How I Spent 7 Days Driving Ring Road in Iceland

nicole elizabeth
May 4
22 min read

Updated: May 13

Let me preface by saying I know that 7 days is nowhere near enough time to truly experience Ring Road, but our intention with this trip was to see as much as we could in the little time that we had in this beautiful country! We tried to minimize driving and maximize sightseeing and activities as much as possible, but even with some of the longer drives, the always changing scenery made it hard to dread them! I had a rather ambitious itinerary going into the trip, and we had to make some on the fly decisions to prioritize, skip or spend more time at certain places. After some trial and error, if I were to do ring road again, I would recommend spreading it out across 9-10 days, but if you only have 7 days, here was the itinerary that worked for us.

Keep in mind, my trip was in late October, so we only had daylight from about 8:00am-5:00pm, the trick is to get on the road as early as possible and aim to arrive at your destination as the sun is rising to maximize time

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one of the links and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products and services that I genuinely use and trust.

Day One: Arrive at Keflavik Aiport, Golden Circle Highlights, Vik

We had an overnight flight from Newark, NJ to Keflavik and arrived in Iceland around 6:15am Iceland time. I noticed when we were looking at flights, it was pretty common for it to be an overnight flight arriving early in the morning. We booked our flight through Icelandair, Iceland's budget airline and I personally loved it! I know budget airlines are hit or miss, but we had great service, the seats were roomy enough and comfortable, and we were given a small pillow and blanket for the flight. We decided beforehand that this day, we didn't want stop anywhere first to sleep if we didn't have to. When we landed, because two of the group were able to sleep on the plane and felt safe to drive (and after a redbull I was ready to be the best passenger princess ever!) we decided not to stop anywhere to nap.

I know that getting off of an overnight flight and hopping right on the road isn't realistic or desirable for most people, and something cool that is offered at some hotels and guesthouses near the airport is "Nap and Go" where you can stay at one of these hotels for only a few hours to nap and recharge when it's too early to check into your actual hotel.

We rented our car from Go Car Rental (Fuglavik 43, 230 Keflavik, Iceland) which had a free shuttle from the airport to the car rental agency even early in the morning. We had a very good experience with this rental company and it was quick and easy to get our car.

Recommendation #1: Make sure to take some time to really shop around and explore all rental car options. I highly recommend reading reviews on different rental car companies because there are so many options! Websites like Discover Cars are great for showing a variety of rental options without having to check every individual website.

Recommendation #2: When booking your car, you also need to take into consideration the time of year you are visiting. Knowing we were going in late October, we knew there was a chance we would encounter some wintery conditions, therefore we really took some time to consider a car that had AWD and would be good in the snow if need be. 4WD or AWD is a good idea at all times of year when driving around ring road as some of the side roads aren't paved, but definitely a necessity if visiting near the winter months.

Recommendation #3: Pay attention to whether the car is manual or automatic! I noticed that during this trip as well as an upcoming trip to Europe that I'm planning a lot of the car options were manual.

Immediately after picking up our car, we made the 50 minute drive to Thingvillir National Park. The first thing we did when we arrived here was grab breakfast at Thingvellir Tourist Information Centre Cafe. After grabbing breakfast, we spent a lot of time exploring the park and taking in the first real beauty we got to experience of Iceland! Thingvellir was the location of the world's oldest existing parliament, Alpingi which was founded in 930 AD. This was a popular spot for Icelanders to gather to make laws and settle disputes. This is also the site where Iceland declared their independence from Denmark in 1944. The park lies in a ririft valley where Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet and slowly drift apart. What's neat about this park is that you can tailor it to your schedule, whether you only have an hour or you have most of the day. If you only have 1-2 hours like we did, I would spend it walking around some of the shorter walking trails and through the rift valley. Here you can see things such as the Oxararfoss Waterfall, Thingvellir Church and Cemetary and just take in the picturesque scenery. If you have a little bit more time in the park, you can really take some time to explore some of the longer trails and if you're up for it, you can actually book an excursion to snorkel at the Silfra Fissure which lies between two tectonic plates!

After finishing up at Thingvellir, we headed to our next destination about 1.5 hours eastward: Seljalandsfoss Waterfall standing at 200 ft tall. I have never experienced a waterfall this tall and was in immediate awe the second we stepped out of the car! The main trail here even takes you behind this waterfall! Since it was already rainy and because we had a lot more to see before going to our first airbnb, we chose not to as we didn't want to risk getting soaked. When you pull off of ring road, there is a small parking lot where you can park for free. The main trail is an easy, flat, .4 mile trail, but be careful it can get slippery the closer you get to the falls. I recommend waterproof shoes with good traction!

