22 Do's and Dont’s for Driving an Amazing Road Trip in Iceland
The country of Iceland is amazing. Ed and I travelled there for a 10-day road trip and safe to say it was something else. Amazing sites everywhere you look when driving. X amount of waterfalls and volcanos, and photo opportunities every 2 seconds.
But Iceland is now a hub for tourists and there is lots of stuff you can do to make your trip extra amazing! And most of all, save some money! See our dos and don’ts below of carrying out a road trip in Iceland
Do Buy a Camping Card
Do Buy a camping card! If you’re camping around Iceland (which we thoroughly recommend) then we suggest getting a camping card. For only 149 euros (£133/$172). You can just turn up at any of the 41 campsites that take it and camp for the night.
You can camp with this card for 2 adults and 2 children for up to 28 nights
We used our card for only 11 nights and 2 people, but overhearing those at some campsites, it cost them £40 for 1 night for 4 people! So well worth it!
Unfortunately, if a campsite is full it doesn’t automatically allow you in. But every campsite we went to in the height of summer was no problem and still lots of space.
If you used the camping card to its full capacity for 2 adults and 2 children it works out only £4.70/$6.16 for a family of 4 for 1 night! Which is a hell of an amazing deal, and a perfect way to save money when travelling to Iceland
Do Hire a 4x4
There is a range of cars you can hire to drive when doing a road trip in Iceland. Small cars such as Toyota Aygos, Yaris’ or all the way up to Ford Super Duty trucks
We would suggest going somewhere in the middle! The roads in Iceland are not fantastic. All 1 lane roads and thousands of potholes due to the extreme winter weather
It is often a lot easier to drive some of the main (but gravel!) roads with a 4x4. Some roads up to the top of mountains are also F roads which you can only drive a 4x4 on too
F roads are basically off-roading roads (however off-roading isn’t allowed!) where you can drive all the way up to glaciers or mountains, therefore having a 4x4 isn’t just the rules but also necessary for you
We spent a morning driving to the top of Snaefellsjokull glacier/mountain and wouldn’t be able to do that without our 4x4 Suzuki Jimny.
Don’t Drive Off Road
There are F roads in Iceland which essentially feels a bit like off-roading, it is still technically a road. Awful quality roads and go all the way up to 1400m to the top of mountains, glaciers, or around the highlands.
Therefore, no excuse as to why you would need to not use the tracks as there are so many anyway! Allows you to also respect the environment and reduce human erosion on wildlife.
Don’t Just Stop on the Edge of the Road
When doing a road trip in Iceland, you will see probably some of the best sites you've ever seen! You will want to pull over and take photos all of the time
Before travelling to Iceland, I read lots of people stating how people just stopped on the side of the road for photos. All roads in Iceland are only 1 lane, and the speed limit on most is 90km/h (about 50mph).
Although it is all absolutely beautiful, there are multiple places to stop alongside the road to stop for photos and safe to do so.
Instead, we had to completely stop on a 90km/h road in severe fog, someone stopped on the corner downhill, and a bus was coming the other way when there was a car park another 200m down the road!
So please just be sensible and be conscious of other drivers and safety when doing a road trip in Iceland!
Do Hear Hiking Boots
Iceland has a range of terrain. Lava rocks, beaches, but barely any flat ground. Being the meeting point of the American tectonic plate and the European tectonic plate, it can be so hilly and full of rocks. It's so much easier to walk in comfort with hiking boots.
Our hiking boots are our favourite shoes because they're so comfortable for different terrain, and you can barely feel the rocks under your feet. Since Iceland, I bought a better more expensive pair as we were wearing them all the time. We wear hiking boots for any trip or any walking and never got a blister yet, even walking 10 miles a day.
Amazon has a huge range of hiking boots. If you're buying boots only for the trip you don't need to spend an arm and a leg on the shoes because you can get good boots for £/$20-30. If you’re looking for more of a long term investment, then buying brands like Scarpa could be a good way to go
Ed was buying pair after pair every 6 months to 1 year, even when spending £60 or so on them, so decided to buy a pair of Scarpa walking boots and has never looked back
Do Fill Up When You See a Petrol Station
It forces you into false security when you're around the Reykjavik and there are petrol stations everywhere. Often makes you think it’ll be the same all over Iceland. But trust me. It isn’t.
We did a drive where the next petrol station was 150km away and we had half a tank and I didn’t think it would be enough to drive that far.
We drove back for 20 minutes and drove and filled up then carried on. Turns out I think we may have made it but rather have turned back and made sure, than breaking down due to no petrol still 50km away from a petrol station, in a foreign country, and also wasting time you could be exploring!
