Adventures Reviews

The Pros - Iceland itself is beautiful No complaints - Reykjavik is a beautiful city - the tour doesn t allow you time here so make sure you schedule it it s worth it definitely be sure to schedule time at 1 or more lagoons - Our glacier hike guide Ola was absolutely amazing She made sure everyone felt comfortable was very patient with all of us She answered questions provided information readily She gave us plenty of time to enjoy the experience - We got to visit a working horse farm on the last day which was a very enjoyable experience The Cons - Our trip guide Thor S is absolutely not suited to a front-facing customer service role He was dour blunt He rarely spoke while we were on the road when we stopped kept to himself with his headphones in I understand that driving can be taxing especially on Icelandic roads but the job is to be a guide not to be a sour presence over the group - AA says the skill level of this tour is easy which might be true if you were allotted a reasonable amount of time at locations I am not an avid hiker but I looked up each hike on the itinerary before booking felt that I would be capable of them However Thor gave us what I others felt was an unreasonably short time at every location he was able to do so which was most of them This completely changed the skill level enjoyability of the trip - Thor gave out information ineloquently like it was rationed I would have assumed there was at least a basic script given to guides but either there isn t or Thor disregarded his On the rare occasions he shared information it was basic lacked detail I read a broad overview of Iceland before I came that is the only reason about 85 of what he said made any sense to me because he gave no context no detail Most of what he said can be paraphrased as This place site was important in year because person verbed here So yeah If someone dared to ask a question he would either simply repeat himself or answer in a tone that may not have been intended to be rude but absolutely came across that way I understand that when you are from a place or an expert in a place many questions may seem to have obvious answers However the very purpose of hiring a guide is to have an expert on hand to answer questions for you If the answer was obvious to everyone a guide wouldn t be necessary Thor seemed to have no concept of this absolutely no ability to answer questions in a way that didn t make the asker feel like their question was the stupidest thing he had ever heard - Thor rushed us at every stop refused 99 of the time to allow us more time when requested with no explanations didn t follow the itinerary Most frustrating was the fact that we often stopped for the day earlier than expected most of the hotels were so remote there wasn t anything to do but wander their grounds or stay in your room On the day we went to the lagoon which was an extra 80 we had to fight to be allowed to stay for 2 5 hours in spite of the fact that it was our last stop of the day we arrived before 4pm Keep in mind that it s summer it s not like we re losing daylight The horse farm experience while delightful was done in lieu of actual items on the itinerary with again no explanation as to why we were skipping it We then arrived back in Reykjavik 2 hours earlier than scheduled which Thor acted like he did as a favor to us even though it was obvious that he was just anxious to be rid of us - The tour leaves you on your own for lunch dinner but in reality this just meant Thor chose where we ate It was extremely disappointing to rarely be offered the opportunity to choose where to eat perhaps this was a misunderstanding on my part but going in I had assumed we would be offered opportunities to stop at grocery stores or that we would be stopping in towns with multiple options for meals Instead we usually stayed at remote hotels all with similar menus several of which were conveniently owned by AA Thor never offered us the opportunity to stop elsewhere even though we often arrived at hotels before 6pm Lunch was also usually at a remote location with one extremely expensive choice I m unsure if the timing itinerary food options issues are due to operator or guide but my impression was that Thor had a lot of leeway when it came to these decisions Overall this experience simply isn t worth the cost Given the glacier hike it s clear that AA can hire excellent guides I do realize that hiring is never perfect However I would absolutely recommend avoiding AA s multi-day tours as you risk being stuck for days with someone who should absolutely not be in the role they are A bad guide for 3 hours is tolerable 6 days is miserable leaves you feeling swindled

