Didn’t see many Boxing Day deals during a brief excursion, Canada’s Black Friday, but redflagdeals had some cheap travel you could book between now and June, which included Toronto-Reikjavik flights for 330 US (round trip) or Toronto-Tokyo for 450 US with not too many black out dates.
What would you recommend to do in Tokyo? In Reikjavik?
Tokyo is the largest city in the world, so it has an enormous variety of things that you can do: shop, eat, drink, party, go to museums, go to shrines and temples. I’ve been to Japan twice (for about 5 weeks total) and Tokyo once (for one week), and I haven’t been to Reykjavik – but I’d choose to go to Tokyo again, because there’s a lot that I haven’t seen there.
No trip to Tokyo is complete without a visit to Shinjuku.
IMO Reikjavik is only rewarding if you want to see glaciers and puffins. We were there last New Year Eve… Too cloudy for the northern lights. Expensive drink and food. Nice people though.
Mid winter in Reikyavik is pretty dreary with very little daylight. There’s more than glaciers and puffins but a bit hard to see it all with six hours of weak light. The town is fun but very expensive. The penis museum is a hoot, as well as Harpa, and the nearby Blue Lagoon is fun if over hyped. Excursions out to see waterfalls, glaciers, and the Northern Lights are the big draws. The restaurants are wonderful if expensive.
I second what’s been said about Tokyo. It’s an enormous city, with endless things to do. Fascinating on multiple levels.
On the other hand, don’t go there if you can’t handle crowds.
Anyone know anything about skiing in Japan?
Having been to both, Reykjavik is perfect for a two or three day stopover to or from Europe. Take a day to do some nature (Golden Circle, northern lights), take a day and walk around the city and see some museums, eat some good food, hit the Blue Lagoon if that’s your thing. That’s probably the itinerary for 90% of the generic travelers to Iceland, and it’s a fun one.
Tokyo is enormous and you couldn’t fit it all into a month. My week there was mostly shrines, museums, sumo, baseball, people-watching, and eating. There was so, so much more that I didn’t do in all of those areas and more. I have no idea if I’ll make it back there - it was fun, but I didn’t ‘fall in love’ with it the way I do with some big cities, and hey, there are always more places to check out - but if I do, I have zero doubt that I could fill another week or two in the city pretty easily, never mind getting on the train and seeing the rest of Japan.
The best skiing in Japan is on the island of Hokkaido, quite a bit north of Tokyo. And it’s amazing skiing, best powder I’ve ever been in, day after day after day. Combined with a morning and evening onsen soak and it was heaven. There is skiing closer to Tokyo and it’s not bad, but I’m not sure I’d make it a destination.
If you had one week in Tokyo what would you be sure to do?