Iceland: Driving the Ring Road

[OutsideSeth]

At the time we didn't know the term overlanding, but our first trip together as a couple was to rent a 4x4 Suzuki Jimny in Iceland and drive the ring road in September 2017.

Day 1

We arrived in Reykjavik in freezing cold rain and about 100ft of visibility. We had planned to take a trip to Reykjadalur Hot Spring Thermal River; which turned in to a complete bust. It had apparently been raining for days and the thermal river was running almost as cold as the rain that drenched our clothes on the hike out. If you've ever driven a Jimny you know how little room there is for activities like drying wet clothes. The trip got off to a rocky start.
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We stopped to warm up with some ramen cooked roadside
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After continuing the drive that morning we got to our first nigh's destination: Skógafoss campground
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Day 2
The next day continued with more rain and we were starting to worry about running out of dry clothes and there was no extra room to lay anything out to dry in the Jimny. We started off the day's driving and stopped at Seljavallalaug to hike to a famous hot spring pool, which turned out to be very crowded.
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Next we stopped at Skogafoss


We then headed around to the town of Vik and the black sand beaches where some of Game of Thrones has been filmed.


Finally, we finished out the day arriving at Skaftafell campgrounds in next to the Vatnajökull glacier.
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Day 3
We continued our journey around the Ring Road stopping at two iceberg lagoons; Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón.
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Finally a little taste of Iceland's 4x4 F roads

We continued on that night arriving to our Airbnb for the night in Egilsstaðir. We had rented a small cottage on a farm and booked a horseback ride for the following morning.

Day 4
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Now that the sun was out we spent some time on manual transmission instruction.
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We drove a long way out a small road to the coast to a small hot spring on a point sticking out in to the ocean. If I can find some pictures I will add, them along with the name. It was definitely a worthwhile side trip. We finished that night setting up camp on the end of Lake Myvatn
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Day 5
The next day we explored the volcanic areas around Krafla before heading to Godafoss, Akureyi, and eventually to our Airbnb for the night in Ólafsfjörður.
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Godafoss

Day 6
The following day was a long drive out Kirkjufell mountain and waterfalls also recognizable from Game of Thrones.
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That night was mostly spent driving and we arrived at our fjord-side campsite for the night as the sun was setting.
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Day 7
On our last full day, we drove back to Reykjavik to spend time exploring the capital city, spend the evening soaking in the hot tubs at a public pool, and stayed in our final Airbnb for the trip. The following morning we were off to the airport for our flight back to the states.

Take Aways
- Iceland is an incredible place and I would recommend it to anyone. Renting a 4x4 or camper van and driving the ring road is definitely the best way to see as much as possible.

• Iceland gets remote very quickly. You are pretty much on your own out there. That is until you get to a tourist stop like a waterfall or hot spring. We went in the fall, but it was still more crowded than I would like. In the future, I would go later in the fall or even early winter to avoid the masses of tourists.
• If you stay on the Ring Road (Highway 1) in summer 4WD is entirely not needed, but if you want to explore any of the interior or travel any F roads as we did it is a must. As in legally required.
• Food is expensive, like really expensive. We subsisted on gas station hot dogs along with ramen and oatmeal that we brought with us.
• If you like to drink alcohol buy it at the duty-free on your way into the country. The taxes on alcohol are very high and the laws around sale are really strict. The beer sold in grocery stores and gas stations is essentially non-alcoholic.
• If you re planning to camp, maybe consider spending the money the first night for a hotel or Airbnb to get your bearings. We wish we had done this as the first day was very trying on very little sleep.
• Don't do the math to determine the US Dollar per gallon cost of fuel... You don't want to know what that 4x4 is costing you.
• Take a lot of pictures. This country is stunning!
• Enjoy the journey!

 

[OutsideSeth]

Not entirely sure why not all of the images are showing as links rather than inline. If I can figure out how to fix that I will.