Iceland

Looks lovely - will definitely have that in mind!

One question - can I depend on Google maps to move around? how's the 4G around? My guess is it wont be reliable but let me know if it works!

Thanks

Download maps locally to your phone in the Google maps app, easy enough. We got around fine with our phones, didn't need a sat nav.

We used phones to navigate without issue.

The tomato place is amazing. The smell is incredible in the greenhouse as is the food.

1 Attachment

Who did you rent with if you don't mind me asking?

You mean the car?

"Cycling around Iceland is strictly for masochists!"

@Cycliste and I did a lap of Iceland on the ring road two years ago. Great trip, but the driving standards are truly appalling.

Do not miss Akureyri, Iceland's second city

+1. Great place.

If you've got a 4x4 the F26 dirt road running through the middle of the island is pretty spectacular. It suffers badly from washboarding though, and there are two ways to deal with it. The first is to drive slowly, which is really uncomfortable as you bounce up and down over the washboard ridges, but it means you can avoid the larger potholes. The second way is to drive really quickly, skim over the washboard, but it means you can't avoid the big potholes and just end up thumping into them. Because I was driving we took the second option. When we returned the hire car (a chocolate brown Hyundai Sante Fe) we had to make sure we didn't open the driver's door and the passenger door at the same time. If you did, the car made an unpleasant creaking sound, and it was really really hard to shut the doors again...

Yep

@danstuff Great advice. Where else did you go?

On the cycling trip we just did a lap of the island, although we bailed off the ring road on the last day's ride into Reykjavik as the driving standards was just too sketchy and it was too nerve-wracking. We headed off cross-country to the thermal power station and followed the supply pipe all the way into Reykjavik, which was actually a really good day's riding.

On the driving trip, which was many years ago, I think we headed east from Reykjavik, around the Golden Circle (Þingvellir, Landmannalaugar, lots of waterfalls with names ending in Floss), then headed up through the middle of the island to Akureyri, then around the eastern end of the island stopping off in Egilsstaðir at a very nice hotel with an excellent restaurant, then back via the Glacier Lagoon. It was a very long time ago though - 12 years ago, I think. There was one really good day's driving up to a glacier. It was a bit sketchy in a Hyundai Santa Fe - we stopped off so @Cycliste could put a brew on, and a huge group of serious off-roaders came the other way which turned out to be the annual tour of some offroad magazine - but I can't remember for the life of me which glacier it was.

Oh, and we did go to the Blue Lagoon. We didn't know any better at the time.

One question - can I depend on Google maps to move around? how's the 4G around? My guess is it wont be reliable but let me know if it works!

Navigating is relatively easy, as there are very very few roads. Buy a paper map, and you'll be fine.

Booked it throught rentalcars.something
Supplier says Greenmotion
Why though?

Sorry about that. Going next year so wondering if you've found a good company as prices seem to fluctuate a lot.

@danstuff Appreciate that. We're not going during the high season (March) so might not dodge as much of the touristy stuff as it might not be as busy. We're intending to drive, but won't go into the depths as it's not a great time to do so.
The GF is now thinking of renting one of those VW caddy's that are totally prepped for camping, and it's not much more expensive than an off road capable car.
Choices choices.

We got a Jimny from https://www.route1carrental.is/ who delivered it to the airport, cheaper than getting a coach into town. They were quite a bit cheaper than most other companies at the time.

On one of the '4x4 only' gravel roads on the interior we did at one point pass a Fiat Ducato van parked up by the side of the road. They were towing a caravan. Crazy Danes.

I can definitely recommend SAD Cars for rental, especially if you're worried about damaging the car with gravel. They literally do not give a shit, they don't clean them before you take them "because it's so filthy on the roads, that there's no point"
Car drop off at the end of our trip was just a postbox, no checks or anything. They were super cheap too, but recently seem to have put their prices up.
Don't expect luxury vehicles, it's fairly rough and ready but our 4x4 was totally solid and the heater was better than any car I've ever been in.

I'm going for the Westfjords end of this month.
Don't suppose any old followers of this have any recommendations for 3 days around Reykjavik for gravel? If I'm heading to the NW eventually anyway I figure I might just save my legs and enjoy the capital for a bit.