Iceland – Tips and Ideas – Memories of Everywhere

Rent a car

To travel around Iceland, you must rent a car. The type of car you should rent depends on the time of year you visit. I would suggest renting a jeep regardless, but keep in mind that they are usually more expensive. If you’re traveling during the winter months, I strongly recommend renting a 4×4. We visited at the end of February, thinking the weather would be fine, so we chose a Mazda 2. I’ll be honest, we had some struggles along the way. However, in the end, everything worked out, and both the car and we survived. We rented our car from Greenmotion, and they were fantastic—no problems at all. We made the reservation online, and on the day of pick-up, a driver took us to their office to get the car. The same process was followed on our way back.

Website: https://greenmotion.com/car-hire/iceland/keflavik-international-airport

Resultado de imagem para green motion mazda 2" — What we chose

GPS in Icelandic

Continuing with the car theme, we rented a car with GPS since we were driving for long hours and needed to make sure we could navigate to various destinations. Here’s a tip: when planning your trip, make sure you know the names of the places in Icelandic, not just in English. We didn’t think about this and, let’s just say, the first two trips were really difficult because we didn’t know how the places were called in that “unusual” language. Seriously, I’m trying to save you from major headaches here.

Fill up the gas tank

A life-saving tip: EVERY TIME you see a gas station, fill up your car—no exceptions. It doesn’t matter if your tank is half-full, or if you just filled it up in the last city. ALWAYS fill up when you have the chance because you might drive for miles without seeing another station. Trust me, you don’t want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank. Take the opportunity when you can. You’ll thank me later.

F roads

Before you pick up your car, make sure you know if you can drive on the “F roads.” What are F roads? These are the roads that provide access to the highlands of Iceland. They often have loose gravel, and some even feature deep and wide rivers that you have to cross. To drive on these roads, you need to rent a 4×4 vehicle, and it’s recommended that you travel with at least one other car in case something goes wrong. If you’re not a confident driver, I recommend avoiding these roads. Our Mazda 2 couldn’t handle these roads, and to be honest, most of them were closed due to bad weather anyway.

I am going to talk about two types of apps/websites: To help you on the road and To help you “catching” the Northern Lights

Help on the road

112 Iceland

You can download this app through this link: https://safetravel.is/112-iceland-app

This app have two functions:

Emergency Button: If you’re in trouble, pressing the red emergency button will send your current location via text to the 112 response center. Even if you’re in a remote area with no signal, there’s a possibility that a message will be sent.
Check-in Button: This lets emergency services know your current location, in case something goes wrong. It stores the last five locations you checked in from.

Using this app may sound paranoid, but Iceland can be a lonely place, especially if you’re lost, injured, or stranded without gas. We never had to use it, but we were glad to know it was available in case of an emergency.

Iceland Offline Map

Click to download the app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mapapps.mapyourtown.iceland&hl=en

I can’t stress enough how useful this app was. As the name suggests, you don’t need an internet connection to use it, and it’s incredibly helpful for finding your way or checking if you’re headed in the right direction.

The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration

If some roads are closed due to bad weather and you want to know whether it will affect your plans, check their website (it’s super helpful). Alternatively, you can call them at +354 522 1778 (English) or 1777 (Icelandic) to get updates on when the roads might reopen. The website is www.road.is.

On our first day, we were stuck in Reykjavík due to a big storm, and their website, as well as their phone service, helped us figure out when the road we wanted to take would reopen.

Help for Northern Lights

Aurora Forecast

This website was our go-to source for the Northern Lights, not only in Iceland but also in Norway: http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-forecast/

It provides a 3-day forecast, showing the strength of the aurora (higher or lower chances of seeing it).

Icelandic Met Office

Website: https://en.vedur.is/weat her/forecasts/aurora/

This site provides not only a Northern Lights forecast but also information about cloud coverage. To see the Northern Lights, three things are needed: the right geographical location (Iceland is perfect), darkness (i.e., night), and clear skies. Clear skies are often the most challenging factor, especially during the winter months. If you’re lucky enough to witness the Northern Lights, you can consider yourself fortunate because all the elements of nature aligned perfectly for you to experience this amazing phenomenon.