Western Iceland by Car, Summer 2023

Thermal Pools

Our first stop after renting the car at KEF was The Blue Lagoon. With very little sleep on the plane, we had no interest in a dip, but it had to be seen. It is a vast, man-made pool, with glamorous rock formations, a walk-up bar, chaises and an associated luxury hotel, with a Michelin-starred restaurant (I think.) I don’t understand why it’s on everyone’s must-do list, especially Rick Steves readers, who usually want to experience “local.” This is a manufactured, aspirational “luxury experience.”

Using our Rick Steves guide book (who reminds you that nude soap showers are required before bathing in a swimsuit), we did use Fontana and Krauma, alas on sequential days, because they are both “near” the Thingvellir National Park/UNESCO WHS. They were very different. With colored ceramic tiles, and a real lake available for cold plunges, Fontana was our favorite. It was mostly locals, and not so many American tourists. They bake a special ryebread in their thermal soil, but we skipped the daily (paid) dig-it-up, and just bought a partial loaf at retail. Fontana had a separate, shallow kid’s pool, and a sauna that was fed by a geyser, so it was more humid than you’d expect. OTOH, Krauma has a patina of Mini-Mansion (sorry) luxury, with black marble tiles, and soft padded outdoor flooring. But it was mostly Scandinavian tourists, and was simply “clean”, while Fontana was “sparkling clean.” That’s a subtle point, but I include the fact that the stand-up men’s vanity counter included not only make-up removal pads, but facial tissue. There was no facial tissue in either gender’s dressing room at Krauma.

I got the idea that nude showers were not enforced at Krauma. My wife reported that overly modest (i.e., American) women were clogging the dressing room toilets (2 only) as they changed into their suits in privacy. Both places permitted flip-flops except in the tubs. Slight sulfur odor in the water.

Note that as a practical matter (as in Napa, CA), the water has to be cooled in an outside pool before it can be used for bathing. You are in a totally artificial pond.

Car Rental

Like everything in Iceland, car rental is expensive. I ended up paying (with Avis insurances) $1,300 for five days/four nights at Avis, where I have a free membership. Plus gasoline, of course. They upgraded me from a basic-looking Suzuki Jimmy manual-transmission to a Hyundai 5-seat crossover automatic transmission. There was so much driving to do, that I was grateful for the automatic. And for the bigger tires, when we (surprise!) had to drive at least 50 total miles on unpaved well-maintained packed dirt roads. (Despite what the rental contract says.)

4WD is totally unnecessary for normal tourism in Iceland in the summer. Serious hikers might need 4WD for obscure (and probably dangerous) steep hiking, that should have a guide. Waterfall Parking lots vary from good asphalt to poorly-maintained gravel with potholes. Some of them have very narrow aisles and small stalls. You don’t want a Chevy Suburban here.

The big roads are barely two lanes wide. Typical speed limits 90 KMH rural, 70 and then 50 approaching towns, 30KMH in town. I hugged the side white line when a bus or truck passed the other way. On the unpaved roads, they were usually so narrow that you had to slow down for opposing traffic. There are many one-lane bridges, and many rural blind hill-summits, the only place where the road momentarily divides into two completely separate lanes (thank goodness!)

I partly chose Avis because I wanted to rent at the airport and return downtown. Most of the (many) discounters don’t have a second location. The second Avis office was one mile from our departure cruise port, so I dropped my wife off with the luggage and walked back from the Avis return.

I paid for the extra Wind insurance and Gravel insurance. But the KEF agent said, for our three destinations you don’t need the $0 CDW, the ordinary CDW is enough.

Transportation

I immediately discarded the idea of driving the whole Ring Road. My unhappiness with four very long days of driving indicates that I was correct. We did not use any tour providers, but I urge you to consider either same or multi-day tours from Reykjavik. One of our stays required many miles of driving on packed dirt roads.

Those three major western Iceland regions are “within reach” of Reykjavik. But you have to measure your desire to, maybe, stay in one urban hotel, against the retracing of miles back to Reykjavik, from a daytrip.

