I have a 10 days ring road trip planned in Feb 2024 & I have a couple of questions.
Do you think this is perhaps a bad idea?
We also have a 450 km continuous journey between Búðir & Akureyri on one of the days. Will this be too long? since i've heard the weather could be unpredictable
what places on the ring road i gotta be most carefull about?
if doing the ring road is too tricky, Any suggestions of an alternative itinerary?
There is a FaceBook page called Travel Iceland, where one of the featured posts is all about driving in Iceland in the winter. I suggest you read it to get some practical information. The roads can be snowy, icy, and very windy. You need to check weather reports and road closures daily or multiple times a day.
10 days is just about long enough for a Ring Road trip in the summer. I think it is unwise to attempt this in the dead of winter.
Your trip between Búðir & Akureyri goes over a mountain pass and can be treacherous in the winter.
My suggestion would be a day or so in Reykjavik, a day Golden Circle, three or four days south coast as far as Höfn (depending on weather), and maybe a day on Snæfellsnes peninsula. Spend the night before your flight home close to the airport.
Hey naalehuretiree
After having read some of your discussion threads, I think you know your stuff.
Could you please help me.
What if we do a trip between Snæfellsnes peninsula (Grundarfjörður, Búðir) ---> Reykjavík ---> Reynisfjara ---> Svínafellsjökull --> Hofn. We also want to go up North East, to see the ice caves.
Am basically skipping the North side
And add golden circle as well.
would this be ok? in last 2 weeks of feb yeah...
I also would like to know if we follow vedur.is for the weather, let's say we check it the night before & in the morning and everything looks good, can we assume that it all would be okay for the day?
Like how uncertain is the weather?
How long could our drives be for? 4 hrs threshold?
Is an 8-9 hrs drive considered too long?
I agree, this would be doable tin the summer but not a smart winter trip. Your idea of sticking to Snaefellsness and the south coast is much better now. Do not try to do days with 8-9 hours of driving as that is just too much.
February is almost here, so I urge you go figure out the details of your new plan and get lodging booked. Even though February is considered off season, Iceland overall has become so popular that even in February the places outside of Reykjavik book up. Make sure that you are back close to the airport at least a full day before your return flight. One of our past trips was in February, and we had one day that every road in the country was closed. So you need to be flexible, and make sure the end of the trip is feasible with being close tot he airport.
We head back this week for our 6th trip. I can't get there soon enough, and even after all of these trips, we still have so much more to go see. I think one could live in Iceland for years and never see everything. It is beyond anything you can imagine!
Hi, Howard. Your revised itinerary looks a lot better.
I would not plan long driving days, just because you'll see so many things you want to stop to see and you don't want to have to worry about getting to your next lodging. I am a bit concerned that you are from India and I wonder how much experience you have driving in winter conditions. Just yesterday many roads on the south side were closed due to high winds.
I have been to Iceland three times, but not in winter. Cold is not my thing anymore. What I know about Iceland in the winter is what I read on several forums -- Travel Iceland Facebook and TripAdvisor Iceland forum. Both are very active with visitors who can relate their personal experience and with locals who live there.
You do realize that you need a guide to go into ice caves? You don't need to go beyond the south coast to visit one (you mentioned north east, which is not correct.
