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Icelandic Road Trip - The usual Ring Road and beyond

21st February 2025, 15:04 by Ananth Iyer

Iceland is a stunning and amazing country full of natural wonders . We saw many tourists, especially on the south coast around the Golden Circle.

BHPian gk_Bng recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Why Iceland?

Iceland is often called the “Land of Fire and Ice” , is one of the sparsely populated country with approximately 3,70,000 inhabitants and is a nature’s paradise. One can explore the hot springs, glaciers , lava fields , water falls , fjords . As we heard of the Volcano eruptions late December 2023 close to Reykjavik Airport , we were skeptical if we should commit for travel or postpone.. at the same excited if we could watch a rare live Lava eruptions .

With a largely un-spoilt and exquisite landscape, it's no wonder that it has inspired travellers and photographers from around the world.

After our epic drive across Norway in 2023, Iceland was the next logical option to explore !

Link to the Norway Travelogue:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...th-norway.html

We believed we could also take some of those pictures which often come as Google Backgrounds ..

Here are some teaser photos across Iceland ..

Where in Iceland ?

As we all know Iceland is an island and most tourists do the Golden Circle with short trips to the southern part. There are some who drive along the The Ring which is roughly 1300 km . The Ring Road circles the complete Iceland . One can start either clockwise or anti-clockwise from Reykjavik and return to the same place. It take roughly 7-8days or one can stretch by few days and comfortably do it in 10 days.

There are still some who go beyond the golden circle and The Ring route and take some additional trips along the way . Then we wanted to come to Iceland and explore it.

So we did just close to 4300 KM which also included traveling to the Highlands --> The Landmanalauger where we spent 1.5 days and included a night stay and doing full day hiking .

How long ?

After doing some research on the Iceland itinerary we realized that based on duration one spends in Iceland , we could cover the “Golden Circle “ with extension to south Iceland in about 5-7 days, or one could do the complete Ring route in about 10-11 days . There are few who travel more than 15 days and those who visit only the “Golden Circle” in about 3-4 days.

Based on our time and availability we decided for about 14 days . We decided also not to book rooms and hotels except for couple of them at the beginning.

This time too like our Norway trip, myself and my friend Prasad from UK planned for this Iceland Road Trip.

We chose the first 2 weeks of August and planned accordingly the bookings.

Preparation

This was the most important part . With the feedback we received and seeing the prices of restaurant's Menu, hotel accommodations costs and exorbitant prices for rental cars and fuel especially for a 4X4 vehicle, we wanted to save costs wherever we could.

We carried lots of Wagh Bhakhri chai , coffee sachets, fresh Theplas with pickles , ready to make Soups, Upma, Poha , Pongal, Pulav and a Rice cooker .

We wanted to buy only Bread & Cheese, Yoghurt and essentials .

We also carried sleeping bags , tents for 2 of us and used these during our trip.

Not visiting restaurants did help us save a lot as an average meal costs upwards of 80-100 USD for 2 persons.

Then ultimately the execution of the plan which I will cover the most part of this travelogue