Driving in Iceland: The Ring Road

Taking your time driving the Ring Road is necessary.

Iceland has a road that circles the country - called the “Ring Road” by the locals, but the traffic authorities have given in the number “1”.

The road does not circle the entire country, as the major peninsulas, like the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and the West Fiords are excluded. None the less this road is probably the most used road outside of Reykjavik and if you do any substantial amount of sight-seeing in Iceland you will probably use this road more or less. 

Tourists often ask if this road can be driven in a day or two. Well, as the road is around 1.200 km in length you theoretically can drive it in twelve to fifteen hours or so during the summer months. But why would you want to do that? Granted, you would be passing through amazingly varied landscapes but you wouldn’t be able to see any of the most fabulous sights at all. 

A much better way is to do like the locals and take your time - spending a week or two is what we do - and even then you wouldn’t be able to visit all the sights. 

So, do yourself a favour and take your time driving the Ring Road. You won’t regret it.