Reykjavík & the Ring Road, Iceland
Fire, ice, and geothermal everything. Drive the 1,300 km Ring Road in summer or hunt the aurora from a hot pool in winter.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
| Month | High | Low | Rain | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2° | -3° | 131 mm | |
| Feb | 2° | -3° | 130 mm | prime |
| Mar | 3° | -2° | 120 mm | prime |
| Apr | 6° | 1° | 111 mm | |
| May | 10° | 4° | 97 mm | |
| Jun | 13° | 7° | 83 mm | prime |
| Jul | 14° | 9° | 88 mm | prime |
| Aug | 14° | 9° | 107 mm | prime |
| Sep | 11° | 6° | 140 mm | prime |
| Oct | 6° | 2° | 128 mm | prime |
| Nov | 3° | 0° | 116 mm | |
| Dec | 2° | -3° | 131 mm |
30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $280 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Winter Lights Festival February
City lit up in the darkest month
Iceland Airwaves November
Music festival across Reykjavík
Worth knowing
A car, and that is the entire point. The Ring Road is around 1,300 kilometres and a week is the minimum that does not feel like driving. Buses connect the main towns but thinly, and everything worth stopping for is between them.
getting around · editorial
Keflavik, about forty-five minutes from Reykjavik by bus or hire car. Pick the car up at the airport rather than in town; the Ring Road starts from wherever you are standing.
getting there · editorial
F-roads legally require a 4x4, and standard hire insurance excludes river crossings and, notoriously, wind damage to car doors, which is a real and common claim here. Check road and weather conditions every morning before driving, not the night before.
know before · editorial
Card for everything, including petrol pumps, which are unattended and want a PIN rather than a signature. Cash is genuinely unnecessary. Tipping is not expected.
money · editorial
The interior and the F-roads are closed through the winter and well into early summer. In winter the Ring Road itself closes in sections at short notice during storms, which can strand you for a day or two in whichever village you reached.
when not to go · editorial
Reykjavik 101 is the old centre and walkable. After that the Ring Road is done in stages rather than from a base: the south coast around Vik and Hella, Hofn and the east fjords, Myvatn and Akureyri in the north, Snaefellsnes as a detour west. Book ahead outside the capital, because in many stretches there are only a handful of beds for a hundred kilometres.
where to stay · editorial
Quests
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Hallgrímskirkja
Seventy-four metres of concrete shaped as basalt columns.
Harpa
A honeycomb glass façade designed with Olafur Eliasson. Go in; it is free.
Sólfar
The steel boat on the waterfront. It is not a Viking ship, it is a dream of a ship.
Þingvellir
The oldest parliament in the world, from 930, between two tectonic plates.
Strokkur
It erupts every six to ten minutes, twenty metres high. Stand upwind.
Gullfoss
Two drops at right angles inside a canyon. The noise arrives first.
Reynisfjara
Black sand, basalt columns and sneaker waves. Never turn your back on the sea.
Jökulsárlón
Icebergs leaving the glacier for the sea, and washing back onto the beach like glass.
See
Walk out to the glacier tongue at Skaftafell
Eat
Eat a pylsur, the Icelandic hot dog, with everything on it
Pylsa with everything
Lamb hot dog with crisp onion and remoulade. Ask for "eina með öllu".
Plain skyr
It is not yoghurt; it is fresh cheese. People have eaten it since the Vikings.
Moment
Wait for the aurora on a dark road, away from town
A neighbourhood geothermal pool
Not the expensive lagoon: the local pool, with the hot pots and the pensioners.
Northern lights from the road
September to March, pulled over on the verge, engine off.
Trail
Glacier walk in crampons
Only with a guide. The ice moves and the crevasses shift every week.