Questions and Answers

Lucky,
I was wondering if you have a Hotel review for the Radisson Blu Hotel 1919? I was inspired by your posts about Iceland and so I have a trip planned for next September. I have 2 Club Carlson ecerts good for any Club Carlson hotel anywhere and was looking to use them at the Hotel 1919. I looked at your posts about your trip to Iceland and the only thing I could find about it was that you said it was better than the Blu Saga Hotel. Also, do you think it’s necessary to rent a car to get around while there? I saw that you mentioned getting one yourself. Thanks in advance.

[USER=232]@Buddy M.[/USER]

Sadly Lucky has not posted his review for that whole trip, said he had it almost ready to go when a glass of liquids fell on his laptop during a flight.

[USER=232]@Buddy M.[/USER] We stayed at the 1919 earlier this year and I would recommend it for your stay in Reykjavik. It is close to most of the tourist stops in downtown and we didn’t need a car. We had one but it was just parked the entire time since we walked everywhere. However if you plan to leave the city to do the Golden Circle route or drive the ring road, it is nice to have have a car.

Thanks Gaurav, I was wondering if you ate the buffet breakfast while at the 1919. My reservation is showing I can upgrade to add the buffet for 19 euros a night. Do you think it would be worth it? As far as a rental car, if I don’t get one is there public transportation to get to and from the Airport? Again, thanks!

[USER=232]@Buddy M.[/USER]

[URL]http://www.kefairport.is/english/transportation/buses/[/URL]

[URL]http://grayline.is/tours/reykjavik/keflavik-airport-to-reykjavik-hotels-8706_76[/URL]

I didn’t so i can’t speak to the quality there unfortunately. In general unless the breakfast is included in the room rate I’m a fan of keeping my flexibility. There are plenty of options. I’d recommend the Laundromat café right around the corner from the 1919 and Reykjavik Roasters for coffee.

We stayed there this year and I was really pleased with the hotel. It’s location is absolutely perfect. It’s definitely where we’ll stay the next time we’re back. We ate breakfast in the hotel one day but we weren’t that impressed for the price. I mostly did it because it would get me a huge points bonus from a promotion on my Club Carlson Visa. You can get it cheaper and better elsewhere as others have mentioned. Since we usually didn’t get our days started until 10 or 11 (we were there at the end of June when there was almost 24/7 sunlight so why bother getting started earlier?), most days we just got a hot dog (with the works. Amazing!) for “breakfast” at the Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur stand right next to the hotel. Quick, easy and cheap.

As far as whether or not a car rental is necessary, it all depends on what you want to do. The first few days we did stuff that was in Reykjavik or close by that you were taken to by a shuttle bus (do the Taste the Saga brewery tour, it was awesome) so a car was not necessary. The last few days we did the Golden Circle tour and the Blue Lagoon and renting a car made it a lot more convenient for us and allowed us to do everything on our own schedule and pace, as opposed to a tour bus operators. It was nice to be able to pull over whenever we wanted to take pictures and stay at whichever stop as long as we wanted. Iceland is a [I]beautiful [/I]country to drive around. Parking once you’re back in Reykjavik can be a little tough. Depending on the time and the day of the week expect the possibility of a 10 to 15 minute walk to where you’ve parked your car back to the hotel. It was worth it though. That’s also how we got back to the airport when we left so I can’t offer advice on shuttles back to the airport. Next time we’re there we probably won’t rent a car though. We want to rent a little camper van from Happy Campers and just camp out in the van for a few days when we want to do/see the stuff outside Reykjavik. Check out this video if you’ve never heard of them. [MEDIA=youtube]GaFGHFaoI-s[/MEDIA]

In any case you will love it there. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions or want any more advice on things to do/see.

We saw the campers too and definitely plan to check that out if we go again! Seems like a fun option. I wonder how they do in the colder months.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 8879, member: 79″]We saw the campers too and definitely plan to check that out if we go again! Seems like a fun option. I wonder how they do in the colder months.[/QUOTE]

I’d be interested to know too. Though low temperate camping gear is always an option if they aren’t well insulated. To be honest though, beyond seeing the northern lights which you need to go in the winter to see, I think I’m more of a spring/summer Iceland person. It’s just awesome being able to do outdoors stuff for 14-16 hours a day in full daylight. Plus you can always travel to the far north of the country and still get that “Arctic winter” experience.

Like you I questioned how soon we would be back, even though we both absolutely loved the country, since we had to pay cash for our flights. Not that it wasn’t worth the money but we’d rather travel to new places on miles before we’d pay to go back to some placed we’ve already been. By the way to anyone reading, Saga class was a waste of money leaving from JFK in my opinion. Just get exit row seats at no additional cost(!!) by booking early so the seats are still open. You can still even check one bag for free on a Y ticket. But now that the Alaska partnership has been renewed and we can soon use AS miles I think we’ll be back a lot sooner than previously planned.

I’d go back in the winter for the northern lights and the ice caves. Those were two things I definitely wanted to do that we couldn’t because it was too late in the spring. We went on a cheap WOW fare. Might keep an eye out for something really cheap this winter and go for a long weekend :).

We did a cheap WOW fare back from KEF-BOS (and then a super cheap $69 AA BOS-PHL home) but those really cheap WOW fares require you to be really flexible with your travel schedule to do it both ways. Otherwise the difference in price between them and Icelandair on your ideal travel dates isn’t worth the 4-6 hours in absolutely terrible seats, not to mention the free checked and carry on bags even in Y you get with Icelandair. However, for a long weekend where you can wear your entire wardrobe for the trip in layers so you don’t pay any fees beyond the tickets WOW could be worth it.

I understand it’s how they are able to offer such cheap base fares but I find charging for even a woman’s purse to be particularly galling. Because a purse is the standard way for a woman in Western society to carry the same things a man carries in a wallet, she has to pay extra. Seems almost discriminatory. Obviously many others have no issues with practices like this. I guess I’m just not cut out for ULCCs.

It was my first experience with a ULCC and I’d have to say I didn’t mind it much. All you can ask for is full disclosure and they were pretty good with that IMO. Like you said, if you can travel light, it works out pretty well. We paid for the extra legroom seats and found them ok for the relatively short flight.

[USER=507]@Mike[/USER] [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER]

If you 2 are serious about the whole Happy Campers thing you will see on the videos mentioning of a heating system at around 1:10.

[MEDIA=youtube]CPb7qTXdSW4[/MEDIA]

Which I assume is a diesel warmer like this.
[URL]http://www.webasto.com/int/markets-products/car/retrofit-parking-heater/our-parking-heaters/diesel-vehicles/[/URL]

I know somebody that used to have a larger camper van with a Webasto diesel warmer, worked great in the cold as long as it didn’t go tech.

Cranked all the way up it would burn about a gallon of diesel on 8 hour night.