Hello travelers! I'm planning a trip to Iceland with my fiance and we are not sure about what type of vehicle would be most convenient for it (4wd -vs- 2wd), we assume that a 4x4 vehicle would be safer but we're just going to drive on the Ring Road and maybe we would spend a few days in the South if we have enough time. Taking into account this, Which type of vehicle and rental company do you recommend us? Any suggestions for our travel plan? We will spend 15 days in this beautiful country Oh! It is very important for us to get a full protection coverage with 0 franchise and a new brand car (2018-2019) Thanks a bunch for your help!

We will be in Iceland for 4 days, 5 nights in May. We rented a Toyota Corolla from BlueCar Rental with complete insurance including sand and gravel. I researched pretty thoroughly and found only good reviews for Blue Car. We will not be doing any interior Iceland driving so advice we received was a 2WD would be adequate.
good luck, car rentals are always treacherous waters!

Hi Geekybag ,

Well, that really depends on the time of the year. I've been in Iceland a couple of times and driving the ring road is not the same in every season. If you will be traveling in winter or Fall, then a 4x4 is the way to go.

I usually rent with Cars Iceland, but there are several local companies that are also nice and local. Reykjavik Cars, Holdur, Cars Reykjavik...etc. I usually go with Cars Iceland cause they have most insurance included and they offer the 0€ excess you mentioned. No, you can select the one that suit you best.

As itinerary, I usually recommen my friends this one:

Iceland Road Trip - 10 Days Around Iceland Itinerary

I did it two years ago and I think we manage to see most of the cool places, we relaxed and enjoyed each stop as it is so packed up. In Höfn you can eat the best lobster ever!

Hi Geekybag,

For summer and for the Ring Road 2WD is good enough. You don't need a big car (gas is pricey in Iceland). I had a 7-day round trip in July 2018. It was great but very intensive. I would love to have the same route within two weeks instead of one.
We rented Skoda Fabia for three people and in terms of space it was fine.

One important warning: don't rent with the cheapest companies. I rented from Green Motion, and it looks like they never maintain their vehicles. At some point we got the Check Engine and message about low oil. I had to buy and add oil on the road. The old oil was completely black.
Few days later we had an issue with a transmission sensor and had to spend half of the day in Akureyri while the car was serviced by a mechanic (it was free for us). I don't regret about this delay because we got a chance to see the city, and then on the updated route we saw a bunch of beautiful things which we would not see if the car would run well (but probably we would see other things though).
In other words, even with the car problems we got a nice trip chock-full with wonders, however, don't try to save a hundred of bucks/euros at the price of peace of mind.

Like Minnietheminx said, it depends on the time of year you go on what type of vehicle you need. If summer time, then you should be fine with a regular car. We went in mid May and rented from Blue car rental and rented a regular small car. We got the full insurance and it isn't cheap! You will drive on regular roads that are just gravel sometimes. So you need all coverage. Before you leave the lot, check the car over and note any dings. Take pictures of the them. When you return the car, they will notice everything. I had the original documents saying where all the dings were.

You won't need a car while in Reykjavik. We took the bus from the airport to the city hotel. We did city stuff and walked around and also did a tour that took us to the glaciers for snowmobiling. Then we rented the car in the city. We walked to Blue down near the wharf. Then we returned the car at the end of the trip at the airport stopping at the Blue Lagoon along the way. Just a thought..

I used Blu Car Rental in July 2011. I drove the RIng Road and we had a 4wd but it was not necessary.

Be prepared for EXORBITANT prices in restaurants. I was there again in August 2018 and prices were extremely high. You might try googling some hotels in VIK and then check the restaurant prices in the hotels. Most dinners for one person were around $50 for an entree, $25 for a bowl of soup. The restaurant food was expensive but fabulous.
A burger, fries and Coke for lunch at a gas station restaurant was about $22.

I agree with Linda on food prices, also drink prices are high. The wine wasn't very good either. I hate to pay 20 USD for a glass of wine and its lousy. I stuck with the mixed drinks but they are pricey too. I guess most things are imported so what can you do. Try the Icelandic yogurt, it was delicious and I get it at Wegmans here in the states.

Also no tipping in restaurants. Being from the states, this was tough for me, but honestly NO ONE tips at all. It is not done there. We found it easy to just sign the check and go. Also everyone uses credit cards for EVERYTHING. So don't get a lot of Icelandic money. I would say we used 50 dollars in cash over the course of a week.

The good thing is that in the Reykjavik airport there is a duty free at the arrival (!). You can buy all you need during your trip before you exit to the land. Just check online the allowable quantity (you can google, there is an official website about it), however the acceptable amount is quite generous. The prices in duty free are comparable with the Canadian regular liquor stores. In the city - 2-3 times higher. In the slideshow about my trip in Iceland at the time point 17:40 you can see a slide from the city store with prices in Icelandic krona:

In our 7-day trip for three persons we have not changed a single dollar, paid by the c/c only for everything.

Hi how was that? I'm thinking about doing the Ring Road in September and visiting few attractions, what car did you book in the end? I've hear that there are some gravel roads that are not F roads, do you need a 4x4 for this? I'm a solo traveler and I would really appreciate first hand advice Thanks!

We had Skoda Fabia for three people, and it was good for the Ring Road. Google shows around 1500 km for the entire circle; in the end we had about 2500 km in total, going here and there along the Ring, plus Reykjavik area. For the Ring a small car is fine, you don't need anything bigger (gas in Iceland is quite expensive). Most of the ring is paved, only in the east of Iceland, when we had a shortcut from the coast to the eastern fjord area, there was a piece of not paved road. The main Ring in that area also was not paved. However, it was also good for a small car, and it was just few kilometers.
Another piece of 2 km gravel in our trip was in the Myvatn lake area near the Hverir crater. However, it is also intensive tourist area, and gravel road is fine.
In general around the Ring road you can find both paved and gravel roads good for small cars, where you can go a see nice views.

On the other hand, if you want to go on gravel in the highlands, you must have a 4x4, it is prohibited to go there in regular cars. If you go and something happens, it will not be covered by regular insurance. Usually these roads have signs informing that only 4x4 are allowed.

We made our 2500 km in seven days, and it was very intensive. We would not have time to go off the highway even if we would like to. So Fabia was good for the entire trip. By the way, highway in Iceland in most cases means a road with one lane in each direction and limit 90 km/hr.
Fines for speeding are very high, and there are many camera boxes on the road (apparently, not all of them have real cameras inside, but you never know).

I made a slideshow about our trip to Iceland, with the names of the main attractions we visited, and also you can see the roads on our circle trip.
You can find it on my youtube channel QC vivant. It may help you to plan your trip. Our plan was very dense and we managed to make about 70-80% of it which is a good result:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeS...6YcKcg1xt35zpw

Hello Kpopkpop, our Icelandic trip was amazing!! we rented a Dacia Duster 4x4 with Cars Iceland as it was the most affordable option including Liability Waiver insurance. The car was a new brand, quick pick up/drop off process and Staff really kind, we had some troubles with the GPS and they set everything for us ^^ We could drive along the South Coast without any problem, looking forward to coming back soon!