Driving in Iceland in winter: what changes and what closes

Winter driving in Iceland is routine for the people who live there and manageable for visitors who respect the rules. The roads are ploughed, the rental cars have winter tyres by law, and the main routes in the south stay open almost every day. What catches visitors is not ice on the road but the plan: a route built for July daylight, a 2WD booked for the north, a day with no slack for a storm, and a hotel 300 km away on a day the road closes.

Build the plan for the season and winter is one of the best times to be here: northern lights, natural ice caves, empty waterfalls and lower prices outside the holidays.

Everything else follows from the light. Iceland stays on UTC all year, so winter mornings are dark until mid-morning and the sun sets in the middle of the afternoon. Plan the driving inside the daylight and keep the last outdoor stop well before sunset; the famous South Coast stops need an hour each and the car parks are not lit.

Some closures are seasonal and certain; others happen for a day at a time when a storm comes through. Plan the first kind out of the itinerary and leave room for the second.

• All F-roads and the highlands: closed from roughly October to June. Landmannalaugar, Þórsmörk, Askja and Kerlingarfjöll are tour or Superjeep territory in winter, and often not even that.
• Road 864 to Dettifoss (east side): closed in winter. Road 862 from the Ring Road to the west side is usually open but check it.
• The Westfjords: mostly impractical; mountain passes close for days.
• Glacier Lagoon boat tours: none in winter. Natural ice caves under Vatnajökull replace them, roughly November to March, by guided tour only.
• The Westman Islands ferry: sails from Þorlákshöfn in winter rather than Landeyjahöfn, a longer crossing that cancels in heavy seas.
• Any road, for a day: the north, the east and Snæfellsnes close when road.is marks them impassable in a storm. The South Coast and Golden Circle are ploughed first and close least.

The Golden Circle, the Reykjanes peninsula and Route 1 along the South Coast to Vík and on to the Glacier Lagoon carry most of the winter traffic and are kept open. Snæfellsnes is usually fine with a 4x4. The Ring Road through the north and east is open most days but needs a plan that can wait out a closure, and the mountain passes between fjords in the east hold snow for months.

Three sites decide each day: road.is shows every road in colour (green clear, blue slippery, red closed) and updates through the day; vedur.is gives the wind and weather warnings; safetravel.is posts alerts for travelers and lets you register your route. Check all three over breakfast and again at lunch.

From 1 November to 14 April every rental car in Iceland must have winter tyres, and studded tyres are permitted in that window. That is what keeps you on the road. A 4x4 adds traction on icy climbs and clearance through drifts, which matters in the north, east and on Snæfellsnes and in December to February anywhere; on the South Coast and Golden Circle a 2WD with winter tyres usually copes because those roads are ploughed first.

Wind is the winter hazard visitors underestimate. Gusts over 25 m/s stop traffic, rip doors off their hinges and push high-sided cars across the lane. Park facing the wind, open doors with both hands, and treat a yellow wind warning as a reason to change the day, not the route.

Keep the driving to two or three hours in the dark months and inside the daylight, because a three-hour drive in December is most of your day. Make the famous stops first and the weather-proof ones (the Lava Show in Vík, Perlan, the lagoons, a museum) the fallback. Book the ice cave and the northern lights tour for the first possible night so a cancellation can be rebooked later in the trip.

Sleep where the next day starts. A night in Vík or Kirkjubæjarklaustur before the Glacier Lagoon, a night in Selfoss or Hella after the Golden Circle, and never a hotel on the far side of a mountain pass from where you will be at sunset.

• One free day in every five, booking-free, for a storm.
• Last outdoor stop by 15:00 in December and January, 16:00 in November and February.
• Fuel at half a tank; a closed road can mean an unplanned night.
• Download the 112 Iceland app and register your route on safetravel.is for long days.

Arrival day in Reykjavík or at the Blue Lagoon. Day two the Golden Circle with a night in Selfoss or Hella. Day three the South Coast waterfalls, Reynisfjara and the Lava Show, two nights in Vík. Day four the Glacier Lagoon and a guided ice cave, back to Vík. Day five a flexible day: Skógafoss at dawn, Seljalandsfoss, the Secret Lagoon or a weather day. Day six Snæfellsnes with a 4x4 or Reykjavík, and day seven the airport. Every drive is under three hours and every night is on the ploughed roads.

Northern lights from late August to mid-April, natural ice caves from November to March, waterfalls framed in ice and no queue at any of them, and outside Christmas and New Year, lower car and hotel prices than summer. The trade is a slower, shorter day and a plan with slack in it, which is also what makes a winter trip restful rather than rushed.