Iceland 2022 overview

 This post is mainly an overview of our Iceland trip. Partly for us to keep track of in case we decide to do Iceland again. Because it was an awesome trip, we loved it! I know some people might be uncomfortable sharing these details, but we firmly believe that travelling is possible on a budget. This was definitely the most expensive vacation we have ever taken, it is not something that we can do often.

Here is my working list of what we usually spend our money on for each trip with details:

Accommodations at our location - This was our winner for BTI (Big Ticket Item) coming in at about $4300. We added on the premium insurance when we picked up the van which was another $300. This included the cost for extra sleeping bags which we definitely needed as well as the hotspot which meant we did not need to use our phones for GPS and anything else we needed for internet. We were able to  get the 15% Happy Challenge. 

Campsites were actually more affordable than in the US. We bought the Iceland camp card which was 180 Euros and gets you into campsites for up to 29 days. I think we stayed in non-camp card sites 2 or 3 times. We did sometimes have to pay for showers, sometimes it was included. But, as we have found from other travels, we had to pay for showers in Yellowstone and the Tetons. I believe the showers were actually cheaper in Iceland. And they didn't charge for the kids because they were under 14. 

Gas for driving the van around ended up being about $1000. This was because the price of gas pretty much doubled in the few months before we took our trip. It was out of our control. 

Travel to our location - This was our other BTI, once we paid all the fees for luggage it totaled to about $3000 for the five of us to fly to Iceland. We booked in November before gas prices went up due to war in Ukraine. If we would have waited until spring to book we definitely would not have been able to take the trip.

Accommodations while traveling to location - NONE!!! This was fun. Being able to do direct flights from Chicago to Keflavik was awesome. Very different than our normal get in the car and drive for 14 or more hours to get to our destination.

Food on the way to our location - This was probably the most expensive food on our trip. Burger King in Chicago airport was $70 for the five of us. Restaurants were cheaper in Iceland than in the airport. And then we had to pick up snacks in the airport in Keflavik. So, that stunk, but not much we could do about it.

Food at our location - I won't give exact amounts because grocery stores in Iceland we actually thought were comparable to stores in the US. We went to Bonus stores (similar to Aldi) when possible and a couple of times used other chains in the north where there were no Bonus stores. We ate at three restaurants on our trip and I think we got gas station hot dogs twice. Gas station hot dogs cost about the same as what we do with Kwik Trip in Wisconsin. The restaurants were actually not badly priced. They were cheaper than the Burger King in the Chicago airport. We ate at a pizza place after a long day of hiking in the Myvatn area, we stuffed the kids full of Domino's Pizza before getting on the plane to come back and we ate at one fish and chips place in Reykjavik. Oh yeah, and the hot dog place we were required to visit for the Happy Challenge. So, overall, money we spent on food (except for in Chicago) was about what we would have spent if we would have stayed home and gone nowhere. 

Any miscellaneous new gear for the trip - We had to get the kids new hiking boots, but they would have needed those before whatever trip we were taking. But, shoes and pants are items we have to get even if we stay home. We did need to get the kids fleeces to make sure they had enough layers. So, they got the fleeces as Christmas presents. We all needed new camp towels for the trip, so the kids all got those as birthday presents.

Any fees we will have for activities Iceland is actually a pretty kid friendly place. We had to pay entrance fees to get into the National Museum and the Arbaer Open Air Museum. Both times we only have to pay the entrance fee for Jim and I, the kids were free. We paid for two boat excursions. The first was to Grimsey so that we could cross the Arctic Circle. Total for that was $123 for all of us. We did that boat trip because I REALLY wanted to do it, which everyone reminded me when we got seasick on the ferry. Then we did whale watching in Husavik and that was $255 for all five of us. The whale watching was our family Christmas present. (In case you can't tell, because we plan ahead, we use things we need as gifts. Which means yes, there are not many items under the tree at Christmas, but hopefully we are teaching our kids that our time and experiences together are more valuable than stuff under the tree.)

Other stuff - House sitters was $275, travel to and from the airport was $150. Jim and I did get Icelandic sweaters because they are awesome. We usually do not buy much in the way of souvenirs unless it is something really unique to the area. We bought the kids wool cowls which they wore lots. 