The roads in Iceland are kept in decent condition, but you should check their roads website for scheduled construction. I’m talking about locations where traffic may alternate-direction for 5 kilometers (!), and most of those KM may be loose gravel. That requires special driving, and long spaces to protect your car from thrown gravel (as well as expensive additional rental insurance.)

The dirt roads have something in common with rural U.K. or Normandy, sometimes requiring pulling off to let opposing traffic pass. The lanes are not as wide as in the US, and it’s impossible to go over 55 MPH. There are not enough public bathrooms, except at the biggest attractions.

I disapprove of urban scooters from Silicon Valley, both for boorish parking by users, and disregard for infrastructure costs and rules, by the Bro's. They're also dangerous without a helmet. But we saw two brands in Iceland, Zolo and Hopp. In the tiny (>1000) town of Grundarfjordor (cruise ship stop, we'd been there with the car), I downloaded the Hopp app, and found there were ? 15 or so scooters in town. We got two at the swimming pool, to drive 1.3 miles to the (sorry) Game Of Thrones North of the Wall waterfall. This worked fine, although the only place to ride is the narrow two-lane asphalt main highway. We passed by fewer than eight cars in our direction, each way. One pickup truck swung into the opposing lane for the pedestrian-crossing island that would otherwise have forced him to halt for us.

Attractions

The most notable thing about our ship’s stops in the East were the small size of the towns, three of them under 1,000 population. This means no taxis, and that most “attractions” require motorized travel. There are not enough hotels anywhere in Iceland.
We started with Rick’s “Iceland” book. Perhaps we focused too much on waterfalls. On the South Coast, everything is 40 minutes or more apart. Our first drive, from Blue Lagoon, was 2 hours and 15 minutes, and the only thing we “skipped” was Bobby Fischer’s grave. The principal part of the Snaefellsnes peninsula is much denser with sights, so that you cannot hope to see ALL of them in one day, even with a personal car.

It is necessary to backtrack for an hour or more to get to the Golden Circle from the far end of the South Coast drive. On our arrival day, this left me exhausted at the wheel. But I would urge that you try to include the South Coast, especially if you can get a room there.

Best Attraction: Hands down, Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park and UNESCO WHS. This is also a rare exposed rift valley. A must-visit, on the Golden Circle.
Best Waterfall: I just can't answer this. Each of them has its own "personality." I also have trouble not factoring in whether you have to cross a level but muddy meadow, or climb a 20-65 minute trail to get there. In fact, many non-remote waterfalls have a line, or crowd, to approach them the closest, or, rarely, touch the spray or cross behind. And this last bit of uneven walking adds at least 20 minutes to your visit, if not more. I suppose we saw about 12 major waterfalls.
Best Food: Despite our high budget, we did not eat in any ambitious restaurants. It just took too much planning and too much time away from sightseeing. We stopped at Rick's recommended Gamla fjosid (South Coast drive), which "looks" closed. It has considerable charm, but would be slow service on a busy day.

Our guesthouse host suggested formal dining (in Stykkisholmur, Snaefellsnes Peninsula ) at https://narfeyrarstofa.is/) and https://sjavarpakkhusid.is/). Because the second is a two-hour Tasting Menu, we had one dinner at the first, which was superb seafood. However, the pastry dessert was not the equal of the other courses. Reservations ESSENTIAL.

Hotels

Iceland does not have enough hotel rooms for peak season. I’m sure some smaller hotels close down for part of the winter. (I’m not talking about Reykjavik, where we did not stay.) If you want to sleep beyond Reykjavik, I suggest you reserve four to eight months in advance. It’s a bad comparison, but the famous tomato greenhouse on the Golden Circle was fully booked for (lunch only) four months out. Luckily, they welcome gardeners and other tourists who do not have reservations, and the alcohol bar is not reserved.

Prices vary so much with "yield management" and season that it's not worth going to my credit card statements to say what we paid, but nothing under $300 a night. (We are mature, experienced travelers and no longer take low-budget trips.)

We stayed two nights at the luxury Geysir Hotel, about 5 years old. It was (subject to high prices in Iceland) maybe what Rick calls “a worthwhile Splurge.”) Their restaurant won’t win any Michelin stars, but it was just fine. Food reservations required, but (July 1 or so) easy to get. Huge Deluxe room with French Balcony, huge modern bathroom. This was the only room category available four months in advance, and sold out just after I bought it. Strangely dark and atmospheric hallways. Easy private parking. Quiet. Perhaps to avoid road noise, the site is lower than the road, and you can only see steam from the geyser field, not actual geysers.

