Ghostly mountains and modern ghosts On rainy days you will often find the staff at Iceland Mini Campers curled up with a good book and recently we found ourselves perusing an anthology of Chinese writing in Icelandic translation. The story we were reading dated back to the years between 300-350 AD when the Wei dynasty (or maybe it was the Jin dynasty, we forget) was in power. The striking thing was that this story had the exact same topic as a very recent news story on the Icelandic news website Visir.is. Both stories featured ghosts and the fact that these two sources were divided by 1700 yea ..read more

Living off the lakes Recently there has been some controversy regarding travelers making attempts at a hunter-gatherer lifestyle while staying in Iceland, often with mixed results. A large camper rental company encouraged its customers to try and “live off the land” for as long as they could and some highly questionable behavior of other visitors was placed in this context both by the media and the outraged native public. One group of tourists was fined a large sum after having hunted and killed a lamb while others were caught inadvertently poaching in one of the country’s most expensive salmo ..read more

Some tips and tricks for making your Mini Camper trip go smoother. Our customers, the dynamic duo Mel and Vin who run the website https://www.melvinout.com/, recently wrote an article about their Mini Camper trip around Iceland (see here: https://www.melvinout.com/single-post/2017/06/11/10-Tips-for-Traveling-Iceland-in-a-Campervan). All in all, their experience was positive but, as Mel puts it “There were days where I felt like I was experiencing the most incredible thing in the world and others where I felt lucky to be alive.“ Their list is very helpful and we wanted to respond to some of the ..read more

Eyrarbakki and Stokkseyri: Ghosts and very good seafood In recent posts we have covered some far away places in Iceland, such as the Eastfjords, Westfjords and the south-east corner of our lovely little island. And while the mini camper traveller would usually do well to get a little further away from Reykjavík, there are still plenty of interesting places the are close by.  We have already mentioned some of those, such as some interesting places along the Reykjanes peninsula and the Golden Circle route. This time around we want to talk about two small fishing villages that are both close ..read more

Modern farming and the far East To start off, two basic facts. First, Iceland is a fairly big island. At a little over 100 thousand square kilometers it’s larger than for instance Hungary, Austria, The Czech Republic and South Korea. In practical terms this makes driving around the island a considerable (Route 1, the Ring Road, is 1,332 km or 828 mi). Even reaching the places that are furthest away from Reykjavík–parts of the Western fjords, the Eastern fjords and the Northeast–can take up to 8 hours of solid driving. Fact number two is that making the trip to Iceland’s further reaches can be ..read more

As regular readers of our Travel suggestions blog may have noticed, we at Iceland Mini Campers have a special fondness for the Western part of Iceland. We have already talked about Snæfellsnes (see Snæfellsnes, parts 1 and 2) as well as the area around Drangsnes (see here) but we still feel that these regions–their history, culture and scenery–could supply the material for at least a hundred blog posts. Be that as it may, now we want to discuss a place that might well serve to combine a trip to Snæfellsnes and from there on to the Western fjords, a journey that’s absolutely tailor made for the ..read more

Reduced prices There are many good reasons to plan your minicamper journey in Iceland  during the off-peak season. First off all, we at Iceland Mini Campers offer reduced prices on our campers after September 1st. Second, the fall season often has relatively mild temperatures (in any case, our campers come equipped with electrical heaters and blankets to keep you nice and warm). Last but not least, even though it doesn’t have any tall forests, Iceland has some really beautiful fall foliage. All year For the fall mini camper traveller, there are some things to keep in mind. There is an inc ..read more

Mini Camper & Campsites. There are two things that make Iceland the ideal place to explore in a mini camper: first, wherever in Iceland you may find yourself, there is always a swimming pool close by and second, there are great many campsites around the country and these have a wide range of services on offer, usually bathrooms and electricity but often also showers, Wi-Fi, hiking routes and laundry facilities. Swimming pools and campsites come at very affordable prices with swimming pools at 4-6 euros and campsites at around 8-10 euros. Here is a map of campsites in Iceland and check out ..read more

Facilities and infrastructure In the past few years, Iceland has experienced an incredible growth in tourism. This development has largely been driven by word-of-mouth marketing, since an overwhelming majority of visitors are happy with their visit and pass stories and pictures on to their friends and families (the Eyjafjallajökull eruption also didn’t hurt). The growth in tourism is also mostly experienced in positive terms by the locals since it has helped the economy through difficult times and continues to diversify the job sector through all sorts of interesting small enterprises. However ..read more

Reykjanes: The best and the worst of Iceland’s best/worst kept secret. The Reykjanes peninsula is a place of many paradoxes. It has some of Iceland’s most beautiful landscapes, such as the sprawling moss-covered lava fields and the Eldvörp crater formation, it also has some complete eyesores, such as the depressing old US naval base and the huge Straumsvík aluminum smelting plants. The paradox also extends to the fact that while the majority of people who visit Iceland see some portions of the peninsula (most while driving between Keflavík Airport and Reykjavík or visiting the Blue Lagoon), ma ..read more