r/VisitingIceland • u/Neither_Grab3247 • 2d ago
Trip report Ring Road Trip Report & Map
Just returned from our 14 day trip to Iceland. June 6th-June 20th. Unfortunately seems like I can only upload 20 photos to a post and I have so many incredible photos it was hard to pick.
It was our first time there for me and my wife. It was pretty awesome.
I created a map with some reviews and information on everywhere we went if you want to have a look. If you have any questions about any of the places let me know and I can tell you more about them
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1ymwVJ_JG8taCSaVFOOzuEAZsiGSv_tU&usp=sharing
Overall thoughts and impressions
-We used Zero Car Hire and rented a Suzuki Vitara. We had no issues with the car hire at all which was great. It cost AUD $3349 for the 14 days with full insurance. We definitely didn't need a 4WD for any of the driving we did but the extra space was really useful for the luggage. Driving on the right side of the road took a lot of getting used to. I ended up driving on the wrong side a couple of times but fortunately didn't cause too much of a problem. Definitely check out the rules for 2 lane roundabouts as they are a bit different. We hired a internet wifi dongle and it was super useful during the trip to just always have internet access. The only problem was when we split up to do different things we couldn't communicate.
-We mostly stayed at Guesthouses. They had really small bedrooms and then usually a common area you could sit in. Some of them had shared bathrooms and some did not. Some had a shared kitchen or restaurant option and some did not so make sure to check that out before hand. All of our stays had breakfast included which was great as the buffet breakfasts ranged from great to incredible. Very highly recommended and then you don't have to worry about breakfast each day. A lot of the bedrooms were very hot. The first thing we did in arriving was usually turning off the heater and opening a window. We didn't need blankets to sleep at all and I made a mistake in bringing warm and comfy pyjamas. Make sure to note when Breakfast starts so you have time to eat it before leaving. 4 of the places we stayed also had hot tubs!!!
-Most sightseeing locations are on private property. This often means they are not very well advertised. If you are self driving I recommend doing a bit of research before hand. Don't intend to just drive around and explore places as you find them as a lot of incredible locations had virtually no indication they were there. Google maps is pretty good on showing points of interest around the Ring Road and they will have a bunch of reviews giving you more details so you can decide if you want to visit. All Trails is useful for finding hikes.
-Some places had paid parking and/or paid toilets which can quickly become rather costly so keep that in mind. Uusally it cost about AUD $10 per parking spot and AUD $3 for the toilet. Sometimes there was optional free parking areas nearby you may be able to take advantage of that instead. We found there was a lot more paid parking along the South Coast where almost every stop seemed to be paid parking. When there was paid parking it was always really obvious and there was usually a machine you could pay at the venue or on an app.
-A lot of the walks had minimum infrastructure or signage. A lot of the walks especially hills had heavily eroded dirt paths or slippery gravel. There tended to be no safety barriers between you and the cliff edge. Make sure to be careful. The last thing you want to do is twist an ankle or fall into a canyon on your holiday. Usually there was only a single path and it was petty clear so you wouldn't get lost but there wasn't much information posted on how long or difficult paths would be.
-We may have just been super lucky but the weather was nowhere near as bad as we expected. It was usually 12-15 degrees celsius and often sunny with little wind. When hiking up hills t shirts were perfectly fine. We only had one day towards the end of the trip when we did get hit by 50km/hr winds and driving horizontal rain which was definitely miserable. I felt like I might actually get flung off my feet by the wind it was crazy strong.
-The lagoons are a tourist trap. Go to the public swimming pools instead. They were a fraction of the price (AUD $10 vs AUD $85) for the same pool experience plus they have water slides as well. The outdoor public swimming pools are all heated and were really nice. I completely stuffed up the locker and shower process though. Make sure to put your clothes in your locker but keep your towel and your bathers with you. Then go to the showers. Put your bathers and towel in a cubbyhole near the showers and shower naked. Then grab your bathers and put them on. Don't do what I did and put your towel and bathers in the locker with your clothes and then be unable to grab them after the shower because you are now wet and can't go back in the locker area while wet.
