World Traveling Military Family

*PLEASE NOTE* I wrote this to help other military

families moving to Iceland but since that time the base has been closed and no more military families will be living there.  I am so THANKFUL for our experience and time there and wanted to share the information of what it was like living there....There is also helpful information if you are wanting or are planning on traveling there.

So you have orders to NAS Keflavik, Iceland?! Here's some information to get you started. Feel free to email me with any questions and I'll try to get them posted and answered the best that I can. We lived at NAS Keflavik from September 2003 to September 2005.

General Iceland Info

Books
I recommend Insight Guides Iceland, this was very helpful during

our tour in Iceland and on our many adventures. You can find information about it at: http://www.insightguides.com/insight/iguides_results.asp?sf1=name;eq&st1=Iceland&pl=1&sort=sectionsort&TAG=&CID=

Climate
The temperatures range her from cold, colder to coldest, with a very short and mild "summer". The average summer temperature is anywhere from 65-70's. Even on warm days you can be chilled to the core by the winds. They do get snow in Iceland but it doesn't usually stay on the island long due to the winds. There is also black ice during the winter months. When they tell you it's windy they really mean it...a lesson I learned the hard way. Be very careful when exiting your car during a windy period, as in my case a gust of wind caught it and flung it backwards breaking the door. This is a common occurance in Iceland, so be extra careful. This is not covered by insurance either. Luckily my husband and his friend were able to fix mine, others have not been so lucky and have to get it fully replaced.
Another unique aspect of Iceland is it's period of darkness and lightness. From June to mid July there is a period of round-the-clock daylight with June 24th being the longest day of the year. During the winter you have long periods of darkness and on the longest day of darkness only 3 hours of dusklike light. If you are affect by not having sunlight I recommend that you bring sun lamps with you for the long winter period.

Time Zone
Iceland is GMT (Greenwhich Mean Time) so when it's 3 pm in Iceland it's:
11 am in New York (Eastern Time)
10 am in Texas (Central Time)
9 am in Utah (Mountain Time)8 am in California (Pacific Time)

I use http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_IS.aspx to figure out what time it is in the states to call family. On the left side you can choose each state and see what time it currently is.

Interesting Sights
Northern Lights, these can be seen during the winter months when it acutally gets dark at night. The base weather channels post your chances of seeing them for each night from low, to high. An amazing sight you don't want to miss.
Midnight Sun, The Midnight sun is when the sun descends into the ocean to start rising once again.
There are plenty of Volcanoes  (Fire), Glaciers (Ice), waterfalls, lava tubes and more to be explored in this amazing country.

Getting To Iceland:
Military Members
The Rotator aka Patriot Express is leaving in Oct so I am not sure how that will affect getting to Iceland. Currently families leave Baltimore, MD and fly the 6 hours straight to NAS Keflavik. There is a USO at Baltimore which provides snacks and free US long distance calls. There are toys for the kids and a TVs, tables, and information. This is only available to military members. You leave Baltimore around 11 pm and arrive in Keflavik around 8 am Keflavik time. You will be very tired but it is recommended that you try to stay up

 as late as possible, this will help with getting your body adjusted to the time. At the Airport there are usually tons of people to welcome the newcomers, your sponser and people from your squadron should be there to greet you.

Family Members
Our family has came to visit us in Iceland via Iceland Air. www.icelandair.com you can get really good rates in the off season. The peak season (higher rates) are from June to August. Make sure you sign up for the Lucky Fares and they will email you with great rates. The rates currently are $408 per person from Baltimore, M

D round trip. (9/18/05)

Base Information:  (May not be available as the base is not longer an active base)

First off I recommend that you use www.afcrossroads.com to locate some starting basic information. You have to be military to acess the site and have/sign up for a log in name.

The MWR base website can be found at http://ww3.mwr.is/ there is some good information on here.

The base newspaper can be found at http://www.nctskef.n

avy.mil/WhiteFalcon/

The housing is apartment style living, the newer housing has washer & dryers in each home while the older style has some common access laundry rooms instead of in home personal ones. Each housing unit has 3 floors. There are designated smoking and non-smoking buildings. As for pets if there is any damage to the carpet from the pets or potty "accidents" you will be required to replace the carpet when you move out, the cost is $2500, this is highly stressed when you move in. There is no covered parking and each unit gets 1 assigned spot in the parking lot, and then can park another car in an unmarked spot. We never had parking with our two cars while we were there. Each unit has a dayroom for

 use by the residents, in the newer style housing the dayrooms are large and are great for party's and dayroom sales, in the older housing units they can be quite small and cramped. If there is anymore questions about the housing 

that I haven't answered feel free to contact me.  Pic of housing Below:

**Warning Childcare is VERY Limited with often up to a 1 year wait!! Put your name on the CDC list as soon as possible if you are going to need daycare. After school care at the Youth Center has a long waiting list as well. I have never seen childcare as limited as on this base. Home Daycare providers are desperately needed, contact the CDC if you would like to become one. I was a provider on base for 7 months and provided shift work care. I had children in my home during the evenings for the single parents who worked swing shifts. Daycare is also expensive at the home providers the current rate is $140-$150/wk for infants up to 24 mo and $130-$140 for those 24 months and over. Drop in rates range from $4/hr per child to $8/hr per child. Before & After school care is $90/wk per child. If your looking for a job being a provider lets you stay home with your children as well as earn some good money.

