8 Tips for driving in Iceland 

Fresh off my most recent adventure driving in Iceland and around the country, I thought I would share some of the tips and tricks that I discovered along the way. There are so many helpful blogs out there about driving in Iceland but I thought a lot of them missing some key information that we discovered on our trip.

Naturally, I spent quite a bit of time researching and trying to find the best cars to drive around Iceland, where I would find the best price and everything I needed to know about filling up on gas or where to get it. All in all we found Iceland to be a fairly easy going country when it came to the road trip. I guess it’s because there were so many people doing the same thing recently. I can’t even tell you how many fellow Canadians we met on this trip, it was actually crazy. Gotta hand it to IcelandAir marketing for getting so many tourists out I guess!

One of the optins we saw and were very tempted with was renting a 4×4 camper rental in Iceland. If we ever go back, I would love to try this option for getting around!

Do not stop on the side of the road

Most people know this as a generally smart thing NOT to do when driving in Iceland on a major highway  – or anywhere for that matter but I feel like more people than I’d like to admit just completely forgot about this. I get it, the scenery is incredibly breathtaking and there are picture worthy moments at almost every turn but common people! The Ring Road is a two lane highway. It is small. It is even smaller if a big 4×4 is stopped on one side of the road with other cars going 90 km/hour trying to pass on either side.

There are tons of designated places for you to stop along Ring Road if you just keep an eye out for them. The best lookout spots we found usually had a sign warning you there was going to be a nice view with a picnic table coming up (the sign had a tree and a picnic table in it). These were for the most part safe bets that there would be a great spot to turn off and enjoy a view. Just make sure to keep an eye out and give yourself ample time to slow down and turn in, especially if there are drivers behind you. The roads are as unpredictable sometimes as the weather.

Get a diesel car

Being from North America, I can’t say I’m all too familiar with the concept of diesel versus petrol. However, I luckily have a partner in crime who is from Europe and was very quick to point out the benefits of using a diesel car. When doing my research I found that diesel cars generally cost more than those using petrol, but when you do the math on what you will likely be saving when it comes to gas I would strongly recommend paying that little bit extra up front.

The entire trip cost us about $300 – $350 in gas. That included the entire Ring Road, plus quite a few stop overs and extra loops.

Get a gas card

One thing that I read throughout my research was the importance of filling up at every gas station you saw. I’m not really sure how long ago those blogs were written but we had no problem finding gas stations. Perhaps it was because the weather was nice and we were using a diesel car? Either way, we absolutely did not need to fill up at every gas station. We did this to start with and found it ridiculous stopping to top up $18 worth of gas (and that’s Canadian dollars).

That being said, most of the gas stations in Iceland use gas cards. You need to prepay on these cards in order to put gas on your card. There were three major gas stations: N1, Ollis and Orkan that we came across. If you plan on sticking to just one, make sure you know where the gas stations are going to be along the Ring Road so you can plan appropriately.

Try not to make the same mistake as me though. Early one morning, tired and still a bit confused on the money conversion I meant to put $30 onto a gas card and ended up putting $300. Needless to say Orkan became our gas station of choice for the rest of the trip. The good news is, we paid for snacks and drinks at many of the gas stations along the way …

Try the hot dogs

Seriously. I’ve never been one to eat cooked food from a gas station but if you’re on a budget this is the perfect place to pick up lunch or dinner. The hotdogs are so good! Every gas station we popped into had warm hotdogs just waiting to be consumed. You can get them wrapped in bacon or plain and with normal chopped onions or fried. I only ever had mine plain but Ben seemed to love the fried onions on his hotdog!

Take detours

This goes without saying, and can also be applied to any road trip you take but definitely do your research and get off the beaten path if you can. *Disclaimer: I strongly advise not literally going off the ‘beaten path’ if you don’t have a 4×4, I don’t want you coming to me with that car rental bill once you ruin a car going off-roading!

Iceland is a small country but there are still so many things to do, the Ring Road only covers half of it. One day we ventured off the main roads for a bit into Austurland and I swear I have never seen a lake so clear and reflective. There were also no cars on the road around us and we barely saw any people. It’s incredible how vastly empty Iceland is as a country.

Avoid F roads or three digit number roads

Because we opted not to spend the extra money and rent a 4×4 vehicle, we had to be mindful of the roads that we took when driving in Iceland. Generally speaking we found the roads with two numbers to be safe. There were some exceptions when it came to three digit number roads but we made sure to do our research before venturing out. There was one instance when I tried to use Google maps to get us to our next destination. The App took us on a shortcut to get us there faster but we somehow found ourselves trying to drive almost vertically up a mountain on a road that was made solely of rocks. We actually google mapped ours and did street views for the roads that we weren’t sure whether they would be safe to drive on or not.

Fill up your water bottles from the taps

I don’t know why I didn’t look this up before going but it took us until about halfway through the trip to realize that you can drink right from the taps in Iceland. I mean it only make sense, as they have a number of fresh water springs around. Speaking of water, if you plan on having a hot shower just be mindful that the water will more than likely smell a bit like eggs. Icelandic people heat their water naturally through the springs which is heated by sulfur so you get a weird smell – but it’s still clean so don’t worry!

Track your plans before going

If you plan on heading off of the Ring Road during your trip make sure to have a map, a GPS or have wifi on your phone. We found at certain points we needed both but for the most part we were pretty good using a physical map. We usually made sure to have our plans laid out the night before, especially if we were venturing off of the Ring Road at all. This worked well enough for us. By doing a bit of research you’ll be able to find all of the information you need on places to see just off the Ring Road. I’ll be posting about that later.

The Ring Road was definitely one of my favourite road trips I’ve ever taken. We did it in 10 days and that seemed plenty. We had enough time to get everything we wanted to see done, sleep in and be at our next destination by dinner time. For those that are driving it’s not such a bad drive either because you have plenty to look at along the way.

Have you done the Ring Road trip? What tips do you have for driving in Iceland?

Additional Notes

ACCOMMODATION

• Airbnb stays are quite easy to find in most areas in Iceland so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something within your budget. For tips about booking Airbnb check out my post here.
• Booking.com is another great resource if you’re looking to book a hotel instead of an apartment. Most of our stays in were booked through Booking.com and I couldn’t have been more pleased.

CAR RENTAL

• Hotwire is my go-to source when booking car rentals. I always find the best rates with them and it’s so easy to use. Most of the time I just use their app when travelling becaue it’s so convenient.

ICELAND TRAVEL BOOKS