Remember last November I set a budget for our Iceland road trip? Well I’m here today with an update for you! I have our actual Iceland road trip expenses from our 2 week road trip last month!
Only one thing really majorly changed from the original budget. We ended up renting a 2WD car rather than a 4×4 due to the cost. Everything else was pretty much as planned, no nasty surprises!
So without further ado, lets find out how much it actually costs to road trip in Iceland for 2 weeks in April.
Accommodation
We stayed in hotels and cottages as planned over the 2 weeks. There were certainly cheaper options but I like my creature comforts unfortunately for hubby.
The budgeted cost was £100 per night for 14 nights – £1,400.
We ended up staying 15 nights and the actual cost was £124.48 per night – £1,867.24
I will do a post on where we stayed in Iceland shortly!
Read More: A 2 Week Iceland Road Trip Itinerary
Car Hire
As I mentioned before we opted for a 2WD rather than a 4×4. Mainly because of the cost to be honest.
Read More: A Complete Guide to Hiring a Car & Driving in Iceland
Check out the post above where I explain our choices.
Our budget for car hire was £800.
We hired a car from Thrifty and actually spent £816.79 or £54.45 per day.
Hit the nail on the head!
Fuel
This was basically a stab in the dark guess. Turns out fuel costs about 200ISK per litre (£1.45/litre).
Our budgeted cost was £20-£25 per day (based on 14 days) – say £300.
We actually spent £340.82 or £22.72 per day for 15 days. Not too bad.
Food & Drink
We stayed in a mixture of hotels and self catering accommodation so had a mixture of restaurant meals and homecooked food.
The budget for food was £35-£40 per day (based on 14 days) – say £500.
We actually spent £506.38 on restaurants/cafes and £178.82 on supermarket food. A total of £685.19 or £45.68 per day for 15 days.
This does include a big splurge on cocktails at our first hotel of £46.86 and alcohol from a Vinbudin of £27.49.
So if you remove the alcohol, which is sooo expensive out there, its only £610.84 or £40.72 per day!
Read More: What to Pack for Iceland
Activities
We decided not to do many paid activities in the end due to budget constraints.
We took the lift to the top of Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik £13.72, went to the Secret Lagoon £41.91 and took a tour of a Lava Cave £49.53.
So these cost £105.16 in total.
Baring in mind these prices are for 2 people its not so bad at all.
The budget was originally £400 but we decided we didn’t have that much to spend.
Read More: Visiting the Secret Lagoon
Flights
We took an Icelandair flight from London Heathrow to Keflavik. I wanted to travel with an airline that didn’t make you pay extra for your hold baggage!
Our budget was £400. We actually paid £288.80 for both of us return.
Other Expenses
We also incurred some small expenditure which wasn’t on the original budget.
Parking in Thingvellir £3.81, tolls to take the tunnel on the way to Snaefellsness £7.62 and some small souvenirs £15.16.
Credit Card Fees
Our hotels and car hire were reserved with and paid on a credit card.
We incurred fees on the currency exchange unfortunately and these totalled £80.22.
2 Week (15 days) Iceland Road Trip Expenses for 2 People
- Accommodation: £1,867.24
- Car Hire: £816.79
- Fuel: £340.82
- Food & Drink: £685.19
- Activities: £105.16
- Flights: £288.80
- Other: £26.59
- Credit Card Fees: £80.22
- TOTAL: £4,210.81 (£2,105.40 per person)
My original budget was £3,800 so I feel we did reasonably well! Food and drink was more expensive than we thought, as was accommodation.
2 Week (15 days) Iceland Road Trip Expenses for 2 People – Daily Breakdown
- Accommodation: £124.48
- Car Hire: £54.45
- Fuel: £22.72
- Food & Drink: £45.68
- Activities: £7.01
- Other: £1.77
- TOTAL: £256.11 (£128.06 per person)
I haven’t included flights or credit card fees in the above. Obviously they will vary greatly depending on where you are coming from and if you use a credit card.
Iceland is an expensive country to travel in (as you can see!) but it really is a beautiful place that you must see at least once in your lifetime.
You don’t have to spend 2 weeks there or road trip the entire Ring Road like we did. There are plenty of shorter itineraries that you can follow to see the best of Iceland.
Read More: My Iceland Road Trip Diaries
Let me know if you found this post helpful in the comments 🙂 If you have any other questions just ask!
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We recently returned from a 6 night stay in Iceland and plan to return for 2 week ring road trip, your report was extremely helpful to us to plan for this, thank you.
Did you ever write part 3? Can’t find it and have enjoyed reading parts 1 & 2!
Not yet! 🙁 It’s on the top of my to do list, I’ve had a couple of people ask about it now! Glad you enjoyed them, I’ll let you know when part 3 is up!
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Wow, food is ridiculously expensive in Iceland. I guess cooking your own meals is the way to go. Thanks for sharing!
It really is, I was surprised! Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading 🙂
I will immediately grab your rss feed as I can not in finding your email subscription link or e-newsletter service.
Do you have any? Kindly allow me realize so that I could subscribe.
Thanks.
Hey thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to sign up here! I have now added a subscribe option to my homepage too 🙂
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