Lonely Planet Iceland (Country Guide)

We had another guide book to Iceland for our recent trip in February 2018 and I'm glad we had two. The other guide was an older Rough Guide to Iceland. We were kind of surprised by the often lack of details in the Lonely Planet guide. For example, there are so many museums in Reykjavik and the guide book didn't list many of them. Many of the museums not listed aren't new and are established museums (for example the Kjarval Museum on Flokagata, which is a beautiful art museum that houses many of Johannes Kjarval's works). The book also didn't explain that for many museums, when you purchase the price for one, you get free admission to one of two others for a specific period of time. For example, if you visit the Listasafn (art museum near the harbor area that houses many works by Erro), you get free admission to the Asmundur Sveinsson sculpture museum, and to the Kjarval Museum for 24 hours from the purchase of the ticket. When you purchase a ticket to the National Gallery art museum, you get free admission to two other art museums in the area as well (there are so many wonderful art museums in the Reykjavik area). When you purchase a ticket to the National History Museum you get free admission to the Culture House in downtown Reykjavik that you can use within a week of the purchase of the one. I didn't see the Saga Museum listed, which is a fun Viking museum in the harbor area where you can play dress up with Viking costumes at the end. And I didn't see the Halldor Laxness Museum in nearby Mossfellsbaer mentioned. Laxness is one of the important authors of Iceland and this museum is on the way to Thingvellir National Park from Reykjavik if you have a rental car. While the travel guide explains how to find the Reykjavik swimming pools, it doesn't mention things like that you can purchase a pass for 10 visits for under 5000 ISK to certain pools (Sundhollin for example that we frequented often during our 10 day stay in Reykjavik). I felt that the details on restaurants in the area weren't the greatest. For example the Sea Baron restaurant (saegreifinn) in the harbor area, which was our favorite fish restaurant, with excellent excellent food, didn't have any explanation of the quirky founder of the restaurant. This place has a bit of history that's worth looking up (and they have free coffee which is great and also wasn't mentioned). I realize restaurants are popping up and going out of business all the time, but you'd think some of the established ones with history would have better write ups. While yes, this is a decent guidebook, I just felt they could have done a better job with this one.

Iceland may be a challenging destination to write a guidebook for. Regardless, I found Lonely Planet Iceland to be only somewhat useful in helping to plan a recent trip. This has not been my experience with Lonely Plant guides in the past, which I found to be better.Most of the information appeared to be accurate and was somewhat useful, and the guide's real value may be more apparent if you are planning a trip that lasts over a week, during the summer (I was only there for 4 days in March); ... Regardless, my issues with the guide came down to this - - Reviews of specific sites or establishments seemed to start with the assumption that everything was awesome, even when it was not. Example - The town of Vik is described as a "booming hub for a very beautiful portion of the south coast". While this may have some truth to it, and every traveler's perception is obviously going to be different, I found everything in Vik to be set-up a way that takes advantage of a HUGE supply and demand disconnect. (e.g. $350/ night for a very basic hotel room, not in the busy season; only 2-3 restaurant choices in town with 45-60 min waits for a table, entree like a basic pizza or Chinese chicken and rice for one @ $30+, etc.. in VERY basic establishments... and really no apparent "local" dishes.) This isn't intended as a review of Vik as a destination.. and I would not necessarily steer someone to another town if they wanted to visit the area... but it is an example where the guide could have done better, ... which seemed to be repeated throughout.Restaurant reviews vs reality were similar for all of the places that we tried in Reykjavik.There are also very positive-sounding reviews for the hotels immediately adjacent to the Blue Lagoon (and, by association ,the idea of staying in the that immediate location). In this case, we only visited the area and did not stay overnight; but I can't imagine that a hotel near the Blue Lagoon would good choice for any type of traveler.Bottom-line - Go to Iceland.. maybe even buy this book.. just modulate your expectations.

I really enjoyed using this guide to plan my trip and then reference once there. Although I supplemented my research online, I found this guide to be fairly comprehensive, with a wide range of activities for a range of interests at each geologic curiousity, town, or hamlet, and used it heavily to sift through the huge number of sights to visit and prepare a full but manageable week long trip. Place of interest and prices were fairly up to date, though these are dynamic as is the daily effect of currency exchange rate. There was a fair range of prices for lodging and dining options and different budgets. Once our itinerary was planned, I used online searches to expand the lodging possibilities and car rental (and bewildering insurance) options.

Was was my only asset for impromptu week stop in Iceland. It isn't organized the way I think. It took creative thinking to figure out a keywords for so many things I would have listed differently in the index. I suspect it was done to conserve space. This probably because I was trying to use it on the fly. When you are driving and want to identify a sign...you don't have time to cross reference pages and index and maps. I think it would be a great guide for pre-planning because the same organization that I'm objecting to which didn't work on the fly.

If you are traveling to Iceland and want to explore on your own instead of taking tours this is a great book to take with you. It covers all regions of Iceland in depth although it does not always have them in a logical order as if you were doing them along the ring road in a circle. There are many travel tips along with meal and lodging suggestions. There are some photos of major attractions although it's not as colorful as their "Iceland's Ring Road Road Trips" book. We bought them both for our upcoming trip to Iceland and we're glad we did.

The Lonely Planet people get my vote. Another more than helpful publication. Having just returned from Iceland, and used this book everyday, I would say it was an invaluable aid to an enjoyable adventure. We self drove around the South West and South of Iceland, the maps very useful although we (as advised did back this up with a road map as certain names are spelt differently on the road!), the general information about weather, getting about, whale watching, food and top attractions was fully comprehensive and in my view a tourist must have.

Ok guide. Majority of information only applies to visiting in summer, which is not clearly marked in the book. We had to do a lot of supplementary googling to figure out routes and destinations which are labelled as "easy to reach" by this guide are in fact closed off or dangerous to reach without a guide in off road cars during the winter season. Do not purchase if traveling in winter.

Always been a big fan of Lonely Planet, simply because i trust books more than my mobile. I need a book and a map with me when travelling. It just makes it so much easier. Even if you get lost, you always know there is a way out when having a Lonely Planet on your side.

Interesting and good information, but I found it hard to trace things back to the map in the book and figure out exactly where things were. I used it in conjunction with Google Maps to get around it which is fine, but I've rarely had this issue with other guides and I have a few for different places

I love the Lonely Planet books and the new version is a great guide to take with you on a trip to Iceland. The distances in Iceland are huge so you need to know you're going to the right place. With lots of handy tips and maps it was a great read. The only problem was I forgot to pack it! I was gutted but luckily I had had a good read of it before I left home :)