A Spontaneous Winter Getaway to Iceland
An honest review of TUI’s 5 night package holiday to Reykjavík, Iceland.
2024 update
As of 2024, TUI still sell tickets to venues where dolphins are held captive. TUI are a company we had a very good experience with on this trip, but we will no longer be using them until they end the sale of captive dolphin experiences. As advocates for ethical wildlife tourism, we would encourage you to consider the impact of where you spend your money too. In captivity, dolphins face a lifetime of misery in tanks around 200,000 times smaller than their natural habitats. You can join World Animal Protection UK’s campaign to encourage TUI to end the sale of captive dolphin experiences by signing the petition below.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission on anything purchased through these links at no extra cost to you. Learn more on our disclaimer page.
It’s that time of year again! The nights are drawing in, the mittens are coming out and, if you love Christmas as much as Lucy, you might even be playing a little Michael Bublé too. It’s the perfect time for a winter getaway and there’s no better destination than Iceland, the land of ice and fire! With its rugged landscape, teeming with volcanoes spewing lava, icy glaciers, gushing waterfalls, lush valleys, cute Icelandic horses and home to some of Game of Thrones’ most impressive filming locations, Iceland is the perfect winter destination.
Where to go in Iceland
The first thing to do when planning a Winter getaway is to decide where to go. Where to go in Iceland will really depend on how long you have – it’s much bigger than most people think. You could easily spend weeks travelling around to every corner of Iceland, but if you’ve got limited time it’s best to base yourself in the capital, Reykjavík.
Read next: The Top 10 Best Things to do in Iceland
What to do in Iceland
The next task is to decide what you want to do. We tend to list the unmissable attractions and things to do first so we know roughly how long they would take to achieve.
Unmissable attractions in Iceland include:
Reykjavík – The capital of Iceland and the perfect base for a Winter city break.
The Golden Circle – An impressive road trip and great day trip from Reykjavík, featuring some of Iceland’s most iconic sights.
The Northern Lights – One of the modern wonders of the world, witnessing this natural phenomenon is a bucket list item.
Iceland’s Blue Lagoon – A geothermal hot spring where you can relax in the milky blue waters, which stay a balmy 38°C.
Connecting the dots
Once you’ve decided where to go and what to do it’s really a case of connecting the dots. How do you get there? How do you get around? Can you fit it all into your timeframe? And how much will it cost to travel around Iceland?
You’ll need to consider:
- Flights
- Airport transfers
- Accommodation
- Public transport (or can you walk the city centre?)
- How to get to and from excursions? (public transport/hire a car)
There’s a lot that goes into planning a trip and the costs can rack up quite quickly. This is where it can be easier, more cost efficient (and frankly more relaxing) to book with a tour company than do it all yourself.
Why go with a tour company?
The main benefit of booking with a tour company is that they will do EVERYTHING for you.
We like to be as independent as possible when we travel and love a road trip. In 2017, when we planned our 5 day trip to Iceland (all we could squeeze in with our jobs at the time), we totalled up two itineraries:
Without a hire car:
- Flights
- Accommodation
- Airport transfers to and from the airport
- A Northern Lights tour
- A Golden Circle day trip
With a hire car:
- Flights
- Accommodation
- Hiring Car for 3 days
- Chasing the Northern Lights ourselves
- Driving the Golden Circle ourselves
Well, we ended up choosing a third option: booking a package with TUI. At the time the cheapest flights from the UK to Iceland were with TUI anyway so we’d have already be flying with them. And their package also offered:
- 4 nights in a hotel
- Airport transfers to Reykjavík
- A Northern Lights Tour
- A Golden Circle Day Trip
- The option to add on the Blue Lagoon
At a cheaper price than doing it all ourselves would be!
Pros and cons of booking with a tour company
For us it was a no brainer to book a package which offered us all of our priority activities for a cheaper price than doing it ourselves. Yes we wouldn’t get to drive this time, but we were slightly apprehensive about snowy roads in Winter anyway.
And we actually discovered some surprising benefits! ATOL protection meant we could relax knowing if anything was cancelled or needed changing it wasn’t our responsibility but TUI would look after us. And we were left with plenty of free time to explore on our own, meaning we had several days and evenings in Reykjavík and half a day at the Blue Lagoon, on top of our excursions.
Read next: The Pros and Cons of Booking with a Travel Agency
The excursions
The Northern Lights Tour was a really valuable experience as we’d never even tried to spot the Aurora before. The guide knew the best places to go out to for the best chance of spotting the Northern Lights and let us know exactly what we were looking for (dancing bands of lights with a green tinge). This was really useful as, when we did spot the Northern Lights, they were nothing like we were expecting them to be. Human eyes don’t pick up the colours that cameras do. They appeared as a shimmery grey cloud and we probably wouldn’t have known we were even seeing them if we hadn’t been told. This meant we could look out for them on the rest of our trip and we successfully saw them from the centre of Reykjavík (where they were actually stronger)!
Our trip around Iceland’s Golden Circle was fascinating. We didn’t need to stay as a group so could wander around the sites independently, which we prefer. And on the bus between stops the guide gave us so much really interesting information about the places we visited which we wouldn’t have known if we’d driven ourselves. We ended the day having learned so much and actually remarked how we were glad we had done the tour and felt we’d got more out of the day because of it.
Iceland with TUI
If you’re interested in travelling to Iceland with TUI you can check out their packages here. They have a variety of lengths of stay, departing airport, hotels and excursions so you can tailor your trip to be perfect for you.
Booking with a tour company isn’t for everyone, but in some circumstances can offer you more than a DIY trip can. For more on the pros and cons of booking with a tour company check out our article Let’s Talk About Tour Companies.
Read Next:
The Thorough Guide to Iceland’s Golden Circle
The Ultimate Self-drive Golden Circle Road Trip Itinerary
The Thorough Guide to Reykjavík
Check us out on social media!
