One of the struggles of travelling with children is lugging car seats everywhere you go. So the question is, when you travel to Iceland, do you bring your own child car seats? I think, for the most part, the answer is NO.
As you would expect, Iceland has its own rules about car seat safety. While they are similar to what is in effect in many US states, the rules are not the same. The Icelandic Transport Authority publishes an English-language brochure on Child Safety in Motor Cars that you may wish to read. The main difficulty is that the US organization that certifies car seats has different (not necessarily better, not necessarily worse, but different) standards than the European one. There is no exception in Icelandic law for visitors, so car seats in Iceland are required to be approved by the European rules, not US rules. That said, I have seen many other blogs suggesting that no one will be checking to see the approval sticker on your car seat. BUT I don’t know that. AND there could be issues with rental car insurance coverage if you get into an accident and are not using legal child safety equipment (US-approved would not be legal!). The other issue you may encounter is that while the US uses the LATCH system, Iceland uses a similar-but-not-the-same system called ISOFIX, so you may have to fasten in your car seat using belts—Cars equipped with ISOFIX attachments don’t necessarily have a place to attach the top tether. And if you need to use the seat belts, don’t forget a belt clip for non-locking belts. My recommendation would be to stay on the side of legality and, in most cases, just rent seats!
Let’s look at the different types of seats, starting with what Iceland considers “baby seats.”
Baby seats (some double as carriers):
Iceland requires this type of seat until 13 kg (29 lbs.), but some may go up to 18 kg (40 lbs.).
This is the most difficult situation. The problem is that infant seats sold in the US all have chest clips. (If you find one without, let me know!) European regulations forbid the use of a chest clip. So far as I can tell, that means that if you bought your infant seat in the US, THAT SEAT WILL BE ILLEGAL TO USE IN ICELAND! The gist of the disagreement in regulations is whether the extra safety provided by a *correctly positioned* chest clip is worth the danger of an incorrectly positioned one, coupled with the extra seconds an additional fastener requires when removing the child in an emergency.
What this means for us is– if you don’t plan to break the law, you MUST either rent or buy a baby seat in Iceland (or elsewhere in Europe, I suppose). It also means that when you are looking at whether to rent a car or to just take day tours, you should not forget to include the rental costs and availability of car seats in your calculations. The cost of renting a child seat can vary *wildly* from company to company. Of course, the quality may vary as well!
We have rented a baby seat with both rental cars this summer and have had mediocre experiences. If your child requires a cushy, top of the line seat, rental seats from the rental car companies aren’t going to cut it for you.
[Edit by Eric, January 2019: We have heard from Blue Car Rental that that have purchased new car seats that are the excellent Britax brand: “Britax First Class, Britax First Class Plus, Britax Eclipse and Britax Evolva and Discovery”]
This is the first car seat we rented. As you can see, this is a bare-bones model. But! It was clean–it looked as though the cover had been washed between rentals. And it had a locking clip (which was good, because we needed one)! This was the larger size seat acceptable for infants, which was nice.
The second experience was slightly different:
This is for the same infant, but this is the smaller size seat and more difficult to deal with. It is also a “carrier,” but because it does not come with a base, it certainly would not be convenient to use as a carrier. Strapping it into the car without the base also makes it more difficult to put the child in, as the seatbelt has to go across the car seat! This car seat was also very clean, and the cover looked freshly washed. However–and this is a big deal–this was the second seat from this company–the first one had a crack in the styrofoam shell that I noticed as I tried to install it! The rental company was very courteous about replacing it immediately, but a broken seat shouldn’t have been issued in the first place! So, we had a mixed bag of experiences with renting from car companies.
Then, if you are going to rent an infant seat in Iceland, what do you do on the plane? It appears that neither Icelandair nor WOW Air have bassinets available on their planes. That means holding the baby. For the whole flight. Unless you plan to take your infant seat on the plane and then store it somewhere until the return trip (NOT practical for most people!). Any ideas for solving this problem? Both WOW Air (to Iceland) and Icelandair (from Iceland) gave me a child lap belt for our baby (3 mos. old). This belt attached to my seat belt, and just wrapped around her waist. It didn’t seem as though it would protect her much except for maybe from falling off my lap if I fell asleep! But maybe it would also help in case of unexpected turbulence?
