SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT PRO TIPS ABOUT DRIVING IN ICELANDHow does one get around Iceland? Well, if you

SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT PRO TIPS ABOUT DRIVING IN ICELANDHow does one get around Iceland? Well, if you’re trying to get around Reykjavik, you can certainly get around quite easily with their bus transit. But if you’re hoping to explore the country, you have a few options. You can either book tours that will take you around in charter buses or vans. You can rent your own car and drive around. Or, you can hitchhike around, which is apparently extremely safe and commonplace in Iceland. I’m not one to hitchhike, and I hate organized tours, so I opted to rent my own car. I rented from Avis/Budget at the Keflavik Airport, and they gave me a small little Hyundai, which was perfect for travelling alone. They’ll recommend you get all sorts of insurance for sand/ash protection and a ton of other things. It’s up to you, but I got the basic insurance, which still ended up costing me nearly $400 USD for 9 days. Pro Tip 1: Buy insurance for your vehicle online before you get to the airport, and do it at least 24 hours before you’re scheduled to pick up the vehicle because it costed 5x more for the insurance when I got it at the counter. It would have been around $8 a day but ended up being $40 a day for the car I had. Pro Tip 2:To get around Iceland, I recommend either getting a mobile hotspot internet for your car (a MiFi device), or you can do what I did and download offline maps on my Google Maps app and then use that without ever needing internet on the road. The only downfall is you don’t get road closure or traffic information, but that’s not too necessary when you’re driving around Iceland.Pro Tip 3: Before you get on the road, here are two extremely important websites you should look at when you have wifi. https://safetravel.is/http://www.road.is/http://en.vedur.is/The thing about Iceland is the weather is insane. It will change in a matter of seconds, and you may not see it coming. Safetravel.is is a great website because it gives you a lot of practical safety advice on traversing the country. You can also upload your travel itinerary, and in the event that you’re lost or something happens to you, rescue parties can find you based on your plans you’ve sent to them. Road.is is super awesome because it tells you about road conditions and road closures. The main highway in Iceland is Route 1, also known as Ring Road  (Þjóðvegur 1 or Hringvegur). This road is normally open and okay to travel on when it’s NOT winter, but the other roads in the country are often affected by the weather. I used this website a lot when I was traveling through snowy parts of the country on the northern peninsula. Many roads were icy and impassable, so I made a detour and chose roads that were in good condition. Last website. Check out the weather forecast and aurora borealis forecast on en.vendur.is. The weather is erratic in Iceland, but the forecasters are pretty good 1-2 days out. Always check the weather the day and night before you have big plans! Ok, anyway, as far as roads are concerned, you’ll likely be on Route 1 for a large chunk of your trip. Near Reykjavik, the road is maybe 4 lanes wide with 2 lanes in each direction. But the large majority of Ring Road is 2 lanes, and many bridges you’ll encounter are 1 lane, so you’ll have to yield to oncoming traffic pretty often. Even if it’s a sunny day, you are likely to encounter windy conditions. For me and my tiny Hyundai, we were blowing around like crazy in 60 mph winds on the southern coast of Iceland. And when a huge semi would come in the opposite direction, my car would wobble on the road and almost be uncontrollable. So, definitely be careful driving, and check road conditions before you leave! Pro Tip 4: Getting gasoline can be a challenge because you could go for hours without seeing a gas station. Most gas stations you encounter will have a self-service option where you can use them 24/7. However, you need to be careful. To use a self-service pump, you need to have a credit or debit card with a chip AND A PIN NUMBER. My credit cards all have chips, but I never set up a pin number for my CREDIT cards. My DEBIT cards however have a pin number. After trying my credit cards unsuccessfully and freaking out thinking I would be stranded, I gave my debit card a try, and it worked! Unfortunately I got whacked with bank fees, because my debit card isn’t really meant to be used internationally. C’est la vie…! Also, besides Ring Road, you’ll probably encounter a lot of gravel roads with potholes. Drive slowly and carefully through these to avoid damage to your undercarriage! Your rental car company will charge your ass for that!Alrighty, now that we got that all out of the way, happy driving! -- source link

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