Diamond Circle Myvatn Waterfalls, and Husavik from Akureyri Tour

Posted By : LingHeong_O
Well organized . Good timing and commentary from the tour guide. Despite the poor weather the guide managed to give us an enjoyable time.
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Posted On : 2023-09-11 05:11:21

Posted By : Anna_T
I believe that a tour is only as good as the guide. Our guide, Runar, greatly enhanced the tour with his stories and deep knowledge of the amazing sites. He was professional and attentive. He made the tour interesting and super fun. Kudos to the driver, Aron, too!
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Posted On : 2023-09-05 07:02:52

Posted By : Geri_R
Had a great day with our tour guide, Runar and driver, Lukas. Both were eager to make sure everyone had a great day. Runar took the time at each stop to walk out to the attraction with the group and was always available to answer questions. The time at each stop was good and we didn’t feel rushed. Lunch was provided and eaten on bus to maximize day - for us a ham and cheese sandwich, chocolate and water. Husavik was the shortest stop at 20 mins which initially was a little disappointing, but at 4pm on Sunday nothing was really open there, so again the time was right. We felt we got to see a lot with this tour and it was good value for money.
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Posted On : 2023-09-02 02:31:26

Posted By : Mark_Q
This tour hits many natural highlights with an all-day excursion from Akureyri. The waterfalls were very impressive, as one would expect. Around Godafoss, Lake Myvatn, and the hot springs, the flies were rather horrendous...people in the know were wearing nets over their heads, because it detracted from the experience. Even though these flies did not bite, they were in your eyes, mouth. But the flies are not the fault of the tour company (although other tours had nets for people, and that would have raised my rating as a bonus).

The real reason for my rating is the general itinerary and guide's management of the tour. Coming off the ship, the bus was not clearly marked for the tour (every other bus always was). I had to ask the driver what tour this was, and the guide wasn't near the bus until it was nearly time to leave. The tour ended up leaving ~15 minutes late, and we ended up returning over 30 minutes late. On top of that, every stop provided too little time to enjoy the area. It took 5 minutes to get everyone off the bus, so having 20 minutes at most stops was not enough time, since they all required some walking. To give people a more reasonable amount of time at the stops, I would remove one or more of them from the itinerary, specifically the lake (viewed from afar to avoid the flies, but they were still at the overlook), the national park hike to a "canyon," and the town of Husavik. Those were not worth the small amount of time given. This tour was just trying to cram too much in the allotted time.

The guide (I can't recall her name, but she was an older, tatooed redhead) gets credit for her explanation of Icelandic history and other tour narration. And she was pleasant as a guide, which I know isn't easy from a lot of perspectives. Where she failed pretty badly was in managing the bus situation. The bus was completely full. Not an empty seat. But on tours like this, there are going to be some single travelers or non-pair groups. They claimed their seats/rows on the bus and left a few couples who got on last to sit apart from each other. On another tour the day before, our guide asked the singles to pair up so the couples could sit together. This was all our guide had to do, but she failed to anticipate this was and would continue to be a problem. The split couples, maybe 4 pairs, all elderly, from a Viking cruise, claimed new seats together after the first stop, which threw the entire seat situation into disarray. It split other couples, which prompted more seat stealing on the next several stops, each time upsetting different people. Then, the icing on the cake, a mother and her daughter were the last 2 back on the bus once, and had lost their seats. This initiated a confusion with the guides about if the right people were on the bus, because they didn't remember that the bus was full, therefore check to see if there are empty seats. Because Bus Travel Iceland had a second bus traveling at the same stops, they thought someone might have gotten on the wrong bus. The other bus guide, who seemed more experienced, got involved and they started trying to check tickets for 100 people, which just doesn't happen quickly. In the end, someone figured out the right people were on the bus, but the musical chairs game caused the confusion. It was a completely avoidable situation if some common sense was applied at the very beginning regarding bus seats. The guide vowed to address the issue at teh next stop, but didn't do anything after that. Instead of relocating the single people together, the later split couples (victims) of the Viking couples' maneuvers decided not to fight about it, and they ended up sitting apart for the second half of the tour. All completely avoidable.

Go for the waterfalls and hot springs (which stink awful), and bring a bug net if traveling in summer (this was mid-August). Consider trying a shorter tour with fewer stops.
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Posted On : 2023-09-01 13:34:13

Posted By : Ruth_C
Would I recommend? Yes but with some reservations.
The trip was from a cruise ship. Two ships with different leaving times and passengers mixed up on coach. The trip was overbooked and some customers lost out. In my mind, cabs should have been summoned for these guests.

We were , therefore , 20 minutes late in leaving for a very long tour. It was decided to do the main waterfall last as the area was packed . The scenery was stunning and the guide lovely but due to several passengers being constantly 5-10 minutes late we were rushing everywhere to fit in everything. These inconsiderate people ( possibly from the later embarkation ship) made things very stressful. What could the guide do? He couldn’t leave them but they were very inconsiderate. There were also some guests with mobility issues and, in reality, they should have been advised not to visit a couple of the sites as they also held us up.

Overall, we manage to see some beauty places but the trip was blighted; better organisation is required.
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Posted On : 2023-08-29 09:03:18

Posted By : April_L
Tour operator rushed the tour. We were given 10 to 15 minutes each site. The only thing you can do in each site is take photos and then leave and on to the next site. Operator packs a lot of sites on their tour to make it attractive but the downside is they rush you.
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Posted On : 2023-08-28 14:43:01

Posted By : Parvez_M
Nice and comfortable way to see the highlights of Akureyri in a short time. Length of the tour and duration at stops was adequate to enjoy a glimpse of the respective attraction. Our bus driver, Lisle and tour guide, Inersh were very knowledgeable and helpful!
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Posted On : 2023-08-28 02:26:17

Posted By : veronicaelf
The tour operator Bus Travel was great. Excellent and knowledgeable guide, Runar along with driver Chris. Made a lot of stops and saw a lot of beautiful natural sites. Only complaint is that the lunch was more of a snack (brown paper bag) which was given to us at almost 3:00pm. Most of us were pretty hungry by then.
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Posted On : 2023-08-24 17:41:45

Posted By : Donna_M
It was an excellent trip over all with a very good driver & tour guide, BUT extremely disorganized at the outset- we weren’t even sure there would be a seat for us on the bus!
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Posted On : 2023-08-17 10:31:38

Posted By : Helen_G
A great way to see everything in one day. Spectacular waterfalls, geothermal pools, incredible scenery with knowledgeable guide
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Posted On : 2023-08-16 13:37:59