hi, we are renting a 2wd in iceland for 6 nights and 7 days in august, and wondering if we should go for the ring road or whether it would really just end up being too much driving and not enough time for exploring? i know that "too much" is a judgment call, but perhaps people have useful experience that could help us decide? alternatively, we'd skip the north-east part of the country but then we'd end up potentially driving the same road back and forth to places... we don't have a lot of specific things we want to do - we'd like to do some day treks and see some glaciers and beautiful scenery. our problem is that everything sounds really great and it's hard to choose :) but Porsmork and Skaftafell look especially nice... any input very welcome! thanks.
Personally, I think you'd be better off doing some driving, but not trying to do the whole ring. For example, Reykjavik-Vik could be done in 1-2 days, from Vik you could go to Jokulsarlon and the glaciers around there in 1-2 days. On the way back to Reykjavik, you could hit Porsmork, and then once back in Reykjavik, could daytrip around the crazy Reykejanes landscape & villages or check out blue whales on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
The Ring Road is definitely do-able in that time, but you'd have to really cut out a lot of stuff and just see the highest of the highlights. If you got a day or two of bad weather, which is totally possible, you'd be way off track.
In my book 6nights are closer to 5 days? (depending on arrival and departure time of course but still). Add that I guess that you would like to see reykjavik? ..and you do not have time for the Ring Road - the actual drivibg yes, but not seeing anything.
Think that even #1's suggestion is a bit tightly packed. You should leave out the Thórsmörk (Þórsmörk, nor Pors...) part, since getting there - and out - by the rare bus (no 2wd rented cars are allowed) is time comsuming - and really Thórsmörk isn'r THAT spectacular -you can see "wilder" landscapes on Reykjanes.
Also really doubt that you will have time for both Snäfellsnes AND Reykjanes
The probelm easily becomes that that you are goimng places - and back, where the driving adds up to be the same as the full ring road.
hi both and thanks for your input. bjoern, i know it's not a p, but i don't have the proper letter on my keyboard! if you think it would be too much driving to to the itinerary suggested in post 1, is there anything else you'd suggest (other than skipping Thorsmörk?). we arrive early in the morning on a sunday and leave very late on the following saturday, so we do have 7 full days - and yes, of course we'd like to see reykjavik too... cheers.
Thórsmörk .... no 2wd rented cars are allowed
In this case it is not just a question of "not allowed", you won't even get there in a 2wd. The road is signed for special high clearance 4wd only. I didn't dare cross the worst ford when I tried to go there on my bicycle (though it was a warm sunny day, so the water was quite high).
Oh -yes - correct. had it mixed up with Landmannalaugar where you can go (on northern route) but arn't allowed - by 2WD.
In case others miss letters on their keyboard and have a windows machine then you find the full alphabets of many languages on Start-Programs- Accessories-System Tools-Character Map - for the "thorn" - the old letter used in English originally (the Thorntree would have been: Þorntree ) oyu can simply use Alt+0222 (on num keyboard).
The REAL reason for repeating this "use the correct letters" thing comes here:
Gooling Þorsmork: 96300 hits
Gooling Thorsmork: 30600 hits
Gooling Porsmork: 2960 hits
You may find similar results when words contain Ð / ð (Icelandic) or Ø, Æ (Norwegian, Danish), Å (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian). just to mention some from the local sphere.
Option 1: Doing the Landmannalaugar - Thorsmork trek in 3-5 days without having to rent a car. If you are good walkers and the weather is reasonable, you can do it in 3 days, no matter whether you're sleeping in the huts or your tent. The remaining time could be used to explore Reykjavik and have a bath in the Blue Lagoon.
Option 2: Doing the ring road in 7 days while skipping Reykjavik. If you're not into multiple-day hikes, you should opt for this. The landscape is beautiful and varies a lot. On the way you could stop at the following places (some of them require leaving the ring road, but none of them requires a 4WD): Vik, Fjardra canyon, Skaftafell National Park (half-day hike recommended), Jokulsarlon, Djupivogur, Seydisfjordur, Hverir, Krafla, Myvatn, Jokulsargljufur (half-day hike recommended), Godafoss, Vatnsnes peninsula (seal watching from the shore). The days are long in Iceland, so you can do a lot of things within one day :)
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