Recommendation #4: Really take the time to walk around and explore some of these waterfall areas. There are several little walking paths you can take around the main waterfall that lead to a few other smaller waterfalls that were much less crowded, and even though not as spectacular, were equally as beautiful.

Our self-guided waterfall tour continued and we headed to our next stop, only about 30 minutes away- Skogafoss Waterfall. Another waterfall that I was absolutely in awe of the second I saw it! I don't know which one I liked better as they are both so different. Skogafoss is surrounded by black sand and is also about 200 feet tall, but is much wider than Seljalandfoss at 82 feet wide. Unfortunately we went on a rather gloomy day, but apparently on sunnier days, you have a chance of seeing a double rainbow here! Similar to the first waterfall, right off of ring road, there is a pretty large, free parking lot just feet away from the falls. There are a couple of trail options here, the first being the trail to the base of the waterfall. This is a very easy, only 2-3 minute or so flat walk and is great for photo ops. Another option is to take the stairs to the top of the waterfall, which is what we did. This is about .5 miles roundtrip with about 400 stairs. Due to the stairs, this is definitely more of a moderate hike, but you're met with panoramic waterfall views once at the top! Oh and there's plenty of sheep along the way to say hello. The third option is the long distance, more difficult Fimmvorouhals Trail which takes you above the waterfall upstream to dozens of hidden waterfalls.

After seeing the first few of many Icelandic waterfalls of this trip, we made the 30 minute drive to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. Parking is also free here and the parking lot is just a few minute walk from the beach. The beach is located right off of route 215 from ring road. This was my first experience seeing a true back sand beach and it was such a unique sight! This is probably Iceland's most famous black sand beach and is located right outside the town of Vik. Here you can find basalt columns, cave formations and huge sea stacks. During the summer, puffins are also commonly seen here. Be careful, are there were warning signs all over to not get too close to the water because even if the waves look low, they can sneak up out of nowhere, and they're strong and powerful! We got to admire the beautiful basalt columns and watch our first amazing Icelandic sunset, despite the clouds!

Since it was basically dark by the time we left the beach, we decided it'd be the best idea to head into Vik, get an early dinner and head to our Airbnb so we could get to bed a little early. Vik is the southernmost village in Iceland and is a popular stopping point for people traveling the south coast of Iceland. Vik has a few shops, lodging options, grocery stores and an N1 gas station. We made the 10 minute drive into Vik to grab dinner at The Soup Company. I had read great things about this restaurant and we were not disappointed!! I got a cauliflower chickpea soup and my mom and aunt got the chili in black bread bowls, all were amazing! We ended the night with crepes at Crepes.Is food truck before heading to our airbnb. This is the airbnb I stayed in near Vik, the hosts were great and the space was exactly what we needed!

Day Two: Glaciers, Ice Lagoons, Hofn

We started off day two pretty early, in fact it was still dark when we checked out of our airbnb. Our goal was to not only maximize our day, but we also wanted to catch the sunrise at our first destination. We made the 15 or so minute drive to Solheimasandur Black Sand Beach to check out the wrecked US Navy DC Plane. There is a bus that takes you from the parking lot to the actual wreckage, however, it only runs between 10:00am and 5:00pm and costs $25. While it does save significant time, you can also walk from the parking lot to the site, which is what we chose to do. The walk is about 45 mins each way but is completely flat! You can read a little more about the history behind this plane/site here

After spending the first part of our morning at the plane wreckage, we headed back into Vik to grab breakfast at Lava Bakery and Cafe before making our first longer drive of 2 hours to Svinafellsjokull Glacier. Day 1 was a waterfall day, and Day 2 was going to be a glacier day! Anytime we had a longer drive, we made sure to take plenty of pull offs anytime we saw something that we wanted to see! I also learned that some of the road signs have this symbol (pictured below) on them, indicating it is a popular viewpoint/photo spot!

We spent a lot of time walking around the area of Svinafellsjokull Glacier as this was the first glacier any of us had really ever seen before! This is an outlet glacier of the much larger Vatnajokull Glacier. This glacier is located in Vatnajokull National Park and is known for cinematic scenery and dramatic crevasses. This glacier is located right off of ring road, however the access road to the parking lot is a bumpy gravel road. The main viewpoint is about a 5-7 minute walk from the parking lot. You can book glacier hiking tours here as well! There was a lot to see in the area that we visited, and we were really taking advantage of the lack of crowds here!

