Camping in Iceland? A guide for grocery shopping and meal planning

One of the perks of renting a camping vehicle in Iceland is saving money on dining out for every meal. You *can*, but most campers prep their own meals, either in their vehicle, portable stove, or using the campsite’s facilities. Eating out in Iceland is expensive, and we found even cafes and diners will easily run 15 euros a person per meal. This doesn’t include drinks or alcohol. This quickly adds up when you are traveling as a family. Buying your own groceries and making your own meals is a budget friendly option that doesn’t take away from your Icelandic experience.

We spent 2 weeks traveling by motorhome around Iceland’s Ring Road. (You can read our other articles about renting a camping vehicle in Iceland here, and here.) We didn’t want to spend too much time on meal planning, meal prep, or clean up. Most times at the end of a full day we were too tired to do anything besides heat up a pot of water. We kept our meal planning simple and largely stress-free. You *can* certainly cook elaborate meals, particularly if you’re renting a motorhome, but we wanted to devote most of our time in Iceland to actually exploring Iceland, not cooking and having to clean up!

We love trying foods in countries in visit. But even cooking in a motorhome, we were still able to buy and sample typical local foods from the grocery store. Of course, we enjoyed the occasional restaurant as well!

If you’re planning on camping in Iceland, we hope you’ll find some useful, budget-friendly tips from our experience grocery shopping and stocking our fridge with fresh and easy meals! Read on for our favourite Icelandic foods to try!

Tips on supermarkets in Iceland

Shop at Bonus!

Bonus is Iceland’s value, no-frills grocery store. Prices are significantly cheaper and they offer their own line of “Bonus” brand food.

Bonus is the most common supermarket in Iceland, with 31 locations across the country. Be sure to stop at the one in Keflavik, right after you pick up your camping vehicle. The store fronts are easy to spot. They’re typically bright yellow with a logo of a cartoon pig. However, there are no stores once you head eastward. The only Bonus east/north Iceland is in Egilsstadir.

Other grocery stores in Iceland

Reasonable alternatives to Bonus are Kronan and Netto. These are more expensive, but offer a wider selection of choices.

Iceland is another mid-range option. There aren’t that many however, and it is actually a British based company.

Krambudin is another chain you’ll pass fairly often if you’re road-tripping around Iceland, with 21 locations. This is probably your most expensive option. They have more convenient opening hours and offer a greater range of pre-made and “fast” options. In Reykjavik, 10/11 is the most expensive, but is also the only one open 24/7.

Check your store’s opening hours ahead of time

There’s a reason Krambudin and 10/11 have a higher price tag! They open early and close late (or open 24/7!)

Each store has their own opening hours. Check on Google or on the store’s website ahead of time. Most Bonus stores, for example, are open 10am – 8pm. The one we visited in Egilsstadir was only open from 11am – 6:30pm that day!

If you’ve arrived late or are planning an early start, you may not be able to make that grocery run.

Use Google Translate

Many items in Icelandic grocery stores are in Icelandic only. It might look like what you want to buy, but it may not be! For example, one time I accidentally bought a carton of sour milk instead of plain milk. Another time I was picking salads but instead bought a meat pate that neither kid would touch with a ten foot pole.

You need to bring or buy bags

Grocery bags in Iceland cost about 20 ISK (20 cents CAD). We always bring our own bags when we shop at home, but we found it was handy to have a few disposable bags for the motorhome. We used these to store food, as garbage bags, or to carry things to and from campsites or pools.

Bonus uses plastic bags, but Kronan and Iceland both use paper bags! (Possibly some of the others chains as well.) Iceland’s bag even says “I am a reusable paper bag”.

The cashiers are *fast*

Okay, this isn’t really a tip, but it’s definitely something that surprised us. Perhaps it’s a European thing, but it’s definitely not a North American thing! Even with the two of us bagging, I don’t think we had a single time where we kept up the the cashier!

Bring your own!

Alcohol!

This is really the biggie. Unlike most countries in Europe, Iceland does not sell alcohol in grocery stores. You will need to buy your drinks from their regulated liquor stores, Vinbudin.

Alcohol is pricer in Iceland, with cans of beer easily running 3 – 6 CAD, and bottles of wine *starting* from 20 CAD.

If you’re planning to buy alcohol on your road trip, a good way to save a few dollars is to buy at the airport to bring along.

Spices/sauces

Before you peruse the store for salt, oil, and other spices you might only use a few times on your trip, check if your rental company (and some campsites) have any to share. Many rental agencies will have shelves or entire pantries of sauces and spices left behind by other campers you can have for free. Many of the campsites in and around Keflavik and Reykjavik have shareable stock, too.

Also check for necessities like dish soap and paper towels. Many campsites will have dish soap to use, but don’t count on it.

