Just one of the to start with issues you may possibly think about when arranging a vacation to Iceland is irrespective of whether to push the complete size of the ring road that goes all around the overall state – recognised as Route 1, and not to be bewildered with the Golden Circle which is close to Reykjavik and presents you quick obtain to some critical sights that can be witnessed in a single working day.

To evaluate this, we wanted to initial know how considerably it was and how very long it would choose. The reply to that concern is that Iceland’s complete ring highway handles 1,317 kilometres and, in principle, can be pushed in just 16.5 hrs (albeit by non-quit driving – but even if sharing the driving, you would even now require to stop to improve motorists and to re-fuel!). This also assumes no targeted traffic in any respect.

Presented that you can, in principle, comfortably get all the way about in just two normal-but-long times of driving (8-10 hours), this leaves several people today thinking of how achievable it is for a circumnavigation of the complete country by road, especially if they are being in the place for for a longer period.

So how lengthy do you truly want to stick to the complete length of the ring street? The general recommendation that I’ve read for this is that realistically you need to allow for at least 6 days to generate the route in Summertime or at minimum 12 days if driving in Winter season.

We had just 8 days – 9 if you involved the working day of our departure but, considering that we had an early early morning flight, it actually was just 8 days. So, in idea, due to the fact we ended up going to in Summertime, we had far more than sufficient time to do a so-referred to as 6-working day street trip.

But the much more and much more I studied the maps and examined what there is to see and do along the way, I very seriously questioned whether or not 6 times is at all real looking. There are so lots of natural miracles to see in Iceland that, if you were to travel all the way all around in just 6 days, I do not think you would do any of it justice. Your stops would have to be hurried and you would have to miss out on out lots of issues that you may possibly if not want to see. In short, it just would not be entertaining, in my impression.

Let us take some of the points of interest as an illustration. If you needed to see Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach, which lies on the ring road… are you truthfully telling me you’d be happy to halt in this article, see it and hop again in the automobile again 20 minutes afterwards? No, I hope not! You want to consider it all in… admire the watch, it’s possible wander all-around the lagoon minimal, maybe even go on a single of the boat rides. You will want to wander from the lagoon to the shore and see the substantial blocks of ice on the seashore, sparkling in the sunshine. You could conveniently invest at the very least an hour or two right here, and perhaps much longer.

Likewise, there are attractions this sort of as the aircraft wreck which, even though considered to be on the Route 1 ring highway, are likely a 45-moment stroll away. You almost certainly will need to let at minimum 2 several hours to pay a visit to the plane wreck, perhaps lengthier depending on your strolling pace and how extended you want to spend there.

Waterfalls such as Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss are the identical. They are very shut to the ring road so, in theory, you can hop out of your auto, choose a photograph and be on your way… but the place is the entertaining in that? At Skógafoss, you will want to climb the ways to the ideal which truly usually takes you alongside a path you can comply with for miles, taking in but much more waterfalls. At Seljandsfoss, you’ll want to stick to the path that normally takes you spherical the again of the waterfall and maybe even pay a visit to the considerably lesser-acknowledged and far more difficult to access nearby waterfall of Gljúfrabúi. All of this usually takes time, but it is time very well expended and I’d sooner be accomplishing points like this than spending most of my time in a auto.

It’s also value mentioning that a lot of of Iceland’s critical attractions – specially for first time visitors – like in the south and west of the country. Supplied that your excursion will no doubt begin from the south-west, either from Keflavik Airport or Reykjavik, you are going to find the greatest concentration of points of interest do not necessitate you driving all the way all-around the region.

Then there are non-public excursions that you may well like to consider – for case in point, we did a Katla ice cave tour that took up an whole morning and a snowmobiling tour that took up most of an afternoon. If your objective is to get all-around the country in just a handful of days, you’re going to have to forego a ton of these varieties of opportunities.


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And I haven’t even stated halting for foods. Wouldn’t you prefer to prevent, sit down and take it easy with some Icelandic food items, rather than just grab some treats from a support station and push on? Some of Iceland’s popular purple scorching lava soup, possibly?

In quick, allowing for your self far more time to get all-around the place, or knowing your constraints and choosing not to attempt it if you really don’t really feel you have plenty of days, is a incredibly important determination to make. It’s the variance in between have a rushed and frantic continue to be in Iceland or having a a lot much more leisurely 1 that you can thoroughly love.

Returning to the recommendation of at minimum 6 times to push the route in Summertime or at minimum 12 days to drive it in Winter…. it all looks much much too busy and rushed to me. I think it’s more realistic to propose 10-14 times in Summer season and 20-25 times in Winter season, and ideally choosing some thing at the latter close of just about every of those ranges.

For this cause, given that we had just 8 days, we chose not to attempt to generate all the way close to. Sure, it could have been done. But I’m glad we produced that conclusion – there was continue to so significantly for us to see and do in the time we experienced accessible without having driving abnormal distances. It’s straightforward to think that you are going to see much more by covering more floor, but in this occasion I do not imagine this would have been the circumstance.

Have you pushed the total ring street? How very long did you allocate and did you experience it was ample?

Setting up a journey to Iceland on your own? You can watch a movie from our journey to Iceland here:

https://www.youtube.com/look at?v=KNcJZYAzftk

Disclosure: This submit is sponsored by Icerental 4×4. Our journey to Iceland was also sponsored by Helly Hansen.