ICELAND the land of fire and ice
When the Vikings chanced upon this gorgeous island they realised how stunning it was. They sent word that it was full of ice and named it ‘Iceland’ to deter people from travelling there, keeping it a secret. This land of fire and ice, natural beauty and wonder has recently become tourisms biggest discoveries and sadly for nature its biggest downfall.
With a culture that believes that rocks are trolls, where locals build elf houses in their backyard, this is a country you must visit to let the magic in.
When I started planning Iceland I wanted to visit in the winter, skip the crowds, and knew that the tradeoff was going to be freezing our backsides off and potentially losing a few toes.
On the plus side Iceland in winter gave us experiences we would never have had any other time of the year. Entire lagoons to ourselves, glimpses of the Northern lights, and the icy crystal ice caves.
Road trip Iceland : To drive or not to drive?
Before you plan to brave the Icelandic roads in the winter know this, the roads are single lane, narrow and in the winter, you will be driving in the dark. Not just dark, pitch blackness and I say blackness because darkness is not dark enough to describe this. The thick cloud covers make you feel that you are in an endless black hole. Frosty windscreens and roads with crazy winds, rain, snow and hail are a deterrent if you are not a confident driver. It is worth considering a guided tour if driving is not your thing.
If like us you have that adventure keeda (bug) plan short road trips connecting town to town so you can enjoy a stress-free trip.
In the summer most of these factors are non-issues and self-drive is much easier. However high seasons in summer and single way pass bridges mean long lines at these spots.
Download the Vedur app, the official Iceland roadway app which updates you about driving conditions, road closure and hazards.
What route to choose?
The ring road is a popular route for most road trips but in the winter the east and north have awful driving conditions and are not advisable. You should also have over 8 days to actually complete the ring road.
This is the route we chose for our 7 days
Reykjavik – Golden circle – Vatsnaholt – Nupar – Jökulsárlón – Nupar – Snæfellsnes Peninsula – Langaholt – Keflavík
If you do visit Iceland and only see the Golden circle you have not really seen anything I promise you.
Renting a car
Always alwaaays opt for full insurance. In Iceland, full insurance does not cover off-roading, jumping on the car roof (yes really) and zero coverage if the car door flies off. This last point blew my mind until I almost experienced the door flying off, after which the clause made so much more sense. We used Reykjavik Rent a car, took the shuttle, and everything was super smooth.
Yes, you need an 4×4 just to feel safer in crazy winds, yes you need snow tires, seat warmers will save your life and a GPS router with data is imperative, unless you want to spend thousands of dollars on roaming charges.
Iceland during Christmas week
Ah so I have so much to say about this. No one anywhere has written about this. Iceland is practically shut during Christmas week from the 24th to the 28th of December. The sights are all natural so they are all open, however banks, currency exchange, shops, cafes, restaurants are all shut or moodily open if you are lucky. This means that getting food, coffee or accessing souvenir shops are a gamble. We did manage alright but I am certain avoiding this week would have opened up a lot more options.
The hotels we stayed at offered a compulsory Christmas buffet which was stupidly expensive 60-80 USD per person for what was essentially a cold food spread. A la Carte was not offered at many hotels during these holidays so we had to resort to bread, cheese and wine we had bought at the Bónus supermarket. Luckily it was so cold that we could store all our groceries in our car overnight which essentially served as a fridge.
Click on the sections below to explore each area of our Iceland road trip.
Reykjavík and the Golden Circle (click to open in a new tab)
Southern Iceland and Jökulsárlón (click to open in a new tab)
Snæfellsnes Peninsula (click to open in a new tab)
Iceland is magical. Every region offers a different kind of beauty.
Winter and Summer offer very different experiences and I believe they must both be experienced.
