How Much Does a Trip to Iceland Cost — and Where We’d Save

Iceland is an expensive country, so when you start planning a trip there it pays to think hard about keeping the costs down. This article covers what drives those costs, how far they swing through the year, and what you can do to hold them in check.

What determines the cost of your trip to Iceland

The biggest single items in any Iceland budget are usually flights, accommodation and car rental. And how much each of them costs depends above all on the month you choose. High season is more expensive than low season everywhere in the world, but in Iceland the gap is unusually wide.

Prices for almost everything are at their lowest from November to April, and at their highest in July and August. For rental cars the difference between winter and summer can be as much as three times. Given that a car is a big line item to begin with, paying triple for it really hurts. May and June — and to some extent September and October — sit in between. You will see specific numbers below.

On top of that you need to add food and admission to the attractions you pay for. Those costs depend more on your own preferences and on how you approach the trip, but below we give you an idea of the numbers, along with some suggestions on what to skip and what is worth the money.

Remember that while everything is cheaper out of season, not everything is available. Many campsites, guesthouses and restaurants only open in spring and close again in autumn. Almost all mountain roads — and therefore the entire interior — are open only from late June to early September (read more: Iceland’s Roads — What to Expect). Ice caves, on the other hand, run in winter only. So the timing of your trip is decisive not just for your budget, but for your whole itinerary.

Limiting the cost of an Iceland trip

Iceland is an expensive destination, and it is only natural to look for ways to spend less. A short trip will of course cost less than a long one — but per day it will usually turn out to be the most expensive of all.

So what can you do to see Iceland, enjoy it, and not spend a fortune?

Jumping ahead of the rest of this article: the cheapest way to travel around Iceland is by bicycle or on foot. That way you pay nothing for a car, its insurance or its fuel. On top of that, cyclists and hikers in Iceland may pitch a tent almost anywhere, so accommodation drops to nearly zero as well — nearly, because every few days it makes sense to spend a night at a proper campsite.

A cycling or walking trip is not for everyone, though. It takes serious preparation and genuinely good gear, and if you want to see the whole country the trip has to be much longer. Iceland is a wonderland for hikers and cyclists, and since the cost of a trip like that barely changes between winter (for the brave), spring and summer, it is absolutely worth planning one for the summer months.

For most travelers, though, the best and most convenient way to see Iceland is by car. In that case, here are the ten most important rules for putting together a cheap trip:

The cost of accommodation and car rental in Iceland

Choosing a car and choosing where to sleep are closely linked, because Iceland offers a very appealing combination: campervans plus campsites. Rent a campervan and you pay more for the vehicle but save on accommodation. Very often the two roughly cancel out. What you gain is flexibility — campsites need no advance booking, so you can rework your route at any moment depending on the weather or on how everyone feels.

Camping in a tent is obviously the cheapest option. In April and May, though, it is a real challenge, and many campsites are still closed in April. Even in summer, night temperatures often drop to around 10 °C (50°F). So a tent makes sense mainly for trips between June and August. Even then, very strong, cold winds are simply part of the weather, so living in a tent — or just packing and unpacking camp — can be hard work.

Campervans are of course more expensive than your own tent, but even a big motorhome works out per person at about the same as staying in hostels. A campervan is less comfortable than a guesthouse or hostel, but it gives you incomparably more freedom.

In practice the great advantage of a campervan is that you can make tea or a snack in it in the middle of the day at no extra cost. In a country where a hot dog at a gas station sets you back $4 to $5, those snacks and lunches add up to a surprising amount…

The table below compares car rental and accommodation prices in May, for seven days and 1,500 km (930 mi) of driving. For more comparisons — car rental prices in other months, for instance — see What kind of car to hire in Iceland.

As you can see, the cheapest way is to travel as a group of four, rent a fairly small car without 4×4 and sleep in your own tents. Done that way, the trip — flights, food and paid attractions aside — can come in well under $250 per person. The other options land somewhere between about $500 and $680.

As we said, the price of a rental car changes dramatically from month to month. For more comparisons, detailed tables and advice on what is and isn’t worth doing, read What kind of car to hire in Iceland. Below we show just a few examples from that article.

Sample car rental prices in Iceland, for 7 days. The price in ISK or EUR is for the whole vehicle; the dollar figure is per person.

The jump between April and June is noticeable but not dramatic. It is the peak-summer prices — July’s, for instance — that are in a different league.

Campervans and motorhomes cost about 65 to 70% more in July than in April. When you compare them with an ordinary passenger car, remember to add what you would spend on guesthouses or hostels. If you don’t want to sleep in a tent, accommodation will eat most of the difference between the two kinds of vehicle.

Ordinary cars, meanwhile, are 150 to 170% more expensive in the summer. If you are going to Iceland in July, a tent is worth serious thought.

Naturally, the cost per person depends heavily on how many people are in the car. A campervan Renault Master shared by four people rather than the five it seats works out more expensive per head than a roomy, luxurious six-berth motorhome divided by six.

