Winter in Iceland: Know Before You Go

Iceland is Beautiful in Winter.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: 

Getting ready for Iceland, I was reading all the Iceland blogs I could find. But they were all reviews of Iceland in summertime, but we were going in January!

What should I pack? How much daylight would there be? Would things be open? Would it be worth it or was this a bizarre and expensive travel mistake?

Daylight

There was about 6 hours of day light in January. The daylight was like nothing I ever knew before, the sun stayed low the whole day - giving everything a beautiful color all "day." Sunrise itself seemed to last over an hour as did sunset. As most of the country drives were covered in snow, the reflections across the snow covered mountains was changing and breathtaking throughout the day.

Ring Road 

Route 1 goes all around Iceland. Ring Road apparently takes only 16 hours to drive.

Golden Circle 

This Route was technically open all the way around, but primarily maintained from Reykjavik to Gulfoss. Past that was a dramatic shift in road conditions. 

 

 

Budir.

Open Hours/Open Sites 

The stores opened late and closed early. We never really sorted this piece out. Coffee shops didn't open until 8am, but most business even grocery stores were often closed by 6pm or 7pm. We never had trouble finding dinner, but many restaurants were closed by 9pm. The sites often closed by 6pm as well.

 

 

What to Pack

We went to the symphony and felt very comfortable in a skirt and nice top - the overall dress code was always casual nice - we never felt out of place in our winter clothes. We got lucky with an El Nino year, but even so it was never more than a couple degrees above freezing and did dip below freezing quite a bit. Pack warm - of course! A few notes:

• Snow Boots and Snow Shoes: I was very glad to have both snow shoes and boots with me.  

• Winter gear: We ended up buying warmer gloves and ear covers/hats while we where there - which are the perfect souvenirs. There was a lot of fierce wind, so choose a jacket or layer that kind withstand the icy gusts.

• Kleenex. Just have it with you - runny noses, watering eyes, etc.  

• Moisturizer!  Face, hand, body. all of it. Lip Balm.

• And lastly, I'd say bring layers. I wish I'd had more thin layers to add and subtract.

Will it be worth it? 

Yes. Absolutely. It's not the peak season, so everyone was happy to have customers and visitors. We drove right up to the sites - parking was never an issue. Lines were non existent. The roads were well maintained, for the most part (part of the Golden Circle was a little too much for us, and we turned back as it was already dark, but we saw all the sites on the Golden Circle without any trouble).

Pingvelir - on the Golden Circle

A stop on the road to Vik

Car rental 

Black Sand beach at Vik on a rainy day.

We reserved a car ahead of time, and when we got there they told us to upgrade to a 4 Wheel drive and we couldn't decide if they were just trying to rip us off or not. We ended up negotiating down the price quite a bit (possible a benefit of the down season), and were so happy we got it. The farther flung we drove, the happier we were to have had the 4W drive. There were places we might not have ventured without it.

We went with Budget Rental Car, I'm not sure if that made a difference. We had picked out two cars a couple months before - one with and one without 4W drive, after hearing that the winter was mild, we cancelled the 4W drive one, but of course ended up getting a 4W driving in the end - and paid about the same. But we were glad we knew the ballpark of what to expect to pay. Reserve before you go for better pricing and to avoid negotiating on the spot (especially with a dawn arrival after a red eye!).

Or No Car Rental? 

I am so happy we rented a car, but if I was on my own, I'd probably have skipped it - and gone on any variety of tour bus trips. Even to Vik, with the Black Sand Beaches. There are buses to take you into Reykjavik straight from the airport, to the Blue Lagoon, to the Golden Circle and beyond. Very easy to skip the car rental altogether.

I liked the independence it gave us to pick and choose where to go and stop. And the freedom to pull over on the side of the road because we saw pretty horses.

Midday.