[rishboy77]

(08-16-2017 06:20 AM)Giacomo Casanova Wrote:  

I would like to come back as well to visit Blue Lagoon (we were told that there is a 2 month waiting list, so we would have needed to book in advance) and possibly the beaches in the South; and of course for game purposes I would like to give it another try. Probably the best month to go for hunting purposes is January or February, when you may expect less tourists.

Try to meet some locals if possible as I try to avoid the overcrowd tourist traps.
We and my buddy from Iceland were drinking the French wine I brought with me from Paris in total privacy at a secluded hot springs a hour after arriving.

This the type place you might want brings some girls back there as it's like having your own private hot tub. I agree Jan-March is better time to go again.

[rudebwoy]

Booking the Blue Lagoon was a major disappointment the 3rd time I went to Iceland.

Way too many tourists for my liking, I believe there are other similar spots around the island. Probably the best kept secret at this point.

[shotgun]

Blue Lagoon is a tourist trap, though it's cool and makes for good IG photos. It's artificial and pales in comparison to natural attractions like the Golden Circle and seeing the Northern Lights.

I mean definitely go if you're in Iceland, but flying to Iceland especifically to see the Blue Lagoon sounds like a waste of time and money.

It's close to Keflavik Airport, so it makes sense to go after your inbound flight or before your outbound flight, flight time permitting. As for avoiding the tourist masses, I've read it's less full of them right after the gates open, earlier morning.

[Shimmy]

Good advice Shotgun. The pass to the lagoon (which i think is $100) can be transportation from the city to the lagoon then to the airport or vice versa. That will save you $25 from having to go to the airport. I was going to do this before my flight by the lagoon was sold out. If you plan on doing this be sure to book ahead of time.

[Giacomo Casanova]

Guys, thanks for the advise, it seems reasonable for me that Blue Lagoon could come out as a tourist trap. I would like to put in the packet as much as I can for a long weekend Thu-Sun in terms of other touristic attractions. In general the main reason to come back to Iceland is for gaming purposes, I would like to give me a second chance since I cannot accept the failure of the weekend spent there and I want to try again However I think that the nightlife is great in Reykjavik, even without getting a shag, the atmosphere is terrific!

[RatInTheWoods]

I hired a car and drove around the whole island on the ringroad, staying at farmstays.

Outstanding natural beauty and out of this world scenery. Highly recommend this experience.

I am not a night game superstar, but they are that drunk you just have to turn up and take one home.....

I enjoyed the tourist lap around the nation much more than the slutty drunk Icelandic lizards.

[Strelka]

If you want to see something exponentially better than Blue Lagoon, rent a car and check out Seljavallalaug.

After a 15 minute hike, you'll find a man made pool built into the side of a mountain with excellent views and most likely not many tourists around.

Take a look on Google - it's definitely a highlight.

[Pinoyed82]

Great insights in the OP, it seems some of the Hotels I have asked in the Laugevegur area aren't 'girl friendly' Can anyone recommend hotels in that area that do allow you to bring girls back to your room?

[yankeetravels]

Was in Iceland recently with a buddy of mine. I'll give you guys a heads up that game wasn't the top priority for either of us going in, but we did get more involved with nightlife than we expected. Didn't really think I needed to do my own datasheet for this so I'll just add some comments and observations.

Iceland was an interesting experience for me. It was my first exposure to Europe and their women on a large scale, whereas my buddy was more of the veteran there. We almost got two different experiences despite rolling together. Me being more used to Asia and America, I was admittedly guilty of bringing those mindsets over to Iceland, so my adjustment period was a bit rougher.

Girls, Guys, and Nightlife

The girls seemed to be a consistent 6-7 across the board. Plenty of good looking ones. Less than a handful of overweight chicks or guys. The male competition was more intense looks wise than what I'm used to. I'm over 6' tall as a white guy and I never felt so average lol. Nightlife was mostly impromptu this whole trip, and because I was expecting much colder conditions than it turned out, I didn't have the best wardrobe prepared for the scene.

We both felt like there was a mix of politeness and coldness among the Icelanders. There were no blowouts here and no intentional cockblocking. They are a pretty honest society too, and also a pretty blunt one by their actions. For example, we got offered weed by some drunk dudes in line at a club just because we said 10 words to them as Americans. As for girls, we found their interest very blunt too. You knew quickly whether they were down or not.

