Iceland Holidays Avis 

We have had two taylor made holidays with Iceland Holidays which ran smoothly from start to finish.
We were kept aware of our itinerary as it developed and advice was freely given and our numerous questions answered.
Many thanks to Gareth and his team
A first rate holiday experience. We will be using them again next year

Oh Wow ! What a fantastic holiday we had to Iceland . this was very much a new destination for us and we were a little unsure who to book with as it was all new for us . By chance my husband found Iceland Holidays on a web search ... from start to finish they were so helpful and nothing too much trouble . they arranged a wonderful trip for us and we would highly recommend them to our friends and others . Thanks guys , we hope to be talking to you soon as this time we would like to go Whale watching!

Iceland Holidays organized a short 4 day break round the golden circle and we can honestly say it was one of the best holiday/short breaks we have ever had. We stayed at Rejakvik for 2 nights taking in the sights and sounds .. then a drive around the golden circle taking in all the sights. Two nights at the Hotel Rangor with breath taking views !! then finally on the way home we stopped off for a great experience at the blue lagoon. - not to be missed ... A fantastic experience and supported by Iceland Holidays great knowledge of Iceland .. must go again !! Fantastic

If you are planning a holiday in Iceland please do not book through Icelandholidays.com. I’ve had one of the worst experiences through this company and I would like to warn others so they do not have to go through the same stress and worry that I had to.
When I initially enquired, Gareth Gee was misleadingly very enthusiastic and helpful. After we had paid, we received our flight details & a map of Iceland in the post and nothing else. Conveniently his demeanour changed once we had deposited the money into his account.
3 weeks before we were due to fly, we had not heard anything further regarding our trip. When I attempted to contact him via both phone and email we received no response or minimal responses comprising of a few words but no answers.
We repeatedly enquired about our hotel bookings & car hire however he chose to ignore us. As our flight drew nearer and our enquiries remained unanswered, we had no choice but to phone the hotels directly to see if there was a booking for us there. Only 3 nights out of 8 were booked! You can imagine how worried we were that we had paid all this money to find that we had flights and limited accommodation in peak holiday period. Gareth was still not helpful in his responses.
A few days before our flight we received the list of our hotels we were staying at and to our disbelief the 5 previously unbooked nights were in different hotels and further away than where we had chosen to stay (near main attractions). It is obvious that these hotels were booked last minute, he was clearly keeping the money in his account for as long as possible! We had paid for breakfast in all the hotels but found that one day the breakfast was not paid for. This is Iceland (very very expensive) and as a party of 5, eating out would incur a tremendous cost. When I challenged Gareth, he did not respond.
Thankfully our holiday worked out ok, however the stress and worry Gareth put us through cast a shadow filled with dread, anxiety & stress upon the lead up to the holiday which should have been filled with excitement.
Please please do not book through Icelandholidays.com and suffer the same way we did.
He also operates as everestholidays.com.
skiarrangements.com

Icelandholidays.com review - I want to warn fellow travellers about this company so that you avoid the stress that they cause. I booked the holiday to Iceland on behalf of my parents as it was a surprise birthday present from my mum to my dad. To begin with I thought Icelandholidays.com were just like any other tour operator although I did think it was strange that Gareth never wanted to answer the phone and everything needed sorting via email - now I understand why.

About three weeks before departure I randomly received an envelope in the post containing adverts for other holidays that icelandholidays.com offered such as lake annecy and ski arrangements and my parents boarding passes. I contacted icelandholidays.com to ask where the rest of the details were and that is when I started to be fobbed off. I was told they would be sent separately.......I waited and waited. We were then at less than a week before departure when I realised how Gareth operates. The money my parents had paid had been used for something else so he had to wait for money to come in from somewhere else before he could book the excursions and transfers that had been paid for months before. My parents are in their 70's and I had to ask him if he expected me to just send them on a plane to Iceland not knowing where they were going / what they were doing.

I waited and waited and eventually got the emails. The emails came straight from their supplier so it was obvious they had just been booked. When I booked the holiday for my parents I booked 'Northern Lights twice' and was offered a free Golden Circle tour. When it came to receiving the vouchers I was told that they would have to wait and see what the weather was like as they may see the Northern Lights on the first night then they dont need a second trip (bearing in mind the operator offers a second night if necessary anyway). The whole point of booking the two excursions to see it was that they could then see that amazing site on more than one occasion. Gareth told me that they had the Golden Circle tour instead of the other evening tour even though he had originally offered that for free. I had lost the will to deal with such a ridiculously unprofessional company by this point. It even got to the point that I called the Hotel in Iceland to confirm that their room has been paid for as I was worried they would get to Iceland and have no hotel - luckily they confirmed it had been paid.

I should also add that when the balance was due they just debited the money from my card - I never gave them permission to do that or keep my number on file. Infact I did not even want to pay on that card but did not get a choice.

Unfortunately my Dad became critically ill when they were due to travel and so they had to cancel. We'd had an horrific time with my Dad being so ill in hospital yet icelandholidays.com still did not want to make it easy for us. Gareth confirmed when I notified him of the cancellation that he would send a cancellation invoice for insurance purposes..... 2 weeks and several chasers later I finally got the invoice.

It is clear that Icelandholidays.com operate on the basis that they wait for a customer to pay so they can pay whichever bill needs to be paid next. That is no way to run a business. Years ago I worked for both a travel agent and a tour operator so I know exactly how they should work.

Whatever you do, do not book through icelandholidays.com or any of their associated companies. If you have booked then certainly dont expect them to answer the phone to chat anything through. Gareth probably has so many disgruntled customers that he can't afford to answer the phone incase he ends up speaking to one of them