Itinerary check (7 nights, June: Golden Circle, Snaefelness)

Hello!

• Weather can change easily in Iceland and it is difficult to say what you are going to have. I would recommend you to hire a 4x4, "just in case".
• Why don't you drive around Iceland instead on focusing on south and west?

;)

Jóhanna

Thanks, Johanna!

4x4 - why? Can there be snow in June? I looked around my roads on Google Street View a bit, and there seem to be no mud roads on my trip. A Yaris would cost me 394 EUR, and the cheapest 4x4 suggested by the website costs 592 EUR (+ obviously higher fuel consumption). There should be a solid reason to pay this much extra for a 4x4.

My wife is not going to drive, so I decided to plan a somewhat relaxed trip - 1249 km in total, and just 3 different hotels. I've tried to generate a "Ring road" trip on tripcreator.com, but it was 500 km longer and hotels were being changed every night. Something like this:
https://tripcreator.com/planner/plan/f218ea2e-ac43-4b3c-a1a6-9f1042553877?view=MAP
So maybe I'll leave driving around Iceland for the next time:)

I would recommend you to hire a 4x4, "just in case".

Few others would make that recommendation based on the region of exploration.

Can there be snow in June

Not where you are going. But strong winds and heavy rain can hold you up a bit and certainly affect your sightseeing. The sightseeing times on tripcreator seemed short and you had lots of rather tedious things of marginal interest, almost like you were trying to see everything there was without regard for interest level, and would end up rather regimented, come on Candace-Marie, just 40 minutes for this stop, and that includes the walk to and from the car and your visit to the toilet. (That's intended to be a reference to a TV drama "Nuts in May" by Mike Leigh.) The walk to and from the car park is sometimes rather long in Iceland, especially for natural attractions. Things like "Snaefellsjokull NP 3 hrs" are ridiculous. It's a mountain, not a pleasure garden, how can they say what you intend to do there and how long it will take.

there seem to be no mud roads on my trip

The road east of Stykkisholmur isn't paved all the way, so probably about 40km, and it isn't 4wd road, but it is bumpy.

My wife is not going to drive, so I decided to plan a somewhat relaxed trip - 1249 km in total, and just 3 different hotels.

I can't see what you are now proposing but personally I have wouldn't bothered with staying near the airport on your original itinerary. I wouldn't call 1250km in a week particularly relaxing myself.

We spent 7 days on a self drive last June and focused on just the south and west as well, though we were a bit more ambitious than your proposed itinerary. We rented a 2wd and had no issues whatsoever. We spent 3 nights in Bogarnes and used that as a base for snaefellsnes and the Grabrok/Barnafoss area. We are also nature lovers and found berserkers lava field near Styk and also a boat trip in Styk both to be special experiences. Then we went all the way to Vik (via the golden circle along the way - geysir/gullfoss/thingvellir/kerio) for 3 nights and used that as a base to head east to jokusarlon, and west to seljelandfoss, and to explore the area of Vik. Highlights here for us (again nature/landscape related) were fjadrargljufur canyon and the old pool in the valley Seljavallalaug. And all the puffins around Vik. Our last night was in Reykjavik. It all made for fairly long days and we were exhausted by the end of them but I would do it again exactly the same in a heartbeat. I think we put 2200km on our rental. The weather was rainy and windy and cold a lot (with occasional glorious sunny breaks) but it never snowed. Hope that helps!

Actually we could have used an extra day in snaefellsnes to be honest. We spent only one very long and very full day there. So I would recommend doing it over 2 days, as there is tons to see and do.

You won´t need a 4WD where you are going, and neither would I even attempt to drive around the country in Seven days. I would say your itinerary in general is OK, but as has been said already, where do they get the duration for each attraction? A lot of them don´t make any sense, so I would not follow it so rigidly.

Hi! Your itinerary seems quite decent, and previous commentators already highlighted that timing will be rather unpredictable. I read a review from people who after a couple of days let their rigid plan go and went sightseeing depending on the weather – if the planned destination was covered with menacing clouds, they went somewhere where was sunny.
Concerning 4WD and 2WD – it also depends. If you are ready to turn away from the road to see a distant waterfall – then definitely 4wd, any temptation to go to a gravel road or an F-road anyway – 4wd, as it will be illegal to go there on 2wd. If you know that you will surely stick to asphalt-covered roads – then 2wd will be enough in this time of year.
Have you checked http://www.reykjavikcars.com/? They offer quite good cars and service - we booked a Duster there last year.

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