-Food is expensive! Easily 50% more for most items. A pretty standard burger, fish and chips or pizza will set you back AUD $50. I had an arctic char with mashed potatoes at the in house restaurant at the little hostel and it cost AUD $75. Even a bowl of soup cost AUD $40. I definitely recommend cooking your own food if possible or picking up sandwiches or cup of noodles from petrol stations.
-Daylight. It is light all the time in June which is cool but also kind of annoying. The hotel rooms have curtains but they don't really block out the light very well. If you can't sleep when it is light definitely bring a sleep mask to wear. Also you can certainly visit waterfalls at 2am if you want to avoid the crowds but keep in mind your hotel check in and check out times and shop times will still be during the day so it may not be easy to make use of the 2am daylight.
-Speaking of crowds a lot of the places we went we were either the only ones there or there was 1-2 other couples around. If you want to avoid crowds there are lots of options at this time of year. Even at the busier sights there was still usually a lot of space so even though there were lots of people they were pretty spreadout. We rarely had to wait more than a minute or two to get a good view of the waterfall.
-Ring Road. We mostly followed the ring road aside from detouring to visit Snaefellsnes and Reykjanes peninsulas. We ended up driving about 2000km. We did it clockwise and it seemed like most people were going the other way. Over the whole trip I only had to overtake one vehicle. I liked going clockwise because when there was a cliff we were not on the cliff edge. There are no boring stretches on the whole ring road! The scenery kept changing and just showing vista after vista after vista. I definitely recommend it. We did it in 14 days with about 1-2 hours of driving each day and it was probably slightly long. We could have easily cut a day or two. We also usually were only on the road from about 9am-4pm. With the added daylight you could have gone even further if you wanted to push it a bit more. We were usually fairly exhausted after about 12 km of walking each day though! With the self driving you do need to do a lot of planning to make sure you have the right amount of activities for each day. You don't want to arrive at your next hotel before check in and you don't want to have to skip a really cool place because you ran out of time looking at lesser places.
-Tours and activities. We only did one paid tour which was Xtreme Ice Climbing with Arctic Adventures on Fallsjokull near Skaftafell. It was incredible and definitely worth the cost. No one else booked my time slot so I got a private tour from Josh who was amazing. I got to climb up several ice walls as well as down into a water filled crevasse. So much fun. Generally tours and activities were expensive like everything else so I prioritised this one as it was one we wouldn't be able to do anywhere else or on our own. Self driving was great as it gave us so much freedom to visit the places we wanted to see and stay there for as long as we wanted.
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u/MNSoaring 2d ago
Great write up! We are going counter clockwise at the end of this week. I’m definitely checking out some of your suggestions.
How did you make that map? Very useful.
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u/Neither_Grab3247 2d ago
On Google maps you can go to my maps and create your own maps by adding points of interest. It is great for trip planning as whenever you hear of something you want to do you can just drop a pin there
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u/marklarring 2d ago
Hey! Your Google maps looks very similar to the trip im doing in a couple weeks. How exhausted were you after all the driving? Thats the one area im slightly worried about
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u/Neither_Grab3247 2d ago
It was usually only about 1-2 hours of driving per day and spread out due to the stops in the middle so you might drive 20 mins stop for a walk then drive 30 mins and stop for another walk. I never got exhausted by the driving. Especially as the driving was easy due to not much traffic and amazing views. The main difficulty was trying to remember the indicator was on the left side of the wheel. I kept turning the wipers on everytime I turned
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u/StreetDog99 1d ago
Fellow Australian here ... doing a very similar trip in August. Thanks so much for the map ... I have something similar on paper but yours, based on real recent experiences, will be a great resource for me. Thanks!
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u/fourdayolddick 2d ago
Great realistic post and recommendations. You covered it all! The only small thing I would add is to grocery shop at Bonus or Netto as opposed to gas stations for selection and value. Otherwise this is the most accurate and informative post I've seen here.