Driving Time to Landmannalaugar / Hike in Thorsmork

In a hire car, you have to hire a 4wd to be permitted to drive to Landmannalaugar, check carefully with your hirer that you are hiring a suitable car. The road usually opens from around mid-June, but it does vary from year to year over quite a wide range. They usually don't let you drive to Thorsmork in a hire car, and even if they didn't explicitly ban you, you might decide you prefer to live when you see the ford. For going in the bus, check when they run.

The bus takes about 4 hours to L. You may take longer because it may be tougher driving a small car than a high clearance coach on the roads, and because you just can't resist stopping a lot to take photos. Northern route is longer distance (and less scenic) but there's less rough road, so there isn't a large difference in drive time.

You will have no difficulty poking around L for 2-3 hours and considerably entertaining yourself, assuming it isn't pouring with rain and blowing a gale etc, as unfortunately it so often is. Hiking materials for Th are available on the web, it is less exciting to the foreign visitor than L. I wouldn't suggest going there if you are only in Iceland for 5 days.

Is the hike to Glymur really 4 hours if you are in good shape?

A bit less, see eg, but by the time you've taken photos, seen the sights, etc, extra time is needed!
https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/hiking-to-icelands-highest-waterfall---glymur

Iviehoff - thanks very much for your reply. I really appreciate it.

We are going to rent a 4WD, likely a Hyundai Santa Fe or a Jeep Wrangler. With the Wrangler I'm guessing it would be reasonable to take F225, but not so with the Santa Fe. Either way, we may take F208 North to play it safe.

I'm curious as to why you think Landmannalaugar is more interesting to tourists than Thorsmork. Likely, we will have time to see one or the other, but not both, so we'll need to make a decision.

Are there hiking maps at L or is there a ranger station there, for guidance on where to hike?

Thank you again.

If the Hyundai is a car that the hirer permits you drive F225, it is reasonable to do so. It is not a difficult road, though you do need to look at the fords before you drive in, they can be deep but usually aren't. But you may wish to wimp out at the ford just before the site itself and use the footbridge - there is a car park for people of such sensible mind, it's only 400m walk.

One of the main curiosities of Thorsmork is trees. Trees are not so very interesting to most non-Icelanders. Thorsmork does not display the great volcanic curiosities, coloured rock-scapes, hot springs, etc, of L. There is really a lot more interesting things to see in S Iceland if you are there for just 5 days than Th.

There is some guidance on where to hike at L, and a downloadable local maps you can get from the web and print out in advance. But unless you are staying there for longer than 2-3 hours, you don't really need a map. The Blahnjukur walk is the most you could think of doing, and that is pretty obvious.
http://www.landmannalaugar.info/Pages/GongukortLand02.html

Iviehoff - thanks so much!

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