Learnings from our trip: Laugavegur trail + ring road
Hi everyone,
I thought I'd share my experiences and learnings after our 13 day trip to Iceland. I tried not repeating the very obvious things I have read 30 times before here. This will be mostly helpful for people who are into hiking. We did not do the north. Our most eastern point was Borgarfjarðarhöfn (puffin spot)
1. Laugavegur trail (June 27th-June 30th 2026):
- We did the main trail in two days. Day 1 to Álftavatn (21.8km), Day 2 to Þórsmörk (31.1km). And then Day 3 we added the hike to Skogar (26km). It's totally fine if you are fit and the days are long. Most of the days we started hiking at 11am.
- Day 1 was full of rain and Álftavatn doesn't have any sheltered space for campers. Keep that in mind if you have a rainy first day. Also you don't want to spend 5 hours in your tent until you get tired at Álftavatn, so it is better to start late and take it slow.
- Rain ponchos that cover your backpack and rain pants are a must. Day 1 had snow, hail and a lot of rain for us. We saw people whose backpack covers were soaked super fast. Our large ponchos saved us.
- We did not bring extra shoes for river crossings to save weight. Barefoot was fine. It was obviously cold, but no other issue.
- Hiking poles are a must, some people didn't have them and with strong rain it really is a pain without.
2. Rest of the island
- Parka app has a per transaction fee or monthly fee. Monthly fee is only for the days thats left in a given month, so very likely that makes sense for you to do!
- Must do hike, very accessible: https://www.alltrails.com/de/route/iceland/southern/kristinartindar-via-svartifoss-skaftafellsheidi We started at 14:30 and finished at 22:30 with long breaks. We were basically alone from the first view point.
- Go to Thakgil (https://maps.app.goo.gl/RLt6dzAbqhqAL2ad8) and hike the yellow trail. It's incredible. The road is bumpy, but not classified as an F-road. Our basic non-4WD camper-van handled it fine. https://www.alltrails.com/de/route/iceland/southern/thakgil-austurafrettur-red-and-yellow-trail
- If you drive far east, make sure to take the bumpy gravel road and pass this spot: https://maps.app.goo.gl/LeqM1ZHHfLrAuKoL8 - it's incredible. It was one of our highlights on the whole trip.
- Best camp site by far: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zvxH8QUm8YedkEnP9
- This might be controversial: We drove up to the Westfjords because many people said its amazing. We were a bit underwhelmed after seeing the highlands before and doing the diverse and beautiful hikes there. Westfjords is a lot of driving and less change in scenery. I would say its not worth the drive if you look for the best landscapes and hikes in Iceland. For us it was by far the highlands.
- We did a glacier tour with glacieradventure, highly recommend them. Excellent tour guide Philippe.
- Something we did against all advice: not taking any additional car insurance. Our car was fine. We drove with a large safety distances to cars in front of us to avoid gravel windshield damage. This of course is not a recommendation to not take an insurance, it very much depends on your driving style and if insurance makes your trip more enjoyable. Then obviously go for the insurance. Just sharing this for people who are wondering how bad it really is to not take an additional insurance.
- Food: try the strawberry white chocolate skyr you can find in supermarkets.
- Free walking tour in Reykjavik is amazing: https://citywalk.is/ our guide Jakob was incredible.