Iceland. Also cold. Also beautiful. And they have puffins.

If you are open to it, hostels are inexpensive and a great way to meet other travelers.

I visited in September a few years back. Perfect weather every day but the Aurora isn't very visible that time of the year.

I did a waterfall tour that was like 5 hours of touring the southern waterfalls. On a big buss with huge truck wheels. While the guide told us the history of Iceland and legends of trolls.

I paid $60 for that tour.

I'm sure everything is more expensive now (that was like 6 years ago that I went) but the country is invested in tourism so there are a lot of things to do for almost any budget.

Also , most natives also speak English so that's helpful if you only speak English.

I booked my trip and scheduled my tourist stuff online myself. Saved me money and I thought it was pretty easy to plan and book everything.

One thing I will say that I learned from traveling from Chicago to Europe/Iceland is that every time I've flown across the pond, I arrive early in the day. Like 10 am. Noon.

But most hotels and hostels won't let you check in that early.

Now the problem is , by the time I get there, I'm exhausted. I don't sleep on planes or trains. I can't.

So what I did was contact the hostel and tell them I wanted to also book the night before I arrived but that I wouldn't be checking in until early the next day. That way I could check in immediately and go sleep. Just tell them why and they will accommodate.

If it's a hostel it's probably only $30-40 for that extra day.

And for someone like me who can't sleep on planes/trains, I'm running on about 20 hours of no sleep by the time I get there. Waiting 3 to 4 hours in a lobby to check in is not great.