By the same logic a Toyota Aygo is clearly the cheapest per person — as long as four people travel in it. Bear in mind, though, that four people in a car that small means very little luggage. In practice it is a two-person car.

Interestingly, large passenger vans do not work out cheaper than renting two ordinary cars. They only become competitive per person against four-seat cars when you divide the price by a full nine passengers. But nine passengers also means nine sets of luggage, and that can be hard to fit even in a big van’s trunk, especially with tents and camping gear along.

Flights and ferries to Iceland

There is no honest way to put a number on airfare in an article like this. What you pay depends entirely on where you set off from — and not merely which continent, but which airport.

What does hold everywhere is the shape of the year. July is by a wide margin the most expensive month to fly to Iceland; October and November are usually the cheapest. Out of season a ticket can cost half the summer price, or less.

Dates matter as much as months, though. Picking a departure or return date a day earlier or later can change the fare significantly, so while you are still choosing when to go, look at a whole month at once rather than at a single day. We use Kayak for that — it lays out the lowest fares across the month and lets you see at a glance which days are worth aiming for. Check it yourself before you fix anything else about the trip: the month you fly decides the price of almost everything else on this page.

The cost of food in Iceland

If you cook for yourselves and shop in supermarkets, food will cost you about what it costs anywhere else in Europe.

About $13 per person per day is a fair estimate, although you can easily spend a good deal more, or slightly less. There is more on grocery prices here: Grocery Shopping in Iceland: Prices and Store Opening Hours.

Eat out, on the other hand, and coming in under $25 per person will be a struggle. Whether you go for traditional Icelandic dishes or for one of the fashionable street-food matholl food halls, a single main course runs to about $25, so a whole dinner is more like $35 to $50 a head. For what to try and where to go, see Iceland for Foodies – What’s Worth Trying and Where.

A gas station hot dog

The cost of tourist attractions in Iceland

A trip to Iceland is full of excitement even if you never book a single paid tour — but some of them really are worth the price.

We put together a fairly extensive list of those attractions, with prices and booking links, in Prices in Iceland: how much does food, fuel, attractions cost.

You see most attractions on your own, free and without a guide. Paid parking and admission to the smaller sites are a minor expense — $50 per person at most for the whole trip.

Below we set out two model approaches: first, only the unique, essential attractions; second, everything genuinely interesting.

Basic attractions

The basic attractions, the ones without which a trip to Iceland would feel incomplete, are:

The whole set costs about $500 per person (2023 prices). Each one is genuinely worth the money, but if you have to cut, see only the free lava cave (Surtshellir), skip the Blue Lagoon — and visit as many free hot springs as you can instead — and possibly drop Perlan. The two most interesting and most unique of them, the ice cave tour and the whale watching cruise, come to about $275 per person together; that is still a lot, but it really is worth finding the money for.

Additional attractions

If you want to book paid tours, the choice is enormous and you can spend as much as you like.

Here are just a few popular extras:

This list could go on forever… You can book all of these and many more through our own portal: Rumbomundo – Tourdesk.

All of these activities, tours and attractions are interesting, of course. Many are experiences you cannot have anywhere else in the world. If budget — and time — are not a problem for you, by all means go ahead.

Total costs of a trip to Iceland

As we said earlier, the final figure depends enormously on the size of your group, the season, the length of the trip, how you travel and how early you are willing to book.

There is, obviously, no upper limit. One night in a Lagoon Suite at the Blue Lagoon, with private access to a mini-spa, costs 340,000 ISK, about $2,830 — breakfast included :-D. Three days at that standard with full board and a scenic helicopter flight will set two people back some $10,000.

Leaving that sort of thing aside, the table below sets out the cost of a rather more down-to-earth trip: four people, seven days. It covers what you spend once you are in Iceland; airfare is deliberately left out, for the reasons given above.

The budget scenario assumes a small car (a Kia Rio, say) for four people, sleeping in tents, cooking your own meals, giving up most paid attractions, and early bookings — at least six months ahead — and/or special deals on everything that has to be booked.

The comfort scenario assumes a slightly larger car (a Kia Ceed wagon, say), still for four people; hostels and/or guesthouses; two or three meals in affordable restaurants; all the basic attractions from the list above; and fairly late bookings, about three months ahead, at regular prices for flights, accommodation and the car.

As you can see, if you want to save money and travel out of season, you can hold your costs on the ground to a little over $300 per person. With a little luck on car rental prices, and if you decide, say, not to eat in restaurants, even on that budget you can still put something aside for a paid attraction or two. A whale watching cruise really is worth it.

On the other hand, if you don’t book well in advance, if you can’t be flexible about dates and you like a bit of comfort and a few extras, the same week runs close to five times as much — over $1,500 per person, and that is still before you buy a ticket.

Other guides

Whatever you end up spending on the trip, it is worth squeezing as much as you can out of it.

Ready-made trip plans that are easy to adapt to your own requirements are here:

Plenty of guides, more and less detailed, both on what to see and on how to prepare for the trip, are collected here:

And we have put together an overview of the most interesting places to visit and things to do in this article: