Vacation package
Iceland Small Group, Six Days
Six days around the south and west of Iceland in a group of about twelve, in one vehicle with one driver guide. Quoted per person for two sharing. The small group is the point: the roads and the weather here punish a large coach and reward somebody who knows the day's conditions.
Why twelve and not forty
Two thirds of what makes this trip good is a driver deciding, that morning, to reverse the day's order because the wind is coming from the wrong direction. A large coach on a fixed itinerary cannot do that. A small vehicle with a guide who has driven the road that week can.
That flexibility is what you are paying for, and it is why this costs more per day than the Italy tour despite being shorter and simpler.
from $2,150 per person, based on two sharing
This is a starting figure for the season shown. The final price is confirmed in writing before anything is booked and depends on your dates, the number travelling and what is available when we ask. How a price is put together.
The weather is not a detail here
We will say this to everybody who asks about Iceland, so it may as well be on the page: a day can carry sun, sideways rain and a road closure. The tour is built around that and you should be too.
| What happens | What the tour does | What you should bring |
|---|---|---|
| A road closes for wind | The order of the day changes, or a stop is swapped | Patience, and no fixed plan for that evening |
| Rain for a whole day | The trip continues. The waterfalls are better in it | Genuine waterproofs, not a showerproof jacket |
| A clear night in winter | The guide will wake the group for the aurora if it appears | Something warm to stand outside in for twenty minutes |
| Everything goes right | You will be outside for most of six days | Boots that are already broken in |
What nobody can promise
The northern lights. They are weather and solar activity, and no operator, no agency and no price controls either. Any company that implies otherwise is selling you something it does not have.
What can be arranged is being in the right place with the sky visible and somebody watching for it, which is what a winter departure gives you and what a self drive trip usually does not.
The six questions, answered
| Where and how long | Six days based on a loop through the south and west, with two or three hotel changes rather than one base. The distances look small on a map and take longer than the map suggests, which is the single most common planning mistake on this trip. |
|---|---|
| What kind of trip | Escorted, small group. Around twelve travelers in one vehicle with a driver guide who is both. It is not a coach tour and it is not self drive; it sits between them, and it exists because the weather here makes both of those worse. |
| What is included | Round trip flights from Boise with one connection, five nights in country hotels and guesthouses with breakfast, all transport in the group vehicle, the driver guide throughout, entry where the itinerary names a paid site, and a written day by day itinerary. |
| What is not included | Lunches and dinners, which outside the capital are limited enough that the itinerary tells you where and when rather than pretending you have a choice. The lagoon and spa entries, which are booked by time slot and which we will hold in advance if you want them. Travel insurance. Waterproof outer clothing, which is not optional here in any month. |
| When it makes sense, and when it does not | It makes sense from late May to early September, when the roads are open, the days are long and everything runs. It makes a different kind of sense from October to March, when the days are four to six hours long and the reason to come is the aurora, which nobody can promise. It makes least sense in April and November, between the two. |
| What is settled when we confirm | The operator, the exact departure date, the group size limit in writing, the day by day route, the hotels by name, which meals are included, the vehicle type, the total for your party, the deposit and balance dates, and the operator's cancellation terms including what happens when weather closes a road. |