Iceland—Tips to Completing the Ring Road
A guide for budget minded travelers looking to conquer Iceland
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard friends say they or someone they know are planning a trip to Iceland. Instead of having to share the same spreadsheet over and over, my wife and I put together some tips we learned on our summer trip that might help plan yours.
The Ring Road is about 1,200 miles to drive and can be completed in 8–10 days, depending on how long you prefer driving each day. I’ll be breaking out our summer itinerary into sections of how we planned it with a review of our experience and lessons learned. Feel free to jump around to sections that’s relevant to planning your trip:
- Booking Your Flights
- Renting A SUV
- Where To Stay
- Where To Eat
- Things To See
- Activities
- Lessons Learned
If you skim everything in this post, I suggest you at least take a look at the Lessons Learned!
There’s 3 major components that will have big impacts on your experience and travel budget: flights, accommodations and a SUV rental. The first two are pretty obvious for any trip, but renting a car in Iceland is a little different than any other country and needs some special consideration up front.
Let’s dig in.
1. Booking Your Flights
We booked our flights with WowAir because they started direct flights from San Francisco and had deals at the time. Looking back, I’m not sure if we actually saved much considering having to pay additional fees for baggage and food.
WowAir
We’re spontaneous travelers so whenever we see an air deal, we pounce on it. This was the case with WowAir when they promoted deals early in the year. Little did we know with the “WOW experience” has a few hoops you need to jump through. If you’ve ever flown any of the budget European airlines like EasyJet or RyanAir, you’ll be familiar with WowAir’s service. It’s definitely a no frills airline. Here’s a couple of things we had to be aware of before our flight:
- You’re only allowed one carry on bag (11 lb. limit)
- You have to pay extra for a checked bag (44 lb. limit)
- You have to pay for food and water
- There’s no entertainment system onboard
- There’s an extra charge to select your seats
What surprised me was that for an international flight, there’s no entertainment system — meaning no screens behind headrests. Be ready to load your iPad or phone with movies/podcasts.
If you’re traveling as a pair, beware that you might not be seated together or you might get both center seats in a row of 4. We had to talk to the attendant at the counter on our trip there and back to have our seats changed to at least one aisle. The return trip we had both aisle seats which I never experienced before.
Another tip is to buy food and water at the airport or pack it in carry on. Remember that you’re only allowed one carry on. An additional backpack under the seat counts as another bag. There’s also a weight limit (11 lbs.) on carry on bags. On both legs of the trip they weren’t strict on carry on weight, only for checked baggage.
Our recommendation is to compare the final price (including checked bags, food, headaches) with other airlines flying directly to Iceland. You might be surprised that WowAir isn’t much cheaper in comparison.
Links: WowAir, Skytrax Reviews
2. Renting A SUV
If you want the fullest experience of Iceland (meaning going off road), you’ll need a 4x4 or 4-wheel-drive (4wd) vehicle. This will help you tackle the unpaved rocky F-roads (assuming “F” stands for the fear of gravel hitting your windshield). Beware this is going to be one of the most expensive parts of your trip if you’re going during peak season (July–Aug). Our Hyundai Santa Fe 4WD cost about $1,300 for a 9 day trip.
Lagoon Car Rental
We went with Lagoon because of their highly rated reviews on TripAdvisor and their prices were lower than major rental chains. Lagoon is relatively a new rental company so their prices are going to be competitive to gain your business. They can also offer a substantial discount because you pay for your rental at the time of booking. Other major rental companies give you an option to prepay (at a smaller discount than Lagoon) or pay upon arrival. We booked our trip 6 months in advance so it was actually a little painful on our wallets to pay that fee upfront.
Rental Insurance: The most stressful part of renting a car in another county is debating if you should get the additional insurance on the spot. It’s stressful because you probably didn’t look up if your car insurance covers international rentals beforehand or if you think the additional insurance is a scam. I can’t tell you what the right answer is, but you should probably give a call to your insurance beforehand.
What I can say is having driven on the F-Roads, most tourists drive timidly. It’s the locals, excursion tour buses and service vehicles that go pretty fast in either directions. So as they drive past you, they could pick up gravel and rocks that might damage your vehicle.
In the end, after debating for awhile on getting the insurance, we opted not to get the additional gravel insurance. If we had to do it again knowing the types of roads we encountered, I would get the gravel insurance just for peace of mind.
