Iceland - what to see, camper rental and so on

What to see in Iceland?

Rocks, volcano lava rock (very lite), landscape as far as you can see, grey rocks, hot springs, rocks, drink malt (my favourite), eat sheep face (my favourite), rocks, Bonus supermarket, rocks, hot dog just behind the high street near the Viking boat sculpture, rocks and more rocks. People are friendly. Rocks plenty of rocks ... LOL!

Oh ya ... eat smoked lamb meat as I consider theirs the best in the world.

You're only going to manage the tamest F roads in a hire 4x4 and anything with serious river crossings will need experience, especially as they get deeper later in the day due to mel****er. Plenty of 4x4 bus or super jeep trips if you want to see some back country without the risk of washing away a hire Jimny..... Everything is ££ but truly F road capable campers will be rare and ££££££ 🙂

You need to book your hire vehicle and any accommodation NOW as it sells out fast.

We had a hire car and got our own extra underbody / tyres / headlamp insurance before travelling. By summer all the hire cars are covered in stonechip damage so make sure you check it is all accounted for at initial handover (they are covered in little "reported damage" stickers).

Hot rivers / pools in a few places on the south coast. And if visiting Jokulsarlon then also cross the road to the black sand beach where all the icebergs float out to sea.

And as above - Bonus supermarket is the least expensive. Sheep soup lunch is almost affordable. The locals all buy booze when arriving at the duty free by baggage reclaim.

The real beauty of Iceland is in the sense of remoteness and wildness the areas away from the Golden Circle will give you, so get them done asap.

Can't help you with the camper van bit - we hoteled/B&Bed.

It a big place and its easy to spend a LOT of time driving rather than doing. We did a lap of the island on Route 1 and it was pretty hard work. We did a bit of gravelroad stuff (had a small 4x4), but felt fairly safe as they'd given us basically the last car they had, which whilst mechanically sound was beaten to crap cosmetically.

Stuff to do:-
The Trip inside a volcano. Quite spendy; definitely unique. https://insidethevolcano.com/

The area round lake Myvatn had lots of stuff going on. Not least of which was the thermal baths (like Blue Lagoon but much quiter and much wilder. A bit further on from there is proper living breathing planet stuff - sulpher pools, steam vents, recent lava fields etc. The landscape round Lake Myvatn is stunning too. If you're a Game Of Thrones fan you can visit the lava tunnel they filmed Jon Snow being shown he knows nothing in... Vogafjos Farm for a good meal.

Easter Fjords were beautiful to drive through, but not a lot there. Jokusarlon lagoon - stunning. Watching icebergs float out to sea or get stranded on the black sand - although that in itself is quite eerie - driving for 3+ hrs across a featureless flat black landscape.

Other wise - as Chewk says - plenty of rocks. LOTS of waterfalls (Dettifoss is good if you make it to Myvatn). The golden triangle stuff is definitely touristy, but is also pretty amazing.

Food is expensive (mostly imported as you can grow the square root of SFA). Booze very much so.

We want to go back with bikes and ride into the interior some, as we felt like we only very lightly scratched the surface of the place.

Thanks for the comments can I ask Amy recommendations for hire company Re a van?

We were there in June '22. Highlights included Jokulsarlon, the drive over to Seydisfjordur, and puffin watching in Borgarfjörður Eystri. Before going we were unsure how to balance our days between Myvatn and the surrounds vs the South of the island, and we were very pleased we opted to stay in the South for longer. A day-drive around Myvatn area was enough for us. And everywhere around Myvatn has loads of flying insects which are really annoying.

Our favourite campsite was 66.12 North - for the location, rather than the facilities which were pretty basic.

We visited GeoSea thermal baths in the North of the Island, but to be honest the Blue Lagoon (from a previous trip) was better. We went to one natural spring at Fosslaug which was interesting, but very small.

Food is expensive everywhere, but generally very good quality. Best restaurants were Bjargarsteinn Mathús in Grundarfjörður, Sjávargrillið in Reykjavik (for the lamb) and Black Crust Pizerria in Vik (we expected "black pizza" to be tourist novelty trash, but it was actually really good). LYST cafe in Akureyri was really nice place to sit for breakfast too.

Have you visited before? We try to get out of Reykjavik as soon as we can. The F roads are great. You do not need a massive expedition type thing at all to use many of them. Hire a Vitara or similar and you will be fine on the main F routes, the F35 (Kjolur) and the F26 (Sprengisandur). If you can book hut spaces at Hvitarnes (just off the Kjolur route) or Hveravellir (similarly) do so. Hviarnes is just beautiful, a very traditional style old building close to the glacial lake with views up onto Langjokull, one of the largest icecaps. Hveravellir is a way along the F35 and is a hot spring area. Get a bunk in the hut next to the main pool. There is a campsite as well.

The southern end (Fjallbakki) of the Sprengisandur looks a bit complicated but isn’t. The F208 down to the coast from Landmanalaugur is very enjoyable indeed, lots of twists and turns, splashes and the occasional river crossing. As with all river crossings if in doubt, wait for another vehicle. The Sprengisandur route has one particular crossing at Nýidalur that can be problematic on hot days (mel****er) or heavy rain. There is a hut close by.

PM me for more info if you want.

Ambrose