Enjoyed the most: Guides were great. The country is incredibly beautiful. My son and I were the only Americans, but the Europeans all spoke English and we enjoyed their company.

Bothered you: The ride was a little more strenuous than I expected and the Icelandic horses tolt not quite as smooth as anticipated. These are minor criticisms

Enjoyed the most: The entire experience was everything I hoped for and more. I bonded with the horses and the other riders. If I weren't so old and if I didn't need to see other places in the world, Iceland would be a place I'd like to visit over and over.

Bothered you: I've tried, but I cannot come up with a negative.........I take that back, I wish I'd had MORE time to spend, see the Coast, etc.

Enjoyed the most

The horses !!

Bothered you

The flies. Will go back either before or after fly season

Comments

Everything was great! Packing list you provided could be tweaked a bit. For example I brought rubber boots per your suggestion. However they fell apart. A lot of people had leather boots. I thought we couldn't bring them. apparantly not the case

Enjoyed the most

Scenery

Bothered you

Changing horses several times a day and too much trotting.

Enjoyed the most

Riding through the canyon to Gullfoss accompanied by a free-running herd, and then "parking" the horses in the corral by the Gullfoss gift shop. Staying on the farm for three nights with horses literally 50 feet from my window. Late afternoon cake and coffee at the farm after every ride.

Bothered you

Nothing to complain about. (Can you really complain about the water in the hostel's hot tub being too hot?). One caveat for hunt seat riders -- in Iceland you sit DOWN and BACK, not forward. If you can take a lesson or two on a gaited or Western horse before you arrive, you'll have the idea. And WEAR LAYERS — weather changes all the time; it might be 40 degrees or it might be 60 degrees, the sun might be out or it might not.

Comments

The ideal introduction to Iceland and the Icelandic Horse! The horses, guides, farm accommodations, and home cooking were all wonderful. (You'll get to ride multiple horses.) A safe challenge for an advanced beginner, and a new challenge for experienced riders. (Our group had both.) Highly recommended.

Enjoyed the most

Being able to ride 7 different horses and having a herd tolt with us!

Bothered you

Nothing.

Enjoyed the most

The horses were very good and we had an excellent guide/tourleader.

Bothered you

Nothing

Enjoyed the most
Loved the horses, guides, scenery was awesome, and the group dynamics were good. ( 9 countries )

Had a hoot in Iceland and would recommend that people fly over and book the bus to the Blue lagoon from the airport, have a wonderful dip in the hot springs, do the mud facial massage and then continue on to Reykavik. It's very well organized. Then take a landrover trip up to the glacier next day. Enjoy the midnight sun, have a great meal at one of the many restaurants or bars and then go riding!
It's a cool experience.
The Icelanders are very nice as a culture. They are very keen on thier Viking heritage so if there time check out the museum. It's small but interesting and well laid out. Iclandics are polite and cultivated, and have a unique design backgound. The horses are a hoot, little bundles of energy, especially when they fly at the tolt.
I really enjoyed the experience. The guides were a load of fun, but get them to write down thier names as Icelandic for me was a diffilcult language to pronounce as it is an ancient script and not latin based. Bring your rain gear as it does get wet. The horses don't mind and neither did I. During the solstice be prepared to be walking around at the wee hours. A nice side line is to visit the public swimming pools that are thermally heated and send somed time in the hot tubs visiting with the locals. They are all very fluent in Englsih and like to chat.

A two thumbs up from me. I will reccomend this trip to a number of people. Iceland is one of those places that in my mind, I had no expectations and came back filled with joy.

Enjoyed the most
The horses and the scenery.

The lunch meals of sandwiches never changed for the whole ride. It would be great to have some variety. Also the ride days were shorter than we would have liked. We wanted to ride more.

Thanks to the people in the Vancouver office who were so helpful as we were trying to decide on a ride.