Hi,
I'm planning a trip to Iceland this summer, and will probably rent a vehicle. What I want to know is if a 4x4 is really worth it. Will we miss many of the sightseeings travelling by regular car? Which of the must-sees are only accesible by 4x4?
Thanks!!
Hi Belenteja,
I got back from a 2 week trip to Iceland last weekend. It's certainly worth the trip!
We hired a car for the second week, and would recommend as follows:
if you are sticking to the main N1 route around the island, and roads that are marked as red (tarmac) on the road map, then a normal car is perfectly good. However, if you're going to be travelling on gravel roads (not F roads, regular gravel roads, marked in brown on the road map), which you are allowed to do in a regular car, I would recommend getting a small jeep if you are going to be doing lots of distance on gravel roads and don't like being jolted around for mile after mile. It is possible, and included in the car hire agreement, but the suspension of an ordinary car doesn't give a great ride - and it takes a long time to get anywhere!
There's lots of stuff accessible by tarmac and gravel roads, and it's easy to pick up the Icelandic buses for those destinations only accessible by F road / jeep. If the cost (which is steep) of hiring a car / jeep is prohibitive for you, then I would recommend looking into the buses to travel around (if you have a more leisurely pace than we did!)
We went to Geysir and Gulfoss, and Pingellir (the Golden Circle) which involved only a short stretch on gravel road, and the Snaefellsnes penninsula and penninsula area around Rejkyavik is mainly accessible by tarmac road. The NW peninsula area to Latrabjerg was much more difficult in a regular car, and the gravel roads were very hard work.
Certainly the interior of Iceland contains many F roads, and some of them are only accessible by larger jeeps anyway and probably not recommended if you're not experienced in crossing fast-flowing braided rivers (eg the one to Thorsmork) anyway, but we found masses to do and see sticking to the N roads.
NB If you are going to hire a car - recommend the Kortabok (Mapbook) sold in many book and tourist shops in Iceland, though don't bank on it always being right about the location of campsites! You might be able to find it online to help your planning. This book lists the tarmac and gravel roads as red/brown respectively, as per my descriptions.
Hope this all helps
"Will we miss many of the sightseeings travelling by regular car?"
Yes you'll do. But the good news is that there will be enough places to see on "regular" car anyway. So unless you are going to travel here for at least two week - then you'll be able to keep you excited on "regular".
And even in a "jeep" it's not so comfortable to do unpaved roads - so decide for yourself what you want.
Kortabok or Road Atlas is really good - roads, plans of towns, road distances etc.
You also might find helpful a small collection of other travel info
I also had a 2-week trip to Iceland a couple of years ago (including Reykjanes, Snaefellness, Westfjords, and other places with gravel roads) and had a normal car. As long as you avoid the F roads (which are forbidden) you are fine, most of the other gravel roads are pretty good. As Nr.2 says, you'll find plenty of stuff to do anyway.
You could also consider renting a normal car and then taking a bus for example to Landmannalaugar or Thorsmörk for a couple of days. Even if you don't use your normal car for a couple of days, it will still work out way cheaper than hiring a jeep, and this way you don't have to worry about crossing a river by yourself (which, as Nr.1 says, does require a bit of experience).
If you are going in peak season (before about 20 August) you may find you don't get a great deal of choice in what is available for rent. Good 4wds for peak season are usually booked out months in advance, though things proceeded a bit differently this season beacuse of the uncertainty created by the eruption.
We got back from a 2-week trip in late June. We rented with Atak, and had no problems. We had a Ford Fiesta, and were able to see everything on a non-F road.
An example is the road to Dettifoss. It is awful. Very bumpy gravel. But, you just drive 40km/h, instead of 90km/h. We found the cost of a 4x4 was almost double that of a 2wd compact, so for us, it was definitely not worth it. For exploration of the sights on F-roads (Askya, glaciers, etc.), go with a tour company.
Hello
I went to Iceland this summer and rented a small 4x4 a Suzuki Jimny that i could use on all the roads marked as F, it was wery nice to have the freedom to be able to go everywhere, the price is a little bit more but i used a car rental company that saved me a lot of money, the price was about half the price of the other rental companys, i would rent a car like that again.
this is the company that used
I hope this helps :)
a small 4x4 a Suzuki Jimny that i could use on all the roads marked as F
Not all of them. There are some roads that are suitable only for high clearance vehicles. I have come across people attempting such roads in a vehicle like a Jimny, and wisely turning back when they saw what they had to deal with.