Trip in August

[Kamal]

Hello,
First of all, thanks for the great blog. I found it very useful and detailed! Well done.

I’m planning a trip to Iceland this Summer. We will be 4 plus plus our ~2 years old baby girl.

We found a good direct flight in the end of August, and we plan to hire a car (a station wagon or a 4×4 off road) and make the road trip around Iceland. For this, we were recommended at least 12 days. so we plan to be there for 14 days (13 nights).
I already started checking some places to stay, and there are still some places available through airbnb.

I have a few questions before I start booking everything:
1) Do you think it is a good idea to make the whole trip around Iceland with a baby this age? Or maybe it’s better to settle in the western and southern region for a shorter period, say ~10 days?
2) Will it be too much in a rush and changing places? I’m not fond of the idea of staying every day at another place for sleeping.
3) Is end of august – early September a good season? Weather conditions will be still acceptable to travel a baby this period of the year?

Thanks in advance!!

[Eric]

Hi! You certainly can do all of Ring Road (Road 1.) Remember though that even this doesn’t cover all of Iceland!

I think the question is how many hours you want to drive in a day, vs. how many times you want to spend just a single night in one place. Let’s say it takes about 16 hours to drive all of Ring Road. Add in the trip to and from the airport, as well as time to drive to and from the Golden Circle and other attractions, and you’re at maybe 24 hours of driving. (This is all very rough, of course.)

So if you stayed in a different place every night, you’re averaging a little under 2 hours of driving a day. If you want to stay more than one night in one place, you’re looking at 3-4 hours of driving a day. If your 2-year-old will be happy to be in the car looking at the beautiful scenery, this might be okay?

But my advice is almost always to do less. You can’t cover it all, so cover less and explore more.

Oh, and the weather should be fine in August and September. It will be chilly, though– bring layers, maybe some wool, and good gloves and hats for everyone! (See our post about clothing in Iceland.)

[Kamal]

Thank you for the detailed reply!
3-4 hours of drive is basically fine, we will be 2 drivers and we will make stops along the way.
Here is am itinerary I came up with with more than one night per stop:

– one night in Borgarnes region – drive directly from the airport on day of arrival (around 12:00)

– three nights in Snaefellsness Peninsula area (maybe we can take a day in the western fjords if weather conditions allow that)

– two nights around lake Myvatn

– one night in Eastern parts – Egilsstadir/Seydisfjordur or Borgarfjordur Eystri area

– one night near Hofn

– two nights in the area around Vik

– three nights in the reykjavik region – including one day for golden ring tour, and blue lagoon

I chose a clockwise itinerary since in August I think the golden ring and southern parts will be very crowded compared to the northern and eastern parts, with this plan we’ll get there in September, with hopefully less tourists, and we will have 3 nights to rest and and do the golden ring and blue lagoon.

I’d like to hear your opinion about it!

Thanks

[Eric]

Hi- I think this sounds pretty good! You will have a very long driving day from Snæfellsnes to Mývatn– much more than 4 hours I think. Otherwise it seems like a good balance between driving hours and multiple night stays.

[Author]

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