Travel Agent? How do? (Subtitle: Iceland Honeymoon Help)
May 1, 2023 7:08 AM Subscribe
My partner and I got pandemic-married in our living room over Zoom, and had no honeymoon. Now we'd like to plan for one, but we're also feeling kind of overwhelmed about it. How can we find a travel agent that can help us plan a honeymoon in Iceland? Bonus if anyone can add any insight about traveling to and/or honeymooning in Iceland!
My partner is very into the occasional luxury splurge and wants to book at least one night at an expensive fancy resort (Blue Lagoon?) but we can't afford to actually do stuff like this the entire time, lol. We'd love to spend around two weeks there. Ideally we'd be able to work with a travel agent to dial in as much as possible, but really any info at all is helpful!
My partner is very into the occasional luxury splurge and wants to book at least one night at an expensive fancy resort (Blue Lagoon?) but we can't afford to actually do stuff like this the entire time, lol. We'd love to spend around two weeks there. Ideally we'd be able to work with a travel agent to dial in as much as possible, but really any info at all is helpful!
Best answer: This is the travel agent we used for our honeymoon! We had an idea on budget, timeframe, and general regions and how long we wanted to spend in certain places. She had some amazing finds that we never would have found ourselves, and took the stress out of planning a big special trip. I am totally a "plan things myself" kind of person but travel agent for the honeymoon was an A++ experience.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by DoubleLune at 7:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Blue Lagoon is a *great* splurge. Highly recommend. Deeply touristy. Borderline silly. Wonderfully relaxing. We went directly after landing, sleep-deprived and aching from the plane and barely functional. I loved every minute.
I've travelled to Iceland twice with my now-wife. For context she probably *is* a travel agent in another timeline, so I can't recommend one. But one thing to call out if you have *any* budget constraints: Everywhere we ate in Iceland was very good; every meal was also very, very expensive. And this was before food got Even More Expensive Everywhere. While the food was always very good, it was never that extraordinary, if you're used to high-quality Western restaurants in the first place. Groceries are still not cheap, but we found it a much better use of our dollars to find places with a kitchen and make quick meals to pack and eat along our adventures, rather than treating "dining out" as an integral part of the experience.
Two weeks does strike me as a really long time if you're not especially outdoorsy or otherwise deeply into activities unique or unusual to Iceland. I could imagine a huge camping buff spending many days driving around and camping. But we found ourselves happy with a pair of 5-day trips, one in winter and one in summer, and while we'd like to go back, neither trip ended with much of a feeling of "my god we didn't do enough."
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:45 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've travelled to Iceland twice with my now-wife. For context she probably *is* a travel agent in another timeline, so I can't recommend one. But one thing to call out if you have *any* budget constraints: Everywhere we ate in Iceland was very good; every meal was also very, very expensive. And this was before food got Even More Expensive Everywhere. While the food was always very good, it was never that extraordinary, if you're used to high-quality Western restaurants in the first place. Groceries are still not cheap, but we found it a much better use of our dollars to find places with a kitchen and make quick meals to pack and eat along our adventures, rather than treating "dining out" as an integral part of the experience.
Two weeks does strike me as a really long time if you're not especially outdoorsy or otherwise deeply into activities unique or unusual to Iceland. I could imagine a huge camping buff spending many days driving around and camping. But we found ourselves happy with a pair of 5-day trips, one in winter and one in summer, and while we'd like to go back, neither trip ended with much of a feeling of "my god we didn't do enough."
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:45 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
I would start work the official national tourism office to get a sense of what you want to do. All travel agents will want to know what you find missable or must see.
At this point you might have enough information to do it yourself. Iceland is not so big you need help planning. Or maybe your airline will arrange everything, as many of them offer package tours.
If none of this is sufficient and you still want assistance, you'll have to hit the internet and look at reviews. There are tour operators you can use as a price comparison (either more or less than their price depending on what you want). Intrepid is expensive so less than their price is probably good! I also use them as an itinerary check. If a tour company doesn't go directly from Reykjavik to Akureyri maybe there's a reason why?
