Car hire or organised trips in Iceland

[Rowdythree]

We're a family of 5 heading to Iceland for a week next month and I was wondering if we should hire a car, or book ourselves onto organised tours for the main tourist parts of the country. I'm assuming car hire will work out more economical for a family, but I'm worried about the weather conditions if we were to drive.

Can anyone offer any insights?

We did a car hire a few years ago (springtime) for our family if 4. It was our second time to Iceland and we had done group tours (Golden Circle) previously. We loved the freedom of the car hire. We drove down to Vik from Reykjavik and loved stopping off at the waterfalls we saw. With the sunrise/sets next month, you may be driving in the dark more than you'd like. Parking is relatively easy in Reykjavik.

Hire car will be definitely cheaper and will enable you to see more at your own pace. The main roads are usually kept clear though the weather is not great at the moment and there has been plenty of roads closures. If the roads are closed then the organised tours will (or should) be cancelled and you'll have to amuse yourself in Reykjavik (assuming that is where you are staying)

Thanks for the replies! I think maybe we'll hire a car for a half the week, and see the sights of Reykjavik for the rest of the time.

Not sure whether you've researched it much, but the general opinion is that you really want don't need to spend much more than a day or two in Reykjavik as there is not that much to see. We only spent a day in Reykjavik itself.

Thank you @newname12345 ,I haven't looked at what we might do in Reykjavik yet. I was assuming museums, mooching in shops etc. My dc are older and will want to have time chill and mooch about.

I will look into it more and decide, thanks for the info.

We drove in Iceland in November a few years ago. We booked a 4 x 4 car and were expecting clear roads. The car wasn’t four wheel drive and the roads weren’t clear, I have never been so scared. Loved it snd the destinations but my goodness I was petrified. I wouldn’t drive there again.

That's what I was worried about @Thethingswedoforlove argh I don't know what to do!

I happily drove there in the summer, but having been on a coach in winter and seen how bad the roads were I wouldn't want to drive myself in winter.
I would also look up what you want to do in Reykjavik in advance. It's lovely but not somewhere you can spend days wandering around, especially when it's freezing cold!

We hired a car 9 years ago in November and stuck to the south of the ring road (I think the further north the worse the conditions?)

Other than some low visibility my husband found the driving fine (I couldn’t drive back then so he did it all).

Like PP said some lovely waterfalls along the way. The furthest we went was Jökulsárlón ice lake, which was absolutely amazing. That’s about 5 hours from Reykjavik but we were staying in Hella which is about 3.5 hours to the lake. Are you stopping over in Reykjavik the whole time or can you break it up with a stay along the south road? Hotel Ranga is amazing - quite pricey.

Not sure when you are going (next month could be this weekend) but as I said at the moment the weather is more difficult than normal. Its worth watching this site as the situation may change safetravel.is/conditions

Thanks, that's really useful. We go on about 3 weeks, so I'll keep an eye on the weather and decide closer to the time.

@EggbertHeartsTina we are staying in Reykjavik for the whole week, I'm not against staying somewhere else for a night though, partway through the week. Perhaps not the Ranga though 😉

Either way, you'll need to be flexible and manage your expectations at that time of year. When there is a heavy snowfall or a storm, travel is often disrupted while everything is sorted out. This will apply to tour companies as well. Things that you plan may be delayed or cancelled and you have to go into it with that in mind. On average, January is horrible but of course you can always be lucky!

There are lots of benefits to driving yourself; it gives you more freedom and flexibility. But you must be responsible. Do not set off anywhere without checking if there are any weather warnings or road closures. Never ever drive past a road closure sign because they are not joking with those decisions. Weather that will affect travel is usually forecast reasonably accurately and there is little chance of getting into trouble if you are not silly and avoid risks.

I wouldn't drive there in winter. And I'm a very confident driver.

In Reykjavík there are several good museums. I love Árbæjarsafn (not all of my family agree though!). Perlan is normally worth a visit and the outdoor swimming pools are always fun. If you can get to Mosfellsbær, the pool there has the best slides. I like Álftanes too. Definitely try a pool anyway because the hot tubs are great even if it's a bit cold for the slides.

Elliðaárdalur (pretty waterfall there), Öskjuhlíð, Heiðmörk, the coastal path between Grafarvogur and Mosfellsbær, and the area around Grótta in Seltjarnarnes are nice for walks. If you have a car and can get yourself about (buses are pretty bad and the hire scooters/e-bikes are not great in the snow, but I do recommend them if it happens to be clear) there is a reasonable amount to see in the capital area, more than just 101 anyway.

Definitely do the organised trips we had plenty of time on them to explore

We hired a car. We were upgraded to a 4 wheel drive with snow tyres.