Overall Experience: We had a great time with our Hyundai Santa Fe and it met all of our needs. I expected a little better service from Lagoon many reviewers raved about. It looks to be a family run business by two brothers. What we experienced there felt like college students running a rental company. Our shuttle wasn’t there upon arrival and we came to an empty office during our rental return. I guess these are growing pains of a new company. In the end, I suggest going with a company you trust and can rely on incase you pop a tire and need assistance.
Links: Lagoon Car Rental, TripAdvisor Reviews
3. Where To Stay
The key part of booking your accommodations is spacing out each place so you have enough time to sleep, drive and have time for activities everyday. Our trip was only for 9 days so we could only stay at each accommodation one night.
One of the unique experiences that Iceland has to offer is the more secluded cottages and camping pods near trails and scenic areas. The cottages typically come with a kitchenette and bathroom, while a camping pod is more basic with shared bathrooms and kitchens in the common areas. Both are sleeping bag accommodations, so if you decide to go this route, it will have an impact on your checked baggage weight if you fly with WowAir.
Pack a sleeping bag. It’ll save you a few bucks.
We alternated our accommodations to get the experience of more secluded areas while enjoying the comforts of a nice apartment with a washing machine to wash our clothes and take a nice hot shower.
Below is our day to day itinerary to give you an idea of how we spaced out our trip. We mostly used Booking.com to reserve most accommodations, while we had to email one cabin directly to book. Use this as a guide of how far to drive each day. I’ve also heard other people use AirBnb to book their accommodations as well.
You can also view the entire Google Map here.
Day 1 — Thakgil Cottage
($168/night) This was one of our favorite parts of our trip. First day in Iceland and we’re already going off the road and exploring. It’s an hour drive off the main road to get to the campsite, but it’s definitely worth it. If you’re looking to get away from tourists on the first day, this is the spot. The highlight was an amazing 2 hour hike right out of our cabin to see a glacier. The cabin comes with a bunk bed, kitchenette with a stove and fridge and a bathroom. If we had more time, we would’ve stayed two nights here to explore the other hiking routes.
Links: TripAdvisor Booking
Day 2 — Seljavellir Guesthouse
($201/night) After roughing it for the first night, we needed to clean up and this guesthouse was the perfect find. Along the Ring Road in the countryside, this is a modern guesthouse that helped us relax. A hot full breakfast spread was included and the sunset view of the mountains were just picturesque.
Links: Booking.com
Day 3 — Vinland Camping Pods
($76/night) Time to bust out the sleeping bags. This is half of the price of the other options nearby with essentials and a washroom. It’s along a hill so you get a good view of the town and landscape.
Links: Booking.com
Day 4 — Ice Apartments
($229/night) This was a great break from the camping accommodations and the washing machine was key to reducing our luggage space for the sleeping bags. It’s also on the main street in the city near many restaurants and attractions.
Links: Booking.com
Day 5 — Hvammstangi Cottages
($130/night) These cottages were super clean and comfortable. It includes kitchenette, a bathroom with a shower, and even wifi! The only downside is that it’s not too far from town so it didn’t feel as secluded as the other cabins.
Links: Booking.com
Day 6 — Country Hotel Heydalur
($130/night) This place is literally in the middle of nowhere. Even Google Maps can’t route to it. I’ve added a magenta arrow to point where it is.
If you decide to drive out to the see Isafjordur, it might be better to book a place there. Otherwise, you’d have to drive back which could take 3 hours round trip from Heydalur. The accommodations weren’t the best, but it was one of the only places in the area. The highlights includes natural springs, a homemade breakfast and horseback riding. Unfortunately we spent so much time driving to Isafjordur we didn’t have enough time to enjoy this place.
Links: Booking.com
Day 7 — Fossatun Camping Pods
($65/night) These camping pods are similar to Vinland with upgrade communal washing facilities. I liked these better than Vinland because it’s pretty secluded outside of the city. It includes great views, a small hike and trolls!
Links: Booking.com
Day 8 — Caze Central Luxury Apartments
($214/night) We wanted our final night to be comfortable so we chose this great apartment. This big studio apartment was clean with modern decorations. It’s at the end of a major street in Reykjavik, only a 10 minute walk to the church and other major attractions.
Links: Booking.com
4. Where To Eat
Similar to Scandinavian countries, food is relatively expensive compared to anywhere in the states. Meals range anywhere from $30 to $50 per person. For us, our car rental and accommodations already ate up a good chunk of our travel budget, we decided Icelandic food wasn’t high on our list. Not to say Icelandic food isn’t good or worth it, we just decided to go the budget friendly route and hit up the grocery store and made sandwiches for our long drives. It was refreshing to pull over at the many rest stops (with picnic tables) and enjoy a sandwich and the view.
