Golden Circle tour too long for kids?

[Momof2inCT]

We have two little kids (4 and 6) and I'm worried that the Golden Circle Tour (8.5 hours!) will be too long for them. Anyone have opinions on this and/or other stuff for us to do with them in Rekyjavik?

Thank you!

 

[aggiedog]

You could find a shorter Golden Circle tour thru a private operator and consider hitting either one of the pools in Reykjavik or the Blue Lagoon. It is very easy to book private/non-DCL tours there. I just got back from my second trip to Iceland in 6 months, though admittedly both were land tours.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

I've done the Golden Circle Tour through a private operator. It's REALLY cool, but it is a bit long. And it involves a lot of time on a bus, so perhaps not the best for kids.

I really loved the Blue Lagoon. It's free for kids, beautiful, and they also give out free floaties for the little ones. I don't know how long they'd want to stay in the water since it is hot.

 

[Pens Fan]

It's a long day, but an incredible one. With the ages of your children I would recommend looking away from a bus tour. You know your kids best, but I think that would be pushing it for most children that age. We used Discover Iceland (http://www.discover.is/#!/) and they were terrific. Our son was 17, so obviously his interests and tolerances are much different than your kids. But this company was so great to work with, I'm sure they can help you. From the planning stages, to both of the guides - we used them for two days - I can't say enough good things about them. I'm sure they will have some great ideas for your family. They specialize in private tours in their "super jeeps". We did the Golden Circle tour, but also were able to add going out on a glacier the same day. They team up the jeeps in groups of three for the glacier part and there was one family with small children in another jeep. They were having a blast, throwing snow balls, etc.

Enjoy Iceland! It is truly a magical place.

 

[Just love Eeyore]

We did the tour last year with our kids aged 9 and 2 at the time. It went well and wasen't to long. We brought an Ipad for the bus and our yongest naped on the bus.

 

[ludari]

I did the Golden Circle drive on my own in January. With the ages of your kids I really doubt many of the items on the circle tour would interest them very much and if you are doing the drive yourself you can easily adjust how much time you spend at each key spot. I really cant think of anything that your children would like aside from the whale museum or the Seltajarnarnes swimming pool.

 

[Ofinn]

I'm considering renting a car. It cost around 200.00 for 24 hours. Expensive for a car rental, but definitely cheaper than tours. It's very easy to drive the Golden Circle on your own at your own pace. There's no traffic and they drive on the right side of the road. On our Hawaii cruise we rented a car in each port for around 35.00. We saw and did so much more than we would of on a tour bus paying hundreds of dollars.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We were in Iceland a few years ago. Loved it. We did the golden circle over 4 days. I think it would be a bit much on a bus. The kids might like the waterfalls and looking for the cute Icelandic horses but not sure what they would enjoy otherwise. But the roads are great, well marked. Renting a car on your own would be easy.

Also I know This is controversial for some but we have left our grandson at age 5 on the ship In the clubs while we did adult stuff off the ship. He was fine. Take a phone just in case. The kids had way more fun than they would have had on a bus or a car for several hours.

 

[Momof2inCT]

These are great comments - thank you! Renting a car sounds like a pretty good option. My MIL is looking into the hop on/hop off bus tickets and I think one of those buses goes to a cute open air museum that the kids might like.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

A lot of driving, but beautiful. For you kids ages, you've gotten some suggestions already, and I'll add the whale museum (looks interesting and I wish we had gotten a chance to go). Also, there are some walking tours ("free" with donations welcome, i.e.-no taxes I think) that looked good. I had emailed back and forth with one, but we did not do the walking tour. There was a company that does bicycle tours too - I think they had a way to transport kids if my memory is correct. (Again, something we considered). Some people on our cruise last year indicated they were going to go to a local pool (indoor) since this is a part of many Icelanders daily routine. Have fun- it is s beautiful place!

 

[TrySomethingNew]

To add, we did the Golden Circle tour with our kids through a private company -it was about 11-12 hours. Several kids on that bus and they generally slept on the longer portions. We left kids on ship the second day to do Blue Lagoon without them - we walked around and did not get into the water (we did not pay to go in the water), and instead ate at Lava (the onsite restaurant) which was extremely delicious and enjoyable (and pricey). We made advance reservations at Lava knowing we were not going to go into the water.
Fwiw, our kids were8,16 at the time, so we knew the 16yo would reliably get the 8yo to the club after they woke up and ate breakfast.

 

[jenf22]

Our 8-year old son had a blast at Blue Lagoon. We did that in the morning and then the Golden Circle in the afternoon. We weren't on a ship though. We were there for 2 nights after our Norway cruise. We booked through Gray Line Tours and enjoyed every aspect of it. The Golden Circle was long, but we made lots of stops and the kiddo seemed to have a lot of fun. We also did a whale watching cruise the morning we flew home and he really enjoyed that too. They made him wear a life jacket, which he wasn't too thrilled about. But since he was literally the ONLY kid on the boat, they let him sit in the captain's chair and wear the captain's hat for a bit. He really enjoyed Iceland. We were there June 12-13 last year and boy was it bright at midnight!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

We were on the DCL sailing last year that overnighted in Reykjavik. We chose to do the shorter version which I believe was around 6.0 hours and it was considered the "evening" Golden Circle but of course it didn't get dark. We went with some friends and all loved it. We were picked up downtown (we chose that location) and I think we left around 4:00pm and were back by 10:00pm (somewhere in that time frame). It wasn't as crowded at the locations and the scenery and lighting was amazing. We used www.re.is and their buses have free wifi (so if you need to entertain the kids that's awesome) and kids were actually free with them which made it all very affordable. We also used them for the Blue Lagoon and did that the next morning separately and again, were very pleased.

Heather