UKC

Anyone got any experience of it? (On or Off road) Useful advice?

In reply to Blizzard:
Be careful!!
When I was there a few years back, a whole section of road disappeared in front of our vehicle.
They had some good off road vehicles with massive ground clearance. River crossing was dicey at best in the relentless rain!

In reply to Blizzard:


Seems to be lots of tips if you Google it.

In reply to Blizzard:

Advice?

How about "Don't"?

Why bother going to Iceland in the winter at all, when if you go in the summer it will be light the whole time?

Apologies if I'm not grasping your dream, but that would be my thinking on this

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Iceland is fantastic in the winter and there are far fewer tourists about.

We spent a week driving in Iceland last February and had no real problems and we covered over 2000km. Your rental car will come with snow tyres fitted which help enormously. The main thing to do is to remember to stick to the main roads and not to be chicken about driving on frozen/snowy surfaces. The F-roads are off limits at that time of year, anyway. Your main issues are strong winds, snow, ice and sandstorms especially when crossing sandurs.

There's an excellent Icelandic road website that gives you all the info in english.http://www.vegagerdin.is/english/road-conditions-and-weather/

Our longest journey in one day was just over 800km from Reykjavik to Jokullsarlon. Things got "interesting" at Vik when the road was alternatively sheet ice or covered in blown snow and we were glad to see the snow plough but it was fine.

Don't feel inhibited, plenty of people will be out doing the same.

In reply to Gentleman Antiquarian:



Hmm, interesting, thanks. The days aren't even that short, by the end of February, even in Akureyri...

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=2136&month=2&...

In reply to Tim Chappell:
Its not my idea, nor is the trip for me. I am researching the trip at the mo, taking a friend.

In a two words.

Aurora borealis ( festival of light is on in Reykjavik)

In reply to Blizzard:

Hmm again. I've never seen said celestial manifestations. Always wanted to.

In reply to Blizzard:

Aurora are completely mind blowing and well worth a trip. This year is a solar maximum so good time to go. However if the terrestrial weather doesn't play ball you won't see anything. Which is why in Feb 2013 I went to Abisko, in Northern Sweden, where the configuration of local mountains gives the best chance of clear skies in Northern Europe (though nothing is 100% guaranteed). In my case I was very lucky with clear skies on 5 out of 7 nights. As others have said, driving with snow tires is fine and sounds like swedish roads are less challenging than icelandic ones. PM me if you want more info.
Best of luck whatever you decide to do.
Paul

In reply to Blizzard:

Off road - Don't do it. You won't be insured and you will need an absolute beast of a 4x4.

On road - Generally ok. I got caught in a full on blizzard in a ford Kuga (cracking car). Progress was slow but sure, the locals had no problems and were overtaking me in 2 wheel drives.

Go for it, its an amazing country to drive around.

In reply to mike_uk82:

We saw a Category 5 Aurora whilst we were in Iceland and it was utterly amazing, definitely in my top 5 life experiences.