Iceland Car hire – what to do about CDWs/ash protection/theft protection?

Heading to Iceland in March and we were planning on hiring a car to get about. We’re staying in Reykjavik for a few days (will visit golden circle stuff) then heading up to the snæfellsnes peninsular.

Looking at the various car hire companies there seems to be a lot in additional protection you can add on, protection for ash, theft protection and full CDW – was looking at £29 for them all applied. I started searching online to see what folk think and found quite a few reports of companies out to try and squeeze as much out of tourists as possible.

What do people on here think/reccommend? I’m a bit hacked off with hiring, the last 2 times I’ve hired they’ve tried to bump the price up or tried to claim for damage I didn’t do. I was thinking about an independant hire insurance policy but then I guess you still have the hassle of having them blocking potentially thousands on your cards whilst the claim goes through.

I was there at new year and used http://www.bluecarrental.is wasn’t pushed into buying any extras etc. Some roads are gravel so I took the extra insurance. This company doesn’t block your card they just take a copy of the numbers just in case. On a side note once in reykjavik This is a brilliant place to eat https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g189970-d1487023-Reviews-Svarta_Kaffid-Reykjavik_Capital_Region.html they only serve 2 soups and drinks and gets very busy

can’t advise on car insurance, but the restaurant recommendation is spot on though!

Can’t really help, but the car I hired last summer was so covered in dents that a bit of gravel damage wouldn’t have been noticed. This was another local car hire company (not a international chain).

Spennyy – perfect timing – what is Reykjavik like at New Year?

Apologies for the thread hijack.

Mental

How? These things can be relative…

I should probably add a bit more than just mental….there is no official organised fireworks displays etc so around 11:30pm every man and his dog just goes into the street and lets off what can only be described as a small arsenal of fireworks. This goes on for a good hour or two id say. They get it all out of their system in one night as fireworks are banned the rest of the year.

https://youtu.be/MTlCyhSj5wE just uploaded some vids …apologies for the hijacking

We did Hertz. Even cracked a windscreen over there. Didnt say anything. I was fretting all way back.

Take photos?

no probs about the Hijack! keeps the post active!

Thanks for the restaurant reccommendation, will try it out.

Yeah, will take photos, just now we’re doing holidays with a baby it adds another layer of faff on.

Whatever you do eat plenty of dried fish, sheep face pate and drink non-alcoholic malt (don’t mix with orange coz that’s for kids).

If they ask you to spread some butter on dried fish, just tell them you prefer them with Tabasco like I do. Same goes with the sheep face pate. Tabasco will enhance their flavour but they will curse you for modifying their traditional dish.

😛

CDW- we have always purchased this in Iceland- it brings peace of mind for not much money. Ash damage insurance I would suggest as not required. Avoid the sandurs in nasty windy weather, some of them have warning lights anyway and the worst on the ringroad inc. Myrdalssandur have been stabilised. Going to Snaefellnes you will not really need to worry about the sandurs anyway TBH.

Are you planning any ‘off road’ driving at all? The Icelanders have a very relaxed attitude to what they will drive their cars upon and whilst the vast majority of the roads you may come accross on a daily basis are sealed/ tarmac covered there may well be others that are not. IF the road has an ‘F’ designation your insurance will not cover you to drive there unless you have a 4X4 and appropriate cover. In March the interior roads will still be closed so TBH I wouldn’t bother with a 4×4. Having said that, I managed to bog down the Golf I hired last time, admittedly driving where perhaps I should not have gone.

Do not bother getting roof and underside insurance, you are on holiday, not rallying and I’m assuming not planning any river crossings. All rivers on the vast majority of roads and all main roads are bridged.

Be aware of soft verges and the way that many of the roads are built on embankments to allow the snow the be winnowed away by the wind.

Finally- unless you really, really want a super new and clean shiny car, hire locally, not from the big boys. There are loads of places to chose from.

Cheers Ambrose, that’s the sort of answer I came here for!

We’re going with a 6 month old baby so we’re not really going to be doing anything too adventurous. We’ve booked a hotel for a couple of nights in Stykkishólmur so mainly a drive up there and a nose about. On the flip side was thinking a 4×4 for being safer (given we have the wee one). Mainly thinking in terms of snow, although I’d be happy with a FWD car and a good set of winters, looking at http://www.lotuscarrental.is they seem to fit them as standard at that time of year (although I can’t tell if they’re studs or just winters)

Still agonising about sand and ash – on one side it sounds like its not going to be an issue, on the other your gambling with 10k excess that it wont happen!

The sand and ash thing; it won’t happen. I’ve been visiting friends out there for years and years and it has never happened to me. Or to them, and they live there.

Stykkishólmur is fabulous. Smelly on the way in from the Hákarl place but don’t be put off. The ‘Sea Bastard’ bar in town is wonderful. We sat outside with blankets in July- I don’t know if you’d want to that with a littl’un in March though.

The beacon above the town is a great spot, often used as a background on my laptop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl

The F roads is only in bad weather and they will have some kind of barrier. It’s getting expensive over there now as well, 2 curries nann and 2 beers was just shy of £90 ..And that wasn’t a fancy place

spennyy – Member
… 2 curries nann and 2 beers was just shy of £90 …

Crikey, that is very expensive indeed but it was a long since I was there so I guess many things have changed.

I went 2 years ago ish and it wasn’t as bad…It was over 200 krona to the pound then now it’s around 130