Reykjavik: Golden Circle And Northern Lights Small-group Tour

My wife, adult daughter and I booked this tour with “Arctic Adventures” through Viator. Although we were glad to have seen all the sites included in the Golden Circle tour, I’d have to say this was our least favourite tour/activity while in Iceland. Part of their challenge is that the sites of the Golden Circle are a long way from town and you spend a looong time on the bus to get there and travel between sites. In and of itself, a long time on a bus is not necessarily a bad thing – if the bus is sized appropriately. In this case, Arctic Adventures supplied the smallest “bus” possible to hold the 25-30 participants (it was a full tour). The bus had a 2-1 seat configuration, and the seats were about as cramped as ever I have experienced. We are not large people (I am 5’8”) and yet there was no side-by-side room and the knee room was non-existent. Having to spend a total of four hours ( the rest of the time was spent at the various sites) on this cramped bus was entirely unreasonable. The next thing that was unfortunate was that the sound system on the bus was awful. That, mixed with the challenging accent of the driver (who doubled as the tour guide), made it mostly impossible to understand what was being said. The second section of the excursion was the “Search for Northern Lights”. We were picked up in town at 8:30pm. The bus for this section of the tour was larger than the first and the sound system was working much better than the morning portion. No fault of the driver but we disappointingly did not see any Northern Lights – even though we were out until midnight. Per the advertisement for the tour we did have hot chocolate, but no blankets and chairs to sit on. The added issue was that in the almost four hour tour we didn't get asked/offered the use of restroom facilities. I believe there was a WC on the bus, but there was not mention of it by the driver. Overall, it was a very long and uncomfortable day. If I had to do over again, I would have rented a car for the daytime portion and done the drive myself. More comfortable, you can stay as long as you want at each site, and the driving was no different than where we come from. I’m afraid I can’t recommend this tour.

Franklin is possibly the best tour guide on the planet! Very funny, very knowledgeable, full of local and international knowledge Arrived on time as planned, whisked off to some of the most spectacular geographical sites I have ever seen including Gullsfoss Waterfall, Strokkur Geysir, Kerið Crater and of course Þingvellir National Park - each more spectacular than the last (although my personal favourite was Gullfoss Waterfall) We got to spend a reasonable amount of time at each stop, enjoying the sited, the sounds, and taking photos of these beautiful Iceland sites. There were even ample bathroom and eating facilities along the way An excellent tour that I highly recommend to anyone who visits Iceland! Thank you!

Franklin was a fantastic guide around the golden circle today! Super informative and entertaining throughout, full of great tips for anything asked too. 5 stars We booked multiple tours with Artic Adventures and they are fantastic operator, highly reccomended. We'll be back soon! :)

Spent 8 days touring Iceland and searching for Northern Lights. While the organized lights tours (2) didn't offer any rewards, we saw a great display of lights on our 2nd night out. The tour guide (Vjeran) was knowledgable and informative and very fun. He kept us all on track at a good pace. Accommodations and restaurant choices were also excellent.

Golden circle tour very nice. Silvana the guide very professional... Good explanations. Aurora tour disappointing... The guide made only one stop. No attempts to search for best spots... We left at 20h30 were back at hotel at 22h30. I saw more aurora from downtown reykiawick Tuesday night.

Never got picked up for the Golden Circle touring even while waiting at the designated pick up point for over an hour. Poor communication from the travel agent despite calling 12 times before, during and after pick up times.

Amazing trip out with a fantastic guide . It was a long freezing night but the guide kept our spirits up with laughter and spirits 😀😀he went out of his way to make sure we saw the lights

We had an amazing time on this tour! The scenery was breathtaking. Our guide, Boga was outstanding. She was the tour guide, driver and luggage handler. Like the Viking queen she is! She made sure we didn't miss a thing. We even had a snow storm one day and she was a pro driving through it. I never once felt unsafe. She came up with little extra stops for pictures or just to see something she thought we would like. And we always did! Our contact at Nordic Visitor, Clarence, was amazingly helpful. Especially with a payment error, booking excursions, and any question we had. He was very prompt in responding to emails. All in all a fantastic trip and I would definitely do a tour with them again.

How can you see so much of Iceland in a short time- use Artic Adventures!! Our guide for the Golden Circle was wonderful, kind and very timely to assure we saw the most in the short daylight hours of Iceland's November days. He was a very safe driver and so pleasant, it was like having your favorite uncle take you around. He even shared chocolate with the tour! Hjortur was our Northern Lights guide. He was FABULOUS- we enjoyed his great sense of humor, speedy driving and knowledge. My cheeks hurt from laughing! He took so many wonderful pictures for the bus creating memories we will never forget. There is not one iota of a moment that he could have done any better. Arctic Adventures- 100% the best we could ever ask for!

Late review but we took this tour on the 19th of February for my 23rd birthday and couldn't have had a better time. Pickup was quick and easy, and our tour guide Mitch was so lovely, kind, and knowledgeable, and I learnt more about Iceland on this tour than I did throughout the entirety of my trip. We had enough time at the stops to see everything we wanted to and it was just amazing. The second half of the tour was good. The tour guide didn't really talk much so it was a very different experience to the afternoon, but he was still really nice and he waited until 12:30PM for us to finally see the lights. Definitely would book with this company again, love the small groups and how organized it is :)

The geyser and the views were amazing, however the guide Temu was not very engaging. He seems annoyed the whole length of the trip. Additionally, since the trip started at noon the weather seems to be warm. We were boiling inside the coach and he seems not a bit concerned. We learned from another guest that the northern lights tour in the evening was cancelled but did not receive an email of cancellation. It is only when I asked the guide Temu if he is going to pick us up again, he said it was cancelled and advised us to just email the tour operator. The only good thing was that the refund for the cancelled trip was quick and hassle free

Very cozy and amazing tour, our guide was really friendly. He did an extra stop to pet the super fluffy icelandic horses! You see the geysir and the wonderful gullfoss waterfalls. Our night tour for nirthern lights was cancelled because of bad weather but the afternoon only was absolutely enough to spend an unforgettable day!