Pack a sandwich. There’s scenic picnic tables every 5 miles
Nettó
If you decide on the grocery route, keep in mind passing towns on the drive in some areas aren’t that frequent and again note that they close early 6 or 7pm. From my research a lot of people mention Bonus with it’s noticeable yellow grocery bags and pink pig logo, but the stores are small with only a few selections. If you like larger grocery stores with a variety of options including organic (and I also found to be better quality) then head over to Nettó.
If you want a break from cooking, here are some notable places I’d definitely go back for seconds:
Akureyri Fish & Chips
This was one of our quick finds for dinner in Akureyri. There’s plenty of dining options in Akureyri. The cod in breadcrumbs with fries was so good.
Tjoruhusid Restaurant
This is a must try in Ísafjörður! Make sure to get reservations well in advance. They have two slots for dinner and each slot sits only sits 40. It’s a buffet style dinner with varieties of fresh fish. It’s roughly $40 per person and well worth it!
Links: TripAdvisor
Brauð & Co and Reykjavik Roasters
Early morning pastry and coffee runs were the highlight during our stay in Reykjavik. The shops are near each other and also the main area so you can hit up several attractions like the church or stroll through main street.
If you really want to try something exotic, there are many restaurants in the major towns that serve whale, puffin, and raw smoked lamb.
5. Things To See
The Waterfalls
The amazing thing about Iceland is that you don’t even need to take a 3 mile hike to see a waterfall. Most of the major waterfalls are accessible from the road. Honestly, we felt spoiled on the trip because there are so many waterfalls. Even driving to the Isafjordur, we passed over 20 waterfalls. This island is pouring with waterfalls — pun intended.
I suggest hitting the major waterfalls and typical tourist traps at midnight in the summer. The sun doesn’t set until midnight so there’s plenty of light for “golden hour” shots. There isn’t much else I can say about waterfalls. Most falls you can just drive and take a short walk to. I’m not going to list every waterfall we saw, but you can simply Google the top waterfalls in Iceland.
The Amazing Wonders of Iceland
Being an volcanic island, there’s tons of other sites to see aside from waterfalls. This includes glaciers, lava fields, geysers, craters and much more. Again, you can find most of these sites on TripAdvisor. But if you decide follow our itinerary for the first day and stay in Thakgil, I highly recommend hiking the Remundargil Ravine (purple trail) to see the Kotlujokull Glacier. This 3 hour hike truly made us feel like we’re on another planet. We didn’t encounter another person the entire hike.
The Scenic Drive
I probably don’t need a section for this, but the drive itself is itself an attraction and activity. At any point, you can pull over and take some awesome and scenic shots. The best part of driving a 4x4 is that you can literally pull over anywhere and enjoy the views. Here’s a some shots we took from our car:
6. Activities
Even though most days on your trip is taken up by driving, you’ll also have some downtime between drives to stop for an activity or two. Aside from the hiking and waterfalls, we found these to be the highlights of our trip:
Odin Horseback Riding
Rule #1: Don’t call it a pony. You’ll see on other blogs and review sites that say Icelandic people are very proud of their horses. In reality, they’re not actually that small. We had a great experience with Odin. Our guide Snow was super helpful guiding us through the nature reserve.
The best part of this experience was riding through the narrow trails in a national reserve and crossing two rivers. Highly recommended.
Links: TripAdvisor Reviews
Inside the Volcano
Pretty much what it says. It’s a 30min drive from Reykjavik. and a 45min. hike from base camp to the volcano. Once you’re at the Volcano, you’ll be lifted down in a elevator 1200 meters deep. Honestly, we were expecting a guided tour inside the volcano, but it’s literally a 100m loop inside a volcano. You can walk around and take pictures. The views are fantastic and it’s pretty badass to say you’ve been inside a volcano. Just beware it’s a 1.5 hour trip to get to the volcano and setup, while just getting about 30 minutes actually inside the volcano.
While we did get some epic photos, it’s a tough call if this experience is better than alternatives like hiking on a glacier or a (pricier) helicopter ride.
Links: Reservation
Blue Lagoon
The first question that came to mind when we were planning this trip was if Blue Lagoon worth a visit because it’s such a huge tourist attraction. The answer is it really depends on your mood.