My recent experience with Arctic Adventures was quite disappointing and I would rate it a 2-star There were several issues that need addressing 1 The northern lights tour that was supposed to be included never happened We were only able to see the lights because another guide called his group to witness the spectacle Our guide didn t make any effort to help us with this 2 Our guide was exceptionally annoying which negatively affected the overall experience 3 The glacial hiking equipment they provided was subpar They gave us a useless pick and forced us to rent shoes even if we already had appropriate footwear 4 The glacier hiking experience was compromised due to the presence of a person with a medical condition preventing us from exploring the full amazing path Additionally a friend who booked the Vatnajokull Ice Cave tour not the multiday one got to visit a much better ice cave than we did we visit an ice hole 5 Dinner arrangements were frustrating as the hotel s remote location left us with no other options forcing us to dine at the expensive hotel restaurant which cost more than restaurants in Reykjavik 6 We choose not going on the Krauna visit and the guide failed to take us to the horse farm resulting in a 1 5-hour wait for nothing and no horse farm experience 7 The promise of breakfast in Vik was unfulfilled as we never made it to Vik 8 Some information provided by the guide turned out to be inaccurate prompting me to fact-check later 9 The trip was supposed to include a visit to the Elhraun lava field but the guide neglected to stop there 10 Lastly the customer service I encountered was terrible adding to the overall dissatisfaction with the tour 11 The website has a lack of clear information and a lot of gray areas Be aware I will be in Iceland until Nov 10th and hope them to fix this ARC-T50759458

1 We expected to have a total experience of 3 hours like the mentions But in reality is was only 1 5 hour half the time 2 as confirmed in the booking we were promised to receive snorkeling photo s but apparently the camera was not working and we received no snorkeling photo s of us

MAGICAL AURORAS - Northern Lights Mini bus tourThis was a VERY disappointing experience I completely understand that this is not a guaranteed sighting by any means However the driver was not really interested in looking for the best spot to find Northern Lights instead he was going for what was convenient which was about 10 mins away from the airport in an area full of HOUSES lit up with Christmas decorations Despite what the aurora forecast said he insisted that we stay in that spot It was very cold and windy so we stayed in the minibus for almost 2 hours waiting From the start there were other passengers that voiced out their concerns of the chosen area based on what they were seeing on the aurora tracker we were too far south we needed to go north in order to get clearer skies One of the passengers was very upset because this was his second time and we were going to the same spot he had unsuccessfully visited to a few days ago with another driver Our driver didn t want to hear what the other passengers were saying There were a few other minibuses that were but eventually left either to go home or look for a better spot As for that free re-booking if you don t get to see anything the first trip good luck Sure you can re-book if they have availability and if it still fits your schedule Even though I left time to do this in our schedule they did not have space for 2 other dates I tried to re-book and the day before our tour already got cancelled because of the snow They said we have up to a year to re-book and it s transferable but realistically we will never use it nor would we recommend this to anyone even if it s free We paid almost 300 for 2 adults 1 adults we definitely felt ripped off In the end since we also had a car we went on our own we caught a glimpse of it but still way better than going on a tour if you are able to

I booked the Laugavegur and Fimmvorduhals 6-day hut-to-hut trek directly on Arctic Adventure website in June 2023 All three stars for the beauty of the place I wish I had better guide Experience would have turned into five stars Pros 1 Beautiful jaw dropping landscapes all around the highlands2 My first solo trip was well taken care by Arctic Adventure - planning organization food and experience3 A few parts of the trail are challenging but all worth the efforts For most part the trail is moderate4 Small group setting was perfect to make friends break-time talks trekking and off trekking company We made good memories during dinner preparing dinner and post dinner cleanup 5 Our guide was Halldor He was very energetic friendly a good cook and cool person Cons 1 Hut experience can get awkwardly cozy as you need to sleep around many strangers and sometimes very close to them2 I felt the guide Halldor could have done better job as a guide The ride from Reykjavik to the trailhead was about 4 hours There was no communication from him during these 4 hours unless anyone asked specific questions I was expecting information about the hike expectations interesting geology fun stories to keep the group engaged and entertained 3 Later the same day as we started to hike he made our group undergo a test to assess our fitness level He made us hike more than 425m elevation gain in about 15-20 mins It was crazy to begin the hike such way as I couldn t enjoy the scenery and the unique striped mountains around All I was focused on is hiking and keeping up with the group I wasn t there to work out I wanted to take in the fresh air and smell roses along the way A medium pace with picture opportunities would have been appreciated4 He continued the same crazy style on the second day as well Rushing all along the hike His reasoning second day was the longest length of the day hike 25km I reminded him to keep the moderate pace at least three to four time in two days He was hiking so fast that there was no way for him to see or know if all of the group is able to keep pace with him or not If something had happened to the last bunch of folks in the group god knows how long it would have taken to get the news to him Third day on he slowed down a little and I also started ignoring his pace so that I could enjoy the nature more than worrying about keeping up 5 Apparently our group was comprised of different sub-tours A few folks were there for 4-day hike some for 5-day hike with added site seeing and very few for 6-day hike However there was no clear communication from the company or the guide about how departure was going to be handled Everyone including the guide was clueless and confused This part was very frustrating to many folks in the group 6 After 4th day most of the folks from our group departed I was left with a family of 2 parents and 2 kids for the last two days Halldor got so relaxed after 4th day that he didn t keep us on schedule for last two days On the last 6th day we were supposed to go on fimmvorduhals hike which is again 22-25km long The family didn t seem interested in doing the full hike Although I wanted to hike all the way and I was ready way ahead than the family it didn t matter We started hiking pretty late in the morning and didn t go all the way I was very disappointed that I couldn t do what I was there for I would blame this partly on the guide7 This is very minor point I had asked Halldor about small favor He agreed to it but kept forgetting it even after couple of reminders Ultimately he didn t seem to be taking his customers seriously or he was too cool to do that -

