My Trip Amnesia

Sometimes I forget we’re going to Iceland next year. We booked the tickets in August, we have decided on a tour group to book the accommodation and car rental through and I am spending less time researching on Trip Advisor or reading Icelandic news articles.

Then Gizmodo posts a time lapse video someone just released from their trip in June and I get all sorts of excited again and wish that May would get here faster.

There is still a lot to take care of before we leave, and right now I’m looking into travel insurance, specifically trip cancellation. There has been a lot of seismic activity in Iceland this summer and with regards to an eruption from Katla it’s a matter of when, not if. It would be a really big disappointment if we couldn’t make our trip because of flight interruptions over Iceland but so far AMA and American Express Travel don’t have coverage for such events prior to departure.

There is no point booking travel insurance until we reserve the car and accommodation from our tour operator, but it’s good to know what insurance options there are.

I am also starting to see what conversion rates are for our credit cards. Most of Iceland accepts payment by plastic so it wouldn’t make sense to carry more than a few thousand Icelandic króna. My American Express, BMO and CIBC flavor of credit cards all have a foreign currency conversion of 2.5%, and if you live on the card for two weeks paying for gas, meals and souvenirs 2.5% could significantly add up.

Some Capital One cards do not have foreign currency conversion charges so it may be worth looking into one just for the sole purpose of vacationing.

Even though our airfare has been booked for several months now I still subscribe to daily emails from Kayak alerting me of airfare cost. When the amount increased over $200 what we paid I felt pretty confident in our decision to buy early, and then the cost decreased, and then it rose…and then it decreased again. I really should stop receiving these messages () but it’s like a surprise every morning to see if the cost is up or down.