From Reykjavík: 4, 5, 6 or 7-Day Small-Group Ring Road Tour

Posted By : U6005MSkathleens
Thank you, Nice Travel for a magical week in Iceland. We will be singing your praises to anyone we know who is contemplating a visit. Our guide for the first four days, Mika, was wonderful...so kind and caring about our needs and even our wants. (He found puffins for my husband!) He transmitted to us his love for Iceland and its geography, history and culture in his informative commentaries. He also kept us enthralled as he acquainted us with trolls and their escapades. Addi and Thoray were also great guides, though we were with them for a shorter time. They flavored their explanatory narratives with their own unique personalities and interests. The two concerns we had before our trip were availability of restrooms and physicality required for sightseeing as we are 81 years old. Firstly, all the guides were very good about scheduling bathroom stops, so this was absolutely not a problem. Secondly, we were able to tailor our sightseeing stops to match our physical abilities. We could choose our level of engagement at each stop. As an example, as we were preparing to scale the 500 or so steps of Grabrokargigar crater, Addi instructed us: "If climbing the steps becomes too difficult for you, I have an alternative solution, Turn around!" That was excellent advice and served us well throughout the trip. So, thank you so much for a never-to-be-forgotten week.
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Posted On : 2023-06-23

Posted By : asl492
I took the 7 day Ring Road Tour. As others have noted, this isn’t really a true 7 day tour but a combination of several shorter tours. I wound up having four different tour guides on four different minibuses. I wasn’t crazy about this arrangement but it worked out okay. For the first four days, my travel guide was Mika as we explored Northern Iceland and then the East Coast and South Coast, respectively. Mika was excellent, easily the best of the four tour guides I had. He was very friendly and informative, always making sure that everyone was comfortable and enjoying the tour. On day five, we traveled to the Western part of the country and our tour guide was Brian. He had a more reserved, business like approach. Nothing wrong with that but it was a bit of a come down after Mika. We fared better on day six with Christina as we continued west along the Snaefellsness peninsula. She was much friendlier and more enthusiastic. On our final day, we did the celebrated Golden Circle tour with Arnar (or Arna). He had a good sense of humor and provided helpful information on what we were seeing. The minibus seated 19 and it did feel a bit cramped as we got on and off it, especially if you had to sit toward the back. Just a minor complaint, though. The seats themselves were comfortable enough. The company promises a USB port for every seat and that was certainly true on the vehicle we had for the first four days. However, I noticed some of the solo seats toward the back of vehicles on the later segments of the tour didn’t have USB ports, at least none that I could see. All the tour guides did a good job of scheduling rest stops and bathroom breaks. I’ve seen some commenters complain that lunch stops often involved stopping at gas station convenience stores. I don’t know what they were expecting. This is Iceland, after all. It’s not as if you’re going to encounter supermarkets and full service restaurants around every corner. Overall, I found the food in Iceland to be quite impressive, even in the casual eateries. The accommodations throughout the trip were pretty basic but I wasn’t expecting anything fancy, especially out in the more remote areas. Every room I stayed in was clean and functional and that was adequate for me. By Icelandic standards, Nice Travel is a budget company compared to some competitors like Nordic Visitor or Arctic Adventures. For what you pay, I think they offer reasonable value. You’ll see all the major sites and a few off the beaten path ones you might not see with other tours. My advice, though, is to take the four day tour rather than the seven day tour. The former will give you most of the best sites, and you can maybe supplement it with a separate day tour of the Snaefellsness peninsula. This might be heresy to say but I would pass on the Golden Circle. The Gullfoss waterfall is beautiful but the viewpoints don’t show it off to its best effect, and you’ll see even better waterfalls on the four day tour. Also, the geyser area will seem anticlimactic if you’ve been to Yellowstone. Just my opinion :)
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Posted On : 2022-07-30

Posted By : planetabbi
I cannot express how wonderful this tour was. Halldór and Þormóður took excellent care of us as we circled the Ring Road. This was my first time joining a tour group and I couldn’t be happier with the experience. Tips: be ready for any kind of weather - we were here in June and had everything from freezing temps with wind and rain to warm sunny days.
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Posted On : 2022-06-22

