Grand Meeting 2007 at Lake Mývatn

Map of Iceland – click for big version: "Reykjahlíð" in the upper right quarter of the map is our meeting venue.

Travel information

Participants should in most cases arrange and book their tickets to Iceland by themselves. Some suggestions follow below. For local transportation in Iceland (and extra arrangement before or after the meeting) participants may seek help and advice with Gestamottakan/Your Host in Iceland which is helping out with the practicalities in connection with the meeting: they can get favorable discounts with the domestic airline Air Iceland (but notice that you may get even more favorably priced tickets when booking through Air Iceland's home page).

We expect the following to be the two main ways in which people will travel to the Grand Meeting:

a. Iceland Express, a low cost airline, is operating a direct route between Copenhagen and Akureyri Wednesdays and Mondays in the summer season of 2007. Akureyri is the closest bigger town to Lake Mývatn. For many participants this route will probably be the cheapest and most convenient way of travelling to the Grand Meeting, for instance by flying to Iceland on Wednesday 15 and back to Copenhagen Monday 20. Participants who go for this option should book tickets themselves (and the sooner the better). (Notice however that Iceland Express does not offer connections with other flights, so those who need a connecting flight should leave plenty of time for new check-in in Copenhagen.)

b. We are assuming that some participants would rather fly through Reykjavík (Keflavík) – e.g. those that are not coming from Scandinavia. There are flights from Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, London, etc. to Keflavík every day – in some instances several times a day – and there are a number of flights from Reykjavik to Akureyri every day. Beware however that the international airport at Keflavík and the domestic one in the center of Reykjavík lie far apart and that you should calculate a few hours for the transfer if you want to continue directly. (Over the summer Icelandair has some direct flights from Keflavík to Akureyri at 18:00 on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays and from Akureyri to Keflavík the same weekdays at 05:50, operated in connection with their international flights and bookable via the Icelandair home page.)

The distance from Akureyri to Myvatn, where the meeting will be held, is some 100 km. There is a scheduled bus every morning from Akureyri, but we will in addition organize one or more buses to shuttle groups of participants that arrive at a different time of the day. It is therefore imperative that participants inform the organizers of their arrival time in Akureyri as soon as they know.

Iceland Express also have direct flights between Copenhagen and Egilsstaðir on Tuesdays and Fridays the coming summer: Egilsstaðir lies about 170 km to the east of Mývatn.

Notice furthermore that Iceland Express offers one way economy tickets so that it is possible to combine a flight to or from Akureyri with one to or from Egilsstaðir or Reykjavík (Keflavík). The SAS group also offers one way economy tickets, although only to and from Reykjavík, but if you consider flying either in or out of Reykjavík, one advantage with SAS is that they offer connections to other destinations. (There is a direct route between Oslo and Reykjavík five days a week in August and between Stockholm and Reykjavík two days a week in August). In any event there are plenty of options to tailor make your travel to Iceland by combining various one way tickets if you're up for that.

For the more adventurous ones and those who can spend more time on the travel it is also possible to come by ship. The ferry from Norway (Bergen), Denmark (Hanstholm), Scotland (Scrabster), and the Shetland Islands (Lerwick) via the Faroe Islands docks in Seyðisfjörður, close to Egilsstaðir, every Thursday morning at 09.00 in the summer – this is therefore a viable travel option given that the meeting program will start around noon on Thursday 16. See the Smyril Line homepage for further information.