Child seats (rear- or forward-facing):
From the time a child outgrows the baby seat (at 13 or 18 kg (29 or 40 lbs.) depending on the type of baby seat) until heavy enough to ride in a booster, Iceland requires that he or she ride in a child seat with a five-point harness. Further, the child seat must be rear-facing until the child is 1 year of age; they recommend rear-facing seats until age 3.
With this size car seat, you run into the same problem as with the infant seat: US seats all have chest clips, EU-approved ones cannot. I have seen some manufacturers claiming to sell a seat that is approved in both places, but it looks as though you have to specify *which* place you want it to be approved by—in other words, it isn’t the same car seat; they just make two slightly different versions. If you do find a seat that is approved by both set of regulations (FMVSS 213 and ECE R44-04), please do let me know! In the meantime, my advice is to rent a seat when you get there.
Then there is the question of what to do on the plane. If you do plan to bring your seat on the plane, check first to make sure it is allowed—the seat must be approved for air travel and different airlines have different rules about age/approval/seat availability/location for car seats. If you are planning to rent a car seat once you get to Iceland, you probably do not want to also bring a separate car seat for the plane. (But that means your child will not be in a car seat during the flight; that could be good or bad, depending on your child!) One option is to get a special device called a CARES safety restraint just for the plane ride, but those look to be about $60-$70, and are only for aircraft use, so probably not worth it for most families. (We have no affiliation with this product and have not used it.)
Older Kids—Boosters and Riding in the Front Seat
Front seat:
The hard rule in Iceland is that you must be at least 150 cm (4′ 11″) to sit in a front seat that has an airbag. Here, rules vary by state, so make sure to let your child know beforehand if they will have to be “demoted” to the back seat again for the trip! (And no, I don’t know what that means for an adult with a driver’s license who is under 4′ 11″—if you find out, let me know!)
Booster seats:
Iceland says that your child should not ride in a booster until at least 18 kg (40 lbs.) and should be in a booster until 36 kg (80 lbs.) or until they are too tall for the booster. High back boosters are recommended, but not required.
Unlike with the other categories of child seat, it *is* possible to find dual-approved (US and EU) boosters, so you *may* want to bring your child’s booster seat. However, do note that the vast majority of booster seats sold in the US are not EU-approved, so check on your specific booster. And do consider the next paragraph before deciding whether to bring one—boosters have different airline rules than car seats do!
If your child uses a booster, he/she CANNOT use that on the plane, so it will have to be checked (or counted as a carry-on). On Wow Air, the booster (or other car seat) can be checked for free, as long as the child is no older than six—and you aren’t also checking a stroller for that same child. (My soon to be seven year old and my ten year old both still sit in boosters, so that would be paid checked baggage for us!) On Icelandair, you can bring a car seat AND stroller for free, but only if the child in question is under age 2 (so no free boosters). You will need to check with your specific airline to see whether this is an option for you, remembering that your boosters are probably not legal in Iceland anyway!
Considering the age of your children and the cost of a booster, it may or may not make more sense to send one parent with the rental car to the nearest store to buy boosters while the rest of the family waits at the airport! Less to carry, no increase in cost, but a bit of wasted time at the airport with tired kids—that’s the tradeoff. We have found that in Iceland, this tip probably will not work out for you. We searched for cheap boosters and found nearly all of them were at least $50 or so. We finally found one store (Rúmfatalagerinn) that had $20 very basic backless boosters. Unfortunately, the closest Rúmfatalagerinn to the airport is in Reykjavik, which would be an awfully long drive when you are very tired (45 minutes each way!) just to buy a booster seat.
Another option, if you have space left in your luggage, is the Bubblebum inflatable booster seat (backless), which is certified safe by both US and European regulations (this is highly unusual), costs around $30, and gets good reviews on Amazon. (We have no affiliation with this product, and have not yet used it, but may in the future.) One perk of this product is that it is only 13 in. across, so that you can fit three across a back seat if you need to. If you are taking a bus to Reykjavik instead, and not renting a car at all, most tour bus companies should provide a booster. The ones we were provided on tour buses and taxis (request the seat when you call for the taxi!) in 2009 were mostly good quality.
Share your experiences with bringing (or not bringing) car seats on your travels in the comments!
Updated July 2016 to reflect experiences and address issues from comment
Updated September 2016 to add affiliate link to Bubblebum booster seat
Updated October 2016 with more booster seat info
We are also going to Iceland in the summer and flying WOW airlines, so I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching this issue, so I thought I’d offer my two cents. We tried the Bubble Bum seats in our own car last year in anticipation of a trip to Germany last summer, and my kids hated them. Maybe it’s because we have leather seats, but the booster slid all over the place on the seats and my kids slid around on top of the booster. My daughter (then 6) also found the clips hard to do. The Trunki/Safety 1st Booster was also certified for both ECE 44 and FVM 213 (European/US standards), but it unfortunately appears to be discontinued now–it weighs 3 lbs but has the advantage of providing cargo space. The downside is that it has a very low maximum height. Another option for older kids is the European compliant RideSafer travel vest: http://ridesafertravelvest.com/#buyRideSafernow. This appears to be a bit of a belt and suspenders solution (in the US, the booster is not required) and is somewhat expensive, but for a child 4 and up, it’s a good alternative to renting, since it could be reused multiple times and is lightweight travel solution that’s superior to a backless booster. Finally, the “MiFold” booster that should be coming soon will be ECE 44 and FVM 213 compliant and is tiny (http://www.mifold.com/).
With all that said, I’m not particularly concerned about compliance the the “correct” legal standard. What we ended up doing last year in Germany was buying two low-back Safety 1st Manga boosters (since we were primarily on a biking trip, and didn’t want to carry boosters/carseats on our biking trip when we only needed them for a few days in a car at the end). Those boosters are identical, in everything but the fabric, to the Cosco Top Sider booster sold here in the States (I’ve sat them side by side and compared; they’re both made by Dorel, probably in the same factory in China). That booster is what my daughter uses now every day here in the States. It weighs only two pounds, so it wouldn’t take up much of a luggage allowance and would fit within a carry-on meeting the WOW size requirements. I’d much rather take that than pay $30 for a rental booster for 11 days.
With regard to the LATCH vs. ISOFIX issue, everything I’ve read indicates there should be no problem installing an American LATCH carseat to ISOFIX anchors. The real issue would be if the car doesn’t have a top tether, which European cars didn’t until recently. I was able to confirm with our car rental company that all of the cars in the category we booked have top tethers, so I will be bringing a U.S. carseat with a 5-point harness for my 5-year old son.
Finally, while the Icelandic Transport Authority publication says kids “should” be in a booster until 12, as best I can determine the hard and fast legal rules are that they have to be in a child restraint until 6 (which would explain the WOW standard) and they can’t be in the front seat until 4’11”, as you’ve noted. While boosters are great for safety, I don’t think folks are breaking the law if they allow their 6 and up kids to ride without a booster.
Any update to this? We do not want to risk a low-quality rental car seat for our 16-month-old, who is certainly still rear-facing, on our trip in August. We also want him in a car seat on the plane. We plan to bring our Clek Fllo, but are researching all options.
Hi! I did update the post a few days ago, but your comment got flagged by our spam filter for some reason. It is true that while the car seats from the rental company seem safe to me (except the one that clearly wasn’t!), they are definitely not the top-of-the-line models. If you can figure out a plan for on the plane–maybe something like a LapKidzwould work for the flight–then an option that would allow you to get an upmarket seat while still having it be legal would be to rent a seat from Olavia og Oliver,an upscale baby store in Reykjavik that will rent car seats and strollers. We did not pursue this option, but we visited their store to look around, and they do carry high-end car seats. Their physical store is also very close to the Reykjavik location of Holdur/Europcar(about a 3 minute drive), so pickup would be convenient from there, but that is not at the airport. Let us know how it works if you do end up pursuing that option. I hope you have a great trip!
I’d love to hear your (or anyone else’s) advice on carrying a car seat onboard with Icelandair. I’m planning to do that since they don’t have a bassinet, and what I’m worried about is lugging it through the airport alone along with my baby and baby diaper bag. Thank you for any advice!
Hi Anna!
