I’m going to stay just outside Reykjavik for a few days at the end of March. I was planning to hire a small car and do a bit of driving rather than going on the usual tourist bus trips.

Can anyone recommend some good trips within 3-4 hours drive of Reykjavik? What will the roads be like in March? Still a lot of ice/snow?

I’m looking forward to it, but only want to hire a car if it’ll give me loads more flexibility on seeing stuff and going somewhere that I might not get to see otherwise.

i’d be very interested in this too as in exactly 7 days I will just have taken off from glasgow airport to head there!

In terms of car rentals i got one from budget, 200 quid for the tuesday to Sunday. can’t wait!

Where are you staying David?

I’ve arranged some good price digs in Mosfellsbaer. The car rental is costing just over £100 + fuel, but including insurance. It looks like the equivalent of a Polo or Clio.

Guys – I can help with info about where’s worth a visit (IMO). Drop me an email will (@) brainstrust.org.uk and I can pass on some stuff that was sent to me.

Lot’s of cool stuff within 3/4 hours of Reykjavik, much of it doable on the way to something else.

Cheers Will, I’ve sent you a mail.

Hey, we’re staying at Hotel Glymur which is north of Reykjavik for 4 nights, with a night nearer the airport on the Saturday at Hotel berg

wheres your car rental from, mines double that for a group n car 🙂 already paid though so its too late to change

i’ll drop you a mail too will if thats ok mate?

Cheers

I’m not sure who the car rental will be with, but it’s a deal done through Travel Republic who we booked the hotel and flights through. I’m staying the hotel Laxnes which looks to be about 17km from the airport.

I’m also flying from Glasgow. It would be good to hear how you get on when you get back. Will has sent on some ace information.

looks great. I really hope we get a chance to see the aurora though…

i’ll update you guys on how i get on and maybe if i take some decent pics i’ll show them too 🙂

When we went we stayed in Youth Hostels the people there were very helpful, we planned where we were staying in advance online many emails between them & us, paid them, & collected vouchers at the airport which we exchanged at the hostels.

Think we stayed in Vik, Hvoll, Höfn, Eyrarbakki, Vestmannaeyjar & Reykjavík. All we very welcoming & amazing places. There is only one main road around the island so I’d imagine they can keep it reasonably clear. The ‘B’ roads are all gravel tracks, but much better condition that some of our A roads. If you wanna hit the F roads you have to have a 4×4.

DavidRussell – How did you get on?

We hired a car, they have a list of roads you are not allowed to drive on, which turns out to be every road outside Reykjavik, we threw caution to the wind and off we went. Turns out there is a reason you’re not allowed on these roads, they are all like gravel rally stages I had a blast! I’ll get a photo now!

Here is our rented rally car and my ex who did all the navigating (so I have no information on where we actually went I can tell you we saw some amazing water falls and some amazing geezers. Also rode some icelandic ponies, I didn’t enjoy this one bit but my ex loved it.)

I don’t know what prices are like now they have demolish their economy and rebuilt it, but there used to be a mexican place that was much cheaper than everywhere else and pretty good (this only applies if you are on a budget, but since this is singletrack you are probably not.)

Well and I went and had a great time.

Some pics:

DSC_0183 by iain-t, on Flickr

DSC_0197 by iain-t, on Flickr

DSC_0232 by iain-t, on Flickr

DSC_0066 by iain-t, on Flickr

DSC_0139 by iain-t, on Flickr

DSC_0097 by iain-t, on Flickr

3 nights was a good taster, but already planning on going back for a couple of weeks to see/do more.

Brings back some awesome memories – love Iceland – an amazing country!

MrGrim, how was it costwise and was the golf a good enough car for getting around, I want to be able to adventure without worrying about the state of the car so was wondering if a 4×4 is really needed?

Bike Hire

toby1 – regular cars are fine for the A & B roads, if you want to explore properly you’ll need a 4×4 to take on the F (highland) roads

….public bus around the perimeter to Myvatn stopping en route, hire some mountain bikes there, then fly back. Ten days well spent.

Im off there on Thursday – hired a 4×4 so we can try to drive up volcanoes. We are also going diving – which may be chilly.

As PrinceJohn says the Polo was fine for the A and B roads. It had winter tyres on it which I believe stayed on until the end of March. The roads were mainly clear of snow so no issues. We mainly did the tourist thing but will be going back to explore further.

Costs were less than expected as well. Car was £75 for 4 days including insurance with an additional £25 refundable deposit. Beer was cheaper than I expected and worked out about £4 a pint, although I was staying outside of the centre of Reykjavík. Petrol was about the same price as here which I wasn’t expecting as I thought it would be a bit cheaper in Iceland.