Aurora Borealis in Iceland?

[schmalex]

Two bug things on my bucket list are to visit Icaeland and see the Aurora Borealis.

As it's my 40th next year, we thought about combining the two, with some whale watching and maybe a Super Jeep expedition as well.

Has anyone been on an Aurora trip to Iceland? If so, any recommendations on a tour operator / best time of year to go etc?

[schmalex]

Thanks fella, that's very useful

[schmalex]

Indeed. I am tempted to go down the route of hiring a 4x4 and doing it ourselves. There must be guides on the t'internet that show the most likely places to go to see the lights.

[schmalex]

Thanks for all your input, folks. We booked it last night!!!!!

We decided against doing an organised your with coach trips etc, based on the feedback here, so are going for 4 nights and basing ourselves in the centre of Reykjavik and are going to hire a 4x4 for the duration.

We figured that if we were going to spend upwards of 6 - 8 hours during the night hunting for the Aurora, we'd rather be on our itinerary than crammed into a coach load of strangers (shudder). We'll book things like whale watching / superjeeps (although, we have an old Landy we take off road quite often, so not sure if passengering the jeeps will be significantly better than driving out own back home) locally

I can't wait. I've wanted to do this for years and it's going to be the best 40th birthday present ever!!!!

Thanks for all the input, folks. I really appreciate it

[schmalex]

We chose to stay at Hotel Holt in the old centre of Reykjavic http://www.holt.is/english. As we will be taking our 10 year old son and will have a car for the duration, we figured that, by anchoring ourselves in town, we would give ourselves more options if the weather was inclement or we didn't fancy driving on a given day. Also, the "hunt" for the lights will be all part of the fun and will, hopefully, keep him engaged for longer.

[schmalex]

Sadly, we haven't got a DSLR. We've only got iphone and a point and click cameras (although, I think you may be able to take longer exposure shots).

I do, however, have an old, bloody expensive, SLR with all sorts of lens options that you can do pretty much everything with. I Might have to see if I can buy some film and get the old girl back in action.

[schmalex]

Looking at car rentals, I was suggesting we go for a Touareg / Jeep GC etc.

My wife's suggestion was to hire a Super Jeep for the week

[schmalex]

Back to cars for a moment, I have just managed to secure a Toyota Landcruiser for £340 + £23 for excess insurance for the week through Holiday Autos, with Budget being the supplying concession.

A Super Jeep for the week, whilst being a great idea sitting here in the office, would most probably be a real PITA every day!

Doing some research about car hire there, it appears there are some slightly shady practices by some of the outfits regarding charging for ash / sand damage to the paintwork and stone chipping from the gravel roads (alledgedly, many will sell you an insurance, but when they come to inspect it, they advise the insurance doesn't cover the full amount of damage). Holiday Autos worked out to be pretty much the cheapest.