We had a mixed experience on the combined snowmobiling and Into the Glacier Tour First the good our two guides were fantastic They were professional knowledgeable kind and funny They were the best part of the tour We were lucky that no one else signed up for our time slot so we had a private tour which was great They also accommodated that I wanted to go slower on the snowmobile and my husband and son wanted to get some speed Our one complaint for me was major I am a larger person and I specifically emailed the company prior to the trip to make sure that they would have larger jumpsuits available as advertised on their website They assured me that it would be no problem When I got there they didn t have any It was really embarrassing for me as I ended up wearing one two sizes too small and couldn t zip it up at all It was chilly on the snowmobile even in July If we had come in winter I wouldn t have been able to participate I then followed up with the person I had emailed after the visit to express my disappointment and never received a reply For 1000 I expect better So for this reason even though we loved our guides - I wouldn t recommend using this company

The worse experience on the way towards The Ice Cave Under The Volcano - Katla Ice-cave Tour From Rey The experience was horrible the ride towards the meeting point in Vik was horrible it was freezing on the van I think the driver didn t turn on the heather temperatures were -5 Celsius and a snow storm outside I had 2 thermal layers on and I nearly freze on the van It was horrible Don t book this trip in winter as the bus is a small van which has 3 doors and 2 windows on top of the van The cold comes in easily and no heating The van got heated after 3 hours It was getting worse by the hour after 4 hours with no toilet brake we were on the way to Vik On the way back suddenly the heating was working If it was all about the van driver I would had give a start but the other driver that took us towards the Katla volcano was very friendly and showed us the ice caves It was a great experience at the caves If you can get your own ride to Vik is much better as the van towards Vik was freezing

We booked the northern lights tour the tour guide took us 20minutes away from the city to one stop so not really a tour we barely saw anything and they considered that as seen so we cannot rebook the free one our photo was not taken and we were not given blankets I would recommend just going to a spot away from the city to known sighting spots which can be found easily with research I would not recommend this company We have requested a refund Update After back and forth with customer service they have issued a refund so I am increasing the rating from 1 to 3

The guides were very good knowledgable and funny The glacier is stunning as are the caves The glacier is retreating rapidly so it took a lot longer to get to than I had thought 1h by the time we arrived The truck was awesome but some aircon or ventilation to the back seats along with an small speaker so you could hear the guide properly would make a significant difference for those at the back Overall if you haven t been into the glacier then I would recommend tho I would prob check out the other tours at the larger glacier further east if time on your trip allows it

Not the best day to review The pick up was an hour or more late and it rained all day Not a problem for snorkeling but made it difficult to get in out of a dry suit and stay dry The guides however never lost their patience or sense of humor even when under the time pressure of the next group arriving and made it a great experience