Recommendation #5: Take advantage of driving Ring Road during the shoulder months (Sept-Oct) (April-May), the crowds are nowhere near as bad as they are during peak season, and even though Iceland summer can be beautiful, we honestly had great weather 90% of the time, and were able to beat the true winter weather. I truly think the weather is just unpredictable there no matter what time of year!

After we finished exploring what we could of Svinafellsjokull, we headed to our next glacier spot about 40 mins eastward: Fjallsarlon Glacier Lagoon, also located in Vatnajokull National Park. This glacier lagoon is at the base of the Fjallsjokull Glacier, another glacier outlet of Vatnajokull. This was another peaceful spot and the crowds were very minimal. There is a free parking lot off of ring road, just a short walk away from the main viewpoint. Also at this glacier lagoon, there is a visitor center, you can book small boat tours (I believe this may only be during the Summer months). I was more and more impressed with each glacier stop we made! The beauty of this area was so unique and picturesque.

Afterwards, we headed to our last glacier stop of the day, only about 20 minutes away- Jokullsarlon Glacier Lagoon, and all I can say about this place is WOW! This was definitely one of my favorite stops, and I might be biased because we got here during golden hour, so the light was perfectly reflecting off of the blue and white icebergs, but it was such a beautiful stop! I tried to capture the scenery the best I could, but pictures truly don't do this place justice! This lagoon is located at the edge of Vatnajokull Glacier and as the glacier retreated, it became filled with very large icebergs that have broken off from the glacier. Once again, parking here is free and is located right off of ring road. It's a very short walk from the parking lot to the lagoon. If you have the extra time, there's actually a ton of excursions/activities you can book here to really get the full experience. GetYourGuide has a ton of options for some activities in and around Jokullsarlon Glacier Lagoon.

For one of our last stops, we headed right across the street to Diamond Beach to actually watch the sunset, another stop that all I can say is wow! There is a large parking lot here that is just a short walk to the beach. Diamond Beach is another black sand beach where icebergs from Jokulsarlon wash up on shore. The contrast between the black sand and the blue-clear icebergs was so beautiful! The icebergs are most prevalent in the morning, and while I would've liked to experience the beach early in the morning, I would not trade the sunset we got to watch!

Recommendation #6: Visit Diamond beach early in the morning for the best chance at seeing the beautiful giant ice chunks.

After watching the sunset at Diamond Beach, we made the hour or so drive into Hofn where we grabbed dinner at Kaffi Hornid. I really liked the food here as well, and the service was great! Hofn is known as the lobster capital of Iceland, which I didn't realize when we were there, and is located in southeastern Iceland. Hofn has several hostels and hotels, supermarkets, gas stations, and ATMs. We stayed at the Hofn Inn Guesthouse for the night and had a good experience here as well. This was night #1 of going out searching for the northern lights as well, unfortunately, an unsuccessful one!

Day Three: Ice Cave Tour

Day three started off by backtracking about 30 minutes down to the Glacier Adventure basecamp to do our glacier ice cave tour. This was a last minute addition to our trip, and I'm so glad we made it work in our schedule! We grabbed breakfast at the cafe on the property called Restaurant Museum before heading out on our tour. I have a whole separate post that goes more in depth about the actual tour that you can read about here.

The tour took about 4 hours, so we decided that we would just make the 3.5 hour drive straight through to Seydisfjordur, the next town we were staying in and pull off at any cool spots we saw along the way! (In the time it took us to drive here, it turned from mountains, to beaches, to green rolling hills, to snow!

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in this town around 6:00pm or so, the entire town had already shut down, so we stopped at Seydisfjardarkirkja Church and grabbed some pizza pockets at the grocery store before heading to our airbnb for the night. This was also night 2 of unsuccessfully trying to chase the northern lights!

Day Four: Northern Iceland + Husavik

Day four started off pretty early as we had about a 1.5 hour drive to our first stop at Studalagil Canyon. This was a beautiful canyon made of basalt columns with turquoise water running through it! This is more of an "off the beaten path" stop, and there are two main viewpoints. The first is the East Side which has canyon access. This trail is about 2.5 miles round trip and you can park at Grund Farm to find the trail head. This easy trail takes you right down to the actual river! Because it was absolutely freezing when we came here, we decided to just stick to the West Side, which had the viewing platform and was a quicker stop. To access this area, you can park just off of route 923 and make the short walk to the viewing platforms. This offers overhead views of the basalt columns and river down below. This is also a drone friendly area!

