Iceland Travel Agent Review: Mývatn, Siglufjörður, Skógafoss Waterfall, Ring Road, Hiking, 8-Night Tour

Review by traveler

Syed H.

10.11.2021

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Iceland

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Overall well organized and executed with good latitude for independence and flexibility along the Ring Road - we could easily take detours on our own and explore our own hikes/detours/villages. I fully appreciate that this was not the optimal time to visit Iceland (the start of winter) and the company did the best they could to accommodate us. Our only hiccup was being charged 200+ dollars extra for our car rental on the last day.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

The hike at skagafoll was fantastic. The dinner at the hotel in Mývatn was excellent as well.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

1. We would stay for two nights in the Myvatn area and two nights in Siglufjörður. Myvatn is more central to a lot of hikes compared to Siglufjörður in the winter. I love Siglufjörður and would happily visit it again (this being our second time) but that would be more appropriate in the summer. In the winter, the roads are quite slippery and treacherous, especially along the cliff side where the fog reduces visibility greatly.
2. The hotel in Mývatn has an excellent restaurant and one of our best meals was there, but we would have liked to stay somewhere else if possible as it's a stop for many large tour buses which makes the check-in process very, very long.
3. Finally, please arrange for winter tires as a default during the winter time. When we arrived at the Hertz counter at the airport, they originally didn't have a car with winter tires for us. Fortunately, they were able to find one last car with winter tires + studs, which came in very handy when it started snowing in the north. Note that the return time for the car was at 5AM on the day we left. As a result, we paid an additional 200+ dollars for the extra day as our flight was departing at 5PM and we didn't get to the airport until noon (and we were not made aware of this at time of booking).

Travel Company Comments:

Syed, thanks for letting us know about your experience with the hotel in Mývatn. I have been to the hotel twice and don't recall seeing a bus either time. It is a place that we have booked many other guests and we have not heard of any issues related to tour buses. We will be sure to take note of that and advise other clients accordingly.
The snow tires were a definite miss on our part. Frankly, we are a little rusty after missing an entire year, including the most recent winter, due to the pandemic. It's amazing how many important details you forget when you don't do something for that long. We will be sure to make that a priority, especially as the number of guests that we have been booking for this winter starts to add up!

Photos