So, it ended up being about $1900 a person for our 20 day trip in Iceland. That is not counting food because I am counting the cost of NOT being at our house. Definitely MUCH more expensive than any other trip we have taken and we won't be able to take another trip like in in quite a while.  

Where to Go? AKA The Big Ticket Items

 We spend a lot of time planning for each of our trips. I think getting to do the planning is actually part of the fun. But, our first step for each trip is choosing our location. As we decide on our location, we always discuss what will be the Big Ticket Items (BTI) for our budget. These will be slightly different for each location.

To start we make a list of what items we will need to include in the budget for our trip. Then we find out how much these items will cost. Here is a sample list:

Accommodations at our location

Travel to our location

Accommodations while traveling to location

Food on the way to our location

Food at our location

Any miscellaneous new gear for the trip

Any fees we will have for activities

We usually book the big ticket items at least 6 months before we actually take our trip. This is partly because many places need booking that far in advance. But it also is because we want to have the big ticket items paid completely in advance. If we don't have enough money for the booking, we have to rethink our plans and modify. Which might mean choosing a new location for travels or it might mean we need to find a way to make one of the big items cheaper. 

We do not always need exact figures, but close enough to figure out our BTIs. For example, our trip to Iceland, our BTIs were accommodations at our location and travel to our location. We were pretty sure that we did not want to change our location, so we did shopping around and reading up on different ways to keep accommodation costs down. Which resulted in doing a campervan rather than hotels or house rentals. This made our trip WAY more affordable. We did our booking of flights and the campervan in November which was seven months before our trip. We only booked it because we had enough cash to pay for the BTIs in November. Other trips our BTIs are MUCH less than our Iceland trip so we don't have to save up as much, but it is still essential that we plan our travels around those BTIs. Often when we do tent camping, accommodation at our location is not even one of the BTIs.

Here is a quick overview of how this has worked with some of our trips:

Grand Tetons 2021 - BTIs were travel to our location and accommodations while travelling to our location

Yellowstone in 2020 - BTIs were travel to our location and accommodations while travelling to our location

Glacier in 2019 - BTIs were travelling to our location. But, this was slightly misleading because we had to take a detour to Winnipeg for a conference.

Maine in 2018 - BTIs were accommodations in Maine and travel to Maine

I could go farther back, but I think you get the idea. One explanation, though. We have slashed restaurants out of our budget a LONG time ago. Before we had kids we decided that restaurants were not going to be a part of our travel budget. Instead we always find accommodations which allow us to do our own cooking. This is one of the main reasons we can travel. We have to feed our family no matter where we are, so grocery shopping is part of our regular family budget. I am pretty sure that if we did restaurants, our food would quickly end up being a BTI. This is not to say that don't ever eat out. We probably eat out 2 times a month in our regular routine. So, it is not going to mess up our budget too much if we eat our 2-3 times on one of our trips. But, we do usually have to eat out while we are travelling to our destination, which is why we always need to include that as a line item for planning. 

Now that we have done this type of planning a few times, we actually don't need to spend as much time as we once did. It does not mean we do not do the step in our planning, it just means it is such an integral step and we have done it enough that it is becoming second nature for us to figure out the BTI for each trip.

Our Camp Kitchen

 One of the collections I am proud of is our camp kitchen. It can be very frustrating to have a meal all set out and ready to go and discover that you can't open a can of fruit because you don't have a can opener. Or when you cook up a pot of spaghetti noodles and then look at it wondering how you can drain the noodles. I have spent lots of time reading reviews on camp kitchen items and lusting after different items. Items which are expensive. This can be very disheartening when you are thinking about starting to do camping in order to travel without spending a lot and you see the prices on all the supposedly "must have" items. What I am going to list here is what we have found to be comprehensive and actually inexpensive. And most importantly, it all fits into one tote bin. Our bin has a lid which latches on which is helpful when it is windy. The lid is super important because it will rain at some point on our trip. Sometimes it rains a lot and we want to avoid having to dry everything out. 

