This company is a disaster. Very bad customer service, complete disorganization and a lack of respect for their customers. I recommend avoiding booking with them and saving yourselves troubles and money. What was supposed to be a dream holiday (and in which we invested lots of money) ended up being a huge stress.
Me and my partner have booked a 5-Day - Snaefellsnes, South Coast, and Northern Lights, tour from Artic Adventures and we ended up not doing a lot of things that we were supposed to do:
1st - on the second day of the tour, due to bad weather, we only did 1/3 of the programmed plan and we also missed the krauma geothermal baths for which we had already paid as an extra! We were dropped in Reykjavik at 12 pm and the company did not care to suggest any other program and did not even bother contacting us with apologies and to discuss about refund. I have sent them an email about this to which I never got a reply.
2nd - for us, the highlight of these 5 days would be the scheduled glacier hiking and visit to an ice cave. But surprise surprise, we ended up not doing either! At the start of the tour our guide told us that since it was April, they had changed the program internally (without contacting us) to their summer program and the glacier hike was not part of it anymore. When I asked if it was due to safety reasons, the answer was that it was not, but it was only because they decided to change their program – This shows the lack of respect to the customers who booked one thing and ended up not getting it! Also, we were told to rest at ease that even if we would not do the glacier hike, we would be able to see it and have a nice experience in the Ice cave visit.
3rd - we had been told that the ice cave visit would be done on the 5th and last day of the tour. However, on the 4th day of the tour when we were arriving to the hotel, our guide told us that the ice cave was cancelled, without providing any explanation besides that there was something wrong at the office and that we could either get refund or rebook for another day. After this, I have immediately called artic adventures, and the person that picked up said she wasn't aware of anything, and she would try to get more information. I have never heard back from her. Also, we have tried to search alternatives with other companies to ensure we could visit the ice cave, and requested to be dropped off in Vik, which was denied to us because they said the tour wouldn’t stop there (And on the 5th day of tour, we ended up stopping there after all for a long time).
Since we have not heard anything back, we called again to request an explanation on the cancelled trip and to see if there were any alternatives. The person that answered said that she was aware of the situation, that she had got many calls from other clients about the same issue, but that nothing was cancelled, and the trip would go as planned and that the guide was misinformed. And that in case something was cancelled, we would get an email.
To our surprise, on the next day, when we got on the bus to start the tour, the guide told us again that the ice cave visit was canceled, and we would go somewhere else instead. I demanded to know what was happening and the guide’s answer was that someone in the office made a mistake, booked our trip wrongly, so now they could not get any buses for us to go to the ice cave.
While if a trip had been cancelled due to bad weather, as happened on the 2nd day of the tour we would understand, however, we cannot accept that a professional tour company makes such a big mistake letting the clients be highly penalized. We did not get what we paid for and we felt we were mistreated and played with.
In the final day of our tour, I sent an email asking for clarifications and refund and compensation. The only reply I got was that they would investigate and come back to me asap. After 15 days, 2 emails and a phone call, I did not get any reply yet. Moreover, I was told on the phone that this could take several weeks as my complaint was not the only complaint they have.
Very disappointed with this trip! I chose this tour because I wanted my family to have AN experience and not just take a scenic bus tour. This was a 2 day northwest trip followed by a 3 day southeast trip both taking us back to Reykjavik. The 2nd day, due to high winds, the tour guide brought us back to the hotel at 11am and we lost a day- thank goodness we entertained ourselves by going to museums and sky lagoons. The last day of our 3 day trip- our excursions - ice cave and ice glacier hiking were canceled. We did not get an official explanation but they said Artic Adventures overbooked. I am so disappointed and spent countless hours calling, and sending them texts to no response.