Preparing for your Trip to Iceland
Shot on Fujifilm X-T3 with 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens.
If you would like to travel to and around Iceland with the lowest environmental impact possible, there are several questions you have to ask yourself even before going there. How to you get to the country? Once you’re there, how do you travel around? What type of accommodation do you choose? How and where do you get food? There is obviously not one single answer to these questions, as they all depend on your ability to act, whether for financial reasons but also because of the time you have there. Maybe even more than finances, time is certainly one of the main forms of luxury when we travel, as it impacts our stay on many levels.
How to get there?
The transportation mode is the first thing you have to think about, although for Iceland specifically, there are only a couple of options: you can either take a plane or a boat. Some boats can take you from the Iceland to Denmark or Greenland for instance, which can allow some to come with their own car. But once again, it is a question of time and finances, and depending on where you come from, it might not necessarily be better for the environment to choose the boat over the plane to go to Iceland. If you are coming from France, the carbon footprint would be roughly the same if you take the plane or you drive to Denmark and take a ferry to Iceland.
However, one choice you can make, no matter the transportation mode, is to take part in a carbon offset program. Although this method can be qualified as a form of green-washing, which can definitely be true, as you still emit CO2 when you take a boat, a plane or a car, getting to know the carbon footprint of your flight and helping organizations that protect the environment near you or in Iceland remains of way of defending the environment. I would not recommend ticking the “carbon offset” box on the website of the airline you choose as you may not necessarily know where your money is going, but rather actively look for organizations yourself, as it is also a way to raise our awareness regarding local environmental issues.
If you decide to fly to Iceland, I would recommend you buy your plane ticket directly on the airline’s website, because even if it may be slightly more expensive—and still, oftentimes it is the same price—it is easier to be reimbursed in case something prevents you from going there or leaving the country. After all, Icelanders have been expecting another massive volcanic eruption for quite a while, and it is always better to be safe than sorry. There are few airline companies that fly to and from Iceland and we personally chose Icelandair, and we paid about 800€ in early January for a trip both ways for two people. And once you are at the airport, I wholeheartedly recommend you take the Icelandic Pledge at the airport, which is a set of rules you promise to abide by as an environmentally-conscious tourist. The Icelandic Pledge can also be taken online here.
How to go around
Once in Iceland, the question of transportation has to be asked again: the most adventurous of you may want to ride around the island on a bike taking road 1, which entirely covered with asphalt. Of course, it can reduce the cost and your carbon footprint, but it also implies means a long trip. Moreover, sometimes, extremely strong winds can make this task quite daunting, and you would have to be even more prepared, both physically and logistically. We have actually seen people taking the ring road around Iceland, and even if I can definitely imagine it being quite demanding, they must have had so much more time to enjoy the landscape than we did.
The second greenest form of transportation would undoubtedly be the bus. They travel to many different parts of the country in the summer. However, once again, time is the main variable to have in mind, and you would have to prepare your trip in advance spot the buses’ schedules, or otherwise you might be stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours or even a whole day. When we were in Landmannalaugar, one of the most remote parts of the island, we overheard people who said that they were doing their whole trip on foot, only to take the bus when it was absolutely necessary, including… to go to Landmannalaugar!
Cars and campers can allow you to travel more comfortably, they do account for a higher cost and carbon footprint. Some roads, called F-Roads, can only be accessed with a 4x4 SUV, because they are dirt and rock roads, but these cars are by far the most polluting ones (we had to fill up the tank every other day, which also ends up being very costly) and among the most expensive ones to rent. The two questions that have to be taken into account are then time and finances, especially since it is definitely recommended to choose the most expensive insurance package offered, because Iceland is a country where risks such as sand or ash storms are actually real. We ended up renting an old pre-2013 Suzuki Jimny 4x4 SUV from Northern Lights Car Rental, which was the cheapest 4x4 we could find. However, with the insurance the car ended up costing us the staggering price of 225,180 ISK (or about 1600€ back then; but with the exchange rate of May 2020, it would convert to something closer to 1400€), or about twice the price of the plane ticket. Moreover, this is really only for two people maximum, as the trunk is so small that our luggage stayed on the folded backseats the whole trip. If you do choose to rent a car, once you get it at the rental company, it is strongly recommended that while you are shown the car, you take pictures of all the bumps and scratches the car might have, as well as of the mileage on the dashboard. While the last one is just in case, you never know if a company is going to try and make you pay for cosmetic issues once you give it back, even if you sign a document listing all of the scratches of the car. It is worth noting that having taken the platinum insurance, the company’s clerk only checked how much gas was left in the tank when we gave back the car and did not look for any cosmetic problem.
