on buying my air ticket and arranging my tours in Iceland but I proceeded to book some guest houses. I had by then discarded going in end-December 2011 or end-January 2012 (I said some guest houses as I would make a booking only to cancel it before making another). Then my friend informed that she’d be interested in going so I had to cancel my single room booking and make double room bookings. (Then a third friend also wanted to join in so I had to make a triple room booking and then cancel it when she changed her plans). And subsequently, I changed hotels when I found Hotel Fron right smack at Laugavegur, Reykjavík's main shopping street.
It was a good thing I procrastinated for I finally managed to enter Iceland Express website (it didn’t work earlier) and browsed the flight schedule and air fares.
The LHR-KEF-LHR airfare on Iceland Air had increased slightly when I checked again in early December from £248.8 inclusive of taxes to £253.20, while the return airfare on Iceland Express was slightly lower at £206 but I didn’t like the return schedule as we’d arrive at LGW only at 1950 hours. Then I got an idea to check the fares for one-way journeys to compare between the two airlines and this was what I found:
1/2/2012 LGW-KEF Carrier: Iceland Express 1250-1550 Cost: £32+25+38 = £95
5/2/2012 KEF-LHR Carrier: Iceland Air 0830-1130 Cost: £97.78
In addition, I found that interestingly the fare from KEF-LHR is lower one way on Iceland Air at £97.98 than if it would be if we had bought it as part of the return ticket (it would cost us £111.30 for that leg if we had bought a return Iceland Air LHR-KEF-LHR ticket. Yes, strange isn’t it!).
So total airfare LGW-KEF and KEF-LHR are £95 + 97.78 = £192.78
The easyBus fare to LGW eventually cost us each £8.99 (the fare starts from £2 one way but my friend booked it late) while coach from Victoria Station costs £8.
While browsing Iceland Express website in December, I found that it has a tie-up with a tour provider and when I checked, the tours cost less than those provided by Trip or if we had bought them via the Iceland Air website so of course we bought our tours through the Iceland Express website.
Our tours:
KEF pick-up to city with Blue Lagoon en route ISK3515
Viking Horse & Golden Circle Afternoon ISK15865
South Coast & Waterfalls ISK14250
Northern Lights Mystery ISK4655
Whale watching ISK7125
Hotel-KEF ISK1900
Total tour and pick-up = ISK47310 or ~ £245.974. This excludes hotel cost of £94.02 per person (total for room is £188.04), meals, souvenirs etc. Now, Iceland is not a cheap destination although prices are a lot lower than they were pre-2008. I packed some food along (read: instant noodles) and we had that every night... for lunch, I packed along bananas from the breakfast buffet and some cereal bars (strangely, I didn’t feel as easily hungry over there). The shops were having their winter sale when we were there but opened too late and closed too early so we only managed to visit the few souvenir and stationery shops while we were there.
We formed the Sisterhood of the Instant Noodles in Reykjavík. Heh
While planning for my Iceland trip, I was looking at a few dates: end-December 2011, end-January 2012 (this was before I planned my Padang/Bukittinggi trip) and early-February 2012. I was looking at travelling alone at first and as a first step, checked out the Iceland Air website. Now, Iceland Air has a few package deals (include return flight from your starting point, hotel stay (extendable should you so wish at extra cost) and a tour. You can also add on other tours to your selected deal. The search yielded that end-December would cost me the most (not surprisingly since it’s peak period).
Having looked at that, I next searched the flight fares only for those dates. I reckoned I could perhaps book my own accommodation and arrange my own trips. In fact, I had found a website that could help me do the latter. And it turned out that it’d actually cost me less if I make my own arrangements.
I procrastinated on buying my air ticket and arranging my tours in Iceland but I proceeded to book some guest houses. I had by then discarded going in end-December 2011 or end-January 2012 (I said some guest houses as I would make a booking only to cancel it before making another). Then my friend informed that she’d be interested in going so I had to cancel my single room booking and make double room bookings. (Then a third friend also wanted to join in so I had to make a triple room booking and then cancel it when she changed her plans). And subsequently, I changed hotels when I found Hotel Fron right smack at Laugavegur, Reykjavík's main shopping street.
