How to complete the Ring Road and beyond in 6 days?
50% determination, 50% Coffee
The Land of Fire and Ice was about as remarkable as what every outdoor-loving person raves about-- there was an endless amount of natural beauty that varied amongst seasons.
In just 6 days, we were able to check off everything listed on our itinerary (note-- it's a hefty list), accomplish a whopping 1,750 miles of driving around Ring Road and beyond, and still manage to experience culture and food along the way.
In just 6 days, we were able to check off everything listed on our itinerary (note-- it's a hefty list), accomplish a whopping 1,750 miles of driving around Ring Road and beyond, and still manage to experience culture and food along the way.
It was certainly an aggressive schedule, but with preparedness in the planning process, our itinerary was totally achievable. Here are a couple of helpful tips we'll cover so that you can plan to explore it all:
- Getting Around
- Itinerary Prioritization
- Functional Packing and Food
- Tools for the unknown
Getting Around with Proper Transportation and Gas
This will be your home for the next however many days you're exploring, so it'll be important to find the right rental company that doesn't up-charge you for small things. Note that almost everything is much more expensive in Iceland, especially renting vehicles and gassing up.
Camper Vans
We decided to go through KuKu Campers, since they were one of the top camper rental companies, with a great sense of humor. Since both Jetty and I are able to drive manual cars, we opted for the Type A Vehicle, which was the cheapest option, and saved us a couple hundred dollars total (prices here). It was the smallest and most "agile" camper-- we had no regrets!
Our Dacia Dokker after 1,750 Miles
Gas
I'd say in addition to your rental, another big money suck would be GAS. Yes, gas in Iceland is very expensive since they use 95 petrol. To fill up your camper van, it would cost around 10,000 - 15,000 krona-- which is around $90-134 USD.
When you're getting gas, the most popular place to fill up is called N1, since there's an N1 station wherever there was civilization. Keep in mind that you can't simply use a credit card. Save yourself some time and walk into their store to buy a card. It was quite interesting watching Icelandic people scoff at how clueless tourists were holding up the lines to pump gas. *guilty* :)
Be aware of the roads you're traveling on
If you're renting a camper van, there are probably roads that the van cannot handle. In Iceland, some of the roads are only made for 4x4 or Highland cars, since some of the roads on these routes are unmaintained, or would require river crossings. One tip that our KuKu clerk mentioned to us was to always check road conditions to ensure that where we're going has decent roads for our vehicle to travel on, and to make sure we don't encounter weather related obstacles or construction. He even handed us a physical map which had illustrations of places that highlighted compatible routes for our Dacia Dokker camper van.
Prioritizing Locations on Your Itinerary
Mapping
When you're planning your trip and you're limited to x amount of days, it'll be key to map out your itinerary not only to get a sense of what to check out, but a basic idea of the location and how long it takes to get there. Part of the reason why planning this trip was so tedious was because I mapped out the places I want to see in a Google Maps Itinerary, then I calculated how much time it would take to get from Point A-B-C-etc. This is how I know we were able to potentially finish our 6-day journey and see everything we'd want to see.
Did I mention how useful Google Maps is?! Here are some of the functions we used:
- Google Maps Itinerary
- Google Maps for navigation
- Location downloads on Google Maps for the entire island so that when we go out of reception, we still have the maps saved
Despite mapping out how long it takes to get from one point to another, do leave room for any weather obstacles like rain or snow. Iceland is known to have volatile and turbulent weather, so be prepared to face it. I typically use AccuWeather to check the weather forecast since it's predictions are pretty on point.
Also, don't forget to make time to enjoy each spot! For example, if you're hiking, allot several hours in your schedule to explore it. Also the drive in general is gorgeous-- you might want to put aside some time to pull-over and capture the natural phenomena along the side of the road. There are numerous unmarked waterfalls on the drive.
(For Photographers)
As an amateur photographer, I sometimes look at pretty photos and think, "WOW, I want THAT shot." But when it comes time to actually take that shot at the location, I might forget how to frame it. So for this trip, I definitely screenshotted several inspiration photos from my favorite Icelandic photographers to get an idea of framing, while adding my own personal twist to it. It'll save you some time when you're one the road! Here are some of the photos we took:
Functional Packing and Food
Airline and Custom Requirements
We flew from SFO to KEF (Keflavik) on WOW Airlines. WOW is known to have cheap flight deals, but they have very strict baggage requirements. Do read up on the baggage requirements for your airline, and don't forget to double check the customs requirements for Iceland. Bring only what you need!
Equipment Rentals
So since we're only able to bring small bags and a check-in bag, we decided to rent all of our camping gear. We booked our equipment rental months ahead of time at Icelandic Camping Equipment, but who knew that KuKu Campers HAD THEIR OWN equipment for rental? I highly recommend just getting your equipment from KuKu Campers if you go with them as your camper van rental since they charged a flat rate, instead of renting by the amount of days you're using the equipment.
Food
As you may have heard, buying food in Iceland is also expensive, and probably not worth it, especially when you're on the go. Gas station food, fast food, and roadside restaurants weren't that amazing, which is why we opted to bring our camping gear to make cost efficient and fast meals:
Food
As you may have heard, buying food in Iceland is also expensive, and probably not worth it, especially when you're on the go. Gas station food, fast food, and roadside restaurants weren't that amazing, which is why we opted to bring our camping gear to make cost efficient and fast meals:
- JetBoil - boils hot water in 2 cups in about 2-3 mins
- Mountain House meals - Chicken and Rice
- Philz Coffee coffee grounds (we brought the Philtered Soul -- yum)
- French Press - WORKED AMAZINGLY especially since we needed to fuel our bodies for the early morning drives
Food exploration wasn't a huge priority for us on this trip, so we managed by making our meals, and buying groceries at several Icelandic grocery stores (here's a helpful map). We mainly ate our instant meals, yogurt, and chocolate and we honestly were happy with how everything tasted.
We did make sure to experience the local restaurants for about 3 meals. In the North, we grabbed pizza and beer at Daddi's Pizza, which had a selection of Icelandic style pizza (smoked trout and shrimp as toppings? YES). On one of the days in the Westfjords, we went to one of the best seafood buffets in Europe (Tjoruhusid). And on the last night in Reykjavik, we dined at Tapas Barinn which offered a set of Icelandic tapas ranging from puffin, whale, and lamb.
Fish Stew and AMAZING bread from Tjoruhusid,
a family owned seafood buffet in Isafjordur
Helpful Travel Tools
With the changing weather and road conditions, difficulty of translating language and currency, and unpredictability of road trips in general, I've compiled a couple of helpful tools and links from the internet that may help you find convenience during your road trip around the Land of Fire and Ice.
GlobeConvert App (Currency Converter)
I'll explain more about the locations I've visited in my next post, but feel free to comment below if you have any additional questions!
- Grace
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