The specific promotions described in this article have now passed, but it remains online so that the resources named will be of future use to travelers.
Iceland has never been considered much of a "bargain" destination, and by last year the weak dollar was walloping US travelers with phenomena like a $29 plate of fish and chips.
But the U.S. isn't the only country with a banking crisis right now, and Iceland's might even be worse than ours. The result is that Iceland's currency, the kronur, has gone into a crazy free fall, even against the dollar. If you keep an eye on the exchange rate and buy at the right time, you may sneak into the land of elves, waterfalls, and hot tubs at prices half-off what they were last year.
I've always adored Iceland as a destination -- it's very foreign yet very accessible, has a crazily unique landscape of volcanoes and glaciers, it's warmer than New York City in winter, and it's only five hours from the east coast. But Iceland's ice-olation has tended to make things expensive up there, until the events of the past few weeks rejiggered the currency.
The exchange rates have gone genuinely wacky, so I'd say lock in your trip while things are looking good for Americans. According to currency site OANDA.com (www.oanda.com), the kronur has averaged 74 to the dollar over the past year. When I went to Iceland last November for my article "You Can Afford: Iceland in Winter," I only got 61 kronur to the dollar. I was already saying you could afford it.
Over the past few weeks, though, things have gone bonkers. A week ago, the kronur was down to 98/dollar. As I write this on Tuesday, you can get 118 kronur to the dollar.
While you may not be able to count on this translating into low prices when you get to Iceland -- who knows what the exchange rate will be when you get there? -- you can use these low rates to immediately lock in hotels, popular tours and excursions. This is one occasion when you want to prepay.
The Fosshotel chain (www.fosshotel.is) offers "last minute discounts" of 25-35% and midweek discounts of 40% on their two Reykjavik hotels, the Baron and the Lind. The Baron has a great downtown location and amazing rates of as low as 6,540 ISK/night with either of those two promotions. With the exchange rate fluctuating from 90-120 ISK/dollar, that's an amazing $54-72/night for a nice room, downtown, in an expensive Scandinavian capital. Just make sure you prepay as much as you can to keep your strong exchange rate.
The most traditional day tour, Reykjavik Excursions' Golden Circle tour of a geyser, a waterfall and the continental rift, is 8,500 ISK (or $70-94). A round-trip to the Blue Lagoon, including admission fee, is 4,400 ISK (or $36-48.) A burger and fries at Tommiburger, the best burger joint within 500 miles, costs 980 ISK; at 100 to the dollar, that's under $10, or "not insane." Lunch at the renowned, upscale Fishmarket restaurant (http://fiskmarkadurinn.is/) is around 2,000 ISK. That's hovering around $20 now -- almost affordable. Last year those prices were almost double what they are today.
If you're nervous, I'd even say go grab some kronur cash for your trip right now. Travelex (www.travelex.com/us/) is selling kronur at 109.20/dollar right now, which will put you ahead if Iceland stabilizes their currency and the kronur drops back to 90. Check with your bank to see what their rates are, too. Of course, I'm not a financial advisor, and for all we know, the kronur may drop further. But as I said, the average over the past year has been 74.
Of course, you can go even more cheaply by staying at guesthouses or hostels, taking the public bus for ISK 280 up to climb Mount Esja and frolicking at the public hot tubs for ISK 350. At the local Salvation Army hostel right downtown, 'sleeping bag accommodation' (http://herinn.is/pages/enhet.aspx?nr=118) runs a mere ISK 2,800 -- that's $25/night if you get lucky with the exchange rates
To get the best flight price for October trips, you'll have to fly from Boston or Minneapolis. Sign up for the "Lucky Fares" group on Icelandair.com (www.icelandair.com) and log in using your new Lucky Fares password. I found plenty of flights leaving as little as a week in advance from Boston to Reykjavik for $488 roundtrip including tax. From Minneapolis, prices start at $558. There are more expensive flights from other cities, as well.
For flights starting November 1 from either Boston or New York, Icelandair is running a super-low-fare sale right now with fares as low as $408 round-trip.
Even if the kronur comes back, you may not want to count out Iceland as an interesting destination. I took my last trip to Iceland at half this exchange rate, and I still didn't break the bank.
Bonus tip: There's an excellent new website, www.restaurants.is, that gathers together most of the restaurants in Reykjavik.