On base facilities:

Shopping on base:

Commissary which has a limited selection of items, closed on Mondays for restocking. If you see something that you like or need, buy multiples of it because once it's gone it may take awhile before it's restocked. You can special order items BUT you have to purchase a case of them, so when my husband special ordered some Quaker Strawberry snack we had to purchase the case of them which was 12 boxes of them. The fresh produce is often not the best, you can go to the nearby Bonus (Icelandic grocery store) right off base but the cost will be much higher. We are allowed to use expired coupons up to 6 months here.

Navy Exchange aka NEX also has a limited selection of items and is not very large. Plan on doing online shopping while here in Iceland as the clothing selection is very limited and goes fast. If you think you'll need it while in Iceland, Bring It With You! I also recommend that you use the online shopping program Ebates while here:
Ebates is an online shopping site that pays you (up to 25%) to shop online! I've made over $150 by linking from their site before making my online purchases, I don't know of any other site that pays you to shop online. The best part about it is they have over 800 stores like Gap, Old Navy, Barnes & Nobles, Priceline, ect so somewhere you shop is going to be on here. Also they offer money saving coupons too. You can also download a notifier so if your at a store that is part of ebates you'll automatically get credit for it, Too Easy! If you sign up with my link they will give you $5 free and $5 to me for the referral:
http://www.ebates.com/referfriend.jsp?ref=babydoll_1224@hotmail.com&name=Laurie&promotion_code=REF5&utype=REF

Thrift Store is a great place to get some good deals as many people donate their stuff there when leaving as to not have to deal with it. It is also a great place to volunteer. I volunteered here for the 2 years I was in Iceland and loved it. It's family friendly and I was able to take my little ones with me while I worked. Many shifts are available.

Services:

Banks on base are Navy Federal Credit Union and Community Bank.

Library is small and has very limited newer selections. You can buy books from the Shopette at the Viking Mall, the selection varies. I have used www.Amazon.com a lot while here in Iceland. They have a decent shipping time as well.

Beauty Shop is located at the Viking mall and is ran by Icelanders, which results in expensive prices for services. For example as full set of acrylic nails is $85 and to get them filled it is $40. It's about the same off base.

Barber Shop is also located at the Viking mall and during busy hours can mean a long wait. Prices here are reasonable $7.95 for a kids cut and $8.95 for a military style adult cut.

Drycleaning is a bit high here and the price seems to go up fairly often.

Playzone is an indoor playground. This is great place to take your children during the dark winter months.

Polar Roller Rink offers skating as well as blow up bouncey's for birthday parties.

Dental Services are now limited to sick call for basic cleanings for dependants and all other services are to be sought off base where you pay up front and then will be reimbursed. This is due to the short staffing at the Dental Clinic.

Medical Services are basic services needed, anything major is sent off base to Reykjavik. When my son broke his arm last year and needed it set under general anesthesia we were sent to the Reykjavik hospital. The staff was nice although since we arrived at 10 pm they were unable to treat him that night and we had to come back the next morning. There is no where to eat in the hospital as my husband found out the next morning for the long wait, so bring snacks if you have to go there. Also 20 wk pregnancy ultrasounds get done in Reykjavik as well. All premature births are sent to Reykjavik. The clinic is good about trying to get you in the same day, as long as you call first thing in the morning. They also offer free OTC medicines from the Pharmacy, each family has a certain amount they can get each month. This is a great program.

Mail comes out of NY and can often be slow. The Air Force picks up their mail at the Air Force post office which is located across from TLF. They have limited hours now it's 11am-1pm and then 2pm to 5 pm M-F and Sat 9am-12 noon. The Navy picks their mail up from the Post Office at the Viking Mall (I think) and I'm not sure of the hours for that.

Recycling Center is located next to the Thrift Store. Recycling is a must in Iceland, as you are charged a 10¢ deposit per bottled/canned item at time of purchase, you get 10¢ back for each item when you return them to the recycling center. All beer bottles must be returned in the case for safety reasons.

Dining Facilities on base:

Wendy's and Subway located at the Viking Mall, trust me after your 2 year tour here you won't have any desire to eat at Wendy's or Subway again :) Rumor has it that Taco Bell is coming to replace Wendy's but has not done so as of yet. Part time jobs at Wendy's can be good for high schoolers and such because the starting wage is $9.15/hr, you won't find that in the states.

