18-Day Iceland Road Trip Budget Breakdown
12 Minute Read | Written by Jackson Rule
It’s no secret that Iceland is known for being a pricey destination…
Situated in the North Atlantic between Europe and the Americas, the island nation isn’t exactly ‘local’ to anywhere! This leads to expensive flights, and the natural ruggedness of the country means certain goods and produce just aren’t as easily accessible like they would be in a more centralised and well connected part of the world.
When we told people we were going to Iceland, some of our favourite responses were; “Oh for like a few days?”, “How are you planning to afford that?”, and the best, “You must’ve taken out a mortgage!” No, we were going for 18 days, no financial assistance and some thought out and calculated budgets were how we planned to afford it. Keep reading to find out exactly how much we spent and how much we think you need to visit Iceland!
Most people we spoke with who had travelled there before had only gone for a short amount of time (most of these people being from the UK, from which Iceland is a more accessible and frequented destination than for Australian’s like us!). Most of them stayed in Reykjavik for most/all of their stay and went on tours and excursions from the city to see some of the incredible wilderness of the country. We had other plans, Iceland was most definitely a bucket-list destination with too many places to see for even the 18 days we spent there. There was no way we weren’t going to hire a car or campervan to see the entire island (or as much as we could squeeze in). Thanks to CampEasy Iceland, that’s exactly what we did!
At first glance everything does seem to be a bit more expensive than usual, but with a little bit of research it quickly becomes clear that it entirely depends on how you want to spend your time. If you plan to stay in mid to high-range accommodation, eat out for every meal and dine at some ‘authentic’ and fine(-er) dining establishments, yes, it’s going to be more expensive than most international destinations. Starter plates and main meals at some of the busier and more popular eateries ranged from ISK 1200 (~A$12) to ISK 6000 (~A$60), varying on where and what you eat.
Accommodation isn’t much different, there are budget stays (we stayed in one in Reykjavik) that to us didn’t seem any more expensive than you’d find in other European cities (we paid roughly €120 for two nights in a twin room with ensuite), but as soon as slightly more comfortable accommodation comes into the equation, the price goes up very fast. Fosshotel Reykjavik, a well presented 4-star Icelandic hotel chain for example, goes for roughly €205 a night. The suites at their rural locations along the south coast are going for around €500 a night!
Just before we jump in to our budget and what we spent our $$$ on, we just wanted to discuss tours. We didn’t visit any part of the country as part of a tour, but they are hugely popular and most of the sights along the south coast can be seen (even if only very briefly) with a huge range of tour operators from Reykjavik, some of these are more affordable and some are very expensive. We cannot recommend self-driving the island enough, but if you’re intent on staying in the capital or are restricted from driving for any reason, these can be a great option to still experience the landscapes of Iceland.
Our Iceland Budget
As you’ll see in our itinerary blog, of the 18 days we spent in Iceland we hired a CampEasy 4x4 campervan for 15 of them, spending only two nights in Reykjavik. This gave us ample space to buy from supermarkets and prepare our own food for the time we spent away from towns, saving us some money.
But how much did we spend in total?
That’s a lot of money!
Don’t worry, we hear you. But let us explain!
We travelled to Iceland as part of a collaboration with CampEasy Iceland. In exchange for some product and fashion photography for their online and in-office store we received a discount on our camper hire, bringing that to ~A$2,570, and the total to ~A$6,590 or ~$A3,623 pp. Okay that’s still a big chunk of cash, but we’ve seen budgets of people who visited for shorter times, spending much more than that. While we wouldn’t consider this a ‘budget trip’, especially by our normally very-tight-budget standards, we did almost three weeks in Iceland for a comparatively good price.
We’re from Australia, who knows when we’ll get back to Iceland and we wanted to make the most of it,
Let’s take a look at the breakdown, first up;
Transport
The biggest chunk at almost 70% of the total budget, this includes flights, fairly expensive and required transfers from Keflavik Int. Airport to Reykjavik, the van rental and all fuel costs. Depending on the way you’d like to spend your time in Iceland, this is always going to be either the biggest or smallest component of your budget. If you stay at accommodation in Reykjavik for the entire stay, you won’t be spending anything on fuel or car hire.
We rented a CampEasy Clever X 4x4 for 15 days, we go into a lot more detail about why CampEasy are probably the best van rental agency in Iceland on our itinerary blog, so we’ll keep it focused on prices here. When compared to some other van hire companies they aren’t the cheapest or the most expensive, but we found the features and services they provide to be well worth their rates. Cheaper options are available, but if you’re visiting anytime apart from the warmest (and much more more expensive) months, we personally wouldn’t have enjoyed camping in a vehicle any smaller, without a heater or the sophisticated navigation and information systems in CampEasy’s campervan. We can’t provide too many example rates as they vary so much on the features of the vans/cars and the season you’re looking to book, but when we looked we found similar 15-day hire options for as much as ~A$10,000 and as cheap as ~A$1,600, if you don’t mind 70km/h winds blowing directly into your rooftop tent.