Ordinarily the roads are fine to drive on. However, we were unlucky enough to go when they had an unprecedented snow storm.

We were snowed in, drove on very dangerous roads and slept at the airport for 2 days.

Without that you will be fine.
If you want to see the Northern lights head to the lighthouse in Reykjavik.

We saw then twice when we were there. It's a good place to see them.

We went in November 2016. Mainly we were there for an ice skating competition but added extra days for sightseeing.

we stayed at an air bnb that came with an old banger of a car. But it did the job. There wasn’t terrible weather when we went.

Everywhere is very expensive. Its pot luck whether you see the Northern Lights. We were not lucky.

If you go to the blue lagoon, cover your hair in conditioner or it will resemble a brillo pad afterwards. We preferred the Secret Lagoon.

Has anyone been in late spring/summer?

I'd love to arrange a visit this year, but it would have to be end of May/June.

@Puffinshop your post is great, thank you!

The lighthouse is in Seltjarnarnes, not Reykjavík! Haha sorry I know nobody cares and there is nothing obvious to divide it from west Reykjavík, but it is my town.

@uggmum That sucks, were you just here? It wasn't even an unprecedented storm, just a bit more snow in one go than average. I know a lot of people were not impressed with how it was handled and how long the road was shut, but especially the response of Icelandair. It was honestly kind of embarrassing to see, you'd think they'd be up to dealing with a snowstorm.

@SingingSands Definitely come in May/June, it's the most beautiful time of year! The summer is incredible, the light and the freedom, the birds, the colours. Don't feel bad about missing all the storms.

We hired a car in November - drove to the Glacier Lagoon and then back along the coast via Vik and around the Golden Circle and then around Reykjavik to the erupting volcano. It was fine. There were chains on the tyres and despite heavy snow we were ok. We were there for a week too. I much prefer it to organised tours.

I’m here at the moment and it’s absolutely freezing and I would not want to be driving, plus very dark. One of our tours has been cancelled as the roads are too bad and I wouldn’t have known that if I was self driving. It’s been -22 in some places today so do come prepared. The excursions are all well organised, and although generally not my thing to be on a coach and with others, this is definitely the better option for us at this time of year.

I wouldn’t have known that if I was self driving

It's good that you recognised you weren't up to self-driving, but I just want to reiterate that there is no excuse for anyone driving in Iceland, especially in the winter but honestly all year round, to not know about road closures and conditions. This information is freely available in English on safetravel.is and en.vedur.is and if you travel in Iceland (not you menareallthesame as you chose to leave it to the professionals) you absolutely must keep yourself informed and up to date. Even if you're not driving anywhere yourself it's a very good idea to be aware of weather alerts because even walking round town can be dicey in a true storm.

And since you're here right now, @menareallthesame, hopefully you know there's a yellow alert tomorrow in many parts of the country and an orange alert for South Iceland? en.vedur.is/alerts

Stay sensible and enjoy :) Should be just medium strong winds blowing loose snow around in the capital, but if you're elsewhere do check out the information.

We've done a mix of both.

Personally I would not like to drive - DH is a much more experienced and confident driver especially in poor conditions.

It is the better option especially with older kids as there are plenty of places to stop, but weather in January is poor. And it's very changeable. Do not drive anywhere without checking the road and weather conditions and take them very seriously. The road service gives a colour coded rating for every road in terms of the conditions. They do keep the roads exceptionally well maintained but stick to the main roads rather than taking short cuts in bad weather.

Coach trips are limited and restrictive imho. If you go by car and leave early you can get a much better experience even if you go to the same places.

Fwiw I know they've had exceptionally bad weather even by Iceland standards in the past week. The airport and all the roads to it were closed due to snow. A lot of people became stranded either at the airport or in Reykjavik unable to return back from holiday as planned. This is completely unheard of. That does mean it's liable to have a lot of heavy snow build up even if the weather has improved and the roads are clear. That may well limit what you can do anyway. Temperatures have been well below normal too.

I love Iceland but it does need to be taken seriously. If the coach trips are cancelled, don't go anyway (check whether trips are running the day before to places you plan to go).

We've previously been in Feb and it was fine apart from one day, where we went north to go into a glacier on an organised trip. We drove to a meet up point though some got a coach option.

After we finished the trip we were at the visitor point and everyone was warned to leave asap rather than stay for food as the weather was closing in. The first part of the journey through heavy snowfall was hairy to say the least (there were a number of cars all going back to Reykjavik together).

We've done bad weather there before, but that was the one time it bothered is.

You can hire cars at short notice from in Reykjavik - which we've done before - so you can hire when you get there around the weather if necessary.

I've heard that they've closed the swimming pools in Reykjavik last week due to the weather being so bad too, so even the capital has been badly affected.

Hopefully it's improved since though.