I have read a lot before starting my trip in Iceland, but I struggled to find useful information about a reasonable daily itinerary to go around the island at a reasonable pace.
There are many ways to cycle in Iceland, but yet not as many as in other countries. The roads are few and the good tarmac ones are even less (yet still better from what I read than 5 years ago). The reality is that if you want to cycle around the whole island there are (with few exceptions) only two options. To cycle on road #1 clockwise or counterclockwise. You can extend or shorten the trip by avoiding or adding to your journey the:
- Snaefellsjoekull National Park peninsula
- North-Western fjords
- Coastal line in the North-East (from what I’ve read the roads are poor in the very North-East tip of the island)
Here is my initial plan for going around the island in 18 days. You can shorten the trip by linking the shorter days into single days. I think it will be harder to extend the 18 days to more unless you wild-camp as there is little in between the locations mentioned.
| Day | km | Place |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | ~50 | REYKJAVÍK ECO CAMPSITE |
| Day 2 | ??? | AKRANES CAMPING SITE |
| Day 2 | 112 | BORGARNES CAMPING GROUND |
| Day 3 | 78 | Hotel Edda Laugar Saelingsdal |
| Day 4 | 128 | Blönduós Camping Grounds, Gladheimar |
| Day 5 | 143 | CAMPING SITE HAMRAR |
| Day 6 | 93.6 | Husavik Campground |
| Day 7 | 54.5 | Bjarg campsite |
| Day 8 | 166 | Egilsstaðir Campsite |
| Day 9 | 92.3 | BREIÐDALSVÍK CAMPING GROUND |
| Day 10 | 64.2 | DJÚPIVOGUR CAMPING GROUND |
| Day 11 | 104 | Hofn Camping and Cottages |
| Day 12 | ~130 | N/A – Tjaldsvæðið í Svínafelli |
| Day 13 | ~75.8 | Camping Site and Cottages Kirkjubær II |
| Day 14 | ~102 | Skogafoss |
| Day 15 | 110 | Tjaldsvæði Campground |
| Day 16 | 111 | SOUTHCENTRAL MOTEL |
| Day 17 | 90.1 | GRINDAVÍK CAMPING SITE |
| Day 18 | 47.1 | N/A – Keflavik International Airport |
For the sake of presentation I’ve reduced the information in the table, but if you want to see the original table with contact information, notes, etc., please follow the link below.
See the original google spreadsheet
Please note that I didn’t actually follow this plan to the note (as you can see by the posts I’ve been doing on the trip), however it was a very good baseline for me. I am sharing it in the hopes that it will be of use to others as well.
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