Thoughts on camper van travel in Iceland?

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mr.bojangles
mr.bojangles

My gf and I are traveling to Iceland for a 16 day trip in late Oct/early Nov, doing the ring road, etc.

We started looking into renting cars, and stumbled on the idea of renting a camper van instead (was thinking sort of the vein of a VW camper).

Has anyone else tried this? I've checked out some rental companies, and the prices seem reasonable. Has anyone else tried this, or have recommendations on whether this would be a good idea? The cost savings element? It also just kind of seems like a different way of doing things...

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iviehoff
iviehoff

You should be aware that the weather is often rather wild and woolly at that time of year, and temps will be mostly in single digits. Even if the temp is in the upper single digits, it feels very cold in a strong wind, especially with a bit of moisture causing evaporative cooling too. Daylight hours fall away rapidly that time of year, you'll be down to 8-10 hours of daylight, so quite a long time to sit huddled in your camper van hearing the wind howl. But at least you have the van to hide in. There's a reason why you can hire the van cheaply at this time of year, but at least you can hire the van cheaply and go there and get a sense of the place, if you are happy to put up with the conditions and as the weather changes fast you should get some sunny intervals to suddenly tell you how magnificent the scenery is, though it can also remain overcast for several days at a time.

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lennythelion
lennythelion

Just make sure your campervan has back legs, you'll need them on Iceland at that time of year.
Without them it'll be rocking like a ship in a storm and you won't get much sleep.

Learn to say 'Thank you' in the local language.
The natives like that.
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mr.bojangles
mr.bojangles

These are both such useful comments, thanks. This is one of the reasons that thorntree is so good - people aren't trying to push their opinions and agenda on you. Instead, I get two things important considerations (daylight and legs) that I would never have thought about myself.

Thanks again ya'll

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roserosemary01
roserosemary01

Hello!

Here I am posting some companies with Campervan services (it is good to compare!).
I hope it is useful :)

http://www.gocampers.is
http://www.campervaniceland.com
http://www.kukucampers.is
http://www.js.is
http://www.happycampers.is

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younggod
younggod

kukucampers made some waves in the Icelandic press recently. They said they will refuse to serve customers from Israel because of the conflict in Gaza...until recently they listed the cheap season for renting campers as "Jew Season" They later apologized for this and said it was a mistake by their web developers, it was supposed to be juicy season..

http://grapevine.is/news/2014/07/12/company-refusing-service-to-israelis-breaking-law/

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