You're all ready for your trip to Iceland. What apps do you need?
Here are my seven recommendations.
So, the first one up is 112 Iceland and it's the
official app for emergency services in Iceland.
It's an incredibly basic application that allows you to check in your GPS coordinates every now and again
so first responders have an idea of your last known location in case anything happens to you.
As campers driving around Ring Road, we would check in each night
when we settled into a new campsite or sometimes in the middle of a long hike.
It took all of two seconds to do and, although we never needed help for
anything, I felt good knowing someone was keeping tabs on us just in case.
And if we did actually need help, there's an emergency button in the app that would
have connected us to the proper authorities.
Chances are if you're going to Iceland you'll likely be starting your trip off in Reykjavik.
And Reykjavik is a friendly and beautiful highly walkable city, but if you plan to cover a bit more ground in that
area, you might want to consider the city buses.
Taxis, honestly, are pretty expensive and also a bit unnecessary considering the efficiency of their bus system.
This bus app was straight to the point and
allowed us to purchase tickets right from our phones. It has a handy trip
planner which was helpful in determining how long it would take for us to get to
certain locations and also a live map page which helped us see exactly where
the buses were at that moment.
Personally, I think this is a must have app for any Reykjavik visitor.
After we enjoyed a day of exploring the capital city, it was time
for us to head out into the country and begin our trip around Ring Road.
For this, we were going to need a few more apps.
The very first app I'd recommend installing is this one -- and I apologize for not pronouncing the names of things,
but I'm trying to avoid supremely butchering the pronunciations --
This app is the go-to app for up to date info on road conditions and closures
It's the official app of the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration and it has a few
cool features, including a section that explains what all of the road signs mean.
We had a lot of fun guessing what the signs meant, but it was definitely better
for us to know exactly what they meant. There's also a feature that allows you
to put in which towns you're traveling between and it'll show you what the road
conditions are like. You can even check out local webcams.
This is helpful any time of year, but particularly for the winter months when
snow will likely shut down a number of roads or even during volcanic eruptions
when lava flows inevitably invade the roadways. Weather-wise, you can check out
wind gusts through the app -- which is pretty helpful I think for campers in
tents and you can also see the local weather report. I did find another app,
though, to be more helpful for weather and that was this one.
This app is brought to you by the Icelandic Meteorological Office and it has a bit
more detail than the road app. I would take a peek at it each morning just to
see what was expected for the day. The thing is though, as much as they can
put together a forecast, it's important to remember that there is still a huge
unpredictability factor when it comes to Icelandic weather.
In April, we experienced blizzard-like conditions one minute and sunny warm skies the next.
Be prepared for anything. That's the fun of it!
Speaking of skies, the Aurora app is a must-have if you are hoping to catch a
glimpse of the Northern Lights. Now, the best time of year to see this cosmic
phenomenon is in the winter when there is very little daylight, but I'm happy to
report we were able to see the dancing lights several times on our early spring
vacation and, really, it was all thanks to this wonderful app.
The app is incredibly intuitive and it gives you a map of where the lights currently are in the
world, as well as a tip list of best places to go see them right now.
The absolute best feature, though, is that you can setup the app to send you push
notifications if you happen to be in a good area for seeing them.
At least five out of our nine nights in Iceland I got alerts from the app telling me that we
had a really good chance of seeing them and it would give us a percentage of likelihood.
Some nights it was as low as 20% and others it was as high as 45 I
think was the highest. All of the nights we got the alerts we saw the Northern Lights clear as anything.
The last two apps we used most often were Hot Pot Iceland and Google Translate.
Hot Pot Iceland is a really cool app that shows
you where the nearest swimmable hot springs are and it also gives you a map
of nearby community pools and gas stations. As campers all of these
features were incredibly valuable to us and we found ourselves referencing it almost every day.
Finally, Google Translate -- while it's not an app specific to Iceland --
it is something that will certainly be helpful on the road.
Many Iceland natives in the Reykjavik area do speak English, but you may come across
some things that are not so easy to decipher. Also, if you plan to explore the
country beyond the city limits, you will likely come across towns where English
is a lot less common. Having an app to help with communication is really
helpful and it's also a great way to learn a bit of the language yourself.
For complete transparency, this video was created in 2019 so, by the time you see
this, the apps might look a little bit different or there may even be better
options out there now. But, the overall point is to let you guys know that there
are some great resources available that can only enhance your vacation right
from the palm of your hand. Of course, you want to make sure you're all set up with
your international data plan and some Wi-Fi options before you launch any of
these apps, but once you've got those set up you'll be good to go.
And, I hope you have an amazing trip!