What you might want to know before driving in Iceland
There Icelandic specificities I had been warned about before heading there, such as holding the car’s doors with a firm grip when you get outside, because the wind in Iceland is so strong that it can bend the doors if you lose your grip. Unfortunately, no insurance covers bent car doors, so you might want to be extra careful when you open them.
But there are pieces of advice I wish I had been given before I went there. One you might appreciate if you do rent a car is to bring jumper cables and clamps or buy some there if you don’t have a car, as a dead car battery is not covered by any insurance if you are responsible for, say, leaving your headlights on while enjoying a hot pot in the middle of nowhere. That is something that happened to us in the Snæfellesnes peninsula, and of course, the only cars around were rentals, and they did not have any jumper cables in their trunk either. Having a tow truck drive for about 45min to an hour to jump our car cost us about 400€, a sum we had definitely wished we had spent on something else. Alternatively, of course, you can just remember that in Iceland you must have your headlights on even in the day, and that on older cars like our Jimny, apart from a beep, there is no light on the dashboard to warn you that the lights are still on. While it is definitely our fault, I might as well warn you so that you don’t make the same mistake!
Moreover, if you do rent a 4x4 and end up driving on F-Roads, make sure you don’t drive too fast, because the car won’t react as quickly as on the asphalt, but also not too slowly because otherwise you will feel every single rock and pothole you pass. I personally found that driving between 30km/h and 60km/h was a good speed, depending on the visibility and whether the road was straight or winding. There are times when the road reaches a pass, and it is obviously recommended to drive extremely slowly as you reach them. That is especially true of F-Roads. If you feel unsafe while driving on those roads, you can press the 4x4 button mode of the car (which is usually deactivated when you first get it). It means that all four wheels will be used to power the car instead of two, but it will also make your car more gas-hungry. You also have to be completely stopped before switching from two to four-wheel drive.
The final piece of advice I can give has to do with ford and river-crossing. Overall, the only fords we had to cross were in the Icelandic Highlands and in Landmannalaugar. Some are really small, but other are wider and deeper. The first part of the recommendation is that you should check the road conditions before heading onto an F-Road [road.is] and see if it is possible to cross fords. But if you end of going onto these roads and once you reach a ford and you are unsure whether you can cross it, just don’t. Seeing unique landscapes is never worth flooding the engine of your car or even risking your life, as every year there are tourists who die in their car trying to cross rivers. And even if you think that you can cross them, just wait until another car crosses first and look precisely how they did it. At one point in our trip, we tried taking the F905 to Askja, a volcanic blue lake surrounded by hiking paths, and after crossing a couple of small fords, we came across a big one. On our bank were a few massive 4x4 SUVs that had just crossed, and I decided to go ask them how deep the ford was and if they had any tips. They recommended me to press the 4x4 low-range before trying to cross the river. There were three buttons to choose from on our car when it came to the number of wheels driving: 2WD, which made the car drive like any other regular car, 4WD, which made the car use all four wheels to move, and 4WD-L, the L standing for low-range. The difference between 4WD and 4WD-L is that with a manual 4WD, you change gears the same way as with a regular car, while with 4WD-L, you change gears much faster, and there are fewer risks for the car to stall or for the wheels to slide. 4WD-L is thus much better to cross fords and rivers, but still, if you are unsure, it is always best to wait and see how someone else does it, or even better, ask them how they did it.
Clothing and Camping Gear:
Obviously, a hiking trip is never really the time when one can easily show off with pretty clothes, so even if we stayed a couple of days in Reykjavik, we were fully aware that there was no point in packing up dress shoes, shirts, or dresses. Instead, we went with full on hiking gear.
If you don’t have any hiking or camping gear and you don’t have any intention on using it outside of your Iceland trip, it would be best to ask around to have all of this lent. But even if you intend on using this gear again, it is always good to look for used gear online or in some stores. For instance, some hiking companies such as Patagonia do sell used, refurbished gear for sometimes half price and it is always a good idea to look for these types of deals instead of buying new.
In the case of our Iceland gear, I will make a list of clothes and hiking/camping gear we used on this trip for clarity purposes:
Windbreakers. I had an Aouro Mistral Windbreaker (Made in France), and L had a Salewa Puez Aqua 3 Powtertex jacket. We also each had a down jacket underneath each windbreaker.
Hiking shoes. I took two pairs, a thicker, heavier one and a lighter one, in case your feet get tired of one pair; both were weather resistant models. I brought the Merrell Capra GTX and the Saucony Excursion TR1 GTX while L had a pair of Salomon X Ultra 3 GTX.
Beanies, mittens or gloves, hiking socks, short and long sleeve technical shirts, Hiking pants/trousers that dry easily, some fleece, scarves but also multifunctional headwear (like BUFF), the latter proving extremely useful at night in the tent or during our hike in Landmannalaugar.