Just a reminder - we are not doing the weekend camping where it's a couple of meals so hot dogs over the fire are fine. We are doing camping in which we go out for a couple of weeks and live at the campsite. We eat healthy meals and we assume that we cannot have campfires. We have often been in parks which have burn bans which means campfires are not possible. We often are in bear country so we can't have food smells in a fire pit and we have to be able to pack up everything to go into the bear vault or back into the car. We want our camp kitchen to have the items we need to come as close to a home experience as possible. Meals are some of the best times we have while camping so having a camp kitchen with everything we need makes our two or more weeks out in the parks go smoothly.

I think our most expensive kitchen item is our stove. We have tried a couple of single burner backpacking stoves, but for our car camping we keep going back to our green, propane powered dual burner Coleman stove. We have had it for over twenty years now and it still works great for us. I think it was a wedding present which has been put to very good use. It's the one you can get at any outfitter. You can probably find one at second hand stores or at garage sales because it is one of those common items which everyone buys when they begin their camping attempts. Those stoves with the coffee makers on the side or special burners look like fun, but we have not needed them. (how we take care of our coffee addiction deserves its own post) We use the common LP gas type because it is easy to purchase and transport the cannisters. The first picture here is of the stove after our last Glacier NP park trip. The second is after it was cleaned. We clean EVERYTHING after our trips. This way our gear is all set to go for the next trip. Pulling stuff out of the closet and finding it sticky or greasy is gross and does not make camping appealing. 

Our next essential item is our skillet. We actually take one of our cast iron skillets from our home kitchen for this. If you can read the note written on the lid of our kitchen bin, you can see that we have written on the top that we need to remember to bring our skillet. (Side note, we have used cast iron exclusively in our home kitchen ever since I had problems with anemia during pregnancies. One of the midwives doing my pre-natal check ups suggested cooking with cast iron because is would help with my iron levels. I have never turned back.) Usually before our trip we season the skillet and then we re-season it after the trip as well. I guess we could get a skillet specific for our camp kitchen. Maybe I should look at garage sales or at second hand stores for that. Even if you find a really yucky looking skillet, they can be cleaned up and seasoned back to usable. 

For our other cooking ware, we have two pots. The green one with the lid we don't use very much anymore since we got our collapsible pot. We love the collapsible pot which is on the left. The lid also latches on to make it easier for draining pasta. The only issue with silicone sides is that the flames shouldn't be too high as to hit the silicone walls directly, but that hasn't really been a problem with a camp stove with good flame control.

Next, we have two teapots. The one on the left is collapsible, we love it. The one on the right we got because it reminds Jim of the one in our campervan on our Iceland trip. It's cute, but not really enough when boiling water for five people who want hot chocolate and cider.

Then, we have our set of dishes. It is a motley collection. Many years ago, Jim and I bought a dishes set specific for camping. That is the green metal set you see. It had dishes for four. Then we added another blue plate when we needed more. But, the metal mugs which came with that set did not fit into the bin well. Now they hang here:

We upgraded to some silicone collapsible cups. We love them. It was a set of four that came with the collapsible water pot. Which means we had to get a couple more so we had enough for five campers. The results are that absolutely nothing matches. And that is AOK for us. For dishes, I see no reason to have metal "camping" dishes. They actually get cold when you have cold weather and make your hot food get tepid quicker. I would suggest going and getting dishes from a dollar store or a second hand store. Plastic or metal. I personally would be fine eating off of a Disney princess plate if it was acquired at a great price. Since these will not be going into a microwave at any time you just want to make sure that there is no chipping paint. What you want to have is plates, bowls, mug/cups and silverware for everyone in your party. Our silverware is remnants from the cutlery we had from outfitting college apartments. We have tried the camping "sporks" which are the one utensil which has the fork and spoon and knife all in one piece. Meh. We have found that we all tend to prefer eating from the regular utensils. Summary - you don't need anything fancy, just visit a secondhand store or a garage sale for your dishes. Then, if something gets lost it is not a big deal. I do not suggest doing paper and plasticware. 1. It's not great for the environment. 2. If you are going on a longer trip, that is a lot of paper and plastic to take along. You will save space by simply washing your dishes.

