Adventures Reviews

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