Don’t Use the Fill Up Option At the Petrol Station
Filling up your tank in Iceland is different from any we had used before. They were all pay at the pump. But you could choose how much money you wanted to put in e.g 1000-6000krona or could press fill up the tank.
When you press to fill up tank no matter how much you spend, it takes up to £100 out of the account and then returns what you don’t spend but at a later date.
It is therefore much easier just to click what you think you need. Our tank worked out 1000krona was about 1 bar on our tank out of 10 bars.
Do Have a Good Map
When driving at home to somewhere new I always use a Google Maps because it's so easy! But our whole Iceland trip I was the navigator and used a map and any road trips since, we have always used a map
Using a map gives you a proper road trip feel. Completely a road trip is about enjoying the journey, not rushing to the next destination, and you never know what you might find. We also would circle things on the map we wanted to visit, things we had found in books, or online, and an easy place to make sure we didn’t miss anything
It was so much better to work out where we were. We could sort out our route using a map on the night time with things we wanted to see. We could also see roads coming up which you can’t on a Satnav such as F roads or gravel roads which go the same way, just a more adventurous route which Ed preferred.
If you’re also relying on google maps the entire trip, I had no internet signal at all. Luckily Ed had 4g pretty much everywhere even in the middle of nowhere.
My phone was not reliable at all, but completely depends on which network you’re on at home, to which one it connects to abroad.
Our map was a national geographic one that could easily be folded and was waterproof, we loved it. It was also waterproof, so didn't get damaged in the rain.
Do Research Where You Want To Go
Iceland has so many amazing places and you might have limited time. Research into the places that are easily accessible for the time frame you’ve got.
We circled places on our map of where we wanted to go and it was much easier to plan a route for the next day. You're also much less likely to miss anything and don't want to have to drive back.
Obviously, there are thousands of bloggers out there who write about what to do and see when visiting Iceland. And that's because there is so much! And it is all so amazing
I like reading other bloggers, however we often buy the Lonely Planet guidebooks when researching into any new destinaton
We wouldn't have found the amazing place in east Iceland with the huge Puffin colony without it! I also like to read when driving, find some extra good spots!
Do Pack for All Weather
Traveling in the summer you think it may be sunny most of the time, right? Or travelling in the winter you may think it's constantly freezing and the sun will never come out. Well, you may also be wrong. It is well known that weather in Iceland can change in a minute, and you do have to be prepared for both
Even in early summer it is known to rain for days on end. Therefore trying to pack for all weather is hard, but the majority of the time we wore a t-shirt, a jumper, and a coat with a hat and neck gaiter and maybe even gloves.
However, throughout the day we were constantly stripping off or piling on. Our trousers also had zips halfway down to be able to turn them into shorts so we were also whipping off the bottom of our trousers and putting them back on here and there too!
So, hats and sunglasses and everything in between is needed.
Don’t Just Drive on the Ring Road
Iceland is amazing, and yes there are lots of sites on the ring road. But there is so much away from the ring road too!
Snaefellsness Peninsula, visiting the puffins in the northeast (in the summer) and of course F roads to the top of mountains! There is so much to explore in Iceland away from the bigger touristic places
Do Be Considerate of Other Drivers
When driving it seemed that no one else said thanks for us letting them through or stopped at bridges (1 lane bridge and lots of them).
We also stopped a few times to let people go on narrow roads and were often overtaken by the person behind
Just make sure you look far ahead. Driving in Iceland is single laned, there are often bridges which are one car wide, and places you have to stop to let others go
Do Buy an Inverter
Most hire cars only have a 12v cigarette port in the car, often no USB or any way to charge devices.
If you're anything like us and travel with a lot of electronics. A drone and 3 batteries, my camera, an action camera, 2 kindles, 2 phones, 2 watches, and every charger going then you're going to need some way to charge them!
We bought this inverter and I can't stress how amazing it was. It stressed me out a bit before going that only 2 plugs wouldn't be enough. But with 4 USB ports also, and pretty much all of our chargers being USB apart from the drone, we could charge everything simultaneously and nothing ever ran out of charge which was perfect!
We bought this inverter in 2018 and still take it on every trip now and works amazingly from charging our devices but also powering our projector in our campervan
Do Stop at Bonus
When we booked our road trip in Iceland, every single person I told said ‘oh it's expensive in Iceland’ and the majority had never even been, it's just what they had heard. And if I'm honest, we started to get a bit annoyed at that
If you travelled to the capital of majority of countries only, you could easily think the whole country is expensive, when that just isn't the case
So yes, Iceland is slightly more expensive for pretty much everything as they have the import nearly everything but there are ways you can save money, such as doing food shopping at Bonus!
