The following Iceland travel tips will ease your mind and make sure your adventure is problem free. If you love road trips, Iceland is the place for you. There is only one road that goes around the whole island and it’s called Ring Road, funny enough. It’s pretty simple to navigate but, the scenery is nothing short of amazing. It has more diverse landscapes than any country we have ever been to. The views are stunning and it almost makes you feel like you are on another planet. Hours of driving in Iceland is actually enjoyable because looking out the window never gets boring.

Travelling to and around Iceland is fairly simple  but, there are a few unique Iceland travel tips you should know before going on your trip.

Iceland travel tip list:

• Costs
• Accommodations
• Food/Water
• Transit – Renting a Car
  • Gas (important)
• Best Time to Go

 

Exchange Rates & Prices in Iceland

One Icelandic Króna  = $.0094 USD and everything is double the price relative to what you would see in the USA. Fishing and recently tourism are their main sources of income.  Their economy is booming right now so they are experiencing higher wages and prices.

 

Accommodation Costs

Our flight was only $300 using Wow Air, but our hotels averaged around $250-$300 a night for five people. Accommodations could easily range from $500-$1000 a night. Yea, our jaws dropped too! Look on Air B&B for cheaper prices. Also consider staying in hostels to find rates in the $200 range. We stayed in a combination of Air B&Bs and hostels. Another tip would be to book early in advance. We scheduled our road trip two months in advance and a lot of places were already booked up so we might have gotten better prices on accommodations if we had reserved earlier.

We originally had 4 people total in our group when we first booked all of the hotels/hostels, but one of our friends decided tag along last minute. Therefore, we had to change our accommodations to fit five. For the most part this was pretty easy. We only had one place where it was interesting to say the least…

It was the only place in Vik that could accommodate all five of us. We had one room that fit 4 people and one single room. Since Lisa had been stuck with all boys for the beginning of the road trip, everyone decided she could have the single room and get some peace and quiet.

Lisa turned the key to her room and her face turned ghost white. The room was the size of a small closet with a tiny mattress on the floor. Hanging above the mattress was a creepy picture of a doll carrying another doll. The room was just too disturbing to sleep in so we all decided to bundle together in the room for four. In the end it turned into a great story but let this be a lesson to book early!

 

Accommodation Alternatives

Another option to cut down on costs would be to camp. This is very common in Iceland and a lot of people go this route. Visit Laws to find all the laws regarding camping in Iceland. Check out Campsites for reputable campgrounds. Also, You can rent camping gear from the car rental companies. Renting a sleeper van may be a better choice for you. These would all be options to significantly cut your costs down.

Its pretty normal to see tents on camper vans along the ring road. If we were to go on a road trip just the two of us we would definitely go the sleeper van route.

 

Meals

Going out to eat starts around $15 for a sandwich and goes up from there. In order to save money, bring a fold up cooler in your checked bag and buy groceries instead of going out to eat. Bonus is their discount grocery store chain and you can find these in almost every town.

Sandwich meats and breads are reasonably priced. Buy yogurt and granola bars for breakfast. Chips and snacks are also cheap. We went to a grocery store every morning and bought food and ice for the day. We only went out to eat for three meals, and bought groceries for the rest. Buying groceries instead of eating out helps cut down on costs and you can save time by eating in the car.

We ate a salami or ham sandwich for lunch and dinner every day. Yes, we definitely got sick of them. We would say laziness played a good part in that. It was just so easy to do, especially while on the go!

You could get meats and cook them at the Air B&Bs or hostels. You can even rent a grill from the car rental companies. But, do not count on getting your greens here. The grounds are mostly made of lava rock, so not the most ideal place to grow vegetables. We did not get many veggies on our trip.

Iceland travel tip – We suggest to go out to eat at least once and try their fresh caught fish. The fish is extremely delicious. Oh my gosh did this fish taste good especially after eating sandwiches every day! Other than that Iceland is not really known for their food so it’s not too hard to pass up $30 meals in restaurants.

 

Water

Bring a refillable water bottle. The water in Iceland is so clean that you can fill it up pretty much anywhere. It’s normal to fill up a water bottle in a gas station bathroom. Gross right?! Not in Iceland, everything is so clean! This way you won’t have to spend $5 on every water.

 

Iceland Travel Tips for Renting a Car

Renting a vehicle is another large expense. We did a lot of research to find the cheapest/best quality vehicle we could find. Lagoon Car Rentals is the company we used and we leased a KIA Sporttage (AWD), it cost $750 for the week.  We highly recommend getting a car with AWD. There are laws that forbid cars with 2WD to enter the highlands/F-roads. Our route took us through a lot of dirt roads, cliffs (especially in the West Fjords), and some streams so an AWD vehicle is very important.

If you are just planning to stick around the Ring Road a 2WD vehicle will be just fine and a whole lot cheaper.

We also included a GPS with our car. It cost $40 for the whole week. Definitely do this, it just made navigating so much easier.

Choosing a vehicle really depends on what you are looking to do. Most car rental places offer sleeper vans. This is ideal for two people who are looking for a more rugged road trip. You can also rent tents and camping gear if that’s what you are looking for.

 

Gas

If you are travelling through the West Fjords, or even the North/East fill up on gas when you can. These areas are not very populated, so the number of towns are limited. Sometimes one town will only have one gas pump. If you have a half tank and you see a pump make sure fill up. You won’t regret having a full tank, believe me. Star * this Iceland travel tip in your itinerary!

Faris is one of those people that just likes to push the limits. For example, driving on the side of a cliff with less than 5 miles of gas left. I guess you could say he likes to live on the edge (HAHA) and give Lisa heart attacks (not funny).

 

Best Time to Go to Iceland

Summer

This is also depends on what you are looking for. July is a good month to go in the summer. This is when they reach their highest temperatures which range from Mid 40’s°F (4°C) to a high of 60°F (15°C).

We chose to go in July and temperatures were consistent 50 °F (10°C) with a chance of rain. Usually it was cloudy, and was sunniest from 3pm-5pm. Rain came around 12-2 pm almost every day we were there.

The summer months were really interesting because the sun never set. They get 22 hours of sunlight so your body was somewhat confused, but it allowed us to get a lot done in one day. We jam packed our itinerary as much as possible. We flew in to Reykavik drove straight to the West Fjords and then we did the whole Ring Road in 7 days (Itinerary blog to come soon). The sunlight allowed us to stay up late and get up early, espresso shots really came in clutch here. But, one downfall about going in the summer is that you do not get to see the Northern Lights.

Winter

We would go back to Iceland in a heartbeat to see the Northern lights in the winter. The scenery was just so beautiful that we have to see what it looks like in the winter. Believe it or not winters are pretty mild. The southerly lowlands average 32 °F (0 °C) and the lowlands average 14 °F (−10 °C).  But, it does drop significantly in the North. The most Northern parts  range from  −13 °F  to −22 °F (−25 °C to −30 °C).

 

Iceland Travel Tips Conclusion

Overall, Iceland is very safe and easy to travel around. We had an absolute blast road tripping around the whole country. A road trip allows you to have full control of your adventure. Tailor your road trip to do what interests you!

Check out our other Iceland Blogs:

• 7 Day Iceland Road Trip Itinerary
• Iceland Road Trip Packing List – Summer

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