South Iceland in August

Hi all,

I'm planning a trip to Iceland in August, group of 6. We're leaving the more obvious places for last (Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle), and planning to focus on the South first -- specifically Vík, Skaftafell and Jökulsárlón. We're trying to avoid any really long drives in a single day, as we'd like to keep this reasonably relaxed. Right now the first part of our itinerary looks like this:

Day 0: arrive late, sleep in Keflavik
Day 1: Keflavik - visit Vík - sleep in Skógar (can't find anywhere interesting/available to stay in Vík in high season)
Day 2: Skógar - visit Skaftafell - sleep in Kirkjubaejarklaustur
Day 3: Kirkjubaejarklaustur - visit Jökulsárlón - sleep in Kirkjubaejarklaustur
Day 4: Kirkjubaejarklaustur - visit Seljalandsfoss - sleep in Reykjavik

This itinerary has at least two problems that I'm struggling with, so any help would be much appreciated:

1 - Accommodation in Skógar seems reasonably plentiful (also Hvolsvöllur and Vestmannaeyjar) as an alternative to Vík, but Kirkjubaejarklaustur is proving a bit of a challenge -- again high season doesn't help, I guess. So far the only available option I've found is the Icelandair Hotel Klaustur. (I'm considering farmstays, hotels and B&B.) Am I missing some other place in the vicinity that I should be using as a base instead?

2 - There's quite a bit of back-and-forth over the same stretches of road, mostly aimed at trying to reduce the distance driven in a single day and the number of different places we stay at. If you know the area, is there anything obviously wrong with that plan? Am I missing something really great nearby?

I'm also pondering whether a day trip to the Snaefellsnes peninsula later on from Reykjavik would be both feasible (some 450 km or so?) and worthwhile after seeing the areas mentioned above.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Hi! Unfortunately can't recommend anything about staying. However here are plenty info about South, hotels etc. http://www.iceland24blog.com/2013/10/south-iceland-complete-travel-guide.html
Hope, it will be helpful!
By the way, if you are 6, are you taking a minibus or a caravan? As you can find a camp and sleep in the vehicle.

Hi! Thank you very much for pointing out that blog, looks very helpful. We are indeed hoping to rent a vehicle for all 6 of us, but not everyone would be happy to camp or sleep in the vehicle, so that won't be an option for us. Meanwhile we're now investigating a couple of accommodation options in Selfoss and the Westmann isles as well.

You mentioned the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. I highly recommend going there. It's a magical place. However it would be a full day, since driving there from Reykjavík takes about 2 hours and since you would be going the whole circle around the peninsula it involves alot of driving, but it's well worth it.

I see you're looking for accommodation along the south coast. Why not try websites like tripcreator.com? There you can get an itinerary planned, accommodation, car rentals etc. Good luck! :)

I highly recommend going to Snæfelssness as well if you can find the time. We drove along the south coast of the peninsula, stopping at Arnastapi before driving around the glacier as far as Olafsvik and then turning off the main road and rejoinining the south coast and heading back to Reykjavik. It meant we missed Grundafjordur and Stykkisholmur but it is an alternative if you don´t feel like driving too much. The road between Olafsvik and the South coast is amamzing with some fantastic views.

Thank you for all your feedback about Snæfelssness!

We do have one full day left in Reykjavik to spend towards the end of our trip, so we might go for it. We came up with this 444 km itinerary, which I believe is similar to what you describe. Google Maps thinks this is going to mean more than 6 hours driving, but I'm tempted to give it a go.

What are the roads like over there? Should I expect any difficulty with this itinerary compared to the south coast?

Thanks again.

The main roads around Snaefellsnes that you would use are now all paved.

To me the 2 best bits of S are the western tip, and the N coast between Olafsvik and Stykkisholmur. St is also one of the very nicest villages in the whole country, whereas Olafsvik is a normal one. The pass over to Olafsvik is nice, but I'd much rather see the N coast, and you are going to have to do one of the two passes.

I'd have a look at the local weather forecast before deciding to do it, not much point if it's going to be rather unpleasant.

OK, based on your recommendation I've added Stykkisholmur to our Snaefellsnes itinerary, at a cost of about 45 minutes. Hopefully we'll be able to make it up there.

How likely do you think it is that we'll get nasty weather for this sort of trip in early August?

Thanks again.

How likely do you think it is that we'll get nasty weather for this sort of trip in early August?

Nasty weather is frequent all year in Iceland.

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