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Thinking of Iceland in January? Read this first
Iceland had been on my bucket list for many years, and is consistently mentioned on top 10 lists annually. As luck would have it, in early January, I ended up taking a last minute trip to Iceland with my fiancee. We had an absolutely wonderful time, but there are some things I would do differently on my next visit. If you’re thinking of visiting Iceland in January, have a quick gander at my thoughts so you can best prepare your expectations and itinerary.
We’ll also have the following reviews:
- Getting to/from the Iceland Airport to Reykavik
- How long to spend at the Blue Lagoon
- Hilton Curio Collection Konsulat
- Radisson Blu 1919
- IcelandAir 767 economy
- Where to eat in Reykavik
The Weather changes very quickly
Case in point. We went to a fantastic coffee spot on the Harbor named Rost. Great coffee, yummy food, highly recommend. You can sit at a table, booth or window and enjoy a wonderful view of the harbor overlooking the water and distant mountains.
We visited 3 days straight, and one day we we sat at a window for roughly 90 minutes. When we arrived the sun was shining, it was a crisp 30ish degrees, and a 10 to 15 mile an hour wind. By the time our sandwiches were served the entire harbor was dark, people were having trouble standing upright in the wind as they walked past, hail showered, and within minutes the furthest you could see was the end of the pier.
15 minutes later the wind had died down, the sun was out, and you’d never have guessed what had just happened unless you looked further to the south. Waves of torrential weather is extremely common and something we experienced each day we were there.
Tours get canceled frequently and last minute
We arrived around 8pm, and consulted the Konsulat front desk as to a reputable tour company for the Northern Lights and Blue Lagoon. We booked tours for the next day to see the Blue Lagoon, and the following night for the Northern Lights.
Around noon, we arrived at the Blue Lagoon to a sea of people running to the bus as we were getting off. The wind was very high and we could barely keep our heads up as we entered the welcome center to find out all busses had been canceled for the rest of the day back to Reykavik. What?!
We learned that these cancellations lift quickly once the weather changes, but we shouldn’t count on a ride back to town until 6pm. Luckily we were supposed to leave at 5pm so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience, but be prepared for things to change quickly.
Example two was the night of our first Northern Lights tour. Usually tours will start a couple hours after sundown and we learned ours had canceled around 3pm the day of. We extended our 3 night trip to 5 nights, and this continued to happen each and every day due to weather. We even booked Golden Circle tours hoping to take advantage of the 5 hours of sunlight to have those canceled as well. Needless to say…we ate at a lot of different restaurants in downtown Reykavik.
Don’t count on seeing the Northern Lights
This is one of the biggest draws for Iceland, but don’t count on them. On one hand, you’d think because the days are so short, and the night sky is properly dark, that it would be an opportune time, but the weather…oh, the weather.
This applies year round, but if you’re contemplating a trip to Iceland in the winter, specifically January, I wouldn’t put any money on seeing them. We purposely stayed in country for 2 extra nights with hopes of a tour heading out, but alas, it was always canceled.
Each day, around 3-4pm we received a call alerting us that solar activity was ok, but visibility was minimal and our 8pm departure was canceled.
With this said…I highly appreciated the fact that they didn’t just take groups out with the knowledge that the odds of seeing the lights were exceptionally low. They constantly monitored the Solar forecasts, and if the odds were too low, below a 3 on the scale of activity, or visibility was overcast, they called and canceled.
If you’re heading to Iceland in the summer, you should be aware that it’ll be too bright to see them, so I’d recommend a late October to early December time frame. Or, late Feb/ early March.
Overall
Iceland was an experience unlike any that I’ve had before, but I really wish we would have been able to see more in our 5 nights there. The Blue Lagoon was such a fun, unique, and memorable experience that you’ll be able to fully witness via a future YouTube video, but I can only imagine what the Secret Lagoon, Geysers, and Northern Lighst would have been. Each and every one of our Northern Lights tours were canceled and twice our Golden Circle was canceled. If you visit during this time of the year be prepared to face similar situations.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.