Chasing the Northern Lights - Iceland

Shanice78

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check in with BA, they have a flexible booking policy in place, and you should be able to change to your flight from a KEF-LHR and LHR-SIN flight to a KEF-LHR-SIN flight, where you just transit in LHR

either way, there are no direct KEF-SIN flights, so definitely need to transit in the main cities

question is whether or not transit will have any issues

Noted on the BA and Iceland Air. Will try to email Iceland air to extend.

Btw which aurora forecast apps did u use?

Thanks.
 

yrh0413

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I use this. It’s clear skies at Northeast/Eastern Iceland tonight. KP3!!!
OEYt7Op.jpg
 

Shanice78

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My understanding is that EU lockdown means non-EU citizens will be barred from entering EU. Some EU nations may even bar transits (just like how our government forbids tourist from China/Korea from transiting through Singapore).

We have cut short our Iceland trip by 2 days, will fly into UK tomorrow... we hope to get into UK before they impose lockdown.

By the way I seriously discourage spending time in UK during this period, things are really out of control especially in London.

Yes. Will not go into London as most of the tube r close.

Either fly back sg directly after return frm Iceland. Thanks
 

hithere1

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suggest you call directly instead of sending an email

their call centers are already very busy, doubt emails will be replied in a timely manner
 

yrh0413

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Shanice did you manage to catch the aurora tonight? Northern Iceland has clear skies tonight and KP is high :s12:
 

Shanice78

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Shanice did you manage to catch the aurora tonight? Northern Iceland has clear skies tonight and KP is high :s12:

Yes. Manage to catch the light just now.

Only see Milky Way in the sky.

Lucky got 1 French guy who have nice camera n help us to take a few good pic of the aurora.

Just for awhile. It dancing around.
 

yrh0413

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Wonderful! 😁 where will you be heading today?
If you are traveling East do be careful, weather is really really bad here and winds are super strong.

We are now on our way to Keflavík airport.


Yes. Manage to catch the light just now.

Only see Milky Way in the sky.

Lucky got 1 French guy who have nice camera n help us to take a few good pic of the aurora.

Just for awhile. It dancing around.
 

yrh0413

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Finally my Iceland trip has ended. Just to share some experience to those who plan to go there:

My travel period: 8-21 March 2020 (winter season), which is the peak of E.U. Covid outbreak:


1. If you plan to travel in winter, remember to do your research on sunset/sunrise timing. Iceland is huge and all attractions require hours of driving. I would say early March is pretty ideal... you get over 12 hours of sunlight and yet it doesn’t sacrifice aurora hunting.

2. Get a reliable and reputable rental vehicle, and you must get a 4x4 if you plan to drive in winter. We rented a a Toyota RAV4 (AWD) and we got stuck in snow twice. Once we have to walk 1km to nearby farmer and they pulled us out with their track for; another time we manage to wriggle ourselves out from the snow.

3. Get the best insurance coverage on your rental vehicle. We rented from Bluecarrental and took up their max coverage (zero excess). First night our car got hit and run at the parking lot (damaged the rear bumper), and we made a crack on the front bumper. It would have cost us ~1,000 euros worth of repairs if we didn’t take up full coverage. Get zero excess and travel with peace of mind.

4. We check safetravel.is for warnings and check road conditions twice a day. It is very important to know your weather if not you may land yourself in big trouble. Another app we check everyday is the Aurora forecast app. Check for KP and cloud coverage, if it’s cloudy no point to camp for aurora.

5. Use Waze as your default navigation app, it shows speed cameras.

6. Cost of living in Iceland is quite similar to Singapore. Petrol cost almost the same and groceries are on the high side. We didn’t eat out for the whole 2 weeks of our trip... always purchase raw food from Bonus/Netto whenever we can. SGD50 worth of groceries can last 3 us 3 days (that’s breakfast lunch dinner). Bonus is like our Giant, Netto is like Cold Storage. Personally we much prefer Netto as they have more variety.
 

yrh0413

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7. We only eat out on the last day of our trip... at KFC Keflavík town. It cost us S$35 for a bucket of 10 orginal drumsticks!

8. We book airBnB one day in advance, or on the morning itself after checking road conditions to ensure we can make it to the destination. We only book cabins/cottage as we want privacy and also away from light pollution. All airBnB accommodation we booked comes with stove/induction cooker.

9. We didn’t change any ISK or used any cash during our 2 weeks stay. All petrol/grocery/parking paid with Apple Pay/Paywave. We didn’t use our physical credit card at all.

10. When pump petrol using the terminal, no matter what preset ISK amount you choose the bank will hold 20,000 ISK on your card and it will be cleared in a week. Take note of your credit limit as you may render your card useless. Another option is to pump first then walk into the kiosk and pay at the counter... you get charged the exact amount to your card.

11. If you plan to drive the whole ring road, I strongly recommend driving anti-clockwise. Reykjavik to southern Iceland have good flat roads and it’s really easy to drive; moreover the attractions are pretty close to each other in southern Iceland. Take time to get familiar with your vehicle and the driving conditions in Iceland. Eastern/western Iceland has lots of mountain roads and it’s challenging to drive when weather is bad.

12. Note that the estimated travel time on Google Map/Waze are estimates based on speed limit in perfect weather. A 2-hour drive on Waze will usually end up as 3-5 hours in bad weather... you may end up crawling at 40kmph on a 90kmph stretch when it’s icy and snowing.

13. Iceland has the worst weather. We got blown off our feet in the mornings when winds are at 50-80kmph and it was snowing/raining. Our airBnB host came over to rescue us from his cabin. If not we may have missed our flight.
 
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