Why Iceland?
The latest European heatwave is putting Iceland in the frame for a lot of travelers this summer, as it becomes clear that there are likely to be few other destinations that offer the possibility of a “cooler” experience at a number of levels. The scenery, the open spaces, and above all, temperatures that wouldn’t cook an egg on the surface of a rental car.
But one big challenge facing people who want to come to Iceland on short notice is availability.
“Iceland is a destination has a lot of quirks that aren’t obvious to first-time visitors. There’s a bias towards the most popular sights, the ones you see on people’s Instagram posts like the Blue Lagoon and the South Coast waterfalls and that tends to fill the nearby accommodations months in advance,” says Helga Kristin Fridjonsdottir (Helga Stina) of Iceland Unwrapped, a personalized travel planning service that builds custom itineraries.
Quality and availability
The quality of accommodation also becomes an issue for last-minute travelers, particularly those focusing on the most-touristed destinations. “Iceland has very few five-star properties, and a lot of the remaining properties can be quite variable – and often there is little correlation between price and quality in the high season.” Helga Stina adds.
Having worked with clients from across the world for the last ten years and building on her experiences visiting and working with hotels and other lodgings around the country, Iceland Unwrapped has specialized in building itineraries that lean harder on less-touristed parts of Iceland that offer breathtaking scenery with fewer crowds, higher-quality lodgings, and cultural and historical highlights most travelers miss when coming to Europe’s northernmost country.
Off the beaten track
“If you want a summer Iceland vacation that offers more of what visitors seek in Iceland, planning is essential. A lot of what’s amazing here isn’t particularly well-known. It takes far longer to travel between locations than in other places because there are lots of beautiful things to find along the way, things that make you stop, look around, and change the flow of a given day. None of this is obvious to a traveler looking at an Iceland map for the first time or putting destinations into Google maps and trusting that the suggested travel times make any sense.”
But the biggest issue is availability. That’s particularly true if you are planning to travel the ring road around the country, where the accommodation pressure is highest in the summer.
“Aside from the fact that traveling the ring road isn’t the only, or even the best way to get the Iceland experience, ring-road travelers can find their trips become far less pleasant if they aren’t able to find decent accommodation for one or two legs of their trip. If you can’t find accommodation, or if you’re not giving yourself enough time to cover the distance, you’re committing yourself to some very long driving legs and are likely to miss out on much of what you come to Iceland for.”
Why a travel planner
And that’s where a travel planner comes in. “When I work with clients in the summer, before we even look at where they want to go in the country, I get their expectations about budgets, the expected level of accommodation service and quality, and the kind of experiences they want to have – whether it’s comfortable relaxation in quiet settings, maximizing the number of amazing sights, or experiencing once-in-a-lifetime activities like snorkeling between tectonic plates, snowmobiling on glaciers, or watching Iceland’s one-of-a-kind Lava Show. Then I find out what’s available, and build the itineraries from that.”
The result – seamless travel, unforgettable experiences, and relaxing and rejuvenating journeys that make the most of Summer Iceland.
Contact us for starting the process of your amazing Iceland adventure any time of the year
Photos by: Helga Stína – Piotr Krajewski and clients of Iceland Unwrapped
