In 2024 I took on my greatest travel challenge since quitting in 2020 and becoming a full-time nomad who moved every month. And that was planning a trip to circumnavigate Iceland in 7 days. Let’s see how I did it!
Obviously planning a monthly move is a lot easier than a daily one. There’s no room for error in this quick timeline even though as you’ll see, mistakes did happen π . So here’s how I attacked this challenge and also tips for avoiding my mistakes.
Pick A Direction
The first thing to decide about a trip circumnavigating Iceland is which direction you want to go. The main road in Iceland is called The Ring Road (ΓjΓ³Γ°vegur) and it’s a giant circle around the coast of the country.
So the first thing I did was decide if I wanted to drive that road clockwise or counterclockwise. My friends at Dragons on FIRE wrote a very helpful series of posts about their adventures circumnavigating Iceland. They also messaged me some tips, which I really appreciated.
- 11 Days in Iceland β Part 1: Western and Northern Iceland on the Ring Road by Dragons on FIRE
- 11 Days in Iceland β Part 2: Eastern and Southern Iceland on the Ring Road by Dragons on FIRE
And in these posts, they mentioned that they decided to go clockwise because most of the points of interest in Iceland are on its southern side and they would build up to that throughout their trip. However, I decided to go counterclockwise π and for me and my group that was the right choice.
As I mentioned, I’m used to moving monthly, not daily and I fully use a Slow Travel approach to everywhere I move. This trip was the exact opposite and I expected that it would be quite tiring as a result.
So I wanted us to see the highest concentration of cool things at the beginning of the trip before we got tired or desensitized. When I lived in Italy, I realized that after the 5th or so museum of art from medieval times, they all started to look the same.
I didn’t want to become desensitized before getting to the best spots in Iceland. So counterclockwise we went!
Lodging
After choosing a direction, I tackled the most difficult part of a trip circumnavigating Iceland: Accommodations! To do this I first glanced at Google Flights to see if there were any huge price variations based on the day we would fly – and, nope!
So I dove into securing our lodging. Iceland is a country with a population of less than 400,000 people, so there are understandably less accommodations available than in my usual nomad locations in cities of millions, especially in the remote regions we were going to visit.
I went to Airbnb at Airbnb.com.au since unlike the US site, this Australian site shows all the costs upfront (sneaky Americans π ). I changed the currency to “USD” then put in “Iceland” as the location. I then said that my dates were flexible within a month.
The Ring Road is 828 miles/~1,332 km long and takes 17-20 hours to drive so I wanted to break it up into about a 3 hour per day drive if possible. I went to Google Maps to see how far I would get with 3 hours of driving a day and that gave me a general area to look for accommodations.
I then added my usual Airbnb filters of AC/heat, Wifi, Kitchen and Washing Machine and then looked at the Map View of the results and zoomed into each part of the country I wanted to look at. I then made sure my other Airbnb criteria of a Superhost with a Fully Refundable Stay and ideally 50+, 4.75/5 Star Reviews were met.
This left me with only a few choices. I then took my favorites and wrote down their check in and check out times. I did this while looking at Airbnbs around each city I wanted to spend the night in.
At the end of that, I had the Airbnbs I wanted to stay in for each night along with their check in and out times. I then confirmed that each check in and out time would work with how long our drive between each Airbnb would be so we ideally wouldn’t be waiting around if the host couldn’t accommodate an early check in.
Once I confirmed that the check in and out times would work and that I had an Airbnb I wanted for each night, I booked them all at once. If available I always chose the “Book Now, Pay Later” option that allows me to basically put down a deposit and then pay the rest when the stay approaches. This helps a lot since I plan most of my international trips almost a year in advance.
Rental Car
Circumnavigating Iceland easily requires a rental car. So I dove into researching which rental car company in Iceland was the best to work with.
This was my first time renting a car abroad so I did a lot of internet research. I was immediately cautioned by random internet strangers that said that several of the US based rental car companies I’m familiar with had bit them in the ass in Iceland. Specifically because Iceland has unique challenges that some of the US based companies are less prepared for compared to an Iceland-based company.
