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A wet empty two-lane road curving away above a grey lake shore, with mossed lava slopes on the right and snow-streaked hills on the far side under heavy cloud
A wet afternoon on an Icelandic road, with no other vehicle on it. Most of the country looks about like this, and almost none of the traffic goes to it.
Country brief · 64.1466°N 21.9426°W

Iceland

The south coast takes five days and the full ring road takes ten. Almost every visitor picks the first without realising it was a choice.

How long
Ten days for the full ring roadfive for the south coast alone
Getting around
Drive, because there are no trainsRoute 1 is paved the whole way round
When
Summer for the interior, winter for the lightthe two never overlap
Language
Icelandic, spoken by about 390,000English is universal in the trades a visitor meets
Money
The króna, and almost no cashcards everywhere, including the fuel pumps
Airports
Keflavík KEFReykjavík RKV, Akureyri AEY, Egilsstaðir EGS
How long

How many days do you need in Iceland?

Ten days for the full ring road. Five covers the south coast and stops there, and that is what most visitors do

Getting around

Do you need a car in Iceland?

Drive, because there are no trains. Route 1 is paved the whole way round; the highland F-roads need a 4x4 and open between late May and early July

When

When is the best time to visit Iceland?

Summer for the interior, winter for the light. The midnight sun runs 21 May to 23 July and the aurora season September to April, and the two never overlap

Language

What language is spoken in Iceland?

Icelandic, spoken by about 390,000 people. English is compulsory from the fourth year of school and is universal in the trades a visitor meets

Money

What money does Iceland use?

The króna, and almost no cash. Cards and contactless work everywhere including the fuel pumps, and tipping is not expected

Airports

Where do you fly into Iceland?

Keflavík KEF, 50 km from Reykjavík and about 45 minutes on the Flybus. Reykjavík RKV flies the domestic network, Akureyri AEY serves the north and Egilsstaðir EGS the east

Why you should visit

Ninety seconds on the country

Iceland sits on the seam where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart. The ground there is new, mostly bare, and still moving.

About 389,000 people live on it, roughly two thirds of them in the southwest corner. Everywhere else means an hour of driving between one thing and the next, with nothing built in between.

Five days from Keflavík covers the south coast properly and goes no further, which is the trip most visitors actually take. The full loop wants ten days if the days are not to become driving.

Which half of the year matters more than the number of days. Interior roads stay shut under snow until late May at the earliest, and the aurora needs a dark sky that summer never gives. No single week holds both.

Five Ways to Travel It

Pick how you want to travel. The towns, the things to do and the map all change with it.

An aerial view of a wide waterfall dropping over a dark cliff into a pool, with flat snow streaked moorland running away on both sides
Skógafoss from above, dropping sixty metres over the old sea cliff. The flat ground along the top is the plateau the river crosses to reach it.

Nature

The Best Places to Visit for Nature Travel in Iceland

Skógafoss falls sixty metres over a cliff that was the sea coast until the land rose out from under it. The ice cap feeds the river, and the plate boundary that lifted the cliff is still steaming a few valleys east.

Almost none of it needs a guide. Route 1 puts a car park and a made path at nearly every one, which is why a first week here covers more ground than a visitor expects.

Plan the trip

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