Following our fantastic 2 weeks stay in Iceland in April 2019, I will give you on this blog all my tips and advice to make the same road trip as we did. Everything is based on our own experiences. There are more complete guides which speak about all the possible accommodations in Iceland, all the available transports, I will give you the links at the end of the article. This guide is only for those who wish to visit Iceland in a 4-wheel car in winter, a certain comfort level while saving money. Abstract Iceland is the ideal country for a road trip. The country is relatively small, and there is a road around the country called Ring Road or Route 1 – which is only 1330km long. As soon as you leave the big cities, you are very quickly alone in the world. We left in April 2019, with two of us. We made the tour of the country (except the Western Fjords): 3500km in all in 14 days and a half (the equivalent of a Paris – Antalya (Turkey), by following the Ring Road partly – and by branching out enormously from the Eastern Fjords. We rented a Dacia Duster 4-wheel for our personal comfort with Icerental 4×4. We paid an insurance package for peace of mind. As we visit in April, we are entitled to winter wheels (no extra charge) We stay in guesthouses found on Booking or Hotels.com. We book the day before for the next day or even the same day. We often opt for a private room with a shared bathroom – because most of the time, we already take a shower during the day in a spa or swimming pool. We have not paid for any excursions. Our little pleasures were to bathe – almost every day – in thermal water baths, or swimming pool heated with thermal water, it relaxes and makes you forget the cold 🙂 Icelanders pay almost exclusively by credit card, so don’t exchange too much money at the airport (just enough to pay for a few toilets). Instead, use an international credit card so that you don’t have to pay foreign currency fees. By the way, the only guesthouse that did not accept payment by card accepted euros and US dollars. Budget for Iceland: We spent a total of 4340€ for Two for 14.5 days in April 2019: including 710€ of plane tickets (355€/person – from Paris to Reykjavik via Lufthansa, checked luggage included, one-way ticket only as we are going to Canada afterward). We can surely find cheaper, but we bought our tickets in catastrophe one week in advance because of Wow Air’s bankruptcy. 1050€ car rental (including 40% insurance, which you can save if you have Mastercard Gold or Visa Premier) 509€ for gasoline (4-wheel cars consume a lot and gasoline is expensive) 1012€ for accommodation (on average 72€/night for two). It is costly, and yet, these are the rates for the low season… There is a way to save on accommodation if you sleep in a youth hostel (25€/person) Part 1: Why leave in April? Winter isn’t the off-season in Iceland, on the contrary. It’s the perfect time to see the Northern Lights, so expect NOT to be alone in the most touristy places (Golden Circle, among others). We chose to leave in April, at the end of winter. This is the most “rotten” time to visit Iceland. There are no whales, no birds, we can’t visit the ice caves, many roads are still closed. There are neither the advantages of winter (whales) nor the advantages of summer (sleepless nights). The aurora borealis was still there in mid-April, but the sky only became really dark from 10 pm. The aurora was there around 3 am, the time we were sleeping. And we were so tired from the road that we didn’t have the courage to hunt for the aurora. The only advantage in April is the absence of tourists:-) so we could book “economic” accommodation on the same day and pay for car rentals a little cheaper. You may want to opt for the shoulder seasons, more advantageous in terms of weather and services: May and September. You will see a lot of snow in our pictures, but it is snow from Mars that hasn’t melted yet. During our 2 weeks in Iceland, it didn’t snow once, but it rained. Part 2: Airline ticket We chose to stop in Iceland on our way to Canada. For a stop-over of fewer than 7 days, this stop is included in your ticket at Icelandair. Ask for more information! It can be exciting to spend a few days in Iceland. As we are staying for 15 days, we bought two dry flights: one from Paris, and another from Reykjavík to Toronto Budget for the plane ticket One way Paris => Reykjavík: 355€/person (1 checked luggage included) with LUFTHANSA (we had to buy this ticket at the last minute, following the bankruptcy of WOWAIR. We could have paid 250€ if we had bought it earlier) One way Reykjavík => Toronto: 359€/person (1 checked luggage included) with ICELANDAIR Part 3: Car Rental We compared car rental offers (you can use Rentalcars or Guidetoiceland to compare) and have opted for a 4-wheel car at Icerental 4×4. We opted for the Dacia Duster model manual. Budget for car rental 1050€ for 2 weeks (including some additional options: insurance, 2nd driver, kitchen kit) Without additional options, it would have cost us 532€ for 15 days Attention: when paying on guidetoiceland.is, you will pay in ISK (while the displayed price is in EURO, we took 30€ like that for payment in foreign currency) 4-wheel cars or normal car? 4-wheel cars aren’t mandatory to drive in Iceland. It is mandatory if you take the F-roads (which are closed in winter anyway). And in 14 days, frankly, we have hardly the time to make the complete tour of Iceland, then if it is necessary to take the F-roads moreover to go in the Highlands, to