This is what we use to store our cutlery:

Odds and ends that we have found valuable are:

Can opener

Bottle opener

Large spoon

Tongs

Bread knife

Steak knives

Paring knife

Spatula

Measuring cup

Other items which are not necessary but which make camp life much better are some very thin, plastic cutting mats, disposable table cloths and table cloth clamps. We have some telescoping marshmallow sticks just in case we are able to do any campfire cooking. Here is a pic of our cutting mats:

For our camp sink, we have two collapsible items. One is the sink and the other is just a collapsible bucket. We use one for washing the dishes and the other for rinsing. In one of the camp stores on our latest trip I saw some kind of wipes which supposedly are for dish clean up. The resident microbiologist gave me a big fat no when I dubiously asked him about the cleanliness of those. We wash dishes in the sink and use the bucket for rinsing. It's great when the campgrounds have wash sinks available, but those are not always part of the camp amenities. The sink and the bucket do not fit into the kitchen bin, unfortunately. I would recommend ones with folding handles so you can easily carry them, especially when you need to dump grey water into a camp disposal sink.

Lastly, I tuck in a ziplock bag which holds my two sponges and the bottle of dish soap (unscented if possible), a ziplock bag of matches and towels for drying. That's our portable kitchen!

Baby Carriers and Backpacks

 If you have not read my post trying to convince you to Ditch the Stroller, you should give it a read. Unless you are already convinced that baby wearing is the way to go in order to do travelling with kids. Baby wearing is in my opinion the BEST way to travel with kids. Once I started wearing my babies, I did it everywhere - grocery store, garage sales, zoo and most importantly - on the hiking trails. And we also realized that baby wearing was essential to getting anything done at home as well. 

I will have to admit though, that baby carriers and backpacks have improved immensely since we had our first baby. We used a Kelty Kid carrier. Why? Because it was cheap compared to Baby Bjorn which was basically our other choice. Fortunately, the Kelty was also a very good carrier. We were able to start wearing our babies in it once they hit 8 pounds. We were able to wear them facing us until they were able to hold their heads up and then we were able to face them out. Our babies absolutely LOVED facing out. And I will have to brag that by the third baby, I was able to actually feed my little constantly eating son while he was in the carrier. 

So, what would I suggest is important as you shop for your front carrier?

    1. Make sure it is possible to have the baby in the carrier hands free. That is what I always struggled with when trying out slings and wraps. Maybe some parents can use them and make them hands free, but I was not able to manage to do it. It was especially needed to be hands free with baby #3 because I needed to have one hand for holding on to each of my daughters. I did not have a hand to balance the baby in the carrier.

    2. Make sure that you are able to stand with aligned posture. In the picture above I am slouching a bit, but that was mainly to make sure I did not squish my daughter because my arms were not long enough to reach into the sink. Baby wearing is not for the weak and if you are slouching you will have horrible back aches.

    3. Make sure it is easily adjustable. I loved that after practice, Jim and I were easily able to swap the carrier. He wore the babies just as much as I did (possibly more) and having a carrier which fits both parents is essential. Especially when parents are nowhere near the same body shape and size. 

    4. Make sure straps are padded. While you are at it, make sure everything is padded for baby as well. I remember reading a lot about how some carriers had the carrier set to have legs wide apart and others had baby legs close together. I have to admit I can't remember which is good and which is bad. I do remember making sure that the one we had was what supposedly was the ideal fit for baby legs.

One funny story - I do remember going into the store and shopping for carriers. The store salesperson strapped it on Jim and she put in weights so that he could feel what it would be like to check on the padding, check out the back, etc. He announced quite shocked that it was heavy and he could not imagine having to carry a baby on his front because it would make him SO tired. At that time I was about 8 months along in pregnancy and quite large. If you don't see the humor in that, just go read something else.

Anyway, for the adorable factor, here is proof of how much our daughter loved being strapped on.

We didn't just use this for household chores, we hiked with kids in it as well. I remember taking #2 down a canyon in Yellowstone in it. That hike burned a bit in the legs on the way back up, but it was a good hike. And #3 spent almost our entire vacation to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in it. 

