Secret Circle is the Best Experience
The Secret Circle was the best tour. I loved how offroad it was and that I really got the Iceland experience. The tour guide Hrund was amazing. She was very knowledgeable and added a lot of fun to the trip. I learned so much about Iceland from her, from the land itself to the culture. The Gjain was beautiful and I'm really glad this tour went there. If you have trouble walking then the Secret Circle tour isn't for you, but if you're able it's an experience you definitely don't want to miss.
mseedunn
14. January, 2024.
Best tour in Iceland!
Outstanding! Kjartan guided 8 of us across southern Iceland. He worked with us to set up activities we sought to do (glacial climbing, ATV on the beach, snowmobiling on a glacier), arranged high quality hoteling and added local history, culture, and geology on top of it. In a week, we made it as far east as the Glacier lagoon (which looks like something out of a Superman movie set). New Year's Eve fireworks in Reykjavik were the most beautiful and extensive I've seen. Worth putting on one's bucket list!I would both use Glacial Experience tours on my next trip to Iceland to venture anywhere and recommend it without reservation to others.
Jean P
12. January, 2024.
Glacial Experience - Excellent Service - Dream Trip!
What can I say?! WONDERFUL! This experience had it all! I sent Glacial Experience a LONG list of things I wanted to do and see while there and they literally made it ALL happen: They did ALL the leg work: Wrote the itinerary, booked the hotel rooms (Beautiful places!), booked the excursions (which were with wonderful outfitters) , ensure sights were seen (WE DID SO MANY!), made sure we on time everywhere, did the driving (complete with airport transfers), gave us ALL the history, cultural, geological information that only a local could! All we had to do is get in the van when we were told to! 4 couples had probably one of the best trips that we ever have had! Thanks Kjartan!
Annette C
9. January, 2024.
Best Iceland Trip!
I have so many great things to say about Glacier Experience, Iceland, Tobba, and our guide; Haflioi. We went to Iceland Dec 10-14th 2023. All the hotels and tours were booked and we didn’t have to worry about a thing. Tobba was amazing and so helpful with planning our Iceland trip! She put together an awesome itinerary, which we will save and put in our album to look back and remember everything we did. We told her everything we wanted to do and she suggested other fun activities like snowmobiling. She was very attentive at responding to emails throughout the course of planning our trip. We had a wrong glacier hike planned but she fixed it right away. The month before our trip, when the uncertainty with the volcano was up in the air, she was in close contact with us, and monitoring the situation and coming up with contingency plans. Our last 2 nights we were supposed to stay at the Silica Hotel at the Blue Lagoon. Tobba would constantly forward the emails from the Silica Hotel with updates on the reopening/status. A few days before, I told her I would like to extend an extra night at the Hotel Ranga if the Silica Hotel would not reopen, and she said it would not be a problem, (I’m kind of glad we had 2 nights at Hotel Ranga, since it’s so charming, cozy, and beautiful, with great service.) She also recommended other possible hotels and helped me choose between two hotels that best fit how we wanted to spend our last night in Iceland. Tobba emailed us the day we left for Iceland and told us the Blue Lagoon was not reopening and booked our last two nights at the other hotels. After our first day in Iceland and snowmobiling, she was so considerate and asked us how our first day went! Tobba is a GREAT asset to Glacier Experience. Our guide, Haflioi was just WONDERFUL! He was such great company throughout our trip. We had a private tour and he was so great to talk to and amazing company to have during our trip to Iceland. He is very knowledgeable and gave us great background from history to geography about Iceland. Everything we wanted to do, he made sure we got to do. We wanted to get some shopping done to take home souvenirs, Icelandic wool sweaters, ornaments, etc… and he took us to a great shopping plaza. He did an extremely wonderful job at keeping us on track with time and talking to the guide from the glacier ice cave hike to get us back on time so we can maximizing our daylight to see all the iconic/special things in Iceland, like the glacier lagoon. Tobba and Haflioi did a great job in planning to maximize our activities during the short daylight in Iceland around this time of the year. So I’m soooo thankful for that, since I would not have taken that into account if we were to plan this ourselves! Haflioi is also so considerate! He brought mini crampons for us to use when we went sight seeing to the waterfalls, which helped us walk confidently on the ice around the waterfalls! Haflioi is also a GREAT asset to the company providing amazing guided tours! Iceland is such a beautiful beautiful place, very peaceful, rich culture, amazing seafood and lamb, and breathtaking scenery! The glacier hike and ice cave tour at Vatnajokull, was one of the highlights of the trip, amazing hike to the top of the glacier then going into the glacier cave, I highly recommend!!!! Our guide for that trip was great. She was funny, knowledgeable, and awesome! This Iceland trip with Glacier Experience was worth every penny!
vdevlin
1. October, 2022.
Iceland - Magical vacation
My husband and I, along with another couple decided on short notice to go on a trip to Iceland. We all have traveled before and knew that private tour is the way to go. Our travel agent wasn’t familiar with any of the private tour groups in Iceland so we did some research on our own and found Glacial Experience. Kjartan was always quick to respond to emails. He helped us plan a perfect itinerary for us. Our driver was Haflidi who couldn’t be more nicer, smart, funny, and helpful. He is a man who knows so much and was fun to be around. He took excellent care of us. This trip is definitely one for the books and Glacial Experience made that happen for us.
