There was one thing that really stood out as we ventured across Iceland’s East Coast.
The lack of tourists.
Given that many do one or two day trips from Reykjavik that tend to end at Diamond Beach, this shouldn’t really have been a surprise – but we took in the miles and miles of road with nobody else about with wide eyed glee.
Were we finally able to enjoy Iceland without the crowds of tourists and their tripods?
Or were we about to realise why so few travel up the East Coast, especially in winter?!
In this video:
An hour’s drive from Diamond Beach, we stayed in the fishing town of Höfn in a place called Apotek Guesthouse.
As lush as the luxury cabin was that we stayed in our first two nights (for just £27 I might add!), we knew we’d have to turn to Guesthouses sooner or later.
The great news is that whilst they’re pretty basic, they’re clean, comfy and have great amenities. For example, this place had its own private bathroom, great wifi, a communal kitchen for cooking in, a decent COFFEE MACHINE (praise the lord) and also came with continental breakfast.
Not bad for a total of £63 a night.
That night, we had promised ourselves a pint out and about, and after several failed attempts, found the downstairs bar at Otto Matur & Drykkur open with pints costing £7.02.
We started the next day with a breakfast FEAST made up of items we’d bought on the first night and the basic items the guesthouse provided.
Then, we headed off and filled the car for the first time and I was horrified to see it total up to £59.61 total.
We were only got a third of the way around!
My initial budget of £50 each for the entire ring road was starting to look a little ropey…
Aside from stopping off on the side of the road to admire the scenery, our first proper stop of the day was the fishing town of Djúpivogur for a spot of lunch (pasta and soup prepared at the guesthouse).
We then walked down to Eggin í Gleðivík which is an artwork by Sigurður Guðmundsson of 34 huge, granite eggs, each representing a bird that nests in the area.
I enjoyed the walk down the the harbour whilst James remained fairly unimpressed 🤣
Next, we failed epically trying to find the waterfalls of Nykurhylsfoss and Folaldafoss (they were either frozen or closed off from the road), but we did get to sneak a peek at Petra’s Stone Collection in Stöðvarfjörður.
Realising we would miss the supermarkets in our next destination, we stopped off in Eskifjörður to pick up a few food bits, and then proceeded to Egilsstaðir where we were staying that evening.
After a quick pint at Feiti Fíllinn, we finally made our way over to the tiny cabin we’d be staying in that evening.
Given its size, we were really impressed with how much the owners had fit in – there was even a full sized oven! And it was nice to have the place to ourselves for the price of £75 a night.
You can get money off your first Airbnb booking if you haven’t used it before!
When settled, we sat down, ate some food and tried our best to find the Northern Lights for free.
Lots of driving on our fourth full day on the road but the sights from the car are more than enough to keep you entertained!
So, how’s our 6 nights for £600 budget looking?
Total spends in this video = £120.31 each
Amount left = £212.07 each
With three days left to go, do you think we can still bring it all in under budget?!
Catch up on the rest of the road trip:
Day 1 – Arriving in Iceland, supermarket prices and the 6 nights for £600 challenge
Day 2 – The Golden Circle and staying in a luxury, designer home for £27 a night
Day 3 – Waterfalls, glaciers and black sand beaches on Iceland’s stunning south coast
how many holidays 