After finishing up with our time at Studalagil, we made the 1 hour and 45 minute drive to Dettifoss Waterfall, however, along the way, we drove into an absolute winter (in October) wonderland of wide open fields just covered in snow, so of course we stopped for at this spot for a bit to play in the snow!

Finally, we made it to Dettifoss Waterfall, and I swear, just like the glaciers, every waterfall I saw just got better and better! Located in northeast Iceland, Dettifoss Waterfall is found in Vatnajokull National Park and is Europe's most powerful waterfall. You can tell how powerful this waterfall is because we got wet just standing on the overlook above it! It was pretty snowy here as well when we went, but because it was sunny, we got to experience a rainbow right above the falls. You can access this waterfall two different ways, the first being from the west side, which provides easy, paved access or by the east side which offers a closer view but is a little bit rougher to get to. From Dettifoss, you can walk right over to it's sister waterfall Selfoss Waterfall- just as equally as beautiful! Selfoss has more of a horse-shoe shaped cascade and flows over basalt cliffs. Access to this waterfall is limited during the winter season, and I definitely recommend wearing waterproof footwear with good traction as the ground surrounding the falls can get slippery.

After spending time at the waterfalls, we headed to our next stop, about 55 minutes away, Hverfjall Volcano/Kerid Crater. Our intention was to stop at Myvatn Nature Baths on the way, however, they were closed during the week we were going to be in that area. I've heard great things about Myvatn and believe you can even take a bread making class here where they bake the bread right in the hot ground. If able, I would definitely add this stop in! On the way to Hverfjall, we stumbled upon a random Geyser area, and for the life of me I can't remember what it was called, but it reminded me so much of Yellowstone! I google searched geyser fields near Myvatn and the one that looks most familiar is Hverir, but I'm not 100% positive if that's correct!

After the impromptu stop, we made it to Hverfjall Volcano. This volcano was formed about 2,500 years ago and stands about 1,300 ft high. The parking lot is located right off of route 848. There are bathrooms here, but you have to pay to use them. The main hike here is the Crater Rim Hike, which we did right before the sun started to set. This is a short but very steep trail that leads to the rim. You can access the trail from the east, which is shorter and more popular, or from Dimmuborgir. Once at the top, we were met with panoramic views of lake Myvatn and the unique terrain below.

After the sun set, we started out on our 1.5 or so hour drive to Husavik, where we were staying for the night. Once again, by the time we arrived around 6:00pm in this town, everything besides one gas station was shut down for the night, so we grabbed dinner here, and surprisingly it was not bad at all! Husavik is located in northern Iceland on the shores of Skjalfandi Bay. This is a very popular fishing town and also the whale watching capital of Iceland. There are hotels and guesthouses, some restaurants, as well as groceries and gas stations in this town. We stayed the night at Arbol Guesthouse which I 100% recommend if you're staying in the Husavik area! This was night 3 of chasing the northern lights, and our first successful attempt!!!

Recommendation #7: When driving Iceland in the off season, most of the towns in the northeastern region completely shut down, and I mean completely, around 6:00pm so plan ahead especially if you are planning to buy/eat dinner out in any of these towns

Recommendation #8: The northern lights are very random. yes you can track them, but it's not always accurate, and just because an area says the lights are out, it doesn't necessarily mean they are visible to the human eye. The best way to see the northern lights is truly just to drive around each night and hope for the best. You have the best chance of seeing the northern lights in Iceland from September to Early April.

Day Five: Whale Watching Tour + Akureyi

Day five started off in Husavik where we were planning on spending about half of our day. We grabbed an early breakfast at Heimabakari Cafe / Bakari which was a short walk from Arbol Guesthouse. They had great cinnamon buns!!!

After breakfast, we headed right across the street to the harbor where we were doing our 8am whale watching tour. I found this excursion on shocker, GetYourGuide, this is the exact tour I booked. We went with North Sailing company and had a great experience! The Habor was a short walk from our hostel and literally right across the street from the bakery that we grabbed breakfast at. Since our trip was in late October, which is after peak whale watching season, I was nervous that we wouldn't actually get to see any whales, but we ended up seeing about 15 whales on our 2 hours on the water! Make sure to check out the Whale Museum next door as well as some of the shops around town!