Posted By : David_J
The tour operator, NICE Travel, was excellent, providing friendly personable driver guides, timely pickup and delivery services customized to our personal needs.
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Posted On : 2022-06-09

Posted By : carpelocum
My wife and I just returned from Iceland and this incredible 7 Day Ring Road Tour with NiceTravel that began July 24th. Iceland is one of those places people often visit as a layover or for a couple days. There are plenty of quick tours out of Reykjavik that take you on the Golden Circle Tour or other 1-3 day tours. The 7 Day Ring Road Tour with NiceTravel is a whole different experience and adventure. Nice Travel takes you on an immersive experience all about the country with a dedicated driver/guide. Stay in a different guesthouse each night and meet and eat with the locals. Travel comfortably in a smaller group- ours was 9 people- in a nice 19 passenger van with wifi and comfortable seating. Meet and learn about your group and become like a family as you hike together, eat together, travel together, explore together, and live together for 7 action-packed days. The smaller groups provided by Nice Travel as compared to some of the other tour companies in Iceland provides an exceptional level of service, personalization, and flexibility. They know the country and have a passion for sharing it with you. If you've seen the posts on social media like "15 Best Places to See in Iceland" or other top 10 lists out there, be assured this tour hit them all for all the lists we saw beforehand. Plenty of time was allowed as well at each attraction. We were surprised how many times we saw other tours arrive after us and leave before we did- they basically had time to rush out, take pics, and get back on their bus. NiceTravel provides time to enjoy each attraction and photo opportunity. If you aren't familiar with guesthouses, the experience may seem a bit unusual at first. A simple room with a bed to sleep in, shared bathrooms and showers, shared kitchens and dining areas all contribute to the Icelandic experience- go with it and enjoy it. After the first couple days, as your small group adjusts and bonds, it will all become comfortable and just part of the memorable experience. NiceTravel selects nice guesthouses and manages all the arrangements and scheduling. The NiceTravel website provides a great overview of this tour. Just know that that overview/itinerary provides just a sample of the highlights and stops you will make each day. There are so many other attractions and stops too numerous to list- your driver/guide is the coordinator of your daily schedule and will do a great job giving you the experience of a lifetime. Our group was active and energetic, we kept our driver/guide Valli on his toes. His patience, flexibility, and adaptability was great. We made a few unplanned stops as things got our attention or we saw things nearby that were movie location sites that we wanted to explore. We spent some extra time at many sites and definitely pushed the schedule. Valli was always happy, patient, fun, and full of information and was just a part of our group family. If you are visiting Iceland, I cant recommend enough that you choose NiceTravel as your guide hosts. You wont be disappointed. And a special thanks to Valli for all his hard work and hours he put in with us, giving us all one of the most incredible and memorable experiences in our lifetimes- ages 13-85. Thank you, my friend.
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Posted On : 2019-08-05

Posted By : LizCira
I cannot recommend this tour and our tour guide, David, highly enough! I went with a group of five other friends, and we had an unreal 7 days driving around wild Iceland. Two of us were celebrating birthdays and I don't know how we'll ever top this. We saw so much more than if we'd done this on our own, and everything (whale watching, glacier hiking, museum tickets, lunch reservations) was arranged for us in advance--all we had to do was show up. David went out of his way to show us extra things he loves that were not on the tour itinerary, and I feel so lucky to have had this experience. Almost all of our days ended in a hot tub or geothermal spa, so pack a bathing suit (if you're going in summer.) Most of the guest houses we stayed at were in remote, gorgeous locations and I don't know how we would have found them by ourselves. The sun never set, which was surreal. Somehow, the waterfalls just kept getting more stunning. Thank you David and Nice Travel!
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Posted On : 2019-07-14

