Iceland by campervan: is it worth it, and how to do it

For two people in summer, yes: a small camper (a converted van with a bed, a stove and a cool box) rents for about the price of a small car plus a guesthouse room, and campsites cost a fraction of a hotel. You also stop where you like, cook what you like and sleep next to the waterfall you want to see at 06:00 before the coaches arrive.

The costs are comfort and weather. A van is cold at night by September, a gale shakes it all night, and the showers and kitchens are at the campsite, not in the van. For families a bigger motorhome works but drives slowly and drinks fuel; for winter the honest answer is a car and guesthouses.

Iceland changed its camping law in 2015 after a few bad summers, and it is enforced.

• You may only sleep in a vehicle (camper, motorhome, car, rooftop tent) at a registered campsite or with the landowner’s permission. Car parks, laybys, beaches and road ends are not allowed, and fines are issued.
• Tent camping away from a campsite is allowed for one night on uncultivated land outside national parks, not near houses, and not when there is a campsite nearby; it does not apply to anything with wheels.
• Campsites do not need booking except at the busiest (Þakgil, Skaftafell, Landmannalaugar, the Westman Islands in July); most take walk-ins until late evening. The Camping Card ($200 for a season) covers about 40 sites for two adults and up to four children.
• Grey water and toilets go into the campsite’s disposal point, never the ground; every campsite has one.
• The speed limit for a camper is the same as a car, but a loaded van on gravel is happier at 60 to 70 km/h, and the rental contract usually forbids all F-roads unless the van is a 4x4 camper.

Summer figures for two people; the budget calculator prices your own dates.

• A small 2WD camper: about $150 to $250 a day in July, $100 to $150 in May or September, including basic insurance; a 4x4 camper or a motorhome roughly double.
• Campsites: $15 to $20 per person per night, plus a few dollars for showers at some; electricity about $8.
• Fuel: a small van does the Ring Road on about $300; a motorhome on $450 or more.
• Food: supermarket cooking in the van brings a day’s food to $25 to $35 per person.
• Insurance: take the gravel and sand cover; vans lose windscreens and paint on the south coast sands, and a door torn off by the wind is the classic camper claim.

Counter-clockwise around the Ring Road, the sites that are good in themselves, with showers and kitchens unless noted.

• Þingvellir (Leirar) and Selfoss for the Golden Circle; Skjól near Geysir for the hot tubs.
• Skógar under the waterfall, Vík on the edge of town, and Þakgil in a hidden valley east of Vík (book, gravel road).
• Kirkjubæjarklaustur (Kleifar) and Skaftafell in the national park, the base for the glacier and the lagoon; Höfn by the harbour.
• Seyðisfjörður by the lagoon and Egilsstaðir in the East; Möðrudalur on the desert crossing (the highest farm in Iceland).
• Mývatn (Bjarg or Hlíð) on the lake; Húsavík above the harbour; Akureyri (Hamrar) in the woods.
• Varmahlíð and Hvammstangi in the north-west; Borgarnes and Snæfellsnes sites at Arnarstapi, Hellissandur and Grundarfjörður to finish.

The wind, not the cold, is what gets campers into trouble.

• Check the weather page every morning; above 20 m/s of gusts, a high-sided van is hard to hold on the road and the sands east of Vík and at Skeiðarársandur are off limits.
• Park nose to the wind at night and at viewpoints; open the doors one at a time with a hand on each.
• The rental companies issue wind warnings by text; follow them, because the damage is not insured when you drive through a warning.
• Keep the day short: 200 to 250 km in a van is a full day with stops, and the plan should sleep where the next morning’s sight is.

The same counter-clockwise loop as the ten-day route on the Ring Road collection, with campsites as the nights: Reykjavík (Laugardalur) 1, Selfoss or Skjól 2, Vík 3, Skaftafell 4, Höfn 5, Seyðisfjörður 6, Mývatn 7, Akureyri 8, Hvammstangi or Borgarnes 9, Reykjavík 10. Book Skaftafell in July; everything else is walk-in. The planner builds the detailed version with stops and timings.