Motorhome in Late October

Hello,
I'm organizing a photographic tour with 2 other friends, We will spend 10 days in Iceland from 16th of October to 25th, visiting only places on the ring basically, in details :

kirkjufellsfoss
Thingvellir
Geyser
Gullfoss
Vik
Svartifoss
Jokulsarlon

We have the intention to rent a normal MotorHome (not 4X4) cause it will be the best solution for us, we would like to know if someone knows if the road condition are still good in that period for this kind of camper.

Many Thank’s

Nicola

All of these places are on a major road so you shouldn't have any problems at all. Contrary to popular assumption, most Icelanders drive around in tiny cars without four-wheel drive :-)

this is what we thought, but calling directly a rental service In Reykiavik, they told us that they discourage the use of motorhome in late october cause is to cold and the road not good.

Many thanks

kirkjufellsfoss

I suspect it is the mountain Kirkjufell rather than the waterfall you mean, as the waterfall is insignificant. The mountain must have been used in some prominent publicity, or some new guidebook featured it prominently, because just recently lots of people say they want to go and see it, and in the past no one had ever heard of it. Either way, it is a good 2 hour (each way) detour off the ring road. There's much more of interest in Snaefellsnes, the region where it is located, if you do choose to spend some time in Snaefellsnes. But I do question whether you'd really want to extend your tour out there, especially given the limited daylight hours of October will tend to reduce what you can achieve the rest of the time.

they discourage the use of motorhome in late october cause is to cold

I suppose they don't want disappointed customers. The major issue is that the weather isn't very nice. And you will be stuck in the van as you are into the half of the year with more night than day, hope your friends are good friends. In October the average high in Reykjavik is 8C, av low 3C, and Reykjavik is a relatively mild location. Maybe you aer used to a place with a seriously cold winter and think that's nothing, but in the wet and the wind single digit temperatures can be very uncomfortable. Maybe ask if the camper van has heating and the practicality of using it.

You can suffer a bit of traffic disruption with some snow and storms, though much in the way of heavy snow is relatively unlikely in October, though probably you'll see a bit in a 10 day trip. Make sure you have enough flexibility to lose a day and still get back to Reykjavik, and keep an eye on the roads website vegagerdin.is weather forecast vedur.is so you know what might be coming up.

As iviehoff notes, it's the weather rather than the state of the roads that is the issue with motor homes in autumn. By October Icelanders will have parked theirs in indoor storage (where they pay rent 9 months out of the year - not a very practical investment if you ask me!). It is indeed a question of comfort but also of (a certain amount of) danger - Iceland is a windy place at the best of times.

Every year we hear of a dew incidents where motor homes are literally torn apart by high winds - there are days even in July when people are advised not to travel along particularly windy stretches of road. The reason I didn't mention this earlier is that you used the term "camper" - I thought of a van-kind of thing rather than those big beasts :-)

I assumed you mentioned the waterfall for photographic reasons - practically all images of the mountain feature that (admittedly insignificant) waterfall in the foreground. I do agree with him (her? :-)) that if you are going there it should be part of a circuit of the peninsula.

Oh, one more thing. If you feel tempted to climb Kirkjufell don't do it without a local guide - and October is probably a bit too late in the season anyway.

Here's a view of the mountain from a different perspective :-)

Is correct it was my mistake, the place we intended to go is the mountain Kirkjufel

About the cold we live in a mountain area where in winter the temperature drop normally belove 0, so we are use to drive with snow condition (but not much with strong wind) and stay at cold, furthermore we are also use to sleep in tent also in mountains and happens to wait inside for good weather with hard condition outside.

We are prefering the motorhome cause our target is to take picture of sunrise/sunset in all the locations, and more get some Aurora shots, so we were thinking that staying inside the motorhome and wait directly in the location is the best solutions.

The motorhome will be for 3 people so not so huge but not so small, so you think if we will mantain some spare days and stop when will get strong winds will be possible?

Thank's

I don't think you need to worry too much - just make sure you ask the locals regularly if there's a storm warning in effect (you can also check www.vedur.is). The areas that are particularly exposed to high winds are:

a) the southern side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula
b) the road past Mt. Hafnarfjall, just south of the village Borgarnes
c) the road west of Mt. Esja, just north of Reykjavik (the locality is known as Kjalarnes - easily recognised by the stunted trees which all lean away from the mountain at an angle of 45°!).
d) Eyjafjöll (the area between Seljalandsfoss and the village of Vík).

Good luck with the aurora.

Just one more thing: You need to be aware that most, if not all, campsites will have closed by October, so you will probably not be able to plug into electricity in many places for heating the vehicle, so make sure it has heating that can be run off the second battery or gas, and bring good sleeping bags.
Good luck!

Hello nikpal!
i'm a bit late on this conversation but would like to know if you did end up going with the motor home in October? If so, how did you find it? Was it cold? Was parking overnight hard to find???
Would really like to have a feedback
thanks

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