I read that people were charged way more than their initial rental cost as a result of these issues. So I wanted to find an Iceland-based car rental company that understood Iceland’s unique challenges and had great recommendations.
Enter Blue Car Rental π . I first heard about them while reading the Dragons On Fire blog where they detailed their 11 day trip circumnavigating Iceland. They mentioned in this post that they had paid about $600 for their 11 day Blue Car Rental in 2022 by using a Black Friday Deal.
So I emailed them asking more about this deal. They’re friends that I met at FinCon in 2019 and have kept in touch, so they were super helpful with my trip planning! They mentioned that they had found someone’s affiliate link and also went to the Blue Car Rental website for a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal to get an additional 15% off.
The discounts stacked, which I found very interesting π . Black Friday was also fast approaching and because I like to plan ahead, I eagerly awaited Black Friday for the first time in my life, so I could get a discount on an Icelandic rental car.
At the same time, I heard from a family member that recently visited Iceland that they had also used Blue Car Rental and had a lovely time. So I felt good about my choice π . And the trip went well!
I go into all the dirty details in the above blog post reviewing Blue Car Rental, but in summary, there was a little bit of drama with them giving me the wrong car at 6am. However, I noticed the error, and it was quickly fixed.
The second time I rented a car with them in 2025, I had an absolutely perfect experience. I’m excited to use their rental cars again when I inevitably return to Iceland π .
Airfare
This was my first experience with IcelandAir. I was originally very impressed with their pricing and the fact that their Multi-City Flights were the same low price as regular roundtrip ones.
I also loved their Up To 7 Day Stopover option that I used on one leg of this trip. However, my first flight ever with them was cancelled because of a mechanical issue.
I go into detail about all of that in the post above, but in summary: I was very impressed with how they handled the issue and my Trip Delay Reimbursement with my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card paid for everything we needed during the delay.
Also, apparently the EU provides compensation for flight delays so we received compensation for almost the entire cost of the flights. Sweet π .
My only warning about airfare to Iceland is that a lot of the flights seem to be understandably late at night because of the time zone change, so plan accordingly if you’re not able to sleep on planes. Spending your first night close to the airport getting some rest after you land and before starting your adventure around Iceland might be a good idea.
Maps
I searched on Reddit before I left and found that the Visiting Iceland Subreddit had several helpful maps, such as one of every Gas Station and Supermarket in Iceland as well as a SuperMap that people are updating with everything from Attractions to Campgrounds. I used those maps to inform my final route.
Also if you like that kind of thing, you can create your own map in Google Maps with different colors and icons that show your route, accommodations and anything else you want to easily see on your phone. I made one of these and then never found myself using it, but if that sounds helpful to you – it’s an option.
Activities
To determine what activities were “Must See” for my trip, I looked to other fellow travelers, such as the Dragons on FIRE, Millennial Revolution and friends and family. I compiled a giant list all of their recommendations with my own notes and thoughts.
Originally I was going to create a rigid itinerary, but since this was such a long and fairly complex trip, I wanted to leave room for spontaneity and doing what we felt like based on the day. So I had about 5 things in all of Iceland that I labeled as “Must See” for my trip and everything else was a group decision based on what we wanted to do that day.
Each day I would consult my giant list of recommendations and we could choose accordingly. And I think that worked out really well!
For example, we decided to not go on a several hour long hike since we were feeling really tired and instead had a lovely lunch on a glacier. Everything in Iceland is gorgeous so swapping out activities wasn’t at all a hardship and I think listening to our bodies and minds in this way led to a more pleasant trip.
Tips
These are tips I’ve learned based on my experiences visiting Iceland twice in the last year. Feel free to avoid my mistakes π .