From seeing the above pictures, you might be wondering why I am doing the wearing because I had mentioned Jim did more wearing than I. He definitely did, but tended to do more of the heavy lifting. In the above family pictures from Michigan, he usually had #2 in the backpack carrier. And even once carried both.

We actually had two of the carriers shown in the above picture. Once the babies were big enough to be in this carrier, it was their main form of transportation. We wandered Annapolis, DC and western New York with daughter #1 in the backpack. When we knew #2 was on the way, buying a second backpack was one of the first things we did. (Both were craigslist finds, by the way. Back when that was the best place for finding slightly used items.) Once we had two kids, we carted them up mountains in Yellowstone and Colorado.

Anyway, since I am sure the REI Piggy Backs are not sold anymore, here is what we think you should make sure are features of your kid backpack.

    1. Five Point harness system for the kid. They will fall asleep in the pack and it is important that they are strapped in well. 

    2. Padding. On our most recent trip we had a nice chat by a waterfall with a German family about their kid backpack. They showed us that the newer packs are much better with front padding by the kid's face. Which is awesome. Because we were concerned one time when Jim walked into a post in Annapolis and our daughter ended up lurching forward from the impact. Fortunately, Jim's balls and our daughter's face were fine, but it did make us think of the padding on the front.

    3. Hip Belt. This was one thing that the German parents at the waterfall were not pleased about with their pack. It is critical that there is a hip belt and that it adjusts well so that the weight of the pack sits on the wearer's hips rather than on the back. With the weight on hips you will be able to walk much farther. Along with the hip belt it should have the stabilizing strap which goes across the wearer's chest.

    4. Kick Stand. When we were shopping for packs, many did not have kick stands. We loved the kickstand because it meant that when our kids fell asleep we were able to take off the pack and simply set the whole pack on the ground and they would just continue with their nap. Without a kickstand you have to risk them waking up when you set the pack on its side. I remember once going into a restaurant and setting the pack with our daughter still in it in a corner and she slept through part of our dinner. 

    5. Extra storage. Ours had enough room to stuff diapers, wipes, snacks, blanket, spare clothes. Pretty much whatever was in the diaper bag went into the storage on the pack. And if you are doing a longer hike it needs to be able to hold snacks and water for parents as well. 

    6. Proper footwear. I know there is a lot of discussion online now on the value of hiking boots versus trainers for hiking. We really liked wearing our boots when carrying kids in the pack. Anytime you are carrying a pack, make sure you are wearing proper footgear. We also found that using hiking poles was incredibly helpful when carrying the kids on trails. 

Hopefully this helps when shopping for packs. We loved ours and most importantly, we loved the freedom we gained from strapping on the kids. Fortunately, our kids loved the packs as well and we like to think that the effort we took in shlepping them around helped instill in them our love for exploration. Our daughters even have their names signed in a logbook from the top of Mount Washburn in Yellowstone because they made it to the top! (Happiness of the child on Jim's back was totally due to his hearty, or gasping, singing of "The Wheels on the Bus".) 

Ditch the Stroller

Yes, that is what I said. Ditch the Stroller. Maybe we have this mindset because we were never able to afford a nice stroller. We had one which folded up and we could snap the car seat on top. I think we bought it on Craigslist for $25. We did not have the money to pay for a nicer one and there was no way we could fit a bigger one into our small apartment. But, as we managed without a fancy stroller first for one kid and then the second, we realized that for the third child, we didn't even want one. And we started watching other parents struggling to fit their gear in the car and attempting to maneuver their push mobiles which were almost the size of smart cars through crowds or up stairs. We were not missing anything. 