When I used a travel agent for our Switzerland trip I cribbed a tour I found on a package tour website. We wanted a rail tour so it was probably Vacations by Rail or something. It made it easy to change stuff up with more days in some places or skipping others entirely.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:48 AM on May 1, 2023
At this point you might have enough information to do it yourself. Iceland is not so big you need help planning. Or maybe your airline will arrange everything, as many of them offer package tours.
If none of this is sufficient and you still want assistance, you'll have to hit the internet and look at reviews. There are tour operators you can use as a price comparison (either more or less than their price depending on what you want). Intrepid is expensive so less than their price is probably good! I also use them as an itinerary check. If a tour company doesn't go directly from Reykjavik to Akureyri maybe there's a reason why?
When I used a travel agent for our Switzerland trip I cribbed a tour I found on a package tour website. We wanted a rail tour so it was probably Vacations by Rail or something. It made it easy to change stuff up with more days in some places or skipping others entirely.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:48 AM on May 1, 2023
Also, there's more hot springs in Iceland than Blue Lagoon. We went to Laugarvatn Fontana and had a great time. We also tripped the explosives monitor at the airport because the steam cabin is over an open volcanic hot spring and I'm sure we were saturated in all sorts of isotopes. Very volcanic, 10/10.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:00 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by fiercekitten at 8:00 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Woop, lol great point mskyle! Trying to plan ahead so maybe summer next year? Sometime in 2024, at least. Thank you so much for the answers so far!
posted by caitcadieux at 8:56 AM on May 1, 2023
posted by caitcadieux at 8:56 AM on May 1, 2023
We did our honeymoon in Iceland and it was great! We did a "self-drive" tour through Nordic Visitor where they booked us a rental car, accommodations and some things to do but we were otherwise on our own. Would definitely recommend. +1 to Laugarvatn Fontana as mentioned above, was a great visit.
posted by reptile at 8:58 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by reptile at 8:58 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Fontana spa mentioned above (fun, though it was a nighttime excursion in the rain for our tour group) also has a unique bakery.
posted by emelenjr at 10:05 AM on May 1, 2023
posted by emelenjr at 10:05 AM on May 1, 2023
A few years old, but our 10-day (week plus the two weekends) summer itinerary if helpful, including Blue Lagoon (visit, not stay; agree doing straight from airport is nice) and self-driving tour around the country (see map). Packed with activities like glacier hiking, boat tour, and snorkeling, but still manageable pace since we had our parents. Family trip not honeymoon, so style will differ. Also agree that 2 weeks would seem long. Maybe consider doing it as a free stopover, unless that would add too much to the stress/expense? Another option is to rent a small camper van, but then you’d have to plan for parking, etc.
Iceland is pretty accessible for tourists, and you’ll have 24-hour daylight, so you can hike to a geothermal river at 11pm, but have to miss the northern lights. Second that food is pretty tasty but expensive. There are midges in some areas, so be prepared with bug spray or a fan or something.
Enjoy the beauty and magic of the land of fire and ice!
posted by eyeball at 4:27 AM on May 2, 2023
Iceland is pretty accessible for tourists, and you’ll have 24-hour daylight, so you can hike to a geothermal river at 11pm, but have to miss the northern lights. Second that food is pretty tasty but expensive. There are midges in some areas, so be prepared with bug spray or a fan or something.
Enjoy the beauty and magic of the land of fire and ice!
posted by eyeball at 4:27 AM on May 2, 2023
Currently in Iceland for work! Went to Blue Lagoon for a day and loved it; not sure about staying there. The entire country is so small that I agree with others that two weeks is probably too long. Maybe consider a week here and a week in another Nordic country?
Also just want to emphasize since you mentioned budget that everything here is insanely expensive. Take what you think I mean by that and double it. I gave myself a daily budget and realized when I got here that it was woefully inadequate, so plan ahead and save.
posted by anotheraccount at 3:55 PM on May 2, 2023
Also just want to emphasize since you mentioned budget that everything here is insanely expensive. Take what you think I mean by that and double it. I gave myself a daily budget and realized when I got here that it was woefully inadequate, so plan ahead and save.
posted by anotheraccount at 3:55 PM on May 2, 2023
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posted by mskyle at 7:11 AM on May 1, 2023