Travel

Iceland Travel Question

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Talamasca wrote: It's very hard to get lost in Iceland, unless you're roaming around on the F-series of roads. There's only one highway that encircles the island, everything is well-signed, and Reykjavik itself has a fairly logical grid street layout. I wouldn't bother with the GPS, unless you're a generally bad navigator, i.e. you have trouble getting from Vaughan to downtown T.O.
Yeah it would have been difficult to get lost for most of the routes. Though we did find the gps useful for driving around Reykjavik . We also found it useful for driving the golden circle when it isn't necessarily as obvious where you might need to turn. It was just one less thing to worry about. If all you're doing is route 1 in the south from Rejkjavik to say Vik or something it would be difficult to get lost even if you tried. GPS was just for peace of mind.
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I will just rent a GPS in case my google doesn't work. Thanks.
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marktang wrote: I will just rent a GPS in case my google doesn't work. Thanks.
That and you don't want to hear it from your wife about why you should have rented a gps because you got lost for 5 minutes.
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IMO, GPS is overkill. Map and offline maps on your phone is all you need. I bought a detailed road map and had 0 problems.
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Oni-kun wrote: Dude have you been to Iceland? The only thing that would block satellite reception are tall buildings or if you're in dense vegetation. If you've seen the landscape in Iceland, there are barely any trees around, basically NONE. If you stay on the road you will not have your GPS signal blocked. Your car also would basically have to be inside a deep valley to get no signal. Most of the places most tourists would take their rental car are not those kind of places.

Also have you seen the landscape? Basically if you're out in the middle of nowhere, a map will do you no good, because you have no point of reference. The only point of reference you might get is something like a road. But guess what, if you're on the road, you will get GPS signal.

It is highly unlikely that while your car is in the on position and the engine is running that the battery will just die. If the battery is dead, you will retain electrical power as long as the engine is running. If the alternator is dead and won't charge the battery then maybe your car will break down and the GPS won't work. But then you got other problems like a vehicle not working rather than navigating. In that case you call your car rental company.

Dude, have you been to Iceland? I drove up mountain passes with steep slopes on either side, which, since you've lived your entire life in the GTA, act like tall building and block signals. All signals. I had a teeeeny tiiiiny Subuaru Justy and feared overheating while going up a couple of these passes. If your car breaks down in one of those spots, you've got to walk out. A hard copy map can give you an approx direction to go in. For instance, our Lonely Planet guide would have shown us that even if there was a settlement closer in one direction, that going in the other, longer direction would get us to a service station.

Your response about the vehicle is one of the silliest things I've read on RFD. If your battery is dead, you can't start the vehicle! How are you going to get the engine running for that battery power you're talking about?! I'm talking about a situation where you've gotten out of the car and for some reason left the lights on or some stupid thing like when you stopped on the shoulder, you went too far and the car's in the ditch and won't turn on. Oh right, this is where I call the rental company...oh wait, no signal because I'm inbetween two steep hills...

Iceland is not the GTA. Most of the ring road is an empty, desolate place with civilization spread far apart. Sh!t happens. How hard is it to have a freakn map as a preparation for disaster? People are so attached to their electronics that they have a hard time letting go or seeing past them to real life situations.
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TartanToed wrote: Dude, have you been to Iceland? I drove up mountain passes with steep slopes on either side, which, since you've lived your entire life in the GTA, act like tall building and block signals. All signals. I had a teeeeny tiiiiny Subuaru Justy and feared overheating while going up a couple of these passes. If your car breaks down in one of those spots, you've got to walk out. A hard copy map can give you an approx direction to go in. For instance, our Lonely Planet guide would have shown us that even if there was a settlement closer in one direction, that going in the other, longer direction would get us to a service station.

Your response about the vehicle is one of the silliest things I've read on RFD. If your battery is dead, you can't start the vehicle! How are you going to get the engine running for that battery power you're talking about?! I'm talking about a situation where you've gotten out of the car and for some reason left the lights on or some stupid thing like when you stopped on the shoulder, you went too far and the car's in the ditch and won't turn on. Oh right, this is where I call the rental company...oh wait, no signal because I'm inbetween two steep hills...

Iceland is not the GTA. Most of the ring road is an empty, desolate place with civilization spread far apart. Sh!t happens. How hard is it to have a freakn map as a preparation for disaster? People are so attached to their electronics that they have a hard time letting go or seeing past them to real life situations.
Yes I have. And most people asking on here didn't sound like they were asking about renting a car that you can drive on the F-roads.
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Nov 24, 2008
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Oni-kun wrote: Yes I have. And most people asking on here didn't sound like they were asking about renting a car that you can drive on the F-roads.
Srsly? Have you checked a map? Oh wait, you only use GPS.