Bonus is a budget supermarket and the difference in price to others is often huge. Milk in a 10-11 store was 329Krona(£2.38/$3.08) whereas at Bonus for the same milk it was only 146Krona (£1.06/$1.30) therefore a huge difference.
Do Drink Tap Water
The number of times we saw people buying extortionately priced bottled water killed us inside. Not only is bottled water a complete waste of plastic but all the water in Iceland is straight from the glaciers, and some of the best tap water in the world.
It tastes so good, and the Icelandic bottled water is also the same thing which for a 2l bottle in 10-11 could set you back 599Krona (£4.33/$5.61).
Do Buy Alcohol at Duty Free
If you want to have a few cheeky alcoholic beverages on a night time you’re best off buying a bottle from duty-free on the way out.
Paying £14 for a 1L bottle of Russian Standard Vodka is an amazing deal at the best of times, but when alcohol in Iceland costs about £35 for a bottle of wine for £8 for 1 beer, its best to buy it at duty-free.
Don’t Wild Camp
For many years you were able to wild camp in Iceland, however, since the tourism has boomed, they changed the laws not allowing wild camping.
There are hundreds of campsites in Iceland which often have some amazing facilities. Communal stoves, restaurants, play park for kids and more! So why would you want to wild camp?
This allows further conservation of the environment too all while enjoying your road trip in Iceland.
Do Use Campsite Facilities
Campsite facilities can vary dramatically. They often have lots of facilities but sometimes they have really basic ones too. One we used only had toilets and a place to wash dishes in cold water. It was basic so ultra-cheap
So, use them where you can. Using their kettle and toaster in the morning was much nicer than waiting half an hour for our camping stove to warm up, and when our gas did run out I used one of the communal hobs to boil my potatoes.
It is also an opportunity to meet fellow travellers and spark conversation
Do Cook Your Own Stuff
As I stated above, everyone who I mentioned to that we were going to Iceland said ‘oh Iceland is expensive’ and most of them had never even been.
When shopping at Bonus we spent about £20 on 4 days’ worth of food, that doesn’t spark as expensive to me.
But on the other hand, going out for pizza and 2 drinks was £60… all in moderation but cook your own food is a great way to save money.
Have a Decent Camping Stove and Gas
When doing a road trip in Iceland you need to eat right? With a camper van you are usually provided with a gas camping stove.
Our gas stove was only 1 ring and it annoyed me. Completely limited to what we could cook because I felt I couldn’t make a proper meal. We cooked ok as we turned to BBQs as well but 2 rings would have been great.
You also don’t want to run out of gas halfway through cooking when you don’t have any other way to cook, so always have a spare!
When we ran out we spent 3 days looking for the gas we needed for the stove we had, and couldn’t find any for ages.
Gas for stoves are sold at gas stations, not usually supermarkets!
Don’t Expect to Have the Place to Yourself
Tourism in Iceland is increasing by 20% every single year especially with more people doing road trips in Iceland. Therefore, all tourist attractions are getting busier and busier.
Therefore, don’t feel like you’re going to have the place to yourself, especially in the summer. At the plane wreck beach, it was a 4km walk but didn’t stop anyone at all.
People can be pros at achieving just the right shot for pictures to not get anyone else in. Something we have developed over time too, as your pictures generally just look better. Or developing those photoshop skills to take away someone in the way
All 3 of these pictures were taken at the plane wreck beach, a slightly different angle or a small photoshop of a woman’s leg improves the photo from a photography perspective.
Do Respect the Paths and Barriers
Throughout our trip, I was getting more and more annoyed at certain people. People who went under barriers closer to places or climbed on top of stuff when it states not too.
Human erosion is one of the main reasons ground erodes away and at Kirkjufell, people went under the barrier to get slightly closer to the waterfall
Also, at the plane wreck beach people were climbing all over on top of something which is 50 years old and specifically states to not climb on it, so why are people doing it?
Everyone wants the best photo for their Instagram but that doesn’t mean you can help towards the destruction of something that other people may not get to enjoy.
Both Ed and I loved our road trip in Iceland and can’t really put into words how much. It was a once in a lifetime trip. But that being said, we completely intend to go again. Maybe in the winter to see it from an entirely different perspective. Iceland doesn't have to be expensive. We’re all for trying to show people how travelling doesn't need to be expensive and there are usually so many ways to make it cheaper.
But by following these do's and don'ts you can make your trip even better and easier and also save money while doing it!
