Ok, so Iceland has finally become my travelling reality, going there for two week in beginning of August (doing the Ring Road) and was wondering if you guys have any suggestions, of course about the beer and non-beer scene. For now, I’m planning to stop by at Stedyi brewery and a spot or two in Reykjavik.
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Just about to leave Iceland today after 1 week, did the no 1 ring road as well.
Can write more once home and by a computer.
But I’d highly recommend the ferry to Vestmannaeyjer and The Brothers Brewery.
Also to swing by Ölvisholt close to Selfoss.
Google maps shows the “fastest” rote, though we skipped the road over the mountains and stayed on ring road. That added quite some travel time to google maps estimates.
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Also, there is a map for the independent breweries of Iceland.
Apparently not yet printed or available online, but we got it by email from one of the brewers, will try to upload once back home.
Yesterday we managed to go to Reykjavik Brewing Company, they are just about to open for the general public, seems like next week or so.
Will add the place + review once home.
Very nice place,worth visiting for sure.
I don’t rate beers any longer, but will add place ratings from the stops we’ve had that where beer focused in some way.
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So I have the beer map with info, but it is as a pdf, thus I may not upload it to the forum.
If you send me a BM with your email, I’ll send it to you.
A short summary then.
We started at Reykjavik, arriving later than planned due to delays, but still got almost a full day in town.
Stayed the whole next day in town.
Early next day we left by rental car on the ring road 1, driving towards the ferry stop to go to Vestmannaeyjar. We realized we had some time, and that Ölvisholt opened at noon, so drove up the gravel road to them to wait for opening. At 12.05 we called them to ask if they were open this day, they told us about 12.20 or so. We had planned to leave by 1 pm to have enough time to get to the ferry, so left us a tad short on time.
Since they were late, the owners treated us to a free tour of the brewery, including sampling 3 beers from tank. Since my wife volunteered to drive the rest of the way, I could finish the tank sampled and get their barley wine from tap before driving along.
Keep in mind the regulations from driving after having alcohol is strict, it is a terribly bad idea to drink and then drive.
Also speeding cameras are around and the fines are rather steep.
Good idea to read through this:
http://www.carhire.is/faq/traffic
We took the ferry to Vestmannaeyjar, some 35 minutes a tad rocky, but we brought beer with us 
The island itself is very nice, but the best brewery on Iceland for us were found there, The Brothers Brewery: Thu 4:00 pm - 11:00 pm Fri – Sat 2:00 pm - 1:00 am
Also ate at Einsi Kaldi, but after hearing from others, perhaps should have gone to Slippurinn instead.
Day after took the ferry back and got back in the car (not much use bringing the car to the island, but a good idea to prebook the ferry).
Drove up to Holmur and Jon Riki, stopping a little along the way. Somewhere along the way was an ice berg lagoon of sorts, pretty much a must stop.
Jon Riki was a bit of a let down, stayed at the guesthouse and sampled the beers.
Next day drove up to Akureyri, a rather long drive that got us to town close to dinner time even after starting at 9 am. With the earlier mention of avoiding driving over the mountains (we only had a 2WD), some road construction, some very slow cars, at times hard to pass cars, driving will take some time.
In Akureyri only did a few places.
Next day driving back to Reykjavik, spending the next full day, then leaving for home.
While driving you will quite often come to a narrow one car one way bridge, called Einbreid Bru, make sure to slow down and check for cars, and stop if someone is on the bridge.
Getting gas can be very confusing, we had a tag for Ollis and ÖB, which enabled us to fill up the tank with our credit card. Others we checked you could only fill up as per a certain amount of money, which we never figured out. You might want to check with the rental car place about getting gas.
We felt we could have done one day less in Reykjavik, and stop one more time between Holmur and Akureyri, or spend one more day in Akureyri.
Since you seem to have 2 weeks where we had one, and only some time in Reykjavik, you should be good.
Final notes:
Card worked for us everywhere, no need for cash.
You may get tax free at the airport when arriving, but beers are in 6 packs only upon arriving.
Iceland is very very expensive, most meals are 3000-5000 ISK. Most beers are 1000-1800 ISK.
Gas was roughly 220 ISK per liter.
The rental car company we used blocked 350,000 ISK on my card for deposit when renting, needed to be blocked on your card until returning the car. Not sure if every company does the same. I got the money unblocked only the day after though, though needed to be there, not included in the price for the trip itself in the end.
When driving into Reykjavik from the Akureyri side, the last tunnel has a toll, only 1000 ISK, and possible to pay with card, but needed unless you take the long way around earlier.
The two of us stayed only in guest houses, no hotels, most of them with shared bathroom. We rarely ate fine dining, we didn’t drink excessively. We bought rather few souvenirs. In the end we landed on paying in total, with flights etc, roughly 613,000 ISK for our trip. Here the flight was 20%, the rest was spent on Iceland.
We did pretty much what we wanted, and didn’t shy back from anything due to price, just pointing out that the trip didn’t dome cheap.
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So when you see this sign, slow down!
There are a LOT of them between Reykjavik and Akureyri, going the 1 road counter clockwise. However, going from Akureyri to Reykjavik, we didn’t see any.
(click pic to see the whole sign)
A little more…
Vestmannaeyer would likely be worth one extra night.
Einsi Kaldi was probably the best restaurant we went to, just we heard more good things later about Slippurin, so could be worth eating at both.
In Reykjavik, worth stopping by the food hall close to Reykjavik Brewing Company (I’ll add the brewery/tap room in a few, once I have time). At the food hall we stopped by Skál after recommendation from the brewer (at RVK). Good food, really good, “cheaper” then many places.
As for my place ratings, I have finished for:
The airport (Keflavik)
Vestmannaeyjar
Selfoss (Ölvisholt)
Höfn (Holmur)
Akureyri
As per Reykjavik, done for the first stop, still need to add for the second stop.
If interested:
https://www.ratebeer.com/user/32615/place-ratings/
Also shoot me any questions per BM and I’ll answer as best I can.
Are there any Greenland beers to be found in Iceland?
We didn’t look hard for any non Iceland beer in the one shop we were in.
However, for departing passengers in the tax free section (of Keflavik airport) there was a “gift pack” with some 4-6 Greenland beers available.
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Also gift pack of Faroe Islands beers in Duty Free