While on hikes, we each had a 30L Salomon Trailblaizer backpack with a 2L water bladder and reusable 80cl/27oz water bottles.
We also had some camping cutlery such as reusable plastic knife, forks and spoons, aluminum plates, reusable plastic cups, a kitchen towel, a pot and a Primus camping stove. We might have been pretty novice in terms of finding the right type of gas canister, but had a lot of trouble finding a Primus gas canister, and it is only on our second day that we realized that other brands such as Coleman worked perfectly well with Primus stoves.
In terms of camping gear, we each had a three-season tent, but I would recommend a four-season one, as some nights were rather windy, with almost freezing temperatures, even in the middle of summer. Our tent was a Helsport Lofoten Pro 3 Camp, which has the advantage of having the outside shell going very low to the ground so that the inside is more protected from the wind, and its tunnel shape makes it even less vulnerable to strong winds. Another good point with it is that you first have to set the outer tent, and once it is done you set the inner tent from the inside, which can protect you from the elements. This feature proved extremely useful on several occasions.
Where and WHAT to eat?
Back in the summer of 2019, when we visited Iceland, the island was the most expensive country in Europe. Unsurprisingly, food was rather expensive too, especially as Iceland imports a lot of it. As an indication, after two weeks of mostly cooking camping food, on our penultimate night, we celebrated my birthday with two pizzas, nachos, two beers and a shared cake, which cost us about 100€. However, financial and time constraints may not be the only one to take into account when it comes to food. First, you have to decide whether you are going to prepare most of your food yourself or not. Outside of Reykjavik, it is often hard for vegans to find an item that would suit you on the menu of Icelandic restaurant, and if it is a bit easier for vegetarians, there are often very few choices. Likewise, for gluten or lactose intolerants, it is safer to cook yourself, and most camping sites have a kitchen available.
We bought most of our food at a cheapish supermarket chain called Bonus, which worked okay for us. However, from an environmental perspective, most fruits and vegetables in supermarkets were wrapped in plastic, and if you would rather avoid that, you will have to go to farmers’ markets or stop on the side of the road when farmers sell their produce. I must admit we did not see any farmers’ market during our trip, but we might not have looked hard enough, and you might want to do some research before your trip if you absolutely want to find some. After our car use, buying groceries ended up being the second aspect of our trip when it was the hardest to reduce our carbon footprint, even if we did have some reusable nets or bags to do grocery shopping.
In terms of beverages, we did not buy any plastic water bottles, since Iceland has one of the best tap waters in the world. They even made commercials to encourage tourists to drink from the tap.
Photo/video gear and equipment:
Photography was a pretty big deal for me in Iceland, but I also could not afford buying a lot of gear I did not have at the time. If, like me, you are unable to buy new gear you would like to bring on your trip, you might want to look into renting, which can be a good opportunity for you to take the pictures you dream of, while only spending 10% of what you would pay if you had to buy gear. Here is a list of what photo and video gear I brought:
A Fujifilm X-T3 with the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 kit lens, the Samyang 12mm f/2 and the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4. I ended up taking absolutely no picture with the 35mm and about 95% with the 18-55mm. The Samyang proved useful on some occasions when the landscape was too grandiose to be capture by the 18-55mm, but even then, sometimes I would take multiple photos with the kit lens stitched them into a panorama on Lightroom.
The DJI Osmo Pocket. I ended up not making a lot of videos, but it was still a nice addition, and with its size and weight, I never really had to think about it. Moreover, it was nice for the occasional private selfie.
The Joby GorillaPod 3K tripod. A bigger tripod might have been more convenient at times, but this one had the advantage of being extremely light.
In terms of accessories, I also had four spare batteries, because if you are camping, you never know when you will be able to charge your camera next. Various SD and Micro SD cards with a waterproof pelican case to protect them, an Aurora Aperture PowerWND Mark 2 Variable ND 32-2000 filter for long exposures (although if you take several shots of the same place and blend them in HDR mode on Lightroom, you can more or less get the same result), and a set of Freewell ND filters for the Osmo Pocket. I also used to Peak Design Capture Clip to keep my camera onto my backpack strap. And since none of my lenses were weather resistant, I reluctantly bought a rain poncho for my camera, but it did serve its purpose and salvaged my gear a couple of times around waterfalls.
As a backpack, I had planned to use the LowePro Powder 500 AW, but it proved to big to be used on day hikes, so it mostly served as a storage bag in the trunk, while I took the Salomon Trailblazer 30L. Looking back, I think that my backpack choices were not exactly the best, I should have just had a smaller and lighter hiking backpack with an Internal Camera Unit (ICU) stored inside, or a smaller hiking camera backpack.
Overall, I do wish I had a telephoto lens and a drone with me for some epic shots, but I am still happy with the pictures I took, and it is always an instructive exercise to have a small amount of photography gear.