It was a good thing I procrastinated for I finally managed to enter Iceland Express website (it didn’t work earlier) and browsed the flight schedule and air fares.
The LHR-KEF-LHR airfare on Iceland Air had increased slightly when I checked again in early December from £248.8 inclusive of taxes to £253.20, while the return airfare on Iceland Express was slightly lower at £206 but I didn’t like the return schedule as we’d arrive at LGW only at 1950 hours. Then I got an idea to check the fares for one-way journeys to compare between the two airlines and this was what I found:
1/2/2012 LGW-KEF Carrier: Iceland Express 1250-1550 Cost: £32+25+38 = £95
5/2/2012 KEF-LHR Carrier: Iceland Air 0830-1130 Cost: £97.78
In addition, I found that interestingly the fare from KEF-LHR is lower one way on Iceland Air at £97.98 than if it would be if we had bought it as part of the return ticket (it would cost us £111.30 for that leg if we had bought a return Iceland Air LHR-KEF-LHR ticket. Yes, strange isn’t it!).
So total airfare LGW-KEF and KEF-LHR are £95 + 97.78 = £192.78
The easyBus fare to LGW eventually cost us each £8.99 (the fare starts from £2 one way but my friend booked it late) while coach from Victoria Station costs £8.
While browsing Iceland Express website in December, I found that it has a tie-up with a tour provider and when I checked, the tours cost less than those provided by Trip or if we had bought them via the Iceland Air website so of course we bought our tours through the Iceland Express website.
Our tours:
KEF pick-up to city with Blue Lagoon en route ISK3515
Viking Horse & Golden Circle Afternoon ISK15865
South Coast & Waterfalls ISK14250
Northern Lights Mystery ISK4655
Whale watching ISK7125
Hotel-KEF ISK1900
Total tour and pick-up = ISK47310 or ~ £245.974. This excludes hotel cost of £94.02 per person (total for room is £188.04), meals, souvenirs etc. Now, Iceland is not a cheap destination although prices are a lot lower than they were pre-2008. I packed some food along (read: instant noodles) and we had that every night... for lunch, I packed along bananas from the breakfast buffet and some cereal bars (strangely, I didn’t feel as easily hungry over there). The shops were having their winter sale when we were there but opened too late and closed too early so we only managed to visit the few souvenir and stationery shops while we were there.
We formed the Sisterhood of the Instant Noodles in Reykjavík. Heh
And of course, I had to buy a flight ticket to London. I browsed various airlines before finally deciding on Etihad. I bought the ticket in early October (I told my mate I bought it in August but that was actually another ticket. Sorry) and I must say, I am very glad that I flew Etihad. The service was good, the meals more than adequate (they serve you the main meal – salad, main meal and bun - with water and/or juice then they collect your trays before offering you hot beverage and dessert. And the hot beverage includes Milo and I think cappuccino too. I didn’t bother because I don’t drink coffee. And from Abu Dhabi to London and Abu Dhabi to KL, because these are early morning departures, they first serve you a meal bag as they don’t want to wake you up. The meal bag contains a sandwich, a small bottle of water, a small bottle of juice and a small bag of snacks. You don’t have to eat them if you’re sleepy, just put them away and eat them when you wake up. They will serve breakfast proper about 100 minutes before landing), and the multinational cabin crew pleasant enough. I don’t even mind the transit at Abu Dhabi as my flights for Abu Dhabi from KL and London were both delayed so I had shorter transit time there. And I land in KL in the afternoon instead of early morning; I find that I can cope with jetlag better when I arrive in the afternoon.
So yes, that’s my rather lengthy explanation of the costs and processes incurred in arranging for my trip. Hopefully it will help anyone planning a trip there! I had as much fun planning for my trip as I did on my actual trip, no kidding.
The end
So yes, that’s my rather lengthy explanation of the costs and processes incurred in arranging for my trip. Hopefully it will help anyone planning a trip there! I had as much fun planning for my trip as I did on my actual trip, no kidding.
The end
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