Blog Post
Hotel Rangá, The Ultimate Iceland Experience
Clare Fisher • 28 November 2019
If you have always dreamed of witnessing the stunning natural beauty of Iceland, you've probably already had a little browse for flights and hotels online. You may recognize one or two brands in the Reykjavik area, but for the most part, the hotel scene in Iceland is quite unique, with different kinds of privately owned properties, dotted sparsely in different areas. For these reasons, you have to do your research, but don't worry guys, we did it all in preparation for our visit! That's right, we looked at all the hotels, their reviews, their food, their facilities, prices and where they are located in relation to Iceland's most popular tourist spots. We quickly realized, that you can either choose somewhere to get your head down, or you can pick a hotel that will totally enhance your experience, and that is exactly what Hotel Ranga did. This is not the only fantastic hotel on the island, but it was our top pick! One of our community said it best, after we shared The Hotel Ranga experience through Instagram.....
Location, Location, Location
Hotel Ranga is located just off The Golden Circle. This is a sightseeing route in Iceland, which will take you around some of the countries most popular spots.
But here is the thing, there is so much more to see than the Golden Circle sights! In fact, we were more excited about some of Iceland's other attractions, choosing to see only three on the Golden Cirlce. The amount of things you are going to be able to squeeze in, will very much depend on where you base yourself during your Iceland trip. Reykjavik is a wonderful place. We would definitely recommend spending one or two nights there like we did, before moving further South to Hotel Rangá. It will allow you time to experience the City, maybe catch a whale watching tour while you're near a port, and you're also closer to some of the great things North of here, like Budir Church, Bjarnafoss Waterfall and Kirkjufell.
While we didn't mind packing up to move accommodations once, we also didn't want to spend the whole trip moving to and from different hotels, especially with children. And while driving around the country admiring the beauty from inside your warm, dry car is definitely part of the experience, you don't want to spend the majority of your time driving. So for these reasons, Hotel Ranga's central location was perfect and being out there in the countryside, it allowed us to experience the real Iceland! It put us ten minutes driving time closer to Kerid Crater, the first stop on the Golden Circle, but put us a whopping one hour and twenty two minutes closer to Iceland's famous black beach, Reynisfjara and things like Solheimsandur Plane Wreck.
You've also got Skogafoss waterfall a short 46 minutes away, and Seljalandsfoss is just 20 mintues around the corner! After our visit to Skogafoss, we had planned to hit another two attractions, but we didn't anticipate how wet we would get! We were able to make the drive back to the hotel, change and warm up, before heading back out, to visit the other places! With a four and a half hour round trip from Reykjavik, we would never have been able to do that if we had stayed in the City.
But that is not it! If you're planning to head further East, to see spots like Diamond beach, you're looking at a ten hour round trip from Reykjavik. Driving from Hotel Rangá, you can make it to Diamond beach in three hours and thirty three minutes! Click here
to see some more of the suggested attractions on The Hotel Ranga website.
Some other things we hadn't considered, that made us happy we chose Hotel Ranga as our base was:
Unplanned stops - We definitely made our fair share of unplanned stops along the way, and thanks to our central base, we never felt too strapped for time to do this. Toilet breaks, snacks, change of clothes, photo opportunities and patting Icelandic horses at the road side, are probably all things you're going to want to stop for.
The weather - You can plan around this as much as possible, but the weather can be unpredictable and harsh. As well as increased driving times in severe weather, you might be faced with road closures, especially in the winter. You will probably also spend time in the car waiting for breaks in the wind and rain. All of these things can take more time out of your day, and make you grateful for a shorter drive back to your hotel.
Hiking times - While you're factoring in time to drive to and from the things you want to see, you have to make sure you leave enough time to hike if needed. A lot of attractions are at the road side, but the plane wreck for example is a 75 minute walk each way. The less time you're driving in the car, the more time you have to hike and the more things you get to see!
