Iceland | Imamother

amother

Nemesia

Sun, Aug 13 2023, 4:44 pm

amother Dahlia wrote:

Hi! We're iyh traveling to Iceland next week and we're planning to bring a suitcase of precooked food. Any idea how difficult customs is about this? I'm getting mixed feedback about how strict they are. No obviously prohibited foods will be brought like hot dogs, eggs, etc. Any tips would be great! Also, Chabad isn't an option. We're going to be too far from them and it's seriously expensive to order from there.

We risked it from the UK to Portugal. We just took it though with us, no questions asked. We checked ours in though. It may be different if you take on as hand luggage.
We also sent a box of food via a courier service and customs didn't allow us to have it! Sad

We had to manage without it. Never doing that again. They're very strict!

amother

Dahlia

Sun, Aug 13 2023, 5:01 pm

amother Nemesia wrote:

We had to manage without it. Never doing that again. They're very strict!

We're planning to check it in our luggage. Bh, we've done this to St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, Bahamas and Dubai and never had an issue but just wondering how others have dealt with Iceland's stricter rules.

amother

Lightblue

Sun, Aug 13 2023, 5:05 pm

amother Dahlia wrote:

I can respond to this on Thursday iyh Smile

we are arriving Thursday iyh and plan to bring a suitcase of food with us. (And we’ve brought meat with to all of the other countries you mentioned in your follow up response with no issues either) Smile

Are you planning to do the ring road?

imaima

Sun, Aug 13 2023, 5:16 pm

Frumwithallergies wrote:

Fyi Northern light trips are a scam. Look it up.
My mother went. Every night she was taken out by bus, and they 'Chased' the northern lights but never saw them. On the last night, after driving on a bus for hours and hours, they were brought back to their hotel. 20 minutes later, her group received an email with pictures and the caption: look what you missed!

However, the landscape is lovely and beautiful as per my mother. So definitely worth seeing. Just don't get scammed by 'guarantees' of seeing the northern lights.

There is no guarantee of seeing northern lights

amother

Dahlia

Sun, Aug 13 2023, 6:25 pm

amother Lightblue wrote:

I can respond to this on Thursday iyh Smile

Are you planning to do the ring road?

Oh yay! That's so awesome! Please let me know how it goes. We're staying in Golden Circle and doing the south coast. Have an awesome trip!

amother

Burgundy

Thu, Aug 17 2023, 10:02 pm

Where do you find places to stay? Airbnb did not have tons of options.
Really like a real living space with kitchen when traveling.

amother

Lightblue

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 12:47 am

amother Dahlia wrote:

Bumping this up. Dahlia, how did today go? Hopefully smoothly!

It was so so smooth! Bh! There was literally no one at customs and we walked right out with our two food suitcases.
Hope you have a great time!

amother

Dahlia

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 7:34 am

That's so great to hear! I've heard from others that cooked foods in a suitcase don't seem to be a problem. BH! Enjoy your time there.
For the poster who asked about where to find places to stay, I booked a wonderful Airbnb in Selfoss, about an hour plus from the main city where everyone flies in. It's a midway point between all the south coast activities and those in/ around Reykjavik. This way, kids aren't stuck in the car for 2+ hours each way, per day. Now it's only about an hour there and back. We got a four-bedroom, new house with a wonderful host for the week. Comes with a hot tub, washer and dryer and kids games and nice outdoor furniture. Just perfect for us. Was it cheap? No. It's Iceland. But there were definitely cute cheaper ones available.