I was driving the Ring Road to from Reykjavik to Akureyri not an F road.
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TartanToed wrote: When I was in Iceland in May, we rented a car for 5 days so that we could do the Golden Circle, Eyjafjallayokull and the Akureyri area. We rented from Lotus Car Rental. http://www.lotuscarrental.is/ Kinda a small outfit, their cars were not brand new, but well kept and in excellent condition. They'll drop off the car at your accommodation and pickup at any designated location as well. I booked well in advance and got a pretty good deal for Iceland. The 5 days PLUS a mobile hotspot came to about $300 CDN with unlimited mileage. The car was a Suburu Justy and was great on gas.

That being said, gas is very expensive. We used about a half tank every day and it cost us about $45 CDN every day to top off. It was really the cost of gas that was the limiter and was why I went with the cheaper rental. A car is a car is a car, especially when only being used for 5 days. You can cut your rental cost by more than half by not renting a 4x4 and save a little on the gas costs with the econo car type. Of course, if your aim is to go into the highlands of Iceland, you MUST rent an F road permitted vehicle (4x4 or SUV) and you'll need to adjust your costs accordingly. Don't even think about going on an F road with a regular car, for one, it's illegal, and two, it'll void any insurance you get on the car. We did meet a couple that had rented an SUV and pretty much camped in it for the week - no hotel. Based on comparisons with them, we came out a little bit ahead on costs and way ahead on showers/free breakfasts on our AirBnB accommodations. ;)

Getting around Iceland is easy, make sure you fill up whenever you can though. Usually there are signs posted with the km to the next fillup, but it never hurts to make sure you're over half whenever you're venturing into the empty spaces between towns. We did burn a fair bit of our gas on the mountains on the way to Akureyri and a lot of the attractions are in the middle of nowhere, for instance Dettifoss.
Thanks for the old suggestion :)

Lotus has gone WAY up in price!

Still trying to find a decent deal... SIXT seems to be the only good price.
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I don't think they have gone up in price...it's just our dollar sucks. i checked lotus during my stay for 5 days it around $330US? isn't that bad i think
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marktang wrote: I don't think they have gone up in price...it's just our dollar sucks. i checked lotus during my stay for 5 days it around $330US? isn't that bad i think
It was quite higher for the dates I selected. Only Sixt was decently priced but the reviews are concerning...
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Expedia for TD only have the bigger rental companies. I booked with Avis at first but the review wasn't too good so went with Budget instead. $230cdn for 4 days. But might cancel that too and book something a bit more expensive with a better review.
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Icelandic króna has increased significantly against all currencies over the last few years. Even USD has devalued against the ISK.
I wonder what the exchange rate was prior to the 2010 banking crisis. It must be getting close now...
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Just want to remind everyone that if you are getting gas make sure your credit card has 4 pins only. My main card with 6 pins did not work in any gas station, good thing i have a back up card.
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marktang wrote: Just want to remind everyone that if you are getting gas make sure your credit card has 4 pins only. My main card with 6 pins did not work in any gas station, good thing i have a back up card.
Any highlights of your trip?
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RolandCouch wrote: Any highlights of your trip?
It was colder than i thought it would be lol. But overall it was amazing. Seriously I think you need at least 1 week there. Just the scenery is amazing. You will have an urge to stop every 5 mins to take pictures. They said it's the dry season in June but it was raining on and off the whole time. good thing for 23 hrs of day light, it's hard to get used to at first. you will think it's like 8pm but actually it's closer to midnight already.
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marktang wrote: Just want to remind everyone that if you are getting gas make sure your credit card has 4 pins only. My main card with 6 pins did not work in any gas station, good thing i have a back up card.
Good to know, thanks. 2 weeks and counting ;)
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mfrania wrote: Good to know, thanks. 2 weeks and counting ;)
they don't have gas attendant, just you and the machine. Pay first at the machine and then you can fill up.
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marktang wrote: they don't have gas attendant, just you and the machine. Pay first at the machine and then you can fill up.
Except for small villages and such, all real petrol stations have a shop/restaurant attached. In which case you can always choose to pay inside with cash or non-chipped card or whatever.
Most are open until at least 21:00 or 22:00; a few in the capital region are open 24 hours.
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Amazing place. Need at least a week if you want to drive around the ring road.
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