4-hour long days, flash blizzards, 100 km/h winds, and subzero temperatures are just a few of the things that you can expect on your winter trip to Iceland. The landscape of Iceland is barren and unforgiving, a place with no mistakes. Being so far north, everything gets a bit more extreme.
That being said, Iceland is a mesmerisingly beautiful place. Its landscape is composed of snow-covered mountains, white-dropped wintry light, empty valleys, sparse prairies, and arctic tundra.
Transportation The first thing to consider when you are planning your winter trip to Iceland is mean's of transport, how do you plan to travel around Iceland? While public transport within the cities is quite good an affordable, transport between cities and transport to access sights tends to get expensive, and infrequent in the winter. Your best option is to rent a car, but make sure that this is a car which can meet your winter needs.
Driving around Iceland in the winter you need to have a plan where you want to go, but you also need to be open to changes, acknowledging that your plan is a preliminary plan and that the unpredictable weather of Iceland might change your plans. When we went in the winter our preliminary idea was to do the loop around all of Iceland. Of course, the weather changed our plans. Once we got to Iceland a major windstorm was announced along with a bunch of flash blizzards. Sometimes when a road is deemed to dangerous to travel on due to the weather conditions, Iceland's rescue service named ICE-SAR will block the road to make sure no one goes past them. Of course, you can still drive past the roadblock, but the rescuers will inform you that if you go beyond their roadblock you are on your own and they cannot rescue you if anything happens, plus your insurance will also not cover anything that happens, so I suggest against it.
Picking the right car is quite important. Some roads will be completely covered in ice, some roads will be made of gravel, others will be covered in snow, and you will have roads with very steep ascents and descents, all while taking into account the current weather outside. Below, you can see a video taken from our journey where a flash blizzard out of nowhere completely reduces our visibility while driving. Take into account the current weather outside and drive with due diligence, just because the road has a certain speed limit does not mean that the current weather conditions allow you to go that fast at the moment. In such conditions, you may not even know whether there is a frozen lake to your right or whether this is land.
Always check the weather beforehand, there are a few good resources for this: Icelandic Road Service, the Hello Aurora app (good for spotting the Northern Lights and receiving emergent weather updates), and finally the weather app on your iPhone. Note again that the weather in Iceland is unpredictable, and just because the day ahead is forecasted as clear that does not mean that a storm cannot occur, make sure to have your notifications on to receive any information while travelling. If you are planning out a journey and want extra safety, you can also log your trip with the ICE-SAR rescue service, where they check-in with you to make sure you have made it to your destination safely, click here to check out their service.
Accommodation
Sleeping is very important, especially when you're making important decisions on the road through this type of weather. Getting to your accommodation in the winter can be quite difficult, especially if a road gets closed to your hotel. It is important to note that in Iceland, there is one main road, meaning if you need to get from town A to town B, but the road is closed, that is the only road, there is no way around. Now you do have the f-roads, which are deemed the off-road off-map roads of Iceland, but in the winter most car rental companies do not allow you to take these roads or else you lose your insurance.
The best solution for such an issue in my opinion is to rent a camper. This way, you don't need to make it to any hotel for the night, you can switch who is driving while one person sleeps to waste less time on driving, and a road closure won't be such a big bump in your plans. A few years ago, Iceland made wild camping illegal due to the huge growth of tourism to the country and the disrespectful tourists who left trash behind while camping or disturbing the nearby nature. This being sad, in the winter, there are not many tourists venturing out on their own, and the police don't control so much as they do in the summer. If you find an empty parking lot you can park in it and stay the night, just make sure you're not disturbing anyone who owns the land. What you should not do is pull off of the road and sleep somewhere on the side or going off into the shrub with your camper, this is known as off-roading in Iceland and it is highly illegal.
Above you can see a picture of our comfy little camper that we rented, a Volkswagen Caddy. If you are following to sleep in a camper like us make sure the car has a Webasto Heater which heats the car while you are sleeping and the car is off. Most rental campers will include a portable cooking stove, utensils, plates, and cooking gas which is quite beneficial if you are travelling on a budget like us.
Cellular Connection
This is a quite important subject in Iceland, a country with such secluded and isolated places, how do you call for help if you end up needing it? The great news with cellular connection is that Iceland's infrastructure is amazing, I had service everywhere on the island and we travelled to some of the most remote parts of Iceland, like the Westfjords. Additionally, with most rentals you have the option to add on a portable WiFi which you should do because this way, you do not use your cellular service on the island and the WiFi works everywhere. Julia took the portable WiFi out on a boat trip of ours because she had class online during our trip, and it even worked out there! It was amazing! Our boat trip went out into the arctic circle and the WiFi worked out there, I mean the infrastructure of Iceland truly is remarkable!
Safety
Iceland has been ranked the safest country in Europe for the past ten years, so there is not much to worry about here. If you are deciding to sleep in your car you really do not need to worry about break ins while you are in there or anything. Emergency services in Iceland are very well trained and act fast so if anything ever happens where you do need assistance you are in capable and good hands. That being said, just like in any country, make sure to lock your car, keep your valuables close by, but all in all I never had any issues in Iceland!
The Northern Lights
If you are going to Iceland in the winter, one of your biggest goals is probably to see the Northern Lights. Good! As was mine! Seeing the Northern Lights for me was a spiritual experience, really nothing like anything that I have ever experienced in my life before. Now, to see the Northern Lights you are gonna have to get lucky, here I will tell you how to increase your chances to see the Northern Lights.
Stay for at least a week in Iceland. Going to Iceland it is not a 100% fact that you will see the Northern Lights, it is like the weather, unpredictable. There are many websites you can check for forecasts of the Northern Lights and what the forecast is, but in the end you really just have to get lucky. Some of the websites you can use are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's 30-minute Aurora Forecast, which gives you 30 minutes heads up if you can catch a glimpse, the Hello Aurora App for your smartphone, and the Aurora Forecast Iceland. My favourite source is the Hello Aurora App, it shows you a map of the world where the Northern Lights may be spotted, people can post live pictures as to where they see the Aurora currently and you can see this, it gives you live weather updates in Iceland in case of dangerous weather, and it also gives you live Aurora notifications dependent upon your location.
The weather to see the Northern lights has to be quite fair. You need a clear sky with minimal clouds, you should be out away from the city in a place with very little light pollution, and there should be little wind. Of course if you are in a city like Reykjavik or Akureyri you can still have a chance to see the Northern Lights, but this will have to be quite an intense solar storm for you to be able to see it in the city. So, good luck and happy Northern Light hunting!
Enjoy your winter trip to Iceland! Stay safe!
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