Tiredness - We loved Iceland and although it was exciting and beautiful and everything in between, it was also exhausting! If you can cut your drive times down it will help with this a lot, especially if you want to have enough energy to stay awake at night to catch the Northern Lights!
Daylight - We visited in September. The sun rose early and didn't set until around 7.30pm, meaning we had plenty of daylight hours, but if you're visiting in the winter months especially, staying central will help you to see as many of the sights as possible while it is still light.
To view our full Iceland itinerary and read why it's so important to have a car to explore this wonderful country, you can read our 'Road Tripping Iceland With Europcar'
blog.
The Northern Lights & Star Gazing
The Northern lights are observed from late August to mid April, but you have the best chances of seeing them from late September, to late March. Keeping an eye on the aurora forecast will give you the best chance of seeing them, but they are also known to be a little unpredictable, sometimes appearing for a few minutes and then disappearing. Of course, you also have the weather to battle with, as you can only seem on clear nights.
Staying at Hotel Rangá in season, will give you the best chance of seeing them! The last thing we wanted to do was drive around at night after a long day, trying to find them, especially with children. Hotel Rangá is known as a great place to witness the lights and it's isolated location, gives you uninterrupted views, and absolutely no light pollution! They don't even have outside lights for the hotel or car park. So while you might want to take extra care maneuvering at night, you will be rewarded with a fantastic viewing experience.
The Hotel's aurora wake up call feature in each of the rooms, will further increase your chances of seeing them. This absolutely blew our minds and we were so excited to use it! You can activate it with the push of a single button on the phones in your room, and then the hotel will wake you if the lights make an appearance. Imagine sitting in this hot tub outside your room to watch them! It is probably the ultimate Icelandic experience. To read more about viewing the Northern Lights at Hotel Ranga, click here, or to view the live feed of the aurora borealis from the Hotel Ranga Northern Lights Live Cam, click here.
The hotel have an 'Age Of Aurora 2019-2020' offer, to help you save big on a four night stay and enhance your odds of seeing the wonderful Northern Lights! Click here
to view the offer.
Don't forget about star gazing! The hotel has its own observatory with Iceland's most advanced roll-off roof and the best high quality astronomical equipment, including the biggest telescope in Iceland. It is just a short walk from the main building and if you're lucky to stay on a clear night, you might even catch the astronomer that the Hotel invites along! There are a number of other places to watch the starts and lights, just take your pick! To see photos and read more about star gazing at Hotel Ranga, click here.
Hotel Ranga have put together a great 'Stargazing 2019-2020' offer. To see everything that is included, click here.
Rooms
Apart from deciding what to eat off the menu, the hardest choice you will have to make at Hotel Ranga, is which room to book! The hotel offers themed suites after the seven different continents, but also offer Deluxe and standard rooms, suiting different budgets, in different parts of the hotel, with different features. It is so exciting to have so much choice! We personally chose one of their Deluxe rooms on the ground floor facing the Ranga river, with one of the hot tubs outside. We knew the kids would love having easy access to it and we were able to supervise them, without having to be in it all the time! You will see the North America suite below, but we also really loved the Africa and Antarctica Suites! To see photos of the different rooms, click here.
All the rooms have tea and coffee facilities, but the special touch was the complimentary hot chocolate! The kids especially loved this. You can even request fresh local milk as needed. The free Wifi was fantastic, which we were just not expecting out there, and the huge T.V. had access to Netflix! We enjoyed cuddling up for family movie nights after exploring all day. The day we visited the black beach not too far from the hotel, it popped up in the scene of a movie we were watching! With guests always having access to the hot tubs, there were always clean and dry robes, slippers and fluffy white towels placed ready for you in the room.
If you're looking to book as a family, get in touch with the hotel direct to book, so that you can arrange for extra beds in the room. You can either use their online chat, which pops up when you click on their website, you can call on (354) 487 5700 or email on hotelranga@hotelranga.is
Book direct and you will receive a bottle of specially selected Prosecco!