My friend got a lot more attention, because I think he had the right combination of knowing the Euro attitude and he was a well groomed and dressed black guy. We have rolled together in America a lot in years past. He did decent in America, but usually had to work a bit for indicators of interest. In Iceland, he was getting stared at and approached EVERYWHERE. Guys and girls. It reminded me a lot of how I got treated in Asia. My friend was legitimately the commodity. I had never seen so many girls have their eyes on him and have local guys come up and say hi to him out of nowhere.

I'm rambling now, but we went out three nights. One was a Wednesday. Absolutely dead but we still managed to sneak our way into a young local crowd and bar crawl with them to celebrate a birthday til close. Friday was our best night. Started out pre-gaming in a local bar with an older crowd. Friend gets approached by older locals and we end up talking and singing folk songs for over an hour. Got us in the mood to club.

We get to the next place which looks like a back alley dumpster hostel spot. We're not 18 in frat houses anymore, and my friend said "I feel like I'm gonna get an STD in here." So we took our cheap $6 beer then went to the safe haven B5. That was both of our favorite bar/club spot in the city. Great mix of locals and tourists here with a little more elegance. Hottest girls were here too we both felt of the places we went. We met a group of four girls here, with two of them being attractive. They invite us back to the seedy hostel bar for another drink and an after party with them where they were actually good hosts offering us booze, cigs, among other things. Only thing was we both overlooked that they were feminists until we were back at their spot asking us both about Trump (think they assumed all Americans hated him). I admit we both got pulled into that topic as conservatives, and I thought it was important to let them know not all Americans think the way the media portrays. My friend legit used this debate to flirt with one of the attractive ones. I was kind of checking out with that and being up for about 24 hours straight. Again, surprisingly civil hosts and courteous girls despite our differences.

Saturday we went out one last time. It was a local club in Icelandic that I forget the name of. I think we were two of maybe 3-4 Americans in the entire place. That's another thing. Everyone here said there's tourists, and there are. But my friend and I ran into very few of them in the nightlife spots. We were surrounded by much more locals all three nights. Probably the hardest night for us to get an in, we may have been in too local of a spot. Neither of us got laid here, but we both had 1-2 chances we turned down for certain reasons. Mine being the first night I had a suspected spinster come up and practically jump me. Young girl that seemed interested, but I wasn't feeling her. She hopped around three other guys in the group that night after me so I don't regret it.

What we couldn't figure out was if the average girl would be willing to go home with you the foreigner even if she was interested. Some locals told us that this is a place where everybody knows each other and it showed. Both of us live near mega cities. We did not treat Reykjavik like a real city. We treated it more like a small college town with adult locals to answer to. Discretion and/or Day 2's seem to be the way to go, we didn't even see many locals mixing to go home with each other.

Other Info

Some other stuff to go over quickly because I know this is getting long. Public transportation is very convenient here. About $35 from the airport to the city, about a $20 taxi if you stay out of downtown, bus is about $4.50 if you need that. We stayed 5-10 min drive from there, didn't think it hurt us at all. But it's hard to walk in the winter so factor in those costs if you're trying to save money from downtown.

City is safe, air is clear, 1011 stores are all around for basic needs. Oh, credit cards are very easy to use here. This society is almost completely cashless. Bus is the only thing you need cash for unless you have a bus card. No Uber here for taxis, but I believe you can use Hreyfill to order one, then you pay at the end of the ride.

Try lamb in this area. I was a big fan of all the meals here with that. Other local specialties include shark and rye bread. As for beer, there's plenty of local options. Einstok was probably our favorite one.

Finally, tourist attractions. If you want to get on your own, rent a car and drive a few hours north or south. Get the fuck out of sight of Reykjavik, I'm not kidding here. Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon, and Northern Lights bus tours are infested with tourists. You can find just as good as spots for nature a few hours out. Plus, the fishing villages are a sight to behold with a mountainous background.

We did a 2-day tour of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. One of the best we have ever done and saw the Northern Lights in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention the sunrise by the ocean. Walking through a black pebble beach while snowing was like stepping into Narnia. I also did snowmobiling individually, that was a lifetime memory as someone that loves driving in general, particularly as the sun sets on the second biggest glacier in Europe.

Long report for lack of lay stories, but I really hope I or someone else here can get their feet on the ground longer term in Iceland in the future. We felt like assimilating and cost of living would be the biggest long term challenges. I'd love to see somebody give it a real shot and see the success rate with a longer stay and massive tourism increase.