Actual Cost Breakout for 7 Days in Iceland

It’s no secret that traveling to Iceland is crazy expensive! But how much is “crazy expensive” exactly? When I’m preparing to visit a new place, I love to see what other people spend there. So here I am, giving back and hopefully helping you understand the cost of Iceland with a complete breakout of expenses from a 7-day trip with 2 people around southern Iceland.

I want to start by saying that we did this trip very moderately. We could’ve spent less, and we DEFINITELY could’ve spent more. Luckily, Iceland is an amazing place where there are so many phenomenal free activities that you don’t have to pay for any other ones if you don’t want to.

We have divided up all our costs to show you exactly where our money went for 7 days in Iceland. Below, you can see more detail of what exactly we spent money on to adjust your budget for your plans.

***All amounts are shown in USD***

(We decided to exclude our flights from this table since (1) the price of this will vary greatly for everyone and (2) we did a stopover in Iceland with our final stop going to Denmark which also may have messed with the price. Our round-trip flights from Denver to Europe were ~$1,300 per person.)

Accommodations

Our largest expense, unsurprisingly, was accommodations. We definitely didn’t splurge much on any of our stays, but we did find well-rated hotels or guesthouses all with private bathrooms. Most of our stays also had free breakfast included in the price.

With staying 7 nights in Iceland, we averaged about $129/night. Even though this is quite pricey for many parts of the world, it’s pretty reasonable for Iceland as the cost of accommodations in Iceland can get very high.

Even though the guesthouses we stayed in weren’t the most luxurious, they had some pretty incredible features. One even had an outdoor area with a hot tub and sauna where you could hang out, relax, and watch while dozens of adorable sheep ate and played in the fields around you.

Transportation

The second highest category, transportation, follows scarily close behind. In order to really see Iceland, you either need to rent a car or go on bus tours. One way or another, you’re probably going to be spending quite a bit on transportation.

We opted to rent a car. For the 7-day rental, wifi add-on, and maximum insurance, we paid $642. Gas adds up pretty quickly when you’re driving for most of your day. Especially when it costs roughly $2.50/liter (~$9.50/gallon) as it did when we visited in May 2022!! This added another $228 to our transportation expenses.

Activities

As we said earlier, you definitely don’t HAVE to spend money on activities… It sure is fun to splurge every once in a while though.

Our activities total of $319 is made up of a handful of parking fees (these ranged from around $3-$10 at some spots), two tickets for the Blue Lagoon, two tickets for the Sky Lagoon, and two at the Laugarvatn Fontana Thermal Baths… We really love visiting thermal baths if you couldn’t tell.

There are tons of cheaper options for baths around Iceland, so you can easily enjoy them without spending this much.

As an example of one of the activities you can do for completely free, below is a picture of the best hike we have ever been on. You can find this hike, Fimmvörðuháls trail, at the top of the popular Skogafoss waterfall and it will take you on an adventure where you will find more waterfalls than you can imagine, each more breathtaking than the last.

Food

During our week, we felt like we were doing good at holding back on eating out. I still wish we were more strict on ourselves in this category, though. We spent $246 on restaurants and only $61 on groceries.

Now, don’t get me wrong! Every restaurant we went to was great! But we didn’t necessarily go to Iceland for the food, and we were just as happy on the days when we had frozen pizza and instant ramen as we were when we went to a restaurant.

While the cost of groceries in Iceland isn’t cheap either, stocking up on some food will save you a good chunk of money rather than going out to eat for every meal.

Travel Insurance

For travel insurance, we got a quote of $160 from World Nomads for two people (both 23) from Colorado, traveling to Iceland for a week.

We didn’t want to leave this out because travel insurance is an incredibly important thing to consider when planning your trip, but just keep in mind that this price may vary depending on your situation and the type of travel insurance you are looking for.

Miscellaneous

Our last two categories are essentially our miscellaneous expenses. We decided to use Airalo eSIMs for data and bought 9GB for $35. Lastly, $15 got us one postcard and one coffee mug. We aren’t big on souvenirs, but we loved having a mug that we could refill at our accommodations before heading out for the day!

Total

So our total cost for 7 days in Iceland for 2 people was $373 per day or $2,611 total. We absolutely adored our time in Iceland, but if we wanted to stay a little more budget-friendly, we could have swapped the popular thermal baths for some free/cheaper ones and cut out all restaurants. 

We hope this is helpful in budgeting your trip to Iceland! Check out our video below to see our full experience on the beautiful Fimmvörðuháls trail!

Let us know in the comments if you have any favorite money-saving activities while traveling!