Communal Areas & Activities
One of the first things we noticed about Hotel Rangá was how warm it is! Even in the Summer months it can feel chilly outside with the winds, so there is nothing better than walking back into a toasty hotel, with cosy rooms. Especially with the cabin like decor, it makes everything feel so homely!
If you're looking to get out of the room, the hotel has plenty of areas to relax! Most of the rooms have outside patio areas with table and chairs or access to the balcony, but if it is too chilly outside for you, you can kick back in one of the two bar areas. There are also some cute little corners dotted around, where you can sit and admire some of the Hotel's fantastic art work.
When the kids were not using one of the many outside hot tubs, their favourite place to chill was in the games room! As well as the pool table, they had chess and lots of other games! This was such a lovely place to be, that we made sure we took a full rainy, drizzly day out of our schedule, to rest and enjoy the hotel fully.
Restaurant & Fine Dining
Our dining experience at Hotel Ranga, was nothing short of incredible. It was important for us to choose a base with good food, because we knew we would be eating there the majority of the time. Iceland isn't exactly filled with hundreds and hundreds of cafe's and restaurants around every corner, and we didn't want to spend our time searching out places and driving to them. Having a good breakfast to set us up for the day and having good food to come back to after a long day out, was important to us, so we did a lot of research about the food here.
Breakfast was a big hit with the whole family! As well as a buffet style continental spread with cereals, fresh fruit, sweet things, fresh juices, meat and cheese, you could order a fresh selection of hot foods. We recommend the full cooked breakfast, which they were happy to tailor for our fussy eaters. Everyone's highlight of breakfast though, was the waffle machine on the buffet! With ready made waffle mix in little jugs, the kids loved watching us make them fresh waffles, before covering them in Nutella. As it is a small hotel, you don't have the rush of guests and a jam packed restaurant, so it was lovely not having long waits.
We settled our hotel bill the night before we left, because we had an early hour departure in the morning. The receptionist asked what time we were leaving and notified us that, they would have a packed breakfast waiting for us on reception when we left. We were able to choose what we wanted from a selection of prepared cold food, which included bottles of water and juice cartons. This was a massive help for us as a family with children on the 1hr 53 min journey to the airport.
The restaurant is in a beautiful part of the building, central to the hotel, with stunning views over the river. The service was impeccable throughout our stay, the kind of standard you expect with fine dining, very professional, knowledgeable and helpful. The hotel has several different menus appropriate for the time of day and kind of food you want to eat, so you don't have to leave the hotel. The wine and bar list is extensive and the staff were able to recommend something suitable for each meal. The children are able to order smaller versions of the options on the a la carte menu, if they would like to eat from there, but the hotel also have a children's menu with some of the kid's fave options like, chicken chips and salad. We are not talking about unhealthy, processed chicken nuggets here, we mean succulent, fresh chicken breast that melts in your mouth. To check out the hotel's different menu's click here.
The evening a la carte menu
has a wide variety of perfectly prepared, creative and delicious dishes for starters, main course and dessert. It is the kind of menu that makes you want to order everything, so you're excited to return the next night and try something different. The menu has some exotic options including Puffin and Reindeer, but if you're feeling like something a little more familiar and relaxed, the a la carte menu has dressed up some classics like fish and chips. The hotel often has a seasonal gourmet menu, and you may even be lucky enough to stay during some other events, like their famous Christmas buffets.
Some of the offers we've mentioned include dining options at the hotel and can help you save big when you stay for longer periods. To check out the hotels current offers, click here.
Hotel Rangá are offering all of our readers 20% off their best available rate! You can receive your discount by using the code 'CAMP-RANGA' at the checkout, when you book through their website.
We were provided with a complimentary experience by Hotel Rangá, in exchange for sharing the experience with you. We not earn money when you click the links on this webpage or when you book the hotel using the code we have shared with you. We are extremely proud to present Hotel Rangá to you, and we are excited to hear all your stories from your visit :)
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