Did a great job showing all the sights in less than a day. Didn't quite get to see the green and purple Northern Lights you see in photos, but we definitely saw something.

I loved this combo tour. The tour guide/driver for the Golden Circle portion of the tour was friendly and knowledgeable and the mini bus was comfortable for the long drives. There were three main stops - the Thingvellir National Park where you can see the parliament stone and where the two tectonic plates are parting; next up was Geysir where we saw the Strokkur geysir erupting every 8 mins or so. The final stop was the Gulfoss waterfall which was spectacular. We also did three other mini-stops at a cattle farm where there was the option to buy Icelandic ice cream, at a place where there were icelandic horses which you could pet and at another waterfall. My only criticism of this tour as that there wasn't long enough at the three main stops. We had around 45 mins at each one, I would have liked around 90 mins at the Thingvellir National Park and at Geysir as I felt I was quite rushed here. The tour could perhaps leave earlier in the day (it departs at 1pm) to accommodate more time at the stops. There were cafes at the first two stops but there was no time really to get a warm drink; it would be nice to have plenty of time to see the sights and relax a bit in the spectacular locations. The landscape we drove through was spectacular and the pick up/drop off process was very good. The Northern Lights tour was cancelled on the day I had originally booked due to the poor weather and I was sent a text message and an email with plenty of notice of the cancellation and was able to re-book for another day. I also received a text message on the day of the re-booked tour confirming it was going ahead. The tour guide was clearly very passionate about the lights and explained the science behind them on the drive out of Reykjavik and when we got to the location where the lights were visible he explained what settings to put our cameras to to get good photos. The lights were spectacular. It was freezing cold and there was a biting wind, but it was worth it and the guide gave us as much time as we wanted to watch the lights. The lights started to dim so we got back on the mini bus and the guide gave us the option of driving back to Reykjavik or waiting 45 mins to see if they returned as they tend to be stronger around midnight. While we were waiting the guide answered questions and told us some stories. I was Very impressed with the organisation of these tours and would highly recommend them.

We enjoyed the day very much. The waterfall at the end of the tour was stunning. The guide was knowledgeable and extremely helpful. A recommended tour.

<p>This tour was challenged by overall confusion about the pickup and drop-off locations. Our tour guide for the Golden Circle was informative, but I worried about his driving in the snowy conditions--he kept looking at his phone, and at one point was texting?! He also dropped us off at the wrong location, and told us misinformation about where we would be picked up for the later Northern lights tour. I sensed that he was asked at the last minute to do this tour, and not a professional guide? For the Northern lights part of the tour, when we were not picked up, we tried to call before 9PM to the Artic Adventures offices--but they never picked up the phone they close at 9PM. I finally found another phone number in your initial email, which worked--so I highly recommend that everyone booking a tour to make sure they have an after hours number to call I would also state NOT to wait 30 minutes before calling about a delayed pickup and there should be tour phones at the pickup bus stops there are new regs that tours have to pick up at the bus stops only. This proved to be the KEY anxious point re: every tour. The other issue is that we booked this tour BECAUSE it only had 18 people on the minibus. We ended up looking for the Northern Lights with all the huge GrayLine and Reykyavik Excursion buses, so it was not what we had bargained for. We were disappointed. I am not sure why we paid the extra price, when the minibus took over an hour to finally find us, took over an hour to go to the lighthouse where there was a mass scene at this one site where hundreds of people and about 20 buses gathered to try and see the lights, and it was overall stressful and not enjoyable. Our guide for this part of the tour was very nice, but there was no professional guide discussion of what the lights were, why we saw them only in the winter, etc. etc. I would not recommend paying extra for a smaller minibus tour when there was no extra value.</p>

We had two different guides for this combination tour. The first half of the tour -- the Golden Circle -- was a disappointment. First, we did this tour in February so the weather was quite cold - in the low 20s (farenheit). Despite asking for the heat to be turned on in the van twice, the van remained EXTREMELY cold. In fact, we could not see out of the windows for most of the tour because they had frosted over on the inside. This would not have been that big a deal except that we were in the van for 7 hours. The tour guide did not realize that this was a combination tour so there was some confusion about the handover of the group to the second half of the tour for the Northern Lights portion. E.g., he was not aware the we were to be dropped off at a certain spot and picked up again. HOWEVER, the second half of the tour for the northern lights was absolutely outstanding. We had a different guide (Clemy) who was extremely knowledgeable and customer focused. He had a huge passion for sharing the magical experience of the northern lights with us. He shared with us his knowledge of the science behind the northern lights, as well as lots of information about Iceland, its people and culture. On a 1-10 scale, I'd rate the first half of this tour a 3 but the second half a 10+. I definitely would recommend the tour -- the van issue is a logistical one which can be fixed.

We took the minibus tour with English speaking guide for the one day Golden circle and northern light tour. The guide for the Golden circle was very knowledgeable and good. The bus was comfortable though there was no free WiFi which was supposed to have been there. The same company then took us for the northern light tour and the guide there was also so knowledgable and good but the bus was different and very inconvenient.there was hardly any place to sit properly but it had WiFi. The guide also advised on the camera settings and helped taking pictures. He was upfront and said that northern lights as you see with the naked eye is totally different from what you see in pictures which are all altered. Overall a very good experience given that we saw the northern lights on 2 days, one on our own and also with the tour. Not sure what would the situation have been had we not spotted the Northern lights.