Driving in and dressing for Iceland in winter.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:

1. Can I afford this?
   
   Iceland is notoriously pretty expensive. But we found cheap flights, took dry foods in our hold luggage and booked a reasonable rental car (the cheapest available). Britain is pretty expensive compared to a lot of European countries, so the jump didn’t seem too drastic.
   
   
2. What level of accommodation can I expect?
   
   For us it was pretty much hostels throughout- sometimes private rooms, often unisex sharers. And they were top quality! It must be said, every hostel we visited was of amazing quality. Click here for more on this!
   
   
3. Where is Reykjavik?
   
   The international airport is in Keflavik about an hour from the capital. The capital is a good base from which to see and do a lot of amazing things, surrounded by drivable roads.
   
   
4. How do I want to get around?
   
   Excursions are expensive. Bus tickets around the famous ‘Golden Circle’ were in excess of £100 per person when we were looking at the start of 2020. So we decided on DIY excursions.
   
   Car is cheapest and easiest when you’re talking about more than one person, if you’re a confident driver. For two or more, you split the cost of the car, insurance and petrol so it works out quite cheap! We found the perfect little VW on Iceland Car Rental which came with winter tyres fitted- we would literally not have gotten off the car park of the rental place without these winter tyres and we certainly wouldn’t have survived the week- they are a must.
   
   In truth, a 4×4 would have been the more sensible choice and at times things got a little hairy. Generally, the roads seemed worse the more remote they were, so in a small car I would definitely suggest sticking to the West and South around the capital, which they try to keep clear, if you’re under time constraints- you don’t want to be stuck on the East coast and unable to return safely with the risk of missing a flight home! Check out which roads you are not legally allowed to drive on unless you are in a 4×4 too.
   
   *Added benefits of a car: good place to leave luggage, heaters, great views!*
   
   Going it alone, it may be much safer and around the same price to pay for excursions; not to mention you’ll get to meet more people!
   
   
5. How much luggage will I need?
   
   We took a cabin bag each and a hold bag for snacks and all those layers! Since it would be big woolly jumpers we’d be wearing, we took one smaller cabin bag to fit all the layers in.
   
   
6. The car’s booked- where are we going?
   
   This will involve a notepad, road trip suggestion blogs and google maps.
   We used blogs to find out what there is to see (click here for ours) then planned our own route after getting travel time estimates from Google maps. We essentially limited it to 4 hours driving max per day and looked for accommodation near the things we wanted to see.
   
   
7. Just how crazy can the weather be?
   
   When we arrived to pick up the car we were told in no uncertain terms to not be arrogant drivers, as many people are and end up in trouble. We were told the best websites to check each morning to ensure the roads we intended to travel were safe- it was a colour-coordinated live updated website which told you wind speed, and weather the road condition was anywhere from ‘clear’ to ‘up to 30cm of snow’. Use this website. And read below for simplified driving guidance!
   
   Safe to say, the warnings did convince us to top up our minimal insurance so in hindsight perhaps it was a sales pitch in disguise! Jokes aside, of course storms can get pretty crazy on an island on which there is nothing west until America and nothing south until Antarctica! Nothing to ‘soften the blow’. In the space of 5 minutes you could experience sun, full cloud cover, gusts of wind up to 50km/h, hail, rain, snow- no exaggeration. And to us, it was hilarious and all part of the incredible adventure- but if you’re not a fan of bad weather, or may not see the funny side, I’d recommend a visit in summer!
   
   We read a fair few articles that stated tourists just do not take the weather seriously, and ask for trouble thinking nothing can possibly go wrong!
   
   
8. How likely is it that we will see the Northern Lights?
   
   Don’t go with the sole intention of seeing the Northern Lights because even going in the middle of winter for maximum darkness, staying in remote areas for minimum light pollution and even booking ‘chase’ tours- where they literally drive you around the country to various gaps in the cloud to try and show you a glimpse – is no guarantee. See our blog on Northern Lights advice here.
   
   
9. How dark will it be?
   
   Iceland is on GMT, the same as England – so we certainly didn’t get jet lag – but Iceland is of course further North. The darker it is, the more likely it is you’ll see the Northern Lights- in summer it’s highly unlikely as in peak summer it can be sunny for up to 21 hours of the day in the capital (which would, of course be magnificent in itself!) but in winter it can be sunny for a minimum of 4 hours of the day. Google it for your dates and bear it in mind with everything you plan.
   
   By the time we went in mid-January it was getting light around 9.50am, with full sunrise around 10.30am and going dark around 4.25pm with full darkness around 5.15pm.
   
   Winter is a beautiful time to go; it feels less busy than it might in peak summer and you get to see the true drama of the scenery, one day it’s snow-covered and the next the snow has melted all but on the peaks of the mountains. But, be aware of the darkness, or you’ll go and think the apocalypse has arrived when you wake up at 9.30am and it’s still pitch black outside your window!