Our second stay was two nights at a new-ish, rural place, Drangar Country Guesthouse. (This was a jumping off point for the Snaefellsnes peninsula loop drive.) It has a lovely sea view, and substantial continental breakfast buffet in the morning. The shiny new, purpose-built rooms are compact but comfortable. Great private bathrooms and plenty of hot water. (2020 Iceland architecture award-winner.) The main road is unpaved, 25 minutes from a paved road, and 45 minutes from the nearest restaurant. It’s well run, and it was not hard to get a reservation. They use an internet service, but also take email/phone reservations. Note that Drangar is sort of an estate name, actually the previous dairy farm. It’s not the name of a town.

Parking and Rest Rooms

Most big waterfalls and the like have marked parking just off the road. They mostly have paperless recording of license plate number, while collecting 700 to 1200 ISK from your credit card. One registration kiosk, at Kirkjufellfoss, instantly showed us the photo it had taken of our license plate. I suppose that was a warning: “Do not abandon this transaction!” In rare cases, we had to search for an open space. Most lots were paved, a few were gravel, with potholes. Many waterfalls require a short walk, just a few require a substantial walk. In the East, a few require an uphill hike (improved but sometimes muddy trail) from 15 minutes to 70 minutes.

We saw only one or two wooden boxes to collect toilet fees. Not every waterfall has toilets, although it may be fair to say that most do. I think Rick should add this to his book. This can be important, because the two main waterfalls in Grundarfjordor are nice, level walks (0.5 miles and 1.2 miles, in opposite directions) from town. But neither has toilets. This matters to a 72-year old man, I don't know about you. We did use Hopp Silicon Valley scooters in this town, even though I don't approve of their cavalier approach to infrastructure resources and rules.

Major sites and big gas station canteens seemed to sell pre-made sandwiches from the same vendor. They were fine, if boring after a while. We found no hot food (well, maybe a soup pot) at such sites, not even at UNESCO WHS Thingvellir National Park. Rick covers roadside restaurants, but that takes more time away from sights.

Orchids

This is not important to most readers here, but Iceland has at least three miniature wild (terrestrial, not epiphitic) orchids. We found them in drier meadows right around at least three popular waterfalls. Unless you know what a true "miniature" (i.e. multiple blooms 1/4" wide, 4" mature height) orchid is, you won't find them. There are usually similar non-orchids nearby. Of course, they should be left undisturbed. We got down on our knees to put our eyes close to the plants.

July seemed like a prime wildflower and lupin season. We were told that lupins were intentionally imported to hold down soil created very slowly in former lava fields. Unfortunately, they are now out-competing native plants, and are considered an invasive nuisance.

Tim, thank you for your enjoyable and informative report. Glad you liked Iceland. We went in early April a few years ago - early summer would be a different experience, with daylight, temperatures, etc. Sounds like wind is a constant, year-round.

We only soaked at Fontana - glad to read your assessment, and that you also found it so good.

Lupines are wonderful here in Colorado (and native ???) right now. It’s interesting that the lupins were originally desired in Iceland, but now are too much of a good thing. Snow hasn’t melted at many of the higher elevations here - did you see lots of snow, either low or high? The orchids must have been fantastic to see.

I may not have stressed enough how dreary and cold the weather was (except 2-5 PM) for the last week of June and the first week of July, in 2023. The weather was lovely for the two days at the end of our trip. Some locals made a joke similar to that of northern New Englanders who say that they have "Six months of good sledding, and six months of poor sledding."

We only had snow hit our vehicle on the described East fjords ship bus-excursion through a mountain pass. We saw attractive snow on all the major mountains, but note that they are not as tall as mountains elsewhere. This statement needs fact-checking, but I think we saw a lovely distant view of snowy Snaefellsbaer from Reykjavik. I think the Game of Thrones mountain (Kirkjufell) had zero snow on it. Note that many of these low mountains are not safe to summit without a guide. (We're not that kind of hikers, anyway.)