Trip52012
11. June, 2022.
💕 Land of Fire and Ice
Where should I begin! From the beginning Kjartan and Tobba at Glacial Experience did an amazing job with reaching out and coordinating our trip. I had contacted 2 other companies but felt Glacial Experience would give us a more authentic curated experience based on the wide age ranges we had in our group ( 5 y/o to 50+). We were able to see many of the waterfall highlights and national parks in the southern region; crossed multiple rivers and visited the highlands in a super jeep, hiked and snowmobiled on a glacier, rode in a zodiac boat in the Glacier Lagoon and saw icebergs up close all in 7 days! In addition we had time to see all the wonderful sights in Reykjavik. Our awesome guide, Haflidi, was integral in this process. It seems like he knows everyone in Iceland and was so abundantly knowledgeable with Iceland’s history, culture, geology and its current vibe, we couldn’t help but learn something new each day. The folks at Glacial Experience turned a family vacation to Iceland into an incredible memory!
Caren R
19. January, 2022.
Iceland over NYE
My husband and I recently returned from a trip to Iceland with Glacial Experience through Zicasso over New Year's Eve to celebrate our 25th anniversary. The trip completely exceeded our highest expectations! The itinerary they created was fascinating and packed just enough in every day that we were able to do so many things without feeling like we were rushed from place to place. The accommodations were very good with a special shout out to Hotel Ranga for their amazingly friendly staff! Our private guide, Thor Tulinius, was simply incredible and brought such depth and color to the trip. His personality is outgoing and engaging and we felt as if we'd made a new friend by the end of the week. His knowledge of history, geology, and folklore brought each experience to life. He was also able to adjust on the fly a few times when we decided to change the itinerary a little bit. We absolutely plan to return in summertime and would most definitely request Thor again. The trip was great on it's own, but Thor made it spectacular! We had an unexpected surprise at the end of the trip and tested positive for Covid on our pre-departure testing so had to stay an extra week in a government provided hotel for quarantine. Thor and Tobba (Glacial Experience staff) went above and beyond helping us navigate the health care system for official testing (the rest of the world could learn a lot from the ease and efficiency of the Icelandic system!) and checked in on us multiple times during our quarantine. We highly recommend Glacial Experience!!! Thank you for a magical trip!
Melanie S
12. December, 2019.
The Kona Tour
Our time in Iceland can be described as nothing less than Phenomenal!! Together we spent an incredible 5 days on the Kona Tour with Kjartan, the best guide I've ever had the pleasure to tour with. We (my friend, and another Kona tour participant) asked Kjartan question after question, and were always provided with a comprehensive history. Kjartan is extremely knowledgeable, providing facts and tidbits throughout the entire experience, while also wanting to engage in dialogue, and learn about us as visitors and people.The Kona tour is a Gender Equality tour, which included meetings and discussions with noteable feminist women in Reykjavik, along with getting to see the endless natural beauty of Iceland. Getting to meet prominent Icelandic feminists gave us a comprehensive overview of the current issues Icelandic society is facing in the struggle for equality. Touring with Kjartan was such a personal experience- we became fast friends, and felt like we were in Iceland just visiting with someone we had known for years. It seemed like everywhere we went he would know someone there, and had friends and contacts throughout the country. Our tour was extremely customizable, with Kjartan taking our feedback and requests and adapting our itinerary accordingly. We drank so much coffee, some of the best while traveling along admiring the stunning views in the cozy van. Our hotel/accommodation was great- sleek Nordic design, central location, superb breakfast (Skyyr and smoked salmon are not to be missed!). Iceland is breathtaking, even more so when you have a knowledgable guide there to explain whatever it is you're seeing, and give you a comprehensive overview to increase your understanding. I could not recommend the Kona tour more! It's an absolute must-do, and when I find myself in Iceland next, I will definitley be touring with the Glacial Experience again.
Piyush S
11. December, 2019.
An Amazingly Góður Icelandic Glacial Experience Tour
Our family of 4 recently completed ten-day trip of Iceland - Golden Circle, South Coast, Snaefellsnes Peninsula, Reykjavik, and more with Kjartan and his most comfortable van (which could accommodate 10) - and what an amazing experience we had that brought lots of smiles to our family including our 2 daughters. It was a perfect family get-together and everything was just PERFECT !!!It all began with a reference from Jurga of Full Suitcase.com - we wanted to do a private family tour. She recommended Kjartan of Glacial Experience. With the first email and a lot more emails thereafter, Kjartan (patiently) and our family planned our detailed day-by-day itinery including our hotel stay including our special vegetarian breakfast.We landed at KEF on November 26 and our tour began on Nov 27. It started a bit ominously - with a visit to the car dealership to fix the gas tank opening issue. After that, there was no looking back:1. As we travelled through the Golden Circle, South Coast - we had 4 days of sunshine and clear skies - and Northern Lights display for several hours on two nights. Kjartan commented that he has not seen a family "so lucky" to have this kind of weather and Northern Lights during this time. I corrected him slightly not "so lucky" but "so blessed" !!!2. All our hotel stay was wonderful including the stay in Reykjavik - which turned out to be the residence of a former Iceland Prime Minister. How cool is that !!!3. Kjartan took extra care in making sure we had the best time in Iceland. He took us on hiking trips including the one to the "Steinn" or the Stone on Mount Esja trail - what a wonderful hiking experience - we managed to break his stereotype of us Indians not wanting to do physical activities. He planned the smowmobiling, glacier hike, and blue ice caves, blue lagoon (with a stay at Silica Hotel) activities for us. he went an extra mile in doing so many things for us - way beyond what a normal tour company would do. We felt completely safe in his driving - and the driving time always seem short with him sharing so many stories of Iceland and its culture , politics, etc. Kjartan became our family member - he and his wife came to our place for a vegetarian dinner.4. The temperatures were in the range of 26 to 32 F while we were there - very little wind - again "so Blessed". Kjartan suggeested fullsuitcase.com for tips on what to bring and wear. We followed that and never felt cold.Kjartan: Takk fyrir for this special Icelandic experience for our family !!!I highly recommend Glacial Experience Tours very much for a wonderful Iceland Experience and lots of memories and pictures.
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