Iceland from the UK: Flights from £95, Real Costs and What's Worth It

Reykjavik from £95-£180 return on Icelandair from Heathrow is the one I've used most. The flight takes about three hours, you get a free carry-on and a personal item, and the planes are decent. Prices sit nearer £220-£320 in July and over Christmas.

easyJet fly to Keflavik from Gatwick and Luton, and I've seen fares from £55-£130 return outside summer. The catch is the bags. Add a cabin case and a seat and your cheap £70 flight turns into £130 quickly, so price the full lot before you click.

Wizz Air have run Keflavik routes from Luton in recent years, with fares from around £40-£90 each way when they appear. Check the current schedule before you plan around it, because Wizz routes to Iceland have come and gone. Icelandair also fly from Manchester and Edinburgh from around £140-£260 return, which saves a trek south if you live up north.

One thing nobody mentions: Keflavik is 45 minutes from Reykjavik. The Flybus costs about £25-£30 return, and a taxi will run you £120-£150 one way. Take the bus.

A 4-day trip lands at £800-£1,200 per person all-in, and anyone telling you £500 is either camping or lying. Flights £100-£250, a double room in Reykjavik £130-£220 a night split between two, and that's before you eat anything.

Food is where it stings. A basic burger and chips is £18-£22, a pint is £9-£11, and a sit-down dinner with a drink is £35-£55 a head. I lived on supermarket sandwiches from Bonus, the yellow pig shop, at about £5 each, and had one proper dinner out to make it feel like a holiday.

Then the tours. The Golden Circle with a coach company is £60-£90, a Northern Lights tour is £70-£100, and the Blue Lagoon is £65-£110 depending on the package and the date. Add a hire car at £50-£120 a day plus petrol at roughly £2 a litre and it climbs fast.

Why bother, then? Because nothing else I've done in Europe looks like this. Waterfalls the size of office blocks, black sand beaches, steaming ground you can walk on. You're paying for scenery you can't get anywhere else, and in my case I'd happily spend £900 here over a week of identical beach days in Spain.

The aurora is luck, not a guarantee, and the season runs roughly September to March. I went in February and saw it on night three of four. Night one was cloud, night two was a faint green smear you'd miss if you weren't looking.

Reykjavik is the worst place to see it. The street lights wash everything out, so you need to get away from the city, ideally an hour or more out, onto a dark road with a clear sky. Check vedur.is for the cloud forecast and the aurora forecast, and ignore anyone promising 100% sightings.

Book a tour on your first night, not your last, because most operators let you rebook free if it's cancelled. That gives you extra shots at it. A coach tour is £70-£100, a small-group minibus is £100-£150, and hiring a car and chasing it yourself costs nothing extra if you're already driving.

Wrap up properly. Standing in a field at midnight in February is minus five with wind, and I regretted my thin gloves within ten minutes. Proper thermals, a windproof, a flask of something hot.

Summer gives you 20 hours of daylight and every road open, but prices peak at £250-£320 return from Heathrow and rooms jump 40-60%. You get puffins, midnight sun and the full Highlands. You don't get the aurora, because it's simply too light.

Winter gives you the lights, ice caves and cheaper flights from around £95-£180, but daylight is four to five hours in December and roads close without warning. January and February are the sweet spot for me, with enough light to drive and decent aurora odds. Book a car with proper winter tyres and read the road.is warnings every morning.

The Ring Road is 1,330km and the honest answer is no, not in four days. Do it properly in 7-10 days or you'll spend the whole trip staring through a windscreen. I'd rather you did the south coast, Golden Circle and one glacier lagoon well than rushed the lot.

For four days, base yourself in Reykjavik, then do the south coast out to Vik with Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss and Reynisfjara black beach. Add the Golden Circle, one geothermal bath that isn't the Blue Lagoon, and an aurora night. That's a trip you'll talk about for years, even if your bank balance won't thank you.