Want details on grocery shopping in Iceland? We went to Bonus — a discount grocery store — on our trip to Iceland. Here’s a little peek into our shopping trip and what the prices were.
You might also like my post: Grocery Shopping in South Africa.
Grocery Shopping in Iceland
One of the things I heard over and over again as I researched how to save money when visiting Iceland was that the price of food was really high. So we prepared accordingly by bringing an entire suitcase of packaged food with us (you get a free checked bag per person when you fly internationally).
This suitcase of packaged food saved us at least $700 to $1000 in food costs while we were in Iceland because we only ate a few meals out (and we went to really inexpensive places). We also booked an apartment instead of a hotel so we could cook our own food.
Shopping at Bonus
On the first day we got there, we walked to Bonus — a discount grocery store in Iceland. I had heard that this was one of the best and cheapest grocery stores to shop at there.
This store was located in a pretty touristy part of Reykjavík and was a smaller store. It kind of reminded me of a mix of Aldi + the Indian grocery stores I went to.
They had a lot of American brands — especially when it came to cereal. And there were a lot of things written in English, too, which made it really helpful when shopping! 🙂
One of the coolest features was that all of the refrigerated items were in a big refrigerated room. (You can see a video of it if you look on my highlights on Instagram stories.)
Were the Prices Really High?
Well, compared to paying for a meal at a restaurant, it was much cheaper to go buy groceries and make your own food. However, compared to what I am used to paying at a discount grocery store (or by combining coupons with sales), most things were at least 2-3 times the price I would typically pay.
Here’s what we ended up buying:
- 1 dozen eggs
- Loaf bread
- Head lettuce
- Bunch of bananas
- 3 bottles of Coke (the kids get to drink soda pop once a week on Saturdays and we were there on a Saturday, so you better believe they bought their Coke! ;))
- 1 large bottle of water (for my sinus rinse)
- 12-pack of bottled water (you can drink the tap water in Iceland, so we bought these to just refill throughout the week)
- 1 carton cream (for my tea)
Our total was 2,997 ISK — which is around $24 USD.
What We’d Do Differently Next Time Around
If you ever head to Iceland, I highly recommend bringing a lot of your own snacks and food. I also would recommend shopping at Bonus.
We brought trail mix, nuts, dried fruit and veggies, granola bars, beef jerky, and some protein bites and bars. So we had toast and eggs and bananas for two of our meals and I made salads with the lettuce and topped with a little trail mix and beef jerky. And we ate a lot of jerky and trail mix and dried fruit for snack-y meals.
If we did it again, we would definitely bring oatmeal packets and a few other types of things that we can add hot water to in order to make hot food. The kids got pretty tired of cold packaged food after two days! 🙂
Can you share more about your planning for your trip? Where you went, stayed, whether you rented a car, etc. We’re thinking about planning a trip to Iceland with our two kids who are similar in age and I’d love some more information on going to Iceland on a budget, thanks!
I was thinking of sharing a comprehensive post on it sometime in the next few weeks, but I wasn’t sure if people would be interested. Thanks so much for expressing interest!
I’m a supporter Crystal, but don’t you think this goes a little far? Part of the fun of traveling is eating out, enjoying other foods and flavors, relaxing and not having to cook meals. I get the point of this blog, and I know you have a readership with a specific outlook, but I think the balance here might be a bit off. When we travel we don’t intentionally waste food, but we try all sorts of new restaurants and experiences, and I sure as heck don’t want to be home to prep food 3-4 times a day! Thoughts?
Sorry, meant we don’t intentionally waste MONEY.
Actually, no, I don’t think it does. 🙂 You see, as I often say, what works for one family, won’t necessarily work for another.
Our family often prefers to eat a quiet dinner at home to eating out. We’re not foodie type people, so trying new restaurants is not something we prioritize as much budget-wise when we travel, unlike many friends we know. It’s one reason we’re able to travel as much as we do and stick with a small budget. We’re more the type to prioritize experiences, family time, and seeing sites.
That said, we typically eat out once per day when we travel and we try to find some fun, hole-in-the-wall or famous place to go to. The rest of the time, we eat snacks we’ve brought/free breakfast from the hotel (if provided). On this trip, because we’d heard that a typical sit-down restaurant would be $40 to $50 per PERSON per meal, we decided ahead of time when we budgeted for this trip to only eat out a few times.
I knew some people wouldn’t agree with our decision, but it was what we decided for our family. 🙂 In all honesty, we didn’t find many places that looked amazing to eat at and we heard over and over again from people that the food in Iceland wasn’t something that they were known for. (My apologies to those of you who are from Iceland; I’m just being honest with what I was told!)
We did eat out at this amazing hot dog stand and then a few other local places. Aside from the hot dog stand, we weren’t impressed with the food we ate there so we don’t regret our decision. Plus, we have a lot of fun grocery shopping in other countries!
Again, you are free to disagree but remember that what works for your family isn’t the same as what works for another family. It’s all about doing what works best for you. Thanks for understanding this and for reading here!
I really appreciate ideas on how to save money while traveling so one can travel more. Saving $700-1000 on food is significant. It may mean there is another trip in the near future.
I loved living in Iceland for the two years my husband was stationed at the NATO base there. Thankfully, we were able to buy our food at the commissary. I liked Iceland Coke better than the Coke made here in the U.S. I was sad to hear the base has since closed. One day I hope to go back and visit.
That’s so interesting about the Coke!
Most of the coke and other sodas made in other countries is made with real sugar and tastes better. That’s why it’s a thing for some stores in the U.S. to carry Mexican coke.
So interesting! Thanks for sharing.
We found that food in the Azores was inexpensive. I was surprised by that. It was very good too. The groceries in Maui were very expensive. We realized too late that it would have been cheaper to eat our meals off the Value Menu at the McDonald’s in our hotel parking lot than it was to buy groceries and make meals in our hotel. Bringing food in a suitcase would have been the best option.
That’s such a good point to check on whether it is actually cheaper to buy groceries or to buy at the least expensive restaurant.
When we took our kids the Virgin Islands I brought pancake mix (just add water in plastic container), precooked bacon, oatmeal packets, tang, granola bars and slim jims.
Oh! I LOVE the pancake mix idea — brilliant! I may steal that one!
A word of caution – I don’t know about Iceland, but many countries restrict what food you can bring in and what you can take out. Please check those policies before traveling.
Yes — thank you for mentioning that! We’ve found (so far) that the US has been most restrictive about what food we can bring back in. Iceland allows you to bring about 6 1/2 pounds of food in with a few restrictions on what types of food you can bring in.