Iceland pre-trip hotel question

Drew, our Adventure Guide, said that the Iceland trip has the most bus hours of any ABD (28 hours). Of course, they've re-worked the Scotland ABD, so maybe it used to have more hours than 28 hours, but I don't believe so. Scotland had a few days with a lot of bus time. Virtually every day of the Iceland trip had significant bus time. Some days, like the Vik day, had a LOT of bus time. I don't remember Scotland being this bad. Iceland definitely felt like it had the most bus time of any ABD I've been on.

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I wanted to acknowledge your reply but couldn’t bring myself to “like”a post about riding a bus for 28 hours :crazy2::crazy2::crazy2:
 
It's funny - I would consider our family very sensitive to bus/travel time, but for us it flew by in Iceland. If I had to guess, I would have said Alaska had much more and was tougher on us. In Iceland it sounded like a lot at the end, but while we were doing it we weren't bothered by it.
 
It's funny - I would consider our family very sensitive to bus/travel time, but for us it flew by in Iceland. If I had to guess, I would have said Alaska had much more and was tougher on us. In Iceland it sounded like a lot at the end, but while we were doing it we weren't bothered by it.
That's interesting. I really felt it. Obviously, especially the Vik day. But I have to agree that the last day, which also had major bus time, did not seem nearly as bad!

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It's funny - I would consider our family very sensitive to bus/travel time, but for us it flew by in Iceland. If I had to guess, I would have said Alaska had much more and was tougher on us. In Iceland it sounded like a lot at the end, but while we were doing it we weren't bothered by it.


It really wore us down. We felt so trapped. I hated how little movement we got each day as well. Several on our trip ended up marching in place while waiting in the endless restroom lines, or walking hotel hallways, to try to get 10k steps in each day.
 
It really wore us down. We felt so trapped. I hated how little movement we got each day as well. Several on our trip ended up marching in place while waiting in the endless restroom lines, or walking hotel hallways, to try to get 10k steps in each day.
For such an "active" trip, there was a *LOT* of sitting and standing around! I actually gained 2 pounds on this trip. It's usually a wash between all the walking and my naughty vacation eating habits!

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It really wore us down. We felt so trapped. I hated how little movement we got each day as well. Several on our trip ended up marching in place while waiting in the endless restroom lines, or walking hotel hallways, to try to get 10k steps in each day.
Ouch. That doesn't sound good :(
 


It really wore us down. We felt so trapped. I hated how little movement we got each day as well. Several on our trip ended up marching in place while waiting in the endless restroom lines, or walking hotel hallways, to try to get 10k steps in each day.

This was the ABD trip? I’ve had mixed feelings about having no ABD scheduled for this year.

The Backroads has 8 hours shuttle time spread over the six days. So Backroads obviously covering a lot less of Iceland. And we have to hike or snowshoe the rest :tiptoe:
 
That's interesting. I really felt it. Obviously, especially the Vik day. But I have to agree that the last day, which also had major bus time, did not seem nearly as bad!

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What is Vik day? I’m sorry if I’m just not remembering.
 
What is Vik day? I’m sorry if I’m just not remembering.
The ABD spends a LONG day traveling down south from Reykjavik, stopping at various spots for activities along the way, and eventually ending up spending one night in the little town of Vik. But you don't get there until like 11:30 at night, and leave the next morning. So you don't see much of Vik. It is a *VERY* long day (but wonderful!) with a very late dinner and the last stretch in the bus, heading from dinner to the hotel, seems to last *forever*! (Although in actuality it was about 2 hours).

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The ABD spends a LONG day traveling down south from Reykjavik, stopping at various spots for activities along the way, and eventually ending up spending one night in the little town of Vik. But you don't get there until like 11:30 at night, and leave the next morning. So you don't see much of Vik. It is a *VERY* long day (but wonderful!) with a very late dinner and the last stretch in the bus, heading from dinner to the hotel, seems to last *forever*! (Although in actuality it was about 2 hours).

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Was it worth it? Could you see why ABD chose that route?
Like in Scotland when the bus ride to Isle of Skye was brutal but the payoff grand.

DH got a Scottish highland cow named Skye after that trip!
 
Was it worth it? Could you see why ABD chose that route?
Like in Scotland when the bus ride to Isle of Skye was brutal but the payoff grand.

DH got a Scottish highland cow named Skye after that trip!

There is only one route in Iceland. ABD does this day because they don't want to go all the way around the ring road (800 miles) that circles the island. So they go out as far as they can get in a day, then come back towards the main southern city to fly north the next day. If this were the one "bus day" it would have been easier, but every day involved a lot of bus time. Worth it is relative - you don't want to go to Iceland and not see as much as possible. But I think there are probably other ways it could be done that would make for a less brutal day.
 
Was it worth it? Could you see why ABD chose that route?
Like in Scotland when the bus ride to Isle of Skye was brutal but the payoff grand.

DH got a Scottish highland cow named Skye after that trip!
I think it was worth it, but they probably could have handled it better by spending 2 nights in Vik, and spreading out the activities a bit (plus not having another crazy travel day the next day. You go past Vik to do some stuff, and then back-track at the end of the long day). I heard from Drew that the Guides feel that's how the trip should be handled (2 nights in Vik). Whether that happens -- who knows. But the places we went in the South - particularly the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon -- were really spectacular, and, in the end, worth the long trip. Jökulsárlón was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

There is only one route in Iceland. ABD does this day because they don't want to go all the way around the ring road (800 miles) that circles the island. So they go out as far as they can get in a day, then come back towards the main southern city to fly north the next day. If this were the one "bus day" it would have been easier, but every day involved a lot of bus time. Worth it is relative - you don't want to go to Iceland and not see as much as possible. But I think there are probably other ways it could be done that would make for a less brutal day.
See my reply to Teeko above. :) There really are other ways that day could be handled, but it would require an extra day. I do agree about the big issue being that it's just one day out of a LOT of long bus days.

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