Posted By : noodledreaming
I just got home from the 7 day guided Ring Road tour, the first week of July, and it was just wonderful. This was one of the best vacations of my entire life, that I will remember forever. My guide was Giuseppe and he did a great job of explaining in detail Icelandic culture, geography, plants, and animals. The tour I was on only had 8 people so we were able to spread out in the bus. It was a nice bus that had WiFi and USB chargers. I enjoyed every day of the tour. They were all filled with fun and unique things to see and do. It was sunny for about half the days and rainy for the other half but as long as you pack appropriate rain gear and cold weather gear, the weather will not stop you from full enjoying yourself. I was a solo traveler and I felt this tour was a really good way for a solo traveler to see a lot of Iceland. I also love animals so I was happy I got to see many sheep, horses, puffins, various other types of birds, and even some whales, dolphins, and seals. The accommodations are simple but always clean and good value. I think this trip is really good for almost everyone--I am pretty young and active so I enjoyed doing the glacier hike, running about on the trails, etc, but some of the other people in my group were older and not as active and they still really enjoyed it. Even if you don't think of yourself as a nature lover, the sights in Iceland are so amazing that they might convert you.
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Posted On : 2019-07-11

Posted By : waldy36
Ever felt like visiting one of those fairy tale lands you read about? Ice, fire, history, folklore, wild, exciting, spiritual and unequal natural beauty...that's as close to a description of Iceland as I can come up with. On my 4th trip to Iceland, I chose to take a 3rd Tour through Nicetravel and of course request my amazing guide David. This time around I booked the 7 Day Ring Road Tour with 5 friends. Special thanks to Tryggvi for making the tour happen for us. Tryggvi, you have a loyal customer for life here. Moving on, Iceland, what an incredible place. David, our phenomenal tour guide (or friend as I like to think of him) is just a never-ending fountain of knowledge of everything related to Iceland. Every place we passed or arrived at, David had extra tidbits of interesting information to share with our group. Did I mention that our group was composed of only 6 people? It made the trip all the better. Going through this magical place during Summer Solstice was just unreal! As you can see from the itinerary on Nicetravel's website, we visited a great deal of places, from volcanoes to black sand beaches to glaciers to whale watching to geysir to the most breathtaking waterfalls I have ever seen! So as to keep this review as short as possible (Ha! too late) I will share my favorite 5 places visited on this trip: 1. Gljúfrabúi - a hidden waterfall you have to go through a little river (hopscotching from stone to stone) through the cave entrance. Once you are through you are rewarded with this paradisaical waterfall. This was my second time visiting this spot and I still find it absolutely stunning! 2. Jökulsárlón - a glacier lagoon where you will see the most beautiful blue icebergs which break-off from the Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier (another favorite repeat spot). Unfortunately the Diamond Beach is not getting a mention this time since due to the summer temperatures there were no Diamonds to see. Next time! 3. Dyrhólaey - it is a vantage point into heaven on earth. The magnificent view from the top include the glacier, the unreal black sand beach and the beautiful land of the south with lagoons and mountains and hills and birds nesting nearby. <3 4. Whale Watching - I don't know what else to say other than WOW!!! 5. Glacier Walk - it is just amazing to me to be able to walk on a glacier. David, our guide, brought us to the top of the Glacier where we could see the Ice, the green mountains and a small waterfall. Honorary mentions to Seljalandsfoss, absolutely stunning waterfall that you can walk behind and see the sunset through the fall, Vik, Stokksnes (viking village) and the visit to the year-round mini Christmas village...that was a treat!!! I can go on for pages. As I am sure you have already figured out, I LOVE ICELAND. One of the best parts of this experience was actually seeing Iceland through David's eyes. His love and knowledge of the country makes it interesting and informative add David's witty, fun and caring personality then you are sure to have an unforgettable experience! Thank you David, Tryggvi and Nicetravel for making this trip simply magical. See you next year!!
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Posted On : 2019-07-08

