Fun facts:

Did you know the majority of the population actually believe in elves, trolls and ghosts? Roads have been rerouted so as not to disturb the elves living in certain rocks. People even have little elf houses on their properties!
There are no forests in Iceland, there are a few evergreen trees dotted here and there but no actual forests, you can see for miles on a clear day!

Vatnajokull Glacier is Europe’s largest glacier. Icelandic horses are the purest breed in the world.

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Tips for Driving in Iceland

Driving in Iceland is interesting, mainly because of the weather. It is fairly easy to drive around Iceland as it is basically one main road called Route 1 or the Ring Road. One you stay on this road you will see all the main tourist attractions.
The Ring Road is basically a raised road with a drop off on either side, I suppose this is good to help the rain drain off the road but it can be quite intimidating at first. The road is also quite narrow compared to roads in the US and Canada. The best thing to do would be to take your time along the roads and pull over to allow traffic to pass when you can. When trucks are approaching, slow down a bit as they can really rock your vehicle especially if you are driving a Jeep like we did.
On your Iceland roadd trip, you will probably experience high winds at some point. These strong winds can make you veer off of your side of the road into oncoming traffic, stay aware of where you are on the road and either pull over or find a place to stop for a while.
Do not stop in the middle of the road to take pictures, you are driving along a main road and you put yourself and others in danger by doing this. Pull over at the nearest lay by and walk back to get your shot.

Our Iceland Itinerary

Here is what we managed to cover on our Iceland road trip. We spent 12 days in Iceland sleeping in a campervan and we managed to drive around the entire country including the Westfjords in 12 days!

Our actual route for our epic Iceland roadtrip

Day 1: Arrive at Thingvellir National Park

We landed at Keflavik at 2.30pm, went to Camper Iceland to pick up our Jeep Super Camper. We definitely reccomend heading to the nearest Bonus Supermarket to do your groceries before heading out on your Iceland road trip.

Day 2: The Golden Circle

We spent our second day exploring Iceland’s Golden Circle. The Golden Circle is about an hour away from Reykjavik and is definitely worth including on your Iceland itinerary.
Here are some of our top things to see when visiting the Golden Circle:

• Thingvellir National Park: Walked through the tetonic plates and dive Silfra.
• Eat ice cream from Efstidalur.
• Watch the geysirs, Strokkur and Geysir.
• Visit Gullfoss.
• Visit the Secret Lagoon
• Visit Kerid crater.

We ended up camping at Seljalandsfoss and experienced some horrible weather, opt for the nearest campsite and avoid camping near mountains in bad weather and high winds.




Gullfoss was the high point of our Golden Circle day

Day 3: South Coast Waterfalls and Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Iceland’s South Coast is absolutely stunning and one of our favourite drives on our Iceland road trip. There were so many waterfalls along the way. Here are a few places you can’t miss along Iceland’s south coast:

• Seljalandsfoss waterfall
• Skogafoss
• Solheimasandur Plane Wreck
• Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
• Vik
• FJAÐRÁRGLJÚFUR MASJID
• Skaftafell National Park

We highly recommend finding a place close to Skaftafell to sleep for the night, when we arrived we did the short walk to the glacier before having dinner and getting some sleep.

Rainy morning at Seljalandsfoss

Day 4: Svartifoss Waterfall, Hofn and Iceland’s East Fjords

Our morning started with an early wake up call and we hit the trails to see Svartifoss, a stunning waterfall surrounded by basalt columns located in Skaftafell National Park. We highly recommend leaving at the crack of dawn so you can be the first to reach the waterfall. The highlist of our day along this part of Iceland’s South Coast was definitely Fjallsarlon and Jokulsarlon, these bays are where icebergs break off of the glacier and head out to sea and it was magical! It is definitely worth making this a stop on your Iceland road trip no matter how short you are on time!
Our top things to do between Skatafell National Park and theEastern Fjords were:

• Svartifoss.
• Fjallsarlon
• Jokulsarlon
• Hofn
• Egilsstaðir

On the way to Egilsstaðir we definitely recommend taking route 939, especially if you have a 4×4, we got to see a beautiful waterfall along the route with bright blue glacier water!

