Charlotte P‐D and Marc. May 2000
Charlotte P-D and Marc. May 2000
Q: Where did you go?
A: Iceland, Reykjavík (yes i know an unusual place for a honeymoon but we’re an unusual couple) – population of the whole of Iceland = 272,000 population of Reykjavík = 170,000 (once your out of Reykjavík you feel very alone, you can drive for miles and miles without seeing another living soul) .
Q: How long were you away?
A: Seven nights.
Q: How much did it cost and what sort of holiday was it (e.g. package, all-inclusive etc)?
A: £700 each booked through the internet – a kind of package deal – included was: the flight there and back 3 or 4 different hotels dotted around Iceland, breakfast the hire of a car for our entire holiday.
Q: Did you spend the whole holiday in one place or did you travel around?
A: We spent it driving around Iceland travelling from one hotel to another and detouring past all the fantastically beautiful locations.
Q: What was a typical day like?
A: Every day was different, sometimes we woke up in a luxurious hotel which might have a free swimming pool & sauna in the centre of Reykjavík, other times we would arrive at a half finished holiday village where you had to walk through mud to get from your chalet to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It didn’t really matter where you stayed because the scenery was so fantastic that it blotted out everything else.
Basically we would wake up early, find the restaurant and eat breakfast and then pack up the car and head off into the wilderness, one of us driving, one of us attempting to map read an Icelandic map. Drive to a particular place of beauty or history (Gullfoss, Geysir, Blue Lagoon, Volcano, Fjords etc…) take pictures, marvel at all the beauty, find some lunch if you’re lucky from a garage (which doubles up as a supermarket)
Q: How did you and your partner get on?
A: After the initial shock of quite how expensive Iceland is, it was absolutely great, we both love visiting and learning things about different cultures and because we had the car we could go wherever we wanted as long as we ended up in the right town. We really felt like we were going back to nature especially when one of our chalets didn’t seem to have hot running water when we wanted it.
Q: What were the best bits?
A: The Blue Lagoon is absolutely fantastic, I would thoroughly recommend it but remember to take shampoo. Gullfoss is a fantastic two tiered waterfall which has allegedly claimed many lives through the waters sheer force. Geysir is a fantastic area which is full of many hot springs that erupt regularly and we were treated like royalty.
Q: Were there any worst bits?
A: Well, as I said it’s quite expensive (one bottle of beer = £6.00) so if you were unprepared as we were then that can be quite a shock. Also I’ve never seen so many astoundingly beautiful women compared to the ugly men in one country. All the Icelandic women under 40 are gorgeous, they are blond with pretty little Bjork style eyes, that is until they reach the 40 mark and then they seem to lose their looks quite rapidly (maybe it’s the elements they are exposed to on a regular basis) – not really what you want on your honeymoon, but you soon get used to it. Apparentely they call England ‘the land of the Ugly people’
Q:What advice would you give other honeymooners-to-be?
A: If you are adventurous, full of life, willing for a bit of challenge, want a holiday to remember and have a bit of money in your pocket then go for it, you’ll definitely want to go again.