Posted By : MissMayaC
This trip was absolutely incredible. I took this tour from June 21 - 27, 2019 with a group of five other friends and it will go down in history as one of the absolute best trip experiences of my lifetime (which is saying something as the daughter of a flight attendant who grew up traveling all over the globe). Nice Travel company was so incredibly accommodating and saw to our every last need, including our request for a specific guide two people in our group had taken previous tours with in the past. We were picked up by the BEST guide in all of Iceland (David) at our hotel the morning of the tour around 8:30am and on the way to the first stop, we got to make our first "why not" stop. What is a "why not" stop, you may ask? It's an extra stop that David would propose to the group if we had enough time and it would still keep us on schedule-- guys, would you like to make an extra stop at a scenic lookout point? Why not? By the end of the week, we would all shout "YES!" in unison at any of these suggestions before we even heard what the option was. David knew every little awesome secret place along the ring road route and genuinely cared about maximizing our time there by adding all these amazing little extra tidbits and experiences in-- which was on top of a tour that is already packed to the gills with myriad landscapes and scenery and experiences. Day 1 we got a beautiful scenic, backroad lookout spot on our way to the traditional Golden Circle tour (which includes tectonic plates in Thingvellir National Park, geysirs in Blaskogabyggo, and Gullfoss waterfall). In the middle of this, we had requested to make a special diversion to a place along the way (in Laugarvatn) that makes Lava Bread (think: bread slowly cooked in a pot in the ground for 24 hours by natural, geothermal heat). David took us there and we all bought our collective bodyweight in delicious bread and continued on. We also had another extra stop where we got to feed and pet some Tiny Horses (don't call them "ponies"!). We continued on after that to Kerid Crater to walk the circumference and peer down at the lake in the center of a giant crater, reflecting the gorgeous blue sky and clouds above. We then visited another waterfall (Seljalandsfoss) where we got to walk a path to actually go behind it and were lucky enough to catch a little rainbow that came out just as our group arrived. At the end of the day we stayed in a great hostel and stayed up to watch the midnight sun for the Solstice. I am realizing as I type this out that I would write a small novel if I typed out all that each subsequent day was filled with, so instead I will try to summarize by saying that each day went by in the blink of an eye and yet also felt like it was a week long, all at the same time. By day 3 we were saying "remember when we hiked that glacier?" and then someone would answer "yeah, that was yesterday!" The constant daylight and full schedule felt mindbending, in the best of ways. I'm not an exercise buff, but as a New Yorker, I do walk around a lot and even still I found myself pretty exhausted after some of the days. I didn't have to go up every set of stairs or walking path for each of the stops- everything was optional, but I also pushed myself to do so because when else would I have the opportunity for such breathtaking views of these otherworldly landscapes? The end result was blissful, restful sleep that only comes when every molecule in your body is worn out. I didn't even have to close the shades or wear an eyemask, I would just happily pass out each evening. David had an almost encyclopedic-level well of detailed background information and history for every spot we stopped at and was very happy to answer every last question from our group- even from some of us who make questioning an Olympic sport. He did so with a combination of humor, friendliness and eagerness that added an extra special dimension to the tour. Sure, anyone could retrace the steps and stops on their own or with another guide, but it was David's unbridled enthusiasm and obvious love of the country that was utterly infectious. Every last person on our tourbus fell in love with Iceland. Those of us who have been before fell deeper and those who were visiting for the first time were already plotting out return visits before the tour was over. If we fell behind at a stop for one reason or another, David was very patient with us and quick on his feet to adapt to any delay, always ensuring a very smooth transition from stop to stop (for example, he would call ahead and ensure we still had reservations so the group wouldn't get stuck without lunch options in a couple of instances where we had accidentally strayed from the original itinerary timetable). In summation, if you are thinking about booking this tour, DO IT. Do it with Nice Travel and if you are able to be as lucky as my group was, do it with David. The only regret you will have is how quickly seven days passes before your eyes. On a scale of 1 - 5 stars, I give 100 stars. Soooo good!
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Posted On : 2019-07-05

Posted By : Julia_7_days
I went to Iceland with Nice Travel from 5 to 11 June 2019. We were fortunate to be a group of only 4 people with a great guide (Michael), who taught us a lot about the country and allowed us to do great extra stops. The 7 day tour is really top. The very comfortable minibus with even the wifi, the charming guesthouses and the grandiose landscapes. Hiking on the glacier is a great activity. We had the great chance of 6 days of sunshine and a grayer day but no rain. Iceland is an absolutely beautiful country that I really recommend to discover with Nice Travel. Wherever you look, you marvel.
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Posted On : 2019-07-04