Iceland is a backpacker destination? I think not

I was perusing some articles online as I plan to get a jump start on my travels again as soon as such a thing is allowed again, probably sometime in 2021 and after reading half a dozen articles or so several of them suggested Iceland as a fantastic place for backpacking and budget travel. This to me suggests that these prominent websites have been paid to say this by the Iceland travel administration or something along those lines.

As someone that has been to Iceland and was desperately trying to find some sort of value; any sort of value, I can personally attest to the fact that this is definitely NOT a place for budget traveling and can't understand how anyone could fall for it.

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Of course I think that most people would do some due dilligence before they just upped and went to Iceland on the assurance from a couple of ad-filled websites but the fact that this is even featured on such websites is just completely ludicrous. I thought we were saving all the fake news for politics but nah, it's friggin everywhere.

Iceland is extremely beautiful and if you are lucky enough to go during their very short summer you are in for a treat that is for sure. The place is pristine and with a country-wide population smaller than many medium sized cities in America and many other places around the world it is likely to stay that way. The city that I live in has 20 times the population of all of Iceland.

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From the moment you get off the plane you are going to immediately notice that just about everywhere you look in any direction the sights you see could very well be a postcard. This extends from the countryside to the alleyways of their largest cities, which are not even that large. This is something that you honestly can't experience anywhere else in the world but the idea that you can do this affordably is just laughably incorrect.

Iceland is rated as the MOST expensive country in all of Europe and for some reason Switzerland, Italy, and France are not on any of the "backpacking" lists that I have seen, yet Iceland is on half of them. This is just nuts.

Iceland has an overall cost that is nearly 70% higher than the average of the rest of Europe and if you know about thing or two about geography and economics it is really easy to understand why this could be.

For one thing, their proximity to the Arctic Circle means that very few crops will grow there at all and those that do have a very short growing season. Iceland is one of the few countries in the world that depends on imports for over 30% of their overall food needs. Keep in mind that there are only 350,000 people there and they are incapable of feeding even that low of an amount of people (no offense to anyone from Iceland, but this is just a fact.)

Alcohol, sweets, and many other "luxury" items have massive import taxes associated with them and the VAT (Value added tax) in Iceland is nearly 25%.

Iceland is also an example of how "living wages" drive up the cost of everything else. While there aren't many laws mandating wages such as the minimum wage laws in the United States, nearly everyone who works there is part of a labor union and this means that even jobs that would be considered low income jobs in the rest of the western world pay much more than they would anywhere else. The average wage in Iceland is around 60,000 USD / year. If you live in USA there is a good chance that you don't make anywhere near that much because the average in the States is nearly half that.

This means that the price of operating literally any business is going to cost a lot more money and the lack of value gets passed onto the consumer. Everything from a loaf of bread to a box of beer costs double if not triple what it costs elsewhere.

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Iceland being included on any list of "budget travel destinations" is quite simply, a lie. I am certain that most people who do just the smallest amount of research, such as booking a hotel online only to discover that even basic accommodation is more than $100 a night, would quickly scratch the country off their list of places they are considering going.

Iceland is a lovely and truly unique part of the world and if you can afford it, I highly recommend that you do so but chances are if you are budget traveler that you actually can't afford it. This expense also has a lot to do with how popular travel to the island has become. Since 2010 the number of international travelers to Iceland has increased five times over and simply supply and demand would dictate that anyone operating in the tourism industry is going to take advantage of this... and they should.