Looking back to Svartifoss

Day 5: Seyðisfjörður to Lake Myvatn

We were dying to visit the small fjord town of Seyðisfjörður so the next morning we took a drive out to check it out and it did not disappoint! TheEastern Fjords of Iceland were stunning, but today’s drive was taking us to the North. Here are a few things you shouldn’t miss:

• Seyðisfjörður
• Krafla Volcano
• Hverfjall
• Dimmuborgir
• Lake Myvatn
• Myvatn Nature Baths

We spent our evening lounging at the nature baths which we thoroughly enjoyed. We would definitely choose this over the Blue Lagoon any day.

Crazy views on the drive up North

Day 6: Dettifoss, Asbyrgi Canyon, Husavik, and more waterfalls!

The North did not disappoint, we back tracked and headed towards Dettifoss, one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe and then continued onto Asbyrgi Canyon before taking the coastal route to Husavik and then down to Aldeyjarfoss and Goðafoss. These were definitely the highlights of the day:

• Dettifoss
• Asbyrgi Canyon
• Husavik. If you have time, book some whale watching!
• Aldeyjarfoss
• Goðafoss

Selfoss at sunrise

Day 7: Hvitserker and the Westfjords

It was definitely one fo the longest driving days on our Iceland itinerary, we went to Hvitserker and then continued our drive out towards the West Fjords. We camped just outside of Laugarholl Hotel where there was a pool and some turf houses. We spent the evening here relaxing before we adventured further into the Westfjords.

No better way to end the day than a nice swim, hot shower, some wine and a beautiful sunset

Day 8: Dyjandi and Hot Springs

Our day started searching for the hottest and most secluded hot springs and it lead us towards Bildudalur, we didn’t see another car for hours! Check out our hot spring hunting in the WEstfjords post to find the coordinates for all of our hot springs! We drove to Dyjandi that evening and camped there where we got more wind and rain!

Beautiful views of the Fjords driving to Bildudalur

Day 9: Patreksfjodur to Stykkishholmur

After a hike up Dyjandi we headed to Patreksfjodur in search of fuel. Make sure to always fill up at a gas station when you see one. We ended up rolling into Patreksfjodur on fumes, hoping the town was big enough to have a gas station! Here are some top things to see today if you have a full tank of gas and good weather:

• Latrabjarg Cliffs
• Raudasandur Beach
• Patreksfjodur

Day 10: Snaefellsness Peninsula

Our main goal today was to get amazing shots of Kirkjufell which we managed to do between the clouds and rain. Unfortunately we had terrible weather again that made us miss the whole peninsula due to road closures. Here are some things to add to your Iceland road trip itinerary that we missed:

• Selvallavatn
• Kirkjufellsfoss
• Saxholl
• Snaefellsjokull
• Arnarstapi
• Eldborg

If you have time you can visit Hruanfossar and barnafoss waterfalls and camp somewhere outside of Reykjavik. We ended up driving into Reykjavik and spending the night there.

The iconic Kirkjufell

Day 11: Reykjavik

Drive to Reykjavik!
We loved this city, it had such a cool vibe to it! Here were some of our favourite things to do in Reykjavik:

• Harpa
• Try Brennivín and Kæstur hákarl (fermented shark)
• Visit Hallgrímskirkja
• Walk around the city

To round up our Iceland road trip itinerary we headed towards Grindavik to camp for an early morning at the Blue Lagoon.

Rainy day in Reykjavik. View from the top of Hallgrimskirkja

Day 12: The Blue Lagoon

We visited the Blue Lagoon at 8am to see the sunrise. Our 12 days in Iceland had come to an end, we dropped off our car and then headed to the airport.
We covered a lot of stuff in our 12 days in Iceland, if the weather was better in some places we could have seen more like on the Snaefellsness Peninsula. This only means we will have to come back and see more of Iceland next  time in some better weather!

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