guide to travel to Iceland with kids/infant UPDATED

Iceland with kids. What to prepare for traveling to Iceland?

If I were to describe Iceland in one word only, the word would be: Extreme.  It is a country of extreme beauty and extreme weather. And Iceland's extreme, unpredictable weather is one of the most important things to know, to remember and to prepare for, especially traveling with children and traveling with an infant in particular. It shouldn't be though the reason not to go there, just prepare for it. Warm clothes, rainproof and windproof jacket and trousers for yourself and for kids (also for the infant) should be the first things you pack in your luggage. And don't forget a hat, as warm as possible!!! We were in Iceland in June and we were caught in a snowstorm when driving from south to north Iceland. We used our hats and warm, all-weather clothes every day and our 5 year old son was super excited as he could make a snowman in June!

Accommodation

As Iceland is mainly NATURE, where the mountains, glaciers, huge lava fields and wastelands takes majority of its area, there is not so many towns/villages around and not so many accommodation options outside of the capital area. Of course there are hotels or farms offering accommodation spread around Iceland but compered to other countries there is just not so much of them. Therefore exceptionally important, especially when traveling with children, is to plan ahead and making the hotels reservations in advance. During the high season the accommodation fills up quickly and if we're not saying in Reykjavik but traveling around Iceland it is possible that the next available place to sleep will be in 50 km.

Types of accommodation

In Reykjavik we can, of course, find all sorts of accommodation from the simplest and cheapest (bare minimum for central Reykjavik 110 Euros for family room with no breakfast, toilet in the corridor) to the most luxurious ones.  

Outside the capital area there are mainly simple hotels (rather expensive), farms (usually not so expensive), camp sites (cheap, sometimes offering also simple wooden huts), and guesthouses/hostels usually with shared bathrooms. Majority of places provide baby cot free of charge. It is also good to call or email the hotel/farm/guesthouse and ask about the price when staying with a young child. In our case we got very good prices, many times the places charged us for a double room plus just a little for our 5 years old and nothing for a baby.
Some places offer sleeping bag accommodation, for a reduced price. In this case you pay for a bed, sometimes with a pillow, and you need to have your own blanket or sleeping bag. The sleeping bag accommodation does not mean that you have to sleep in a dorm, you can still have a private room, you just won't get and won't pay for the bedding.  

Expect to pay minimum 1700 ISK (around 12 Euro) for breakfasts, children usually pay 50%, babies nothing.

The free WiFi becomes a standard now, usually working well (that was our experience). 

Important! Farms and guesthouses may offer only breakfasts and do not offer lunch/dinners. So keep that in mind, especially when you are in sparsely populated parts of Iceland (like my personal favorite magical South East Iceland). Once we were staying on a wonderful farm, and when we arrived, really hungry after day of exploring, prepared to eat dinner there, we were informed they don't offer any food other then breakfast. The owner told us we can eat at the nearby farm (where the buffer dinner costed 40 Euros per person! sorry to expensive for us...) or in the nearest town 35 km away.

I do, though, recommend staying at farms. They are usually surrounded by stunning nature and have plenty of animals which is always a highlight for children. Even our 14 months old was excited when he could touch a baby sheep or goat, or just look at them, wondering freely around.

The food

While traveling we quickly discovered that we did not really like the breakfasts that were served in hotels/guesthouses/farms that we stayed at. In places where we had breakfast included in a room price that was not a problem we just found something to eat from food offered and, like it or not, just ate it. The different thing was when the breakfast was not included. The price was very high and the quality, well... quite poor. Before leaving for Iceland I was planning to buy breakfasts at the places we will be staying at but we just end up buying the breakfast's products in local supermarkets and eating in the common kitchen areas. That worked out much better for us taken into account price, quality and our 14 Months Old's "baby issues" .

Another thing I didn't expect, was that simple hot dogs, bought in Icelandic supermarkets, have "saved our lives" with children. The little one suddenly didn't want to eat anything from the food he used to eat at home, and after having battles with him and trying different tricks to make him eat his normal food we gave up and tried hot dogs. That plus oranges was the only food he ate for thirst couple of days, then thankfully we managed feeding him also healthier foods. Hot dogs sausages were also a great lunch/emergency food when our 5 Year Old got hungry. At home I'm normally all "Organic Homemade Food Person" but for 2 weeks in Iceland I had to make exception as eating hot dogs by my children is better then not eating anything at all...

How much are diapers and basic products in Iceland?

That was one of questions I asked myself before going to Iceland. I new that Iceland is expensive but I didn't know how much should I expect to pay for them, or maybe I should just take diapers from home and not to worry about buying them.This was finally what we did. As I couldn't find the answer anywhere on line I thought while being in Iceland I'll check what are the prices for basic things  a mother traveling to Iceland with a child/ baby may want to know. So here they are

pampers maxi 42 pieces -1295 ISK (9 Euro)
baby wipes 64 wipes. -226 ISK (1.5 Euro)
baby fruit deserts 4 *100g - 350 ISK (2,5 Euro)
baby food (lasagne) jar 235g - 250 ISK (1,7 Euro)
corn flakes 500 g. - 460 ISK (3 Euro)
Nature Valley muesli bars 5 pack 360 ISK - (2,4 Euro)
hot-dogs 5 stuck 390 ISK (2,6 Euro)
milk  1 liter 135 ISK (0.9 Euro)
jogurt plai 100 ISK (0,67 Euro)
orange juice 1 liter - 160 ISK (1,07 Euro)
apple juice 1 liter - 160 ISK (1,07 Euro)
pineapple juice 1 liter - 160 ISK (1,07 Euro)

Supermarkets

The Icelandic supermarkets are stocked pretty well, and even the ones in remote places (I was surprised to find there few different brands of coconut oil). In every supermarket travelling mum can find diapers, baby wipes and other baby products. The most important thing to know though is that outside capital area supermarkets can be situated several dozen kilometers one from another. You may drive from one village to another and find no store/no bakery, sometimes only a gas station that may or may not have a simple mini market. So when you're driving Route 1 around Iceland stock up on the products you may need later in the trip around Reykjavik, or check before going which places on the Ring road have a supermarket. I'll be writing about that in my later posts.