Let’s touch on fuel as it’s the second biggest category in transport. Luckily at the time we visited Iceland, diesel was cheaper than the only other fuel option being 95 petrol. And make sure you read that as cheaper and not cheap. On average we paid ISK 252-260/litre, roughly converting to, (hang on tight Aussies), ~A$2.60 a litre. Pair that price with the 2,500km - 3,000km trip around the ring road and a campervan with a hybrid diesel/electric heating system, and there is almost no way we could’ve saved on fuel without freezing to the bone at night.
Flights, we booked the cheapest flights we could find with budget airline, EasyJet. As is usual with these carriers, we had to pay extra for checked baggage and 1 x overhead cabin baggage for each flight to get all our tech and camera gear carry on. Remember, never check your tech.
For transfers, you will have to arrange some sort of transfer from Keflavik to Reykjavik, there’s no getting around it. They’re a long distance apart and there’s no real option to walk unless you’re on a hardcore hitch-hiking adventure (which as we found, you wouldn’t be the only one). We paid €20-ish each one way for a Gray Line transfer to and from the airport, except when CampEasy picked us up on our initial arrival and after we returned the camper. Taxi’s can be up to €150 one-way. Check with your accommodation/rental agency if they offer free transfers first!
Accommodation
Accommodation? But you guys camped? If you haven’t already seen, it is illegal to park and sleep in a vehicle on the side of the road, on private property (unless directly permitted by the landowner) and in national parks and other public spaces in Iceland. This means that you’ll still end up paying (albeit a small-ish fee) for every night spent in organised campsites around the country. On average we spent roughly ISK 1750 (~A$18) per person, per night on campsites. Note: They are all per person, not per vehicle. Some of these sites also didn’t include showers in the camp fee, so it’s important to have a quick look at the site you’re planning to stay for the night and take note of any quirks like this. Our Ultimate Iceland Road Trip Itinerary Blog will share the exact sites we stayed at, but keeping it relevant to budget, there really isn’t a cheaper way to do it. In some places the only campsites can be hundreds of km’s apart so picking and choosing, especially in winter, isn’t an option.
Also worth noting in accommodation, we stayed for two nights in Reykjavik at Pavi Guesthouse. It was a pretty budget hotel/hostel located in a great spot in the city centre. We found this accommodation by literally sorting by cheapest on booking.com, and it was the second option. We had an ensuite with shower and after 15 days in the freezing Icelandic countryside, it did the trick.
Consumables
This is entirely dependent on what you eat and where you eat it. Like we said at the top, Iceland is renown for being a budget-buster to visit, and food can be the thing to bust it. In total we spent ~A$1,168 on food, drinks, groceries and on-the-road snacks. Had we been keeping an eye on this as we went, that number wouldn’t have been that high.
Groceries in Iceland. We read probably 15 blogs advising us to shop at Bonus, Netto and Kronan’s to keep the budget under control as we travelled, let this be your number 16. Grocery prices for dry goods, tinned soups, baked beans, 2-minute noodles and the like are actually really decent. We found them cheaper than in Edinburgh, and while this is the case for a fair range of Icelandic supermarket offerings, fresh meat is where things start to change. We found lamb roast in some stores at over A$100/kg, and chicken breast was no cheaper than A$25/kg anywhere we looked. As a result, most of our grocery purchases were dry-goods and ready to eat foods, muesli bars, and the aforementioned tinned foods and noodles.
We definitely spent more at the N1 service centres than we had anticipated. But after spending all day fighting bullets of rain and insane winds in single digit temps, a pretty decent hotdog (or four) and hot coffee prepared for you in seconds becomes a lot more appealing than putting mystery ham on bread surrounded by drenched outerwear in the back of the van. Keeping it real here. Will we do it differently when we go back? Absolutely. Do we regret that A$480 decision? Not even a little.
Other Expenses
Attractions made up the bulk of our ‘everything else’ category, and compared to a visit to most other European nations where museums, beach entry and site entry will burn your wallet, we didn’t spend much!
The heavy hitter was visiting Sky Lagoon, which we would 100% go back to. For the ~A$100 entry fee per person, we got access to their ‘seven step ritual’ as well as unlimited use of the lagoon itself and we thought it was worth the price tag. If we were keeping the budget super tight though, the natural hot pools around the country would’ve sufficed and cost us significantly less. Important to note, we visited Sky Lagoon instead of the massively popular Blue Lagoon.
Two of the hot pots we visited, Hronalaug and Hauganes, cost ISK 1000 (~A$10) per person. Like the more developed lagoon in Reykjavik, you can spend as long as you want in there and as you’ll see in our itinerary blog, they can eat a whole lot of your day up. Where else can you mull in a hot spa looking out over unbelievable fjords and valleys?
A few of the expenses weren’t so pretty, but definitely necessities. Travel Insurance we purchased through World Nomads. As Australian citizens residing in the UK for as short a time as we did (and during the pandemic), it was difficult to find a provider that would cover us, and World Nomads do a good job of including people in unusual situations like that. The premium coverage we had in case of cancellations relating to the pandemic, our own injury, and medical in Iceland cost ~A$160 for both of us. We also paid roughly ~A$90 per person for our C19 tests to arrive in Iceland and our UK required Day 2 tests upon return cost (~A$50). Some of these pandemic related costs will not be necessary anymore.