Bowling Alley located in the Viking Mall has a snack bar that is open for lunches, the menu has different specials.

Three Flags Club Dining is located in the Three Flags Club and has different meals each day/evening. For example Wends Evenings are Mongolian Bar-B-Que, Friday's Steak Bar, ect. Breakfast Buffets served on Saturday & Sundays. Warning on popular days like Mother's Day, ect it gets VERY busy and can result in a wait.

Geyser Room is located in the Three Flags Club it serves Pizza and sandwiches. Delivery available in the evenings.

Lava Java is located in the Viking Mall and serves coffee, expressos, hot chocolate, ect.

Used Cars
Used cars are very limited and can be expensive. Some park them in front of the MWR building with For Sale signs on them. You can also watch the Roller Channel on Channel 20 on Thursdays to see any cars posted as well as the Classifieds in the White Falcon which is now published every Friday. We bought a used car when we got to Iceland in 2003, we got a Nissan Rodeo for $2500, it served it's purpose and we were able to sell it for $2000 when we left 2 years later. Four wheel drive is good to have but not necessary, we didn't have 4-wheel drive in our 2003 Tahoe and never had any problems. We even crossed a few rivers in it as well as the minivan that was in the group with us. 4 wheel drive is needed if you want to explore some of the more remote regions of Iceland.

Schools

A.T. Mahan Elementary school provides Sure Start to 6th Grade. It's a smaller school with 2-3 classes per grade. We've had a few issues with the school, and know many who are displeased with it, but overall it provides the basic needs.

Homeschooling on NAS Keflavik is easy to do and there is even a homeschool support group.
A.T. Mahan High School grades seven through twelve. I've had no personal experience with the high school as my oldest is only in 4th grade.

Colleges on base:
Navy College which offers classes from University of Maryland, Central Texas, and Embry-Riddle.

STAP program for Air Force spouses offers tuition assistance. You can apply each term and receive a total of $350 for two classes. This is limited to colleges located on base (classes on base or online with them). Navy spouses have a form of tuition assistance as well but it's a long application and less money is received. I'm not sure how often you can apply for it.

So Now your Ready to Head off Base...

Leaving the Base
Taking certain items off base is a big No-No, you cannot take anything new off base. A couple once headed off base forgetting that they had a new crock-pot in their trunk that they had bought at the NEX, expensive lesson learned as they received a $100 ticket. You are also not allowed to take american meat off base, you can buy Icelandic chicken at the commissary and take it off or wait and buy your meat off base. This is more expensive to have to do that though.

Ration Cards each adult member of the family receives a ration card you use these to take limited amounts of alcohol and such off base.

Gas is limited to 2 containers.

Currency rate is currently 1 USD = 69.91 ISK as of 9/18/05 rates fluctuate often.

Dining Off Base (just a few listed)

Kaffe Duce located in Keflavik. This was one of our favorite places to eat. I loved the Chicken pasta and my husband liked the Munk fish.

Pizza 67 located in Keflavik. Serves pizza and some sandwiches.

Langbest located in Keflavik. Serves an assortment of foods; sandwiches, burgers, pizza and more. The chicken salad is really yummy.

Ny-Ung's is located in Keflavik. Has burgers & fries but the yummy ice cream desserts are the best. We went here weekly for the hot fudge sundaes with our friends.

Salthouse in Grindavik, menu limited and prices kinda high. Dessert is yummy.

Also a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dominos located in Keflavik, prices are not cheap.

T.G.I. Fridays in Reykjavik at the mall.

McDonald's in Reykjavik near the Smaraland Mall, expensive treat cost our family of 5 and easy $40 to eat here.

Pizza Hut located in Reykavik.  Expensive as well.

Tipping~ just a note about Tipping...you do NOT tip in Iceland, this is considered rude.

Sightseeing
I'll go into this more below under the Traveling Section but a few important points for those who are stationed here:
*Use the buddy system and find someone to travel with, this not only keeps you safe but provides you with memorable experiences. If you are unable to notify someone that you are going so they will know where you are if you don't arrive back.
*Make sure at least one party (preferably both/all) have a cell phone.
*Make sure you have an emergency kit in your car, especially during the winter months where it could get desperate if stranded. A tow rope is also good for those who are able to tow others.
I have also found a GPS to be very helpful during our excursions, but is not necessary. We also use this while Geocaching in Iceland. More can be learned about geocaching at www.geocaching.com, you can also see our caches under my username Babydoll1224. This is great family hobby and we had a great time doing it. We look forward to geocaching in Japan!

Traveling in Iceland

Traveling in Iceland can easily be done by car.  We drove our Tahoe all over the island.  We even took it to the Westmann Islands using the ferry.

Here are some of our Pics from our travels in Iceland: