My elder son and I are planning a road trip round Iceland in June / July. We have suitable bikes and panniers etc and plan to take tents etc although we also hope to stay in hostels.
We plan to take about 10 - 12 days and just follow the main 'ring' road round the island. I have been to Iceland before but not cycling.
Any thoughts and advice would be helpful, in particular regarding flights (with bike bags), camp sites, hostels, hotels, do's and don'ts.
Thanks, Ian
Cycling round Iceland
Re: Cycling round Iceland
Ian at Threshers wrote:Any thoughts and advice would be helpful
Watch out for the shopping trolleys
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stephenjubb
- Posts: 674
- Joined: 20 Jan 2008, 12:23pm
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Re: Cycling round Iceland
Suggest you get one of these, an icelandic camping card at 99 euros (about £88 approx) and will pay for all your campsites up to 28 days. On a 12 day tour at a average cost of £12 per day camping you could save a lot. If you want internet Vodafone is good in Iceland and payg internet cards are available at most petrol stations and coverage is good in areas around the coast.
The objective with its foundation is to give Icelandic and foreign travelers the opportunity to travel around Iceland in cost effective and frugal way for the family or the group to camp for up to 28 nights/units at 43 camp sites or as long as the camp sites are open for visitors. The Camping Card costs only 99 EUR. The Camping Card is valid for two adults and up to four children to the age of 16. There are no limits to how often each visitor can visit each camp site within the 28 nights/units. The Camping Card is valid for tents, motor homes, fold away tents of caravans as long one unit is in use pr. night. The summer of 2014 is the eight summer that travelers have the opportunity to purchase the Camping card and therefore benefit the great value it provides. Enjoy the summer and the Icelandic beautiful nature.
The Camping Card, your travelling partner.
http://campingcard.is/about-the-campingcard/
The objective with its foundation is to give Icelandic and foreign travelers the opportunity to travel around Iceland in cost effective and frugal way for the family or the group to camp for up to 28 nights/units at 43 camp sites or as long as the camp sites are open for visitors. The Camping Card costs only 99 EUR. The Camping Card is valid for two adults and up to four children to the age of 16. There are no limits to how often each visitor can visit each camp site within the 28 nights/units. The Camping Card is valid for tents, motor homes, fold away tents of caravans as long one unit is in use pr. night. The summer of 2014 is the eight summer that travelers have the opportunity to purchase the Camping card and therefore benefit the great value it provides. Enjoy the summer and the Icelandic beautiful nature.
The Camping Card, your travelling partner.
http://campingcard.is/about-the-campingcard/
Re: Cycling round Iceland
I cycled around the ring road last summer and ended up covering just over 1000 miles, starting and finishing at Keflavik. There is a hostel called the Alex Guesthouse about 1 mile from the airport where you can leave bike boxes during your trip provided you stay there on the first and last night of your visit. They will also transport you between the airport and hostel but do charge for bike boxes on the transfer. See their website for details.
The ring road gets rather busy around Reykjavik and if you are heading anticlockwise around the island. you can avoid the capital by going via Grindavik along the south coast on a quiet tarmac road which joins the ring road at Selfoss. Bikes are not allowed through the tunnel under Hvalfjord north of Reykjavik so you have to cycle the long way around the fjord instead - worth visiting Thingvellir while you do this. Be aware that there are few trees on Iceland so the ring road has no shelter and catches any wind going, same as all the roads on the island, so you need to steel yourself mentally some days to ride for hours into a headwind. I experienced temperatures between 15 C in the south to 6 C in the north so needed to wear winter cycling gear towards the end of my trip which was 20 days cycling and 5 days off when it rained all day.
There are campsites at regular intervals along the ring road, say every 40 to 80 miles, and these tend to determine how long your daily rides are unless you intend to camp rough. There is usually a supermarket in the village by the campsite but choice of food is limited. The petrol stations tend to have a cafe and shop where you can buy gas cylinders. I found myself eating a lot of hamburger and chips at these places because there was not much else on offer. The good thing is that if you buy a cup of coffee, the price includes a free refill.
I thought the trip worth doing with bleak but impressive scenery, lots of birds, and there were many other cyclists doing the same trip willing to stop and have a chat but, compared with cycling through France which I would rate as GCSE level cycle touring, riding round Iceland would definitely rate as A level or higher in terms of the challenges faced and the infrequent facilities along the route.
The ring road gets rather busy around Reykjavik and if you are heading anticlockwise around the island. you can avoid the capital by going via Grindavik along the south coast on a quiet tarmac road which joins the ring road at Selfoss. Bikes are not allowed through the tunnel under Hvalfjord north of Reykjavik so you have to cycle the long way around the fjord instead - worth visiting Thingvellir while you do this. Be aware that there are few trees on Iceland so the ring road has no shelter and catches any wind going, same as all the roads on the island, so you need to steel yourself mentally some days to ride for hours into a headwind. I experienced temperatures between 15 C in the south to 6 C in the north so needed to wear winter cycling gear towards the end of my trip which was 20 days cycling and 5 days off when it rained all day.
There are campsites at regular intervals along the ring road, say every 40 to 80 miles, and these tend to determine how long your daily rides are unless you intend to camp rough. There is usually a supermarket in the village by the campsite but choice of food is limited. The petrol stations tend to have a cafe and shop where you can buy gas cylinders. I found myself eating a lot of hamburger and chips at these places because there was not much else on offer. The good thing is that if you buy a cup of coffee, the price includes a free refill.
I thought the trip worth doing with bleak but impressive scenery, lots of birds, and there were many other cyclists doing the same trip willing to stop and have a chat but, compared with cycling through France which I would rate as GCSE level cycle touring, riding round Iceland would definitely rate as A level or higher in terms of the challenges faced and the infrequent facilities along the route.
Re: Cycling round Iceland
I was in Iceland earlier this year, and the one thing that struck me was how remote some areas were.
I would suggest that some degree of independence (basic maintenance and running repairs) would be a good grounding
I would suggest that some degree of independence (basic maintenance and running repairs) would be a good grounding
Re: Cycling round Iceland
BigH wrote: I found myself eating a lot of hamburger and chips at these places because there was not much else on offer.
I would have hoped some things would have changed since my circuit of Route 1 in 1999, apparently not, I couldn't face pizza or fried chicken for many months after that trip.
Summing up, it was a challenging tour but well worth the effort, happy memories.