You could either plan it at the beginning or the end of your trip given its proximity to Reykjavik and the airport. We decided to book towards the end of our trip to better fit our schedule. Our thought was since we just stayed at a camping pod the night before, having a long hot shower and spa made it a more positive experience. Had we gone the first day after picking our rental car, I don’t we would’ve had the same positive experience with the excited coming off a 9 hour flight.
Blue Lagoon is often compared to the hot springs in Myvtan, but the sulfur smell in the area is much stronger. We’ve read that the sulfur also stays on you for a few days so if you’re like me and prefer not to smell like rotten eggs then the Blue Lagoon is the way to go.
My advice is to treat it for what it is, it’s a spa experience. Go with the mindset that you’re going to relax, get a facial and sip on some booze. Some of the reviews complained that the water wasn’t as blue as they expected. Well, we realized there’s a reason for that. Part of the package includes a mud mask. Where do you think the mask goes when everyone washes it off? Yup, in the water. Overall, it’s not as bad as it sounds and it won’t affect your experience.
Recommendation: Book at odd hours. It’s not only cheaper but you’ll also miss the long lines the user reviews talk about. We booked the Comfort Package for $75/person. In addition to the base package, it included a towel, algae mask and drink coupon (includes alcoholic beverages).
If you decide to buy anything from the gift shop, buy it at the airport instead. They charge tax at the resort while it’s duty free at the airport.
Links: Blue Lagoon Reservations
7. General Lessons Learned
As with most international travel, we learned a lot of things on the trip that we couldn’t (or didn’t) Google beforehand while planning our trip. So here’s some general tips that you should know about Iceland:
In the summer, there’s 22 hours of sunlight. Use it!
It might sound odd, but the best time to visit major touristy spots are going to be after 12am in the summertime when most tourist groups are resting in their hotels. So I would suggest taking advantage of this. This is where you’ll get some epic photos without any tourists in the background.
Gas stations are your best friend
Icelandic gas stations work a bit differently than here in the states. For one, self serve car washes are free. Considering 90% of the country is off road, your car is going to get dirty quick.
The one that stumped me was at the Ollie gas stations. There aren’t any pay stations at the pump. I had to ask how to pay for gas. You actually have to pump first and then pay inside. That’s some serious trust right there!
Gas stations also carry a few camping supplies like fuel canisters for Jet Boilers. Also most gas stations near major cities have 3–4 decent fast food options. We even found a juice shop in one.
Beware of speeding cameras outside of Reykjavik
The cameras are posted about 10 to 15 miles going in either direction. I’m still agonizing at the possibility of receiving a charge on my rental for a speeding ticket.
Watch out for spontaneous sheep cross the road
Sheep roam wild in Iceland and there’s lots of them either resting along the road side or actually on the road. A light honk will alert them to move, but be careful when some try jumping onto the road as you drive past.
Don’t trust Google Maps estimates
Especially on routes that go through F-Roads. Google Maps doesn’t take in consideration of the rocky roads and hill climbs on F-Roads. Sometimes you might even need to cross a stream! Our 1hr 45min. route from Fossatun took almost 3 hours on an F-Road. The longer, safer and paved route would’ve taken 2.5 hours.
Most stores close by 6pm
A lot of grocery stores and restaurants close by 6pm. Considering it’s a country of 300,000 people, there’s probably no need to keep stores open that late. Be sure to stock up on food and beverages early.
You can’t buy hard alcohol from super markets
Alcohol is only sold in state-controlled stores called Vínbúðin. The grocery stores do carry light beer, but if you’re looking for a nice wine or a good Icelandic beer to go with your meals, then look for the Vínbúðin. The store itself has a large selection of wines, beers, and hard liquor. It’s basically a mini Bevmo. Best advice is to buy it from the duty free shop once you arrive. Prices are generally cheaper at duty free.
Conclusion
Like any trip, your experience is likely going to be different than how we planned ours. That’s the beauty of Iceland — there’s no “correct” way to experience it. Heck, you could drive the Ring Road in reverse and you would still have a great time. Tailor your trip to your comfort level. Some people might love to drive 6 hours a day while others might take their time getting around.
No matter how you plan your trip, just remember to enjoy it. The best memories we had weren’t taking pictures at the popular waterfalls jam packed with tourists. The best ones I remember were when we had to race against the sunset on the our drive back from the Fjords before dusk or enjoying a sandwich on the side of the road after conquering a steep F-Road.
Iceland is a perfectly safe and beautiful place to create new adventures and lasting memories.
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