Offline Maps
Before I left for my first trip to Iceland, I made sure to download an offline version of Iceland in Google Maps in case I lost service in the remote areas we were visiting. Surprisingly, I rarely noticed when I lost service, but maybe that was because I had downloaded this map ahead of time and it gave us directions around the entire island effortlessly.
I use Google Fi for my global phone provider and luckily it didn’t have trouble getting service even in remote areas of Iceland. However, I did see service drop in predictable places like National Parks.
Parking Fees
My friends that previously visited Iceland told me to get the Parka App because it allows you to pay for parking all over Iceland. In every attraction parking lot, I either encountered signs saying to use the Parka App or a link to pay on a website.
We also got out $20 USD in Icelandic KrΓ³na at the airport in case a parking lot only took cash, but none did so we had to figure out how to get rid of that $20 before we left π .
Delay Padding
I would definitely suggest setting aside time when you arrive in Iceland in case you have any type of travel delay like I did. If I was planning this trip again, I would have had us stay 2 nights instead of 1 at our first Airbnb.
With the 24 hour flight delay we experienced, that would have meant we still would have enjoyed a night at that first Airbnb instead of a quick hour or so nap π . This also would have allowed us more time to explore our first stop of the Golden Circle instead of rushing through.
We did get accidentally lucky in our planning that our second Airbnb was not much farther than the first. However, that first day of trying to do everything in one day that was supposed to happen over two was tiring and could have gone better.
Conclusion
And that’s how I planned a trip to circumnavigate Iceland in 7 days! I love Iceland so much that I visited again 10 months after my first visit. It’s an absolutely gorgeous country and a wonderful stopover between the US and Europe. I suspect I’ll be back soon π .
We too loved Iceland! We have only been once but will for sure go back, also because we saw it in winter, now we need to see it in other seasons! LOL
How did you feel about the fast pace of the visit? We had 10 days, only went to the South and a bit of West (plus a full day in Reykjavik), and still wish we had more time.
Admittedly, we love seeing and doing everything a place has to offer, so we went to museums, ice caves, lava caves, lava demonstrations, whale watching… and we are also very interested in photography so we spent a few hours here and there just for that.
Anyway, I hope to be there at least 2 if not 3 weeks next time, so we can see the North and also the central part that was completely closed off in winter. Unfortunately we are still working so we need to go during our time off… :/
Haha yeah wow I imagine winter would be very different. I think it was a good amount of time to see the highlights, but I would of course love to stay longer to see more and also have more time to chill. I definitely prefer slow travel so moving every day was challenging for me. I was secondly tired and needed to recover after the trip lol. 2-3 weeks sounds amazing.
Wow, thank you for sharing! Iceland is on my bucket list and I would love to do a similar trip to this some day! Out of curiosity, what were your 5 must-see spots, and were there any unplanned attractions on the way that became surprise favorites? π
Thank you for reading! Off the top of my head my favorites were Dettifoss, GoΓ°afoss, JΓΆkulsΓ‘rlΓ³n, BrΓΊarfoss and Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. An unplanned favorite was watching out the window during the drive. The landscape completely changed every hour or so and I couldn’t look away. I brought books and stuff to read during the trip and I never touched them.
Iceland is great indeed! Very beautiful and rugged. Safe too. Definitely a great desitination. And you clearly did your homework well before you went!
Unfortunately we never got the chance to drive around the complete island like you did. But we still enjoyed a 3 day change-over for a flight from NYC to Amsterdam.
Haha yeah I love it so much. And that still sounds like a lovely time π .
Two of my friends circumnavigated Iceland this past May and loved it. I gotta keep in mind those EU reimbursement policies, thanks for the reminder!!
Awesome and yeah – definitely keep those in mind!
Iceland is great & your trip looked amazing!
The type of planning you described (where you pick a few “must sees” for the trip but have a list to choose from for everything else is 100% how I travel. I call it “planned spontaneity” and it makes all of our trips better because we don’t have to figure out what to do at the last minute but still have a lot of flexibility in our plans!
Thank you! And oooh I love that term and I’m glad you’ve been enjoying that approach too π .