After we said goodbye to Husavik, we had about a 5 hour drive back to Reykjavik, where we were staying for the night. We wanted to break up the drive a little bit so we drove about an hour or so to Akureyi first to grab an early dinner and walk around the town a little bit. Right before we hit the town of Akureyi, we found out about The Christmas Garden right outside of Akureyi and wanted to stop and check it out. We stopped in some of the shops and enjoyed this cute little area before heading into the actual town of Akureyi.

Akureyi was a neat little town with plenty of shops! This is the second largest urban area in Iceland. It had plenty of walkable streets, and i could tell was a very lively town. There's a lot to do and see in Akureyi, including visiting Akureyi Church, Akureyi Botanical Garden, Hof Cultural Center, geothermal pools, street art / murals, and plenty of restaurants and shops as well as gas stations and grocery stores. We grabbed dinner at Akureyi Backpackers, a hostel that also has a restaurant/bar. This was probably my favorite meal of the trip, everything was so good! I definitely want to spend more time in Akureyi on my next trip to Iceland.

After finishing dinner, we had the remainder of our long drive back to Reykjavik. This was when we encountered a little bit of trouble and honestly was a very scary part of the trip! We were about halfway into the drive and everything was fine, clear roads, clear night time skies, no issues. The thing about driving Ring Road in the offseason is you rarely encounter other cars on the road, which is super nice. We were all aware that the weather in Iceland changes in the snap of a finger, and we definitely experienced that! About halfway into our drive, out of nowhere it got extremely foggy, like extremely low visibility fog. Not only did it get extremely foggy, but the road also turned to straight ice out of nowhere. We approached a line of dead stopped traffic with so many cars off the road, flipped, or crashed into each other. Luckily, everybody was fine, but we weren't going anywhere anytime soon. We had a wifi block in our car the whole trip and actually found out they ended up closing the part of ring road that we were on.

Recommendation #9: Most rental car companies offer the option to purchase in car wifi, which I highly highly recommend. With little service on ring road, we were able to use wifi to not only navigate the trip on google maps but were also able to keep up with the weather updates and road conditions.

After about 45 or so minutes of just sitting, the fog started to clear up, so the man in front of us started directing traffic since his car and the cars behind us were the only cars that hadn't crashed at that point. We legitimately had to drive about 5 miles per hour because the roads were still pretty icey and visibility wasn't great. We ended up pulling off to the side to let all of the other cars pass us since we knew no new cars would be coming after that. When we pulled over, we accidently came across the northern lights again!

After what turned into a way longer trip than it should have, we finally made it to our airbnb in Reykjavik much later than expected, so we ended up just going to bed.

Day Six: Reykjavik, Sky Lagoon

We started off day six again before the sun rose and made the 1.5 or so hour drive back to the golden circle to Gulfoss Waterfall for a spectacular sunrise! This was probably my favorite waterfalls out of all the ones we saw! This is a beautiful two-tiered waterfall, dropping a total of 105 feet into a narrow gorge. There is a large, free parking lot just a few feet away from the paved trails that take you down to the falls. When researching itineraries before our trip, a lot mentioned spending 1 whole day just doing the golden circle before heading to Vik, which I definitely think is a good idea if you have more than 7days. Unfortunately, because we were limited on time, we had to prioritize what we wanted to see and make adjustments as to how it made the most sense for us.

After spending time at the falls, we took the 15 minute drive to Geysir Stokkur to witness the great geyser go off! Geysir is located in the Haukadalur Valley in southwest Iceland and is the original geyser, although now it is mostly dormant. However, right nearby is Stokkur which is Iceland's most active geyser. This geyser erupts every 5-10 minutes and shoots about 50-65 feet into the air. there are plenty of viewing spots around the pathway to view this geyser erupting. Since this geyser goes off so frequently, we stood and watched for about 30 mins or so before heading into the visitor center across the street to grab breakfast!

After breakfast, we took the hour and 20 minute drive back towards Reykjavik to Sky Lagoon. We knew on our trip here, we had to do at least one geothermal spa, and Sky Lagoon was a great choice! It was such a great way to spend a few hours relaxing and enjoying the sights of Reykjavik. Sky lagoon offers a 7-step ritual experience, or you can just buy a regular access pass. I recommend booking ahead of time as it can get pretty crowded here. I believe the regular pass to the lagoon was about $50. You do have to shower before getting into the pools, and while the showers are stall style, the actual dressing rooms are public, which is pretty common amongst a lot of the geothermal spas.

