Iceland

Welcome to the newborn Iceland Couchsurfing wiki page. Please bear with us as this page grows.

there is also a lot of useful information in the talk page awaiting review.

Getting to and from Iceland

The main way to travel to Iceland (and the only way from the United States) is by aeroplane. Companies that offer competitive prices include Icelandair, SAS and Iceland Express, with only Icelandair flying to the States. Several European cities are offered by each airline but most are only from mid-may to the end of august. Cities that are flown to year-round include Copenhagen, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Oslo, Stockholm, Paris, Helsinki, Manchester, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Alicante with New York, Boston, Orlando & Minneapolis being the American destinations. The main Icelandic airport is located in Keflavík which is 50km outside of Reykjavík. There is a bus service offered by Reykjavík Excursions called Flybus which is mated to the flight schedule which means that no matter how late you arrive or leave there will always be a bus. There is also a limited service offered between Copenhagen and Akureyri and Egilsstaðir.

Another option for travel is by ferry should you desire to bring your own car, visit the faroe islands or simply travel by boat. Smyril line sails to Seyðisfjörður from where you can catch a bus to Egilsstaðir from where you can either catch a bus via Akureyri or fly directly to Reykjavík local airport.

Airlines:

• iceland express
  
• icelandair
  
• scandanavian airlines
  

Ferry:

• smyril line

Keflavík airport (iceland´s main international airport):

• keflavik airport

Getting around Iceland

Transport around Iceland is highly seasonal. During the peak season there are busses almost everywhere (excluding the more remost areas that have little tourist value) that are operated by tour bus operators (listed below) but during the off season access to most places is either by car or by light aircraft. There are several car rental agencies throughout the country, some of which are linked below. Hitchhiking is notoriously widespread, especially closer to Reykjavík but be aware that further away from main ares traffic can become quite sparse and there could be very long waiting periods. There is a local bus network in Reykjavík, strætó (linked below,) with distinctive yellow busses. The hub is at a place called Hlemmur, which is located between Hverfisgata and Laugavegur on the east side of Snorrabraut. From Hlemmur all parts of the greater Reykjavík are are easily accessible although most busses only run every 1/2 hour. Exceptions to this are Red Routes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 which run every 15 minutes during the day and Green Routes 11, 12, 14 and 15 at peak hours. There are also some busses that run only every hour if not less frequently.

Car rental agencies:

• sixt
  
• budget
  
• berg
  
• link avis
  
• national
  

Reykjavík local bus:

• strætó
  

Tour bus operators:

• reykjavík excursions
  
• iceland excursions
  
• trex
  
• Þingvallaleið
  

Local flight operators:

• air iceland
  
• eagle air
  
• Eyjaflug
  

Road conditions:

• road condition and weather in english

Street maps:
[1] - pretty decent website showing a fairly good and clear map
[2] - this is actually the yellow pages and phone book for Iceland along with street maps

Alternative methods:

• Samferda.net - A Carpooling website for Iceland.

Restaurants, Cafés, Pubs and Clubs

The Sea Baron
People often ask for someplace to get traditional Icelandic cuisine. The Sea Baron should be the #1 place to visit. Although it's very commonly visited by tourists (specially during summer) it has kept its integrity and keeps going strong as the only very good real Icelandic seafood grill. Let alone being reasonably priced.thorgnyrthoroddsen

Café Rót
Not the easiest place to find but when you do find it you'll wonder how you managed not to find it all this time. Stationed in Hafnarstræti, beside the souvenir shop, café Rót easily claims the title of being the most alternative café in town. It's Hobo friendly, run as a charity organization, has two floors of very friendly people and, strangely enough, has a chapel on the lower floor. They claim to be a christian café for christian people, a muslim café for muslims and an atheist hangout for atheists, in short, all gods or non-gods and even people with their own personal demons are welcome.thorgnyrthoroddsen

Kaffi Hljómalind Kaffi Hljómalind is an organic café stationed midway on Laugarvegur (the main shopping street). It hosts a number of events of both practical and enjoyable nature. Their webpage can be found here.thorgnyrthoroddsen

Northern lights

The Northern lights are a light phenomenon often seen in Iceland and other northern parts of the world. The scientific name for the phenomenon is “Aurora Borealis”, aurora for short. The Northern lights originate from the surface of the sun. Charged particles from sun storms are hurled from the sun’s surface into outer space. When some of these particles end up in the Earths magnetic field they are drawn to the magnetic poles and meet Earth in a rounded belt around the poles. 100 km above the Earth’s surface the particles meet the outermost part of the atmosphere and the energy is discharged. This is visible from Earth as a flickering, moving light.

The Northern lights are most frequent in autumn and spring but not in the darkest winter hours. The best time to see them is between 21:00 and 2:00. They often appear as a greenish glow as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. Once in a while they appear pink or white around the edges and on rare occasions, violet in the centre. Red Northern lights are extremely rare but do occur when the light breaks out at a higher or lower height than normal.

Predicting the Aurora Borealis (northern lights):

• the geophysical department of the university of alaska
  
• the national weather service space weather prediction service
  

Other Information

Iceland weather:

• official iceland weather site in english
  

Traveling safely:

• tips on how to return home in one piece

Emergency Contacts in Iceland

CS in Reykjavík has Emergency contacts. Please respect that they are NOT thought as a very quick way to find hosting. Before crying wolf please make sure you've explored the available options before making an emergency contact. Available options may include:

If you can access internet (which is highly likely in Reykjavik).

• Contacting members you have already stayed with for prolonged assistance.
• Contacting online members directly, either via a message or by finding some of them on the online chat.
• Posting in the Iceland group.

If you don't have internet contact:

• Contacting members you have already stayed with for prolonged assistance.
• Checking the Salvation Army.

If none of those options work or aren't available to you then proceed to thinking about contacting an emergency contact. But before that make sure that you fulfill as many of the following requirements as possible. The emergency contact you might call will very likely do a background check on you before helping you out. It's mainly a matter of safety and trust.

That you have a valid membership with CS2.

• State your username to the emergency contact.
• At the very least make sure that you have a fully formed profile.
• Being verified helps.
• Having references helps a lot too.

Having a recontact method available is necessary since the emergency contact is most likely NOT going to offer you hosting on the spot.

• for instance having your own phone or getting permission to be called to a phone wherever you can.

Try making contact during hours when people are not asleep.
Of course you MAY get into trouble in the middle of the night and thus you will likely find an understanding induvidual as the emergency contact, however:

• Calling drunk after a night of partying will result in the emergency contact hanging up on you. Arrange your night BEFORE partying, not after.
• Be polite and don´t insist on anything. We're doing this voluntarily for your safety, not comfort.
• The solution the emergency contact comes up with might not meet your expectations. Again, this is for your safety, not necessarily for your comfort.
  
  

EMERGENCY CONTACT LIST:

• Þórgnýr Thoroddsen, membername: mcorange, tel. (00354) 823 4135
• James Maddison, membername: lotsofmagnets, tel. (+354) 695 7276 call between 10am and 12am

With Kind Regards, Emergency Contacts of Reykjavík, Iceland