A visitor's gazette · Iceland
A ring of towns in weather
Route 1 holds the island together. Wind and ice decide whether you move.
The island
Towns on a ring, highlands inside
Iceland is easier to read as a ring than as a country. Route 1, the Hringvegur, stitches the towns a visitor actually uses. Reykjavík sits in the southwest. A day's loop inland takes you to Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss. The south coast is farms, old sea cliffs and a black beach. The north has a real town at Akureyri. The highlands sit inside the ring and stay shut until the snow goes.
Weather is the timetable. Wind closes roads. Ice closes them. A clear morning can be a whiteout by lunch. Check the road agency before you leave a car park, not after you are already committed to a pass.
Youto Inform is independent. We do not sell rooms, seats or passages. Where a figure moves, we send you to the operator rather than freeze a number that will be wrong next week.
Start here
Three ways into the island
Most first days sit in the capital, on the Golden Circle, or along the south coast. The north is a different trip.
-
Reykjavík
Church, harbour, pond
A working harbour and a concrete tower. The street grain is still a fishing town that got a parliament.
-
Golden Circle
A day's loop inland
Þingvellir, Strokkur and Gullfoss. Distances that fit in daylight if you do not linger at every rope.
-
South coast
Cliffs, then black sand
Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, then Reynisfjara. Sneaker waves on that beach are not a rumour.
On the ring road, north
A tunnel east of Akureyri
Route 1, the Hringvegur, runs the island. East of Akureyri it no longer has to climb the old mountain pass.
- Vaðlaheiðargöng. A 7.4 km road tunnel on Route 1, just east of Akureyri, between Eyjafjörður and Fnjóskadalur. Opened 21 December 2018.
- What it replaces. The Víkurskarð pass, a 21 km stretch that often closed in winter.
- What it shortens. The drive between Akureyri and Húsavík by about 16 km.
The old pass remains as a free-weather alternative when it is open. Inside the tunnel the rock is warm in places; geothermal water was met during the bore. Number-plate cameras record passages. The operator's public notice is on veggjald.is.
Further out
The rest of the ring
The highlands are a different road class. The north is a town and a tunnel. Arriving starts at Keflavík.
-
North
Akureyri and the fjord
The northern town, then Goðafoss, the tunnel, Mývatn and Húsavík.
-
Route 1
How the ring is used
Seasons, one-lane bridges, fuel gaps. Not a race.
-
Highlands
F-roads in summer
River fords, closed gates, plates that are not allowed off Route 1.