cross the rivers (it is necessary to know how to do it)… Moreover, if you want to cross rivers, clearly the Dacia Duster is too small for that. You will have to opt for Land Cruiser++ (more expensive too). But I recommend you if you want comfort ++, peace of mind, drive faster, and have a better view, especially if your budget allows it to opt for a 4-wheel car, summer or winter. Most of the tracks we have taken are accessible to normal cars. But the speed will not be the same for a Dacia Duster like ours (which can run between 30 and 50km/h) and a normal car (which will be between 20 and 30km/h). Again, it’s extra comfort, but the 4-wheel car isn’t essential, and it consumes more fuel. Road conditions The Ring Road, which goes around Iceland, is still passable and in excellent condition. As soon as it snows, the snowplows intervene. Moreover, in winter (until mid-April), all cars will be equipped with winter wheels. Roads with numbers like 93 (excluding F-Roads) are either asphalt or gravel, but their condition is also impeccable. The speed limit is 80km/h, so frankly, there is no need to be afraid. We have taken the track from time to time but look at the picture below, driving slowly, you should have no worries : However, some roads aren’t maintained in winter, so you have to go to road.is to see which road is open or not. In April, I couldn’t go to a fjord because its road was closed until June. Fuel JB wrote a very complete article on this subject here, I invite you to read it Insurance We opted for insurance: 30€/day with a deductible of 800€. You can save this amount if you pay for your car rental with premium cards Mastercard Gold or Visa Premier, or SereniTrip, whose service has been successfully tested here. Whatever the insurance is taken out with the car rental company, in Iceland, they do not insure: The underside of the car Tires (a flat tire? it’s for your apple) The doors (if they are damaged because of a gust of wind, beware it can happen, it’s for your apple). I’ve gotten into the habit of hanging on to the door as soon as I open it. If you cross rivers (even if your car allows you to take the so-called F roads, where there are ford crossings) and you are stuck, no insurance will cover you. Okay, so what does that include? Our insurance package includes the following insurances (you can also choose to check/uncheck each item at all car rental companies) : Collision Damage Waiver (CDW): collision insurance. This insurance is usually already included in the basic rental price. Gravel Protection (GP): protection against gravel (there is a lot of it in Iceland). The risk of having an impact on the windshield is high, if there is only one insurance to take, it is this one. Theft Protection (TP): insurance against theft. At the same time, crime is very low here. Sand and Ash Protection (SAAP): in case of damage caused by sand and ash storms (if a volcano awakens, for example). To study before choosing your car rental company Is the mileage unlimited? Is a second driver included? If yes, is the price per day (xx€/day) or for the whole stay (e.g., 30€/additional driver)? – I didn’t drive much, but the little I did allow JB to recover a little – because we are behind the wheel between 3 and 5 hours a day, that’s a lot for us who rarely drive daily To read in the Tripadvisor reviews: is the chosen car model often respected by the agency? This is very important because some models are more advantageous than others. For example, if I pay for a Dacia Duster (very maneuverable with lots of space for luggage), I don’t want to come across a Suzuki Jimmy (extremely dangerous to drive in storms. This car is weighty on the front, braking on ice can be dangerous). To read in the Tripadvisor reviews: is the assistant reactive? are the damage exaggerated on the way back, and the customers end up paying very expensive? Are “winter” tires provided? Is it possible to pay in EUR on the site? We have paid via guidetoiceland, and even if the price is displayed in EUR, in fact, we pay the equivalent in ISK => we have taken 30€ of fees by paying in foreign currency. Self-drive tours Basically, they sell you a package, including car rental (4-wheel car) and nights in hotels. The itinerary is already planned, and so are the hotels. I do not recommend this option because it costs more than if you booked it yourself. Besides, you lose the notion of flexibility that a road-trip offers. The weather is capricious. If ever you get stuck because of a snowstorm, it shifts every other night. Part 4: Housing We choose the place to sleep the night before or the same morning. That way, we know if the weather is nice if we can make good progress during the day or not. We choose to go as far as possible before sunset and sleep in places where there are no tourist attractions (it’s cheaper that way). Attention: this operating mode works very well for winter. It is not sure that it works well for the summer because there aren’t many economical offers outside the Golden Circle. All our stuff stays in the car. The crime rate is very low in Iceland, so we put all our computers and even money in the trunk of the car during the visits. Without fear. In general, we choose the cheapest accommodation, keeping in mind the following filters: Private room: you get old, when you can avoid the dormitories, you do it. Ahaha. The shower can be shared, or not: since we spend a lot of time in … Continue reading Iceland Winter Road trip Guide (April): Itinerary, Budget, Accommodations