Did we do it “on a budget”?
Compared to some people we spoke with about travelling Iceland, definitely. But this was undeniably the most expensive single trip we’ve ever been on, so from our point of view, no.
Whether a trip is ‘budget’ or not depends on your own circumstances, but we would say without a doubt that this was an extremely cost-effective trip. From the time of year we visited to the transport we used to explore the country, we got the best value we possibly could’ve (besides those N1 snacks).
Can it be done “on a budget”?
Absolutely yes! If you’re just looking for a few days to a week in the country to see a couple of breathtaking natural scenes, explore the Icelandic capital and visit the Blue Lagoon, it can definitely be done on a tight budget!
To give you an idea of what’s possible with different budgets, check out our mock budgets below for some inspiration!
What would we do with different budgets?
Keep in mind, this is what we would do if we returned with different budgets. This is not a comprehensive list of everything and every way you could visit the country. Some people spend months hiking and wild-camping around the entire island for a minimal amount and some people spend tens of thousands on 10 day luxury trips. Everyone is different and everyone travels differently, so here’s what we would do.
*Prices roughly calculated in $AUD
$1,000 pp (MAX 7 days)
Flights (from a European or North American location, anywhere else is probably not possible) would eat up to 30% of this budget, leaving you with around $700 to spend on hostels, the most basic eating and maybe a single day trip along the south coast.
We would stay in the absolute cheapest multi-bed dorm room we could find in Reykjavik and plan our time around that. We’d look at an absolute max 7 day stay in the country, as you’re fairly bound to Reykjavik this would be plenty of time on that budget.
Take a day or two to explore the city on foot, getting a feel of Icelandic culture with its blend of 19th century European architecture and modern minimalism. We would research some free walking tours or free open-air exhibitions or museums.
Before arriving, we’d look through as many day tours from Reykjavik as possible and find the absolute cheapest one that meets enough of our needs regarding sights. Avoiding any luxury, private or comfort options, we’d will probably end up in a huge tour bus with 60 other people visiting Jokulsarlon, Diamond Beach, Reynisfjara, Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss for 15-20 minutes each.
It’s doable, but be prepared for an ‘Iceland-lite’ experience.
$1,000 - $3,000 pp ( 5 - 14 Days)
We’d have some options here, but we would definitely visit outside of summer.
Most likely we’d look at a 5 day - 10 day, budget camper rental (remember that roof-top tent we mentioned?). Note: we always go for the camper over the car-plus-accommodation option as campsites are always cheaper, and you can usually roll up at a campsite at any time if you burn all your daylight seeing attractions.
Most of the budget will be camper hire + fuel, and to try and fit in one/some of the more expensive attractions we would be on a strict diet of dry/tinned goods from the supermarkets. We’d try to sneak in a few of the more attractions, the artificial lagoons in and around Reykjavik such as Sky Lagoon or Blue Lagoon.
Focusing our trip around photography as we do, with that amount of time, we would probably drive to Stokksnes and spend the rest of the time slowly driving back along the south coast. This would let us spend as much time as possible seeing all the insane things to see along that route without having to rush.
$3,000 - $6,000 pp ( 10 - 21 Days)
The middle of this range is roughly what we actually did spend during our 18 day trip in October/November. This shows just how much it can vary depending on time of year and what you’d like to do while there.
Outside of summer it opens up a lot of options for van and car rentals, with some more choice between staying in exclusively campsites or some of the more boutique guesthouses around the island. With a budget like this we would probably still hire a camper for the flexibility that comes with it and spend our time following roughly the itinerary we did, with a few modifications depending on actual budget available.
At the upper end we would stay in some more remote guesthouses like some gems you can find on Airbnb and look at possibly heading to the Westfjords, a beautiful area of Iceland not as commonly visited but extremely restricted depending on weather/season.
$6,000+ pp (21 Days +)
With a frugal mindset, this amount would allow for a huge range of approaches to an Iceland trip.
We would go the camper route again (shocking), and plan to spend much longer in each region of the country. For us the biggest benefit of a larger cash pool is time. Time is absolutely crucial when trying to work around Icelandic weather patterns and if you’re visiting when the days are short, so being able to hire out the vehicle for a longer period would ensure that not only can you get to everything you want to, but it’s possible to wait out bad weather without having to totally scrap certain locations. Again, the weather here can be insane, seriously.
It’s worth noting that with this budget more comfortable and relaxing holiday options do become available. Staying in some of the most impressive guesthouses in the wilderness and eating at restaurants every night is an option if that’s more your thing. Keep in mind this would reduce the time spent in the country however.
That's it!
If you’ve made it down here, thank you so much for reading!
We’ve shared absolutely everything about what we spent during our trip to Iceland to help you plan your very own adventure to that unbelievable place, if you have any questions or have had your own experience in Iceland, let us know below!