Thanks for reading! My best advice would be to bring a stroller. (Icelandair offers free gate check for a stroller.) Then you can either have your baby in the stroller and carry the car seat or wear your baby and push the car seat in the stroller. Or if you loosen the straps on the car seat completely, you may be able to carry it like a backpack? Good luck with your trip! Airplane travel with little ones is exhausting, but worth it once you get to your destination!
We are on the last day of our trip to Iceland with our three month old son. I did tons of research on car seats because it was causing me a significant amount of worry keeping him safe on the potentially icy roads. We rented from Blue and were assured a britax infant seat. The seat they pulled out was filthy, I took a photo because I was in disbelief. When I expressed how horrified I was, another agent went to the car rental company next door to get a different one, that looks almost exactly like the first model you posted. The filthy britax was their only infant seat. The seat belts did not auto lock like in the US, we brought a belt clip based on many blogs but we could not figure it out and the agent told us they do not work in European cars. The car was equipped with isofix but the seat was not. I am extremely disappointed with the lack of assistance and care Blue car rental paid to our concerns and would not recommend their company specifically to people traveling with children. I wanted to ensure we followed the law but I immediately regretted talking myself out of bringing our US car seat. Thank you for all of the information you provided.
Hi Randi,
I’m sorry to hear the car seat Blue had was so terrible! In my post recommending Blue, the first area for improvement I cited was the car seats. Blue is so good in so many ways, and it’s disappointing that the car seats don’t measure up. I will reach out to Blue with your comment and see if we can get this fixed for other travelers.
Thank you Eric! When we returned the vehicle the gentlemen was so very nice and even dropped us off at the airport since it was snowing and we had the baby instead of us taking the shuttle. He truly went above and beyond. Besides the car seat debacle, the customer service was great. It was definitely a learning experience and your blog was so very helpful to prepare us for the trip. If not for your post, we wouldn’t have known what to expect and wouldn’t have brought a belt clip. Luckily we had no issues with the icy roads and we didn’t have to test the safety of the seat. Thank you again!
Hi Randi,
I heard back from Blue today. They are planning to check their entire inventory of car seats based on your comment. And they would like you to e-mail them (blue@bluecarrental.is) so they can follow-up with you and make it right.
Hi Eric, We are looking at travelling to iceland at the end of March do you know if Blue has improved in regards to carseats. we want to be able to rear face our 18 month old, bucket for the infant. Thanks
Hi Lynnell,
I just reached out to Blue, and I’ll let you know what I hear!
Thank you
Hi Lynnell,
I heard back from Blue, and it sounds like good news! They say they have acquired new car seats, that are all Britax, which is an excellent brand:
“Britax First Class, Britax First Class Plus, Britax Eclipse and Britax Evolva and Discovery”
I’ll update my posts with the new information. Thanks for asking!
Since you asked about how to manage plane rides without a car seat: we love our baby carrier (https://www.lillebaby.com/lillebabyr-completetm-all-seasons-summer-sand.html) for flights and for car rides where baby car seats aren’t provided, as we’ve discovered in our travels across south-east Asia (Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, etc.) For the countries where babies must ride in car seats by law (Canada, US, & Australia) we just rented them. On our last flight with our 13mo. old boy, when he fell asleep on me in the carrier during landing, we were able to loop the baby belt around him without waking him up. A nice, little win! We don’t own a car seat as we’re more likely to take taxis, public transport, plans, buses, walk, etc. and this carrier has taken us across 8 countries and 40 cities! Enjoy your travels!
Hi I am a little confused. I have a 3 year old and and a 7 year old and we will be traveling to Iceland for 5 days this summer. Will my 7 year old need a booster seat or can he just ride the taxi/public bus/tour bus without a booster seat?
Now for my 3 year old, he will definitely need a booster seat because and infant seat will not do. If I take public transportation can he go without the booster seat or do I have to carry that seat everywhere I go, as I see it as a hassle if we go to explore and have to carry that booster seat without a car.
Hi Ursula,
Iceland requires a booster seat for any child under 135 cm. See the brochure here.
So your 7-year-old should ideally be in a high back booster, and your 3-year-old should be in a forward facing car seat. Tour buses and taxis should have what you need, as long as you call ahead.
As for the public bus, like Strætó, the buses in Reykjavik don’t have seat belts (I don’t think?) and so I don’t think you need the child car seats on those buses. I’ll confirm with them.