Recommendation #11: Iceland has so many different geothermal spas / pools both man made and natural. I highly recommending visiting at least one of them, but do some research on the options and go with what works best for you and what you're looking to get out of the experience. Blue Lagoon is definitely the most popular as it's close to the airport, however, it definitely gets super crowded!

When we finished our time at Sky Lagoon, we headed back into Reykjavik to explore the city. Reykjavik is the capital of Iceland, and there is definitely the most to do here. Some popular things to do and see in the very walkable center city are the Hallgrimskirkja Church, Rainbow Road, Laugavegur Street, Sun Voyager Statue, and just exploring all of the shops this beautiful city had to offer. There are several day trips you can make from here, including the golden circle, the south coast, and the snaefellsness penninsula. After we spent our time exploring and shopping, we grabbed dinner at Bastard Brew & Food for another great meal!

Day Seven: Reykjavik, Perlan Museum, Head back to Keflavik Airport

Our last day in Iceland! We had an early afternoon flight, so we wanted to stay local this day We started off the morning with a trip to the Perlan Museum. The Perlan Museum is an interactive museum highlighting several iconic attractions and picturesque nature. Some of the top exhibits include The northern lights planetarium show, the ice cave, forces of nature exhibit, and the observation deck. I believe the museum cost about $45.

After finishing at the Perlan Museum, we headed back into the city to grab breakfast at Kattakaffihusid cat cafe. The food and coffee here was great, but of course the cats made the experience way better!

After finishing our late breakfast, it was unfortunately time to head back to the rental car agency to drop off our car and head back to the Keflavik airport.

As you can tell, we crammed quite a lot into our 7 days around Ring Road, and of course there was plenty of things we didn't get to see. However, I really enjoyed my trip to Iceland and the way we did our trip, and that just means I have an excuse to go back and see more!

Food Recommendations:

Thingvellir Tourist Information Center Cafe (Selfoss)
The Soup Company (Vik)
Crepes.IS Food Truck (Vik)
Restaurant Suour-Vik (Vik)
Smiojan Brugghus (Vik)
Black Crust Pizzeria (Vik)
Lava Bakery and Cafe (Vik)
Kaffi Hornid (Hofn)
Pakkhus Restaurant (Hofn)
Nailed It Fish and Chips (Hofn)
Heimabakari Cafe / Bakari (Husavik)
Lokal Bistro (Husavik)
Pizzakofinn (Husavik)
Ketilkaffi (Akureyi)
North Restaurant (Akureyi)
Taste (Akureyi)
Akureyi Backpackers Hostel Restaurant (Akureyi)
Bastard's Brew and Food (Reykjavik)
Kattakaffihusid (Reykjavik)
Sjavargrillio (Reykjavik)
Islenski Barinn-The Icelandic Bar (Reykjavik
Icelandic Street Food (Reykjavik)
Baejarins Beztu Pylsur (famous icelandic hot dogs!) (Reykjavik)
Frioheimar (Reykholt)

Where We Stayed: (linked)

Trip highlights & Final Thoughts:

It truly was so hard to pick my favorite part about this trip, because everything we did was so unique and different. I think if I had to narrow it down, my favorite parts were the ice cave tour that we did in Hofn, the whale watching tour that we did in Husavik, or just seeing all of the different waterfalls.

A few tips that I didn't previously mention for driving ring road would be to take advantage of the random stops and viewpoints along the way. You can certainly drive ring road clockwise, but I think it is much more popular to travel it counter clockwise. Be aware that certain parts of ring road are much more desolate than others and you may not see a gas station or rest stop for several miles. My recommendation is that any time you are in a town with a gas station, fill up your car no matter how full it already is, because you don't know when the next time you'll see another gas station! Cell service is also extremely spotty and unreliable, so as I mentioned above I highly highly recommend getting a wifi block with your rental car. As far as the Northern Lights, I know there are a lot of tour options, which in my opinion aren't worth it. You're much more likely to see them if you take some time to just randomly drive around each night. I'm sure I'll think of more tips and come back and edit this section but that's all for now

Overall, Iceland is such an amazing and diverse country and I truly hope everybody has the chance to visit one day! If you've been to Iceland or have driven ring road, I'd love to hear your recommendations below in the comments.

Thanks for reading, and always remember, there's always more to be explored :)

-nicole elizabeth

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