Iceland budgeting 2019

Our Iceland June 2019 trip budget was a little wacky because we also got married in Iceland and had a group of six meet us there for ceremony, travel, and plenty of meals.

Aside from all of our wedding stuff, we spent $3,140.41 for 7 full days in Iceland. Here’s how I broke it down originally when we were planning for the budget:

$750 lodging
$720 food for two ($30 for breakfast, $40 for lunch, $50 dinner)
$1,250 flights
$440 misc

And here’s what we actually spent:

$752 lodging
$499 food
$1,275 flights
$612 misc

Budget: $3,160

Actual: $3,138

Lodging

I came so close to my original lodging estimate because I had looked at prices before making the budget. I was working off of $150/night, which gets us 5 nights. Two of our nights were a part of our wedding budget (paid separately) at a hotel that we would never otherwise splurge for.

We also saved a bit because we traveled with a friend for two of our Airbnb stays. And while that meant that I booked bigger and thus more expensive places than I normally would, we shared the cost per person and so saved about 1/3rd the cost of those accommodations.

Food

Food was a heavy hitter and far more expensive than I thought it would be, even though I knew it would be expensive. I would guess to say that I under-budgeted food in Iceland by nearly half. If you’re setting your food budget in 2019 and beyond, $45 for breakfast, $60 for lunch, and $75 for dinner should be a better guess (to feed two people).

That being said, we came in here massively under budget because we generally only eat two meals a day when traveling and we end up sharing a lot of foods. We stopped at a Bonus or other grocery store three times over the course of seven days to pick up some breakfast and snack foods to hold us over and help us avoid restaurants. We also went to a liquor store once to stock up rather than go out (which was great because that meant more time in the hot tub).

On average, we spent about $30 per person for lunch.

Flights

This part of the budget is particularly misleading. I budgeted $1,250 for our flight from Iceland to Rome, which includes a layover and is certainly not a normal flight path. Our flights to Iceland, and from Rome back home were paid separately as a part of our wedding budget.

I watched Iceland flights very closely for months. I suggest you book about 6 months in advance if you’re going during the high season. I was able to book a round trip flight to Iceland for under $400 for one of our guests, and I do strongly believe you can get a similar rate if you’re on top of things (i.e. booking early).

I also did not originally budget for luggage as we were originally planning to smush everything in our carry on. As the trip got closer, it became apparent that we could pack our wedding outfit, or our other travel clothes, but not both in the same suitcase. I try to never check in luggage, but there was no way around it for this trip.

Miscellaneous

Included in our miscellaneous expenses was $190 for two admissions to the blue lagoon. Our ferry tickets to Vestmannaeyjar also came out of this budget, as did our tickets to Perlan.

I am always an advocate for leaving some wiggle room in your budget for unexpected expenses.

What’s not included

In our budget, we did not include a few key things you’ll need to think about, including the rental car, which is a significant expense (I had budgeted $900 and I think we were very near to that by the end).

Two nights of our stay, as well as as 2 lunches and 2 dinners were planned for outside of our above budget because of the wedding. If I had to incorporate these costs into a future trip, that would eat into our Misc fund, or else we’d have to stay at a cheaper/less central apartment in Reykjavik.

How do you go about budgeting for a trip?

Love,