Iceland: Why we chose not to drive the entire Route 1 ring road /

One of the first things you might consider when planning a trip to Iceland is whether to drive the full length of the ring road that goes around the country – known as Route 1, and not to be confused with the Golden Circle that is located nearby. to Reykjavik and gives you easy access to some major sights to see in one day.

To judge this, we first had to know how far it was and how long it would take. The answer to that question is that Iceland’s entire ring road covers 1,317 kilometers and can theoretically be driven in just 16.5 hours (albeit by driving non-stop – but even if you share the ride, you’ll still have to stop to change drivers and to refuel!). This also assumes no traffic at all.

Given that you can theoretically comfortably cover the entire road in just two normal but long driving days (8-10 hours), this leaves many people thinking about how feasible it is for a cross-country circumnavigation by road, especially if they are in for longer periods of time. stay in the country.

How long do you really have to follow the entire ring? The general recommendation I’ve read for this is that you should realistically allocate a minimum of 6 days to drive the route in the summer or a minimum of 12 days if you’re driving in the winter.

We only had 8 days – 9 if you counted the day of our departure, but as we had an early morning flight it was really only 8 days. So in theory, since we were visiting in the summer, we had more than enough time to do what we call a 6 day road trip.

But the more I studied the maps and explored what there was to see and do along the way, the more I seriously wondered if 6 days is realistic. There are so many natural wonders to see in Iceland that driving all the way around it in just 6 days I don’t think you would do it justice. Your stops would have to be rushed and you would have to miss a lot of things you might otherwise want to see. In short, it just wouldn’t be fun in my opinion.

Let’s take some attractions as an example. If you want to see the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and Diamond Beach, which is on the ring road… would you tell me honestly that you would love to stop here, see it and get back in the car 20 minutes later? No, I hope not! You want to take it all in… admire the view, maybe wander around the small lagoon, maybe even take one of the boat trips. You want to walk from the lagoon to the shore and see the large ice blocks on the beach glistening in the sun. You could easily spend at least an hour or two here, and possibly much longer.

Likewise, there are places of interest such as the plane wreck which, although believed to be on the Route 1 ring road, is probably a 45 minute walk away. You should probably allocate at least 2 hours to visit the plane wreckage, possibly longer depending on your walking speed and how long you want to stay there.

Waterfalls like Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss are the same. They are very close to the ring road, so in theory you can get out of your car, take a picture and hit the road…but what’s the fun in that? At Skógafoss you’ll want to climb the stairs to the right which basically takes you along a path that you can follow for miles, taking in even more waterfalls. At Seljandsfoss you’ll want to follow the trail that takes you around the back of the waterfall and maybe even visit the much lesser known and more difficult to access nearby waterfall of Gljúfrabúi. This all takes time, but it’s time well spent and I’d rather do this sort of thing than spend most of my time in a car.

It’s also worth noting that many of Iceland’s main attractions – especially for first-time visitors – are in the south and west of the country. Since your journey will undoubtedly start from the southwest, either from Keflavik Airport or Reykjavik, you will find that with the greatest concentration of attractions, you don’t have to drive across the country.

Then there are private tours you might want to consider – for example, we did a Katla ice cave tour that took an entire morning and a snowmobile tour that took most of the afternoon. If your goal is to get across the country in just a handful of days, you’re going to have to miss out on a lot of opportunities like this.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

If you are reading this article anywhere other than A Luxury Travel Blog, chances are this content has been stolen without permission.

Please note the web address above and contact A Luxury Travel Blog to notify them of this issue.

Thank you for helping us fight content theft.

And that’s not to mention stopping for meals. Wouldn’t you rather stop, sit down and relax with some Icelandic food, rather than just grab some snacks at a gas station and keep going? Maybe some of Iceland’s famous red hot lava soup?

In short, giving yourself more time to travel around the country, or knowing your limitations and choosing not to try if you feel you don’t have enough days is a very important decision to make. It’s the difference between a rushed and hectic stay in Iceland or a much more relaxed stay that you can really enjoy.

Coming back to the recommendation of a minimum of 6 days to ride the route in summer or a minimum of 12 days to ride it in winter…. it all seems way too hectic and rushed to me. I think it’s more realistic to imagine 10-14 days in the summer and 20-25 days in the winter, and preferably pick something at the end of each of those ranges.

For this reason, as we only had 8 days, we chose not to try to drive all the way around. Yes, it could have. But I’m glad we made that decision – there was still so much for us to see and do in the time we had at our disposal without driving excessive distances. It’s easy to think that you’ll see more by covering more ground, but in this case I don’t think that would have been the case.

Did you drive all the way around? How long did you allocate and did you feel it was enough?

Planning a trip to Iceland yourself? Watch a video of our trip to Iceland here:

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Icerental 4×4. Our trip to Iceland was also sponsored by Helly Hansen.