Pre-packaged camping meals

We rented a motorhome with a dedicated kitchen. If renting a camper van, you are dealing with a way smaller space and cooking area. You will have to move stuff and set stuff up in order to get meal-prepping and cooking. In this case, we recommend bringing a few packages of camping meals, because guaranteed some days you won’t want to go through all that! Many adventure/outdoors stores having a whole range of meals, from pastas to curries to rice dishes.

Painkillers and over the counter medications

Iceland grocery stores do not carry typical over the counter medications, such as paracetamol/acetaminophen. You need a doctor’s prescription for many medications you can find over the counter in North America, or at the very least, you need to buy it from a pharmacy. (Read our post on packing your travel first-aid kit.)

Tips for meal planning in a camping vehicle

On our first grocery run in Keflavik, we definitely over-bought, and it was a bit overwhelming.

We weren’t sure exactly what we were eating or how often we’d be able to find a grocery store.

We recommend planning to make a grocery run and restock every 3 days or so. You’ll find grocery stores in most towns, so you don’t have to worry about running out of food. We found ourselves camping in a larger town every few days anyway, so we were able to take care of gas, propane, groceries, etc all in one fell swoop. Vik (south) and Egilsstadir (east) have great campsites. Akureyri in Iceland’s northwest is a good option, too.

We simplified our meals by having similar options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We also kept cooking to a minimum, and tried to stick with one-pot dishes to decrease the clean up we had to do. For example, if we were making pasta with sausage, we’d use the same pot and water to boil the sausage and then the pasta, then empty out the pot to heat the sauce. Otherwise you’d be using a ton of water, and potentially hauling a ton of dishes to the campsite sinks for cleanup. Nobody wants to be doing that on vacation.

Ideas for breakfast

• Skyr! So much Icelandic yogurt on our trip. Skyr, honey, and granola was a staple breakfast for us.
• Cereal and milk.
• Muffins/cinnamon buns. Bonus sells little muffins and cinnamon rolls in bags, which are perfectly kid-sized. Maybe not the healthiest option, but convenient and hey, it’s vacation! Makes a quick snack, too.
• Bananas – can also add bananas or berries to Skyr yogurt.

Ideas for lunch

Lunch was basically sandwiches/toast with different fillings. We bought these large loaves of bread from Bonus that lasted the entire week!

• Deli meats and cheese. Icelandic grocery stores have so many different kinds of meats and sliced cheeses to choose from.
• Avocado toast
• Toast with salads and spreads. These come pre-made in little containers and there are many options to choose from. We loved the tuna and egg salads. There is also shrimp salad, various vegetable salads, and meat pates.
• Peanut butter and jam.
• Cut vegetables with hummus or peanut butter. We ate *a lot* of celery, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes.

Ideas for dinner

• Hot dogs! *So* much hot dog. We had these on their own, with buns, or in pastas. You can boil them, but pan-fried is better.
• Breakfast for dinner. Scrambled or hard boiled eggs on toast (sometimes with a hot dog on the side!)
• Fajitas – stir fry a meat, a vegetable, an onion, and wrap it up!
• Pastas with canned sauce
• Ramen/instant noodles (I don’t think our kids ever had instant noodles before this – it was a hit!)
• Easy salad – Lettuce (these come in little boxes with a surprising amount of leaves), add dressing – to give the impression of healthy eating
• For a feast, try Iceland’s pre-flavoured packaged lamb chops. Iceland exports a ton of lamb!

Try these Icelandic foods!

Skyr

Skyr is Iceland’s own yogurt. It’s thick, like Greek yogurt, and tart. We had this almost every day! It comes in large cartons and single serve sizes, in all sorts of flavours. Skyr also comes in pouches, which the kids loved.

Icelandic hot dogs (Pylsur) with Pylsusinnep

Daniel’s family is German, so we have our fair share of hot dogs and sausages at home. Icelandic hot dogs are different, made from 80% lamb. You need to try this with Pylsusinnep, a sweet mustard type sauce. I’m sure Big S could have eaten Pylsur every meal.

There is a famous Pylsur stand in Reykjavik “Baejarins Best Pylsur” you should check out in old-town Reykjavik. Long lines form as soon as they open!

Lamb

Whether you make this yourself (pre-flavoured and packaged lamb is readily available from Icelandic grocery stores) or eat at a restaurant, be sure to try the lamb. Iceland produces some of the world’s best lamb meat. Sheep are everywhere in Iceland – they are allowed to free roam, especially as there are no predators.

Dried fish (Hardfiskur)

Icelanders eat Hardfiskur like the rest of us eat beef jerky. You can buy this from the grocery stores and try it for a snack. Big S ended up loving it! It smells though, so you might want to have it outside the camper van!

Fish and chips!

We had fish and chips all up and down the east and north coasts, where there are a number of small fishing towns. There are plenty of stands and diners selling fish and chips from that day’s catch, and it’s a quick, budget-friendly option when you do want to eat out.

We hope this article takes the stress out of meal-planning your Icelandic camping trip (parents, especially, you know what I’m getting at)! Want more ideas for your Iceland trip? Follow along with our itinerary here!