Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto · Pexels LicenseItinerary · Europe · 12 days · Moderate
The Ring Road, Slowly
Reykjavík→Gullfoss→Vík í Mýrdal→Skaftafell→Jökulsárlón→Seyðisfjörður+6 stops
Route 1 all the way round in twelve days instead of the usual seven - which is the difference between driving past Iceland and stopping in it.
Reykjavík
Collect the car, buy food in a Bónus, and spend the day in the city rather than rushing out. Everything is more expensive from here on.
Golden Circle and south
Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss - busy, and worth it once. Then east to Hvolsvöllur, past the waterfalls at Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss.
South coast
Reynisfjara black beach - the waves here kill people most years, stay well back - Dyrhólaey arch, and Vík. Short driving day, long walking one.
Skaftafell
Into Vatnajökull National Park. Svartifoss under its basalt columns is an easy hour; the glacier tongues need a guide and crampons, and are worth both.
Jökulsárlón
The glacier lagoon, then cross the road to Diamond Beach where the bergs come back in on the tide and sit on black sand. Go at either end of the day.
East fjords
The road bends north and empties out. Djúpivogur, Breiðdalsvík, Seyðisfjörður over the pass if it is open - this is where the tour buses turn back.
To Mývatn
Across the interior edge past Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe by volume, on a road that is gravel on one side of the river and asphalt on the other.
Mývatn
Pseudocraters, the Dimmuborgir lava field, Hverir's sulphur pits and the Nature Baths, which are the Blue Lagoon at a third of the price with a better view.
Akureyri and Húsavík
The northern capital, and whale watching out of Húsavík, which has the best strike rate in the country. Both easy days.
Tröllaskagi
The peninsula road through Siglufjörður and Ólafsfjörður - tunnels, herring history and almost no traffic.
West to Snæfellsnes
A long driving day to the peninsula that gets called Iceland in miniature and for once the phrase fits: glacier, lava, black church, Kirkjufell.
Snæfellsnes and back
Djúpalónssandur, Arnarstapi, the coast path between them, and then the last two hours into Reykjavík.
Good to know
Check road.is and vedur.is every morning between October and May; conditions change within hours and closures are absolute. A 2WD is enough for Route 1 in summer and not enough for anything with an F prefix. Fuel and food are the budget - self-catering roughly halves the daily cost, and every campsite and guesthouse has a kitchen. Do not stop on the road for photographs; the shoulders are soft and this is how tourists die here.
Shorter or longer?
Four or five more days for the most remote inhabited part of the country. Roads are slower than the map suggests and some are gravel.
South coast out and back over eight days. The full ring in winter is possible and regularly goes wrong.
Practical guide
Visa check for this route
Budget
Mid-range · per person · sharing a double room. Excludes international flights - they depend on where you fly from.
Editorial estimates · checked August 2026
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