Top Tips
- Landmannalauger is a unique drive away from Reykjavik in southern Iceland.
- To reach the tourist region of Langmannalaugar will require a 4WD vehicle. This hotel just near the north entrance of F208 highland road will rent you a 4WD for the day, so you don't have to bank for this car for the rest of your journey.
- Bring a packed lunch for your day trip to Landmannalaugar.
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| Landmannalaugar - It's like the land before time |
Monday, September 2
Today highlighted some beauties and some regrets. I am so
glad that I decided to go out of our way for this day trip to Landmannalaugar.
This reserve has a unique landscape of lava fields, lakes and mountains. My
main regret is the weather – I know, can’t really do anything about that. I am
still glad we drove the distance despite the prohibitive rain and cold, I just
would have loved to do so much more in this region – every hiking trail looked
enticing and riveting, the landscape also was at its best when glistening in
the short sunny periods between the showers of rain.
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| Sheep grazing in Landmannalaugar |
My second regret is our 4WD. We rented a 4WD for the whole
week, specifically to make it to Landmannalaugar. You need a 4WD on the
highland F-roads for a few reasons as I found online: 1) They are unimproved
roads subject to inclement weather conditions that can change in a second – you
may drive into the park in pristine weather, but you could be leaving in wet or
icy conditions. 2) Most rental agencies have contracts that state you will be
liable for any damages done on highland F-roads because these roads are only
suited to high 4WD capable vehicles – so on the chance that something bad does happen, that’ll be out of your
pocket. It’s not easy to pretend you weren’t there when your car breaks down or
is swept away in a river (which apparently happens more often than you’d
think). Cheap Jeep specifies in its contract that the car I rented is covered
for use on the F-roads. 3) You will be crossing at least 1 river to reach the
hot springs hut, and any river crossing will require 4WD. 4) Now this I haven’t
tested, but anecdotally the F-roads can be patrolled by agents specifically
looking for un-qualified cars to report to the rental companies that you are
there against your contract.
All of these reasons are valid reasons to ensure you rent a
4WD for this drive. But, as covered previously, fuel in Iceland is twice as
expensive as Canada – currently sitting at $2.55/L – making a 4WD gas-guzzler
an expensive option for a drive around the whole island. Car hire is also more
expensive, with our “Cheap Jeep” rental of what must be a 20 y/o 4WD costing as
much as a 4WD rental in Switzerland for the same amount of time.
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| The F208 driving South into Landmannalaugar |
My tip for this daytrip: On the F26 we did pass this hotel that rents out 4WD vehicles before reaching the highland roads. If I’d known this was here, I’d have rented
a regular car for MUCH cheaper from Reykjavik, and rented a 4WD from this place
for the day we needed it. This would have saved us so much money, especially
when we didn’t need the 4WD for most of the places we visited, but we had
planned such a continuous itinerary.
We drove the route taking the 32 to the 26 East, then
followed the F208 south to Landmannalaugar. This is allegedly the least
complicated 4WD route. There is one river crossing (involving 2 segments) just
before you enter the Landmannalaugar camping site. Our very old Suzuki Grand
Vitara was able to navigate this river without a hitch, on a rainy day no less.
There was a Skoda Yeti and a Ford Escape that made it across too – probably the
smallest vehicles that we saw attempt this crossing. Several people parked
beyond the river and took the pedestrian bridges to enter the campsite (about
2-300m extra walking).
Important to note is there is practically no food available
at this site, or for hours in any direction. There was a café truck offering
hot coffee/chocolate, some candy and heatable snacks for campers, and basic
sandwiches. These were the well priced for Iceland – charging
merely $1.80 for a Mars Bar, or $8 for a sandwich. My suggestion is to bring a
picnic. We were unable to do any hikes because despite waiting an hour to see
if weather would improve, it just got worse and worse – starting with drizzle
mixed with melting snow, followed by downpour and progressing to sharp hail.
Even Canadian Mike thought it was freezing.
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| On the way out of Grimsborgir, driving to the F208 we passed this marked point of interest. Interesting! |
We did walk past the hot springs, which honestly looked
pretty murky and uninviting from what I saw (though it had been raining so this
could have muddied up the waters a bit, in its defense). We had already decided
from the weather and facilities alone that we wouldn’t be changing into
swimmers in order to bathe. There was a bathroom and change area available –
the toilets were amazingly clean for such an isolated campsite, but there was
no towel to dry my hands so they turned to ice after washing them.
Luckily, we did catch a few glimpses of sun on the drive
into the park, which highlighted the beauty of this natural wonder. We saw a
small sample of the multicolored mountains that I had travelled all this way for, but I
suspect there is much more to the landscape than what we were able to see from
the road.
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| The multicoloured mountains of Landmannalaugar |
We drove a short way down the F225 – which seems to cross a
few rivers – before turning back to return home via the F208. The first river
we crossed on the F225 was very shallow and easy to cross, but I had read
online that this is the most technical of the 3 routes into the park, we knew
there would be several river crossings ahead, and turning back later could have
been an issue for the amount of gas left in the tank. After our close-call
risky drive at the Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah, we decided to allow common
sense to prevail and return on a road we knew the car could manage. If we had
one of the heavily souped up 4WD trucks other tourists had acquired, then we
would have continued down this road to return for sure, just to see something
different.
In retrospect, since we had rented the 4WD for our whole trip (and not just for the day), I would have preferred to arrive at Landmannalaugar from the F208 north route, and exited the park on the F208 south route towards our next hotel. I think the difference in landscape for this portion of the drive was something we missed out on, the next hotel we stayed at was my favourite hotel of the trip and I'd have preferred 2 nights there.
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| The stunning contrast where two rivers join at the north part of F208 |
We filled up with gas at a station on the 35, about 5km
north of the 36. Every fuel station we visited had machines that accepted VISA and could function
in English, so we didn’t need to go in to pay. To get a receipt, you have to re-enter your credit card after the transaction, and the machine recognises the card and prints a receipt. We had heard about fuel vouchers that should be purchased for cases of urgency when the station was closed, and the internet had me concerned that the fuel pumps wouldn't accept foreign credit cards. For the Australian VISA card and the Canadian AMEX card this was definitely not an issue. More so, when I asked at a station about purchasing a fuel card, they had no idea what I was talking about.
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| On the way out of Grimsborgir, driving to the F208 we passed this marked point of interest. |
The Keiro volcano crater lake is also on the 35, about 4km
north of the 36 intersection. Entry costs US$3 per person. It was pouring down
and no one was keen to venture out the car one more time.
We returned to the Hotel Grimsborgir for the night.
