Taking a 13 day road trip in mid September to the mystical Ring Road and would like some advice on number of days in each place. We’d like to preferably go at leisure and not jump from hotel to hotel each night, having difficulties with planning the East and North parts, we rented a 4x4 as well. Love hikes, nature, and unique towns/cities, food.

Sept 12- blue lagoon, frost and fire in hveragredi

Sept 13 - golden circle night in highlands or hella

Sept 14-16 Landmannalagaur hike, stay in Vik -waterfalls

16-17 hofn

17-18 sigulfordur

18-20 myvatn

20-21 Akureyri

21-23 Snaefellsnes peninsula

23-25 Reykjavík

Really appreciate everyone’s input, maybe cut out sigulfordor and add an extra day to Hofn?

We took a similar trip a few years ago - this was our routing, but only 10 nights, which we felt was pretty rushed:

Reykjavik – one night

Reykjavik to Sauðárkrókur one night

Sauðárkrókur to Akureyri – one night

Akureyri to - Húsavík - two nights, base for exploring Mývatn & Krafla

Húsavík to Seyðisfjörður – one night

Seyðisfjörður to Höfn – one night

Höfn to Vik – one night

Vik to Reykjavik – two nights

Keep in mind that two nights means only one full day for exploring...one night means very little time to explore after driving there and then leaving the next day to drive some more. We spent entirely too much time in the car - I think we'd have enjoyed ourselves more if we'd allowed a minimum of two nights in each place.

You'll find all the gory details here:

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...-trip-1453922/

Thanks so much for the input, I mixed up Seyðisfjörður for sigulfordur, do you think any areas in particular were out of this world wish you had spent more time, I know it's hard to choose in such a beautiful place but really trying to consolidate so we can absorb a place and spend more days in less spots and maybe longer drives.

That's a tough one...we could have used more time just about everywhere, but we wished we'd had more time in Seyðisfjörður to explore some of the walks in the area and possibly more time between Höfn and Vik because there was just so much to see in the area (but so busy with other tourists that it was a bit off-putting).

In 2016 we did essentially the same itinerary you are, 2 nights in each town, except we did it clockwise.

Here was our itinerary...

Reykjavik – 2 nights (explored Reykjavik on foot, picked-up rental 4X4, purchased food and supplies for the trip)

Stykkisholmur - 2 nights (explored the entire peninsula)

Akureyri - 2 nights (whale watching in Husavik)

On the way...Myvatn

Seyðisfjörður - 2 nights (hiking the fjord and relaxing)

On the way...Took Route 939 which is very rugged but scenic and challenging.

Hofn - 2 nights (visited Jökulsárlón Glacier)

On the way...Jökulsárlón Glacier again

Skogar - 2 nights (explored the falls and visit the nearby folk museum which was very informative)

On the way...Spent the entire day on Vestmannaeyjaflugvöllur…a must see!

Reykjavik - 3 nights (drove the Golden Circle, spent a day at the Blue Lagoon)

If we had it to do over again we would have likely added one more stop for 2 nights.

The drive from Seyðisfjörður to Hofn is long and challenging.

We took Route 939 but we would not recommend it if you are driving the Ring Road counter clockwise because it is up hill. Also, if you are not proficient in driving a manual transmission, it could be dangerous.

We envy you having this to look forward to.