Thinking about visiting Iceland? In November 2017 (yes November) I joined forces with two Canadians to travel Iceland on the cheapest budget possible. At the time, the Canadian and Australian dollars were equal, and when we tallied the total, it was AUD/CAD$255 each for 7 days - or $37 per day. 

Travelling in winter had its advantages and disadvantages. It was not possible to get into the highlands due to the snow, and we did decide to turn back on a few roads due to unsafe conditions. As an Australian, I wouldn't be comfortable driving in this amount of snow, but one of the Canadians was exceedingly amazing and drove the whole trip. There are very few visitors on the road, and especially outside of the Golden Circle we got to enjoy most of the sites and hotsprings to ourselves. 

The downside is that we only had 6-7 hours of daylight at this time of year. We maximised our daylight hours as much as possible, often starting our lengthier hikes before sunrise to watch the sunrise from the destination, then head back to the car during the daylight and power on through our itinerary for the day. Once the sun set, we would look on our map for the closest hotspring and spend the night in a hotspring, admiring the Northern Lights and shooting stars. We then camped in the car by each of these hotspring sites.

This was no luxury trip, but our budget for a week was less than the budget most people suggest for a single day. We slept in our hire car, hit up a new hot spring every night, and went with the purpose of enjoying the Northern Lights as much as possible. Here's our itinerary, and how you can do Iceland on a tight budget!

Volcanoes & Lava

During times of active eruptions, hiking is likely to be unsafe and not allowed. The only way to visit the eruption may be via helicopter tour. 

Thankfully, there are some places in Reykjavík where you may be able to see the red glow of molten lava, including: 

• Perlan Observation Deck 

• Walking bridge near BSÍ bus terminal 

• Kópavogskirkja Church in Kópavogur Town 

• Hafnarfjörður Town