Since we had baby #1 in the Washington DC urban area, I will start with discussing the difficulty of having a stroller in a city. As I mentioned before, strollers take up space. Unless you are able to afford a large apartment, floor space is too valuable to waste on storage of a stroller. We did not have a garage for any storage so everything we owned had to be in our 800 square foot apartment unless we wanted rent a storage locker. If you rent a locker, you will get to KEEP paying for that stroller every month as you pay your storage locker fee. Then there is car space if you are travelling. We could only afford to have one car (parking spots can be pricey). It was a Toyota Corolla. We loved that car - manual transmission with great gas mileage. We called her Moya. As much as we loved her, if you are planning on hauling around a big stroller it will take up almost all of your trunk space. Which means you will not have room for anything else. Those parents you see using the strollers had to invest in bigger cars which are gas guzzlers. Which means they probably pay twice as much gas money as we ever did in our Corolla. So, when you pick out your big stroller, think about how you are not only paying for the stroller, but you are paying for square footage in your living space as well as your car.

Next, I am going to talk about using a stroller when using mass transportation. When we lived in DC, we used the busses and metro a lot. Getting a stroller on a bus is awful. Change that, unless you have a fold up one, it is almost impossible. Hard pass. Getting a stroller on the metro was a bit easier.  But, if it was crowded other passengers were not always cheerful about giving up space so you could squish in with a stroller. It is difficult to get on and off the metro car quickly with a stroller. Strollers are only allowed on elevators when exiting or entering the station and at times elevators at certain stops would be broken which would mean you would have to switch to a different stop. (Which is absolutely horrible for disabled people!) Then there was also the uncomfortable feeling I always had in crowded spaces that someone could quickly unstrap my baby and walk away with her and disappear into the crowd. Hopefully this gives you an idea that strollers and mass transport do not really go together well.

Still thinking about using a stroller in the city, think about what kind of activities you will be doing if you are a tourist in a city. We discovered that many museums and zoo buildings would not let us enter with a stroller. We had to check it at the front door. Which often meant just leaving the stroller by the door. We would have to unload anything of any value and then carry those items as well as the baby. This does not work well if there is only one parent. Jim learned very quickly how annoying this was because he wandered around the zoo a lot with our daughter. And much like on the metro, other tourists in museums and monuments are not sympathetic to making space for a stroller. Then, if you feel like hopping into a restaurant, good luck finding a restaurant that wants to give you space for your stroller. (And please don't expect them to give you larger seating which is reserved for handicapped persons, that is just rude.)

So, that is what city life can be like. On to why I don't like strollers for more rural pursuits either. As we have mentioned in other places on this blog, our travel is often focused on hiking. It seems like at least once on every one of our trips we see at least one set of parents attempting to hike with a stroller. (On our last trip it was a couple attempting to do the 9 kilometer out and back trail to Stuðlagil Canyon.) It is rare to have a hiking trail paved for strollers. If it is paved, it is called a nature walk and it is usually about 1 kilometer. It will not be a long trail because paving a "trail" is expensive and the parks don't have funding for that. Yes, I am aware this extremely unfair for anyone who is disabled and needs a wheelchair. Our national parks are doing what they can to be accessible, they still have a LONG way to go. Which means they are not accessible for strollers either. You will be able to do some things with a stroller, like walk in to Old Faithful at Yellowstone and maybe around some of the hotpots. You can stroller up to the overlook at Mount Rushmore. But, the trails at Gettysburg will not happen with a stroller. If you want to actually do REAL hiking and REALLY get into our national parks, you must ditch the stroller. 

Ok, so what are you supposed to do once you have recognized that a fancy stroller is a waste of your money and space and is not an asset when travelling? You do baby carriers and baby backpacks. They are amazing.  Fortunately, we have a blog post about them. Baby Carriers and Backpacks

If you have read all the way to here, I do want to add a caveat. Or two. The experiences I am speaking of are of us travelling with ONE baby. If you have multiples, you are in a whole other world than me. I have absolutely no experience travelling with twins or triplets and I will just admit that any parent of multiples deserves the title "Master of Parenting". You win. You have different skill sets than I and your children have different needs than mine. This also goes for any parent of a child with special needs. 

My other caveat is that if you are a runner I guess I could see wanting a running stroller. Neither Jim or I are avid runners. Maybe we would have run if had a running stroller. We will never know. We bought a treadmill instead and put a baby fence around it. And put up a TV over the treadmill so I can watch Buffy and Angel episodes while I run. So much better than a stroller.