Iceland Ring Road Adventure

Incredible trip with the tour operator Nice Travel with 3 guides spanning over the 7 days. Big thanks to Pawel (4 days), Mona (2 days) and Daddi (1 Day) for such a memorable vacation and showing us the many different perspectives of Iceland; be it the jam packed itinerary (and where time allows, a few extra spots), food recommendations, insightful information about Iceland, personal stories, intro to Icelandic music, or just being fully present and available for the group. Highly recommend this complete Ring Road trip when you are visiting Iceland for the first time!

We just got back from the 6-day small group tour. It was a 4-day ring road tour plus a 2-day Snaefellsnes Peninsula and Silver Circle tour. The itinerary was exactly as described by Nice Travel, except that we did not visit Reynisfjara beach due to weather conditions. We also did the optional Vok Pools, Forest Lagoon, and whale watching. All three options were worth it, but the visits to the hot springs were in the evening, leaving no unscheduled time. We would definitely take this tour again and we would be happy to use Nice Travel again. Note the days are long on these tours - pretty much 8 am to 8 pm, although with the optional activities, sometimes dinner starts at 9 pm. I would have liked more unscheduled time, but with the distances covered, it is not possible. There is also a lot of time on the bus each day, especially on the first and last days, but again, you are covering a huge distance. The minimum bus stop time was usually 20 minutes, and that was just for a quick photo. I'd say the average bus stop time was about 45-60 minutes in order to walk to/through a site. During the 4-day tour, the bus was full with 19 passengers (all USA with 2 Canadians). For the 2-day tour, it was either 14 or 12, depending on the day. The way it works is each traveler starts their tour (4/5/6/7 days) at a certain location; then they join other travelers at a hotel and may switch tours the next day. For example, we started our 4-day tour in Reykjavík, picked up others in Reykjavík, and then at a hotel outside Reykjavík. The folks at the hotel had started a tour the day before. Then, after we finished our 4-day tour, our group split: some stayed to do the 2- or 3-day tour, and some went their own way. All hotels were of good quality with the expected amenities. The hotel breakfasts were much better than I expected. More than half included Iceland-specific foods such as beef tongue, mackerel, herring, lamb pâté, cod liver oil, and skyr. Of course, they all had scrambled/boiled eggs and bacon (and sometimes sausage). All were buffet style. No complaints at all about the accommodations. We ate dinner at the first two hotels, and it was good. For the 4-day ring road tour, our guide was Þorey. Þorey is a native Icelander who has been giving these tours for many years. She was fantastic, and we learned so much from her during our time, including meeting her mother, father, and brother, who had lunch with us when we visited her hometown. She spent all her time with our group, including accompanying us on our visit to Vok Pools. Touring the country with someone who grew up there was really unique because of how Þorey shared so much with us. For the 2-day ring road tour, our guide was Micah. Micah immigrated from France to Iceland over a decade ago and has a wealth of knowledge. It was interesting to have him as a guide after Þorey, since he chose to live in Iceland following his visit there as a tourist. He was a great guide. He added an extra stop to Grábrók crater because we had the most beautiful weather of our visit on our Silver Circle day. A few things to be aware of: Do your research about packing for Iceland's weather. We only had 2 sunny days out of 8 during our trip. The strongest wind we experienced was 67mph near Reynisfjara beach (which is why we skipped the beach). Food in Iceland is expensive. The scheduled lunches on these tours are pretty much left to your guide. All our lunches were at very good sit-down restaurants, and you pay for them. That is true across Iceland, since so much is imported. Dinner at the hotels can also be expensive, but given the late hour and the remote locations, it is somewhat the only option if you do any optional activities.

Our Ring Road tour with NiceTravel was definitely one for the books! The landscape in Iceland is incredible and the waterfalls we got to see throughout our itinerary were breathtaking! Our trip would not be complete, though, without our AMAZING tour guide, Þorey, who truly took our experience on this tour to the next level! She is natively Icelandic and her humor, many years of experience tour guiding, and compassion for her travelers really shined through during our time with her. She is extremely passionate about sharing her home country with others and brought so many countless personal touches to our tour - from sharing her recommendations for local snacks/sweets to thoughtfully picking out our tasty lunch time restaurants to sharing about her family and experiences growing up in Iceland - she helped bring Iceland alive for us in our short time visiting. Additionally, we want to thank Þorey for going above and beyond to help our party get the care we needed when some health issues arose during our trip. We were so thankful to have her helping us navigate our situation, especially in a foreign country. Þórey is a one-of-a-kind, top-notch guide and anyone would be so lucky to have her as their guide while in Iceland! Logistically, our small group of 19 was the perfect size to get to know one another during our extended time together and then also to not feel like too much of a tourist going around in a big bus. The small bus we had was clean and comfortable for our needs and the hotel accommodations we stayed at provided us with a comfortable night’s rest and a filling breakfast to start our days. Overall, NiceTravel has perfectly curated a well-rounded Icelandic adventure that everyone should get to experience and we would wholeheartedly book with them again when we are back next!

We enjoyed the stunning waterfalls and unique features of Iceland, the wonderful experiences, the good food, along with the colorful and delightful commentary by our guide Thorey.

We had 7 days full of a variety of adventures! Our tour guide Thuray (sp?) was AMAZING! The food stops were wonderful! Highlight was the Forrest lagoon! A relaxing and well planned out way to travel!