Guest Tracker Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 We are thinking of a month or so there next year - the island not the shop just in case anyone is confused - has anyone been and what are your thoughts and impressions please? The ferries look a bit complicated (another word for expensive) but it does seem to be somewhere very different? I've looked at the tourist blurb and I am more interested in the realities and practicalities of Iceland please - thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Tracker - 2009-05-12 11:09 AM We are thinking of a month or so there next year - the island not the shop just in case anyone is confused - has anyone been and what are your thoughts and impressions please? The ferries look a bit complicated (another word for expensive) but it does seem to be somewhere very different? I've looked at the tourist blurb and I am more interested in the realities and practicalities of Iceland please - thanks. When in Norway a couple of years back we met a Brit who had just arrived from Iceland. His view was great place to visit but very hard on your tyres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Madge Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Hi Rich, Some friends of ours did the trip in 2006 see http://www.magbaztravels.com/content/view/509/128/ Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kedavi Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I spent a bit of time in Iceland a couple of years ago. I was in a hired Toyota Yaris, and I would say that if you intend to take your own motorhome be very wary. The roads are categorized as types A, B, C & D according to quality. I was not permitted to use cat C & D roads in the hire car, but I did find myself on one Cat C road in error. The cat C road was made of loose jagged rocks of lava about the size of tennis balls or bigger. The 14" wheels of the car made for a very poor ride. It then made sense why all the locals drove modified but tatty 4x4's with huge (and I mean HUGE!) balloon tyres. They could travel at very high speeds over these rocky roads whilst I was juddering (!) along at 10mph. When you see one in the distance coming towards you in a cloud of dust stop and get off the road as they do not slow down to pass and their balloon tyres spit rocks in all directions. Major damage is virtually assured. The lava is incredibly harsh on the tyres and bodywork. It cuts into the tyres and is very abrasive. Type D roads are I believe only open to 4x4's and only at certain times of year. I can only imagine what these are like. Many of the internal roads are type C & D and the 'ring road' around the island coast is very good. Nearly everyone lives in or near Reykjavik, so the rest of the country is mostly empty. A fantastic place to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fud3 Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 Iceland is a great place, did 2 trips within 1 year i loved it so much, 2 weeks in June then a short Christmas break, where we enjoed an Icelandic Christmas. We met up with a Dutch couple who were there in a Motorhome, they were doing a recci for a trip the following year, if I remember rightly there is some tax you have to pay for diesel when you take avehicle into the country (or it might be that all diesel vehicles have this tax - a bit like New Zealand). As kedavi says most of the roads are very rough with exception of the ring road and part of that when I was there was still not tarmac, all the towns are macadam, but a lot of the other roads are rough terain. You would not get to the interio as these roads are only open to 4x4's and you would have river crossings to do as well. I have looked at the prices and yes it is very very expensive to get there from this country. We went and organised a fly drive, (there were a couple of hire companies when I last looked on the web site try google you will find something) and had a polo, which did ok on most of the roads we went on though I did have the dubious pleasure of flat spotting 2 rims on the same side (the front was worse than the back) but we managed to stop a local who helped us sort out the problem, we got the wheel repaired for less than100 iceland krona next day (we didn't tell the hire company!!!!!) Ir is cheaper out there now than when I went but is a fantastic country, I will get back someday just too many other things on to do everything!!!!! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Many thanks for all for your help. The biggest issue is no direct ferry from any UK port which means we will have to get the van to Denmark and back to catch the Iceland ferry and that is just too expensive to make it viable so I guess it will have to wait until the Scrabster service resumes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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