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.

An Icelandic gravel road.

Some tourists are not sure how difficult driving in Iceland will be, in terms of unpaved roads and bad weather. Of course many opt for the bus tours for pure convenience but there is no denying that they take away much of the freedom of being you own driver.

The fact is you are very unlikely to come across unpaved roads on the main tourist routes and navigation is fairly easy with a simple road map. As ever, you need to keep an eye on the weather and take sensible precautions as you'd do at home.

Your own car (or rental) is perhaps the best choice if you are visiting many attractions. Also, when you are your own driver you can spend as much time at the attractions as you want, not as much as the bus schedule gives. And some say Iceland's beauty is something to be experienced without crowds and if that is true, a bus trip is perhaps not the right choice. 

Driving in Iceland is easy, during the summer months at least, but many tourists are not accustomed to unpaved roads. Each year we see a few accidents that can be traced to the driver’s unfamiliarity of car handling on gravel roads. Most attractions can however be reached on paved roads, so don’t worry if you are not used to gravel roads.

Weather is another big concern for some because Iceland's weather can be very unpredictable, with rapid changes coming with little warning. You need not worry about this during the summer months (you could have rain in the morning and sun in the afternoon, but that’s about it) but during the winter months you would be well advised to take a good look at the weather forecast. The weather forecast is very accurate up to three and even five days ahead. Here is a link to the Icelandic Met Offices’ web. 

Road signs are plenty and follow European standards for the most part. This means that the signs contain symbols but not words which means you do not have to understand Icelandic to get around. 

Rest stops, as known on Europe’s highways, are not that frequent but you can pull over almost anywhere you like, if you for some reason are not comfortable driving. 

As for Icelandic drivers they are for the most part very considerate and courteous but be aware they tend not to use their blinkers very often.