Driving in Iceland can be an unexpected cultural experience for tourists visiting for the first time. Winter in Iceland is often more unpredictable, snowy and icy than people anticipate. Winter driving in Iceland can be a challenge on its own. There are a few things to keep in mind when driving the south coast to visit the ice caves, Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and Diamond Beach, so we’re here to give you the local heads up. 

You can find standard winter driving tips from SafeTravel.is. This blog gives you a handy list of websites to check to avoid running into trouble, local tips for bad weather, advice on what to do if you need to get towed, and some details on gas stations in the south of Iceland.  

Websites to check when winter driving in Iceland

Safetravel.is – you can follow their updates on their website, but the best way is to follow them on Facebook and then turn on Notifications and “See First” in your feed so you don’t miss any updates about storms or windy, snowy conditions. They do a really good job of putting the weather data and road updates in context for you.

Road.is will give you details on the conditions of the winter roads. If you look at the legend beneath the road map photo, you’ll see the colour code for the lines and symbols that tell you how severe the snow storms are. Make sure to keep checking this a lot when siging up for winter driving in Iceland.

Vedur.is – the weather website for all of Iceland will give you the temperature, wind and rain (snow) forecasts. You can change the website to English in the top right corner on mobile or desktop, and by selecting “South East” you’ll see the map for Kirkjubaejarklauster to Hofn. If you’re driving to/from Vik, you’ll need to check the “South” map. 

Grapevine.is – The Reykjavik Grapevine is a newspaper available in English throughout Iceland. They were also great at updating tourists regularly on weather warnings. Best thing to do is follow them on Facebook and Follow so you see the weather updates when they appear. 

What am I looking for in the forecast?

If the temperature on the road is between 0-3 degrees celcius, any precipitation may be snow or sleet. This means you could have very slippery roads or poor visibility. Add wind (especially gusts over 15 m/s) and the roads could be quite dangerous. If it’s not possible to wait until better weather, drive slowly. This is very important to do when winter driving in Iceland.

Road plows

Within the Reykjavik area the streets are almost fully plowed and salted. From the town Hvolsvollur (1.5 hours from Reykjavik) onwards, you need to wait until the plows start work from around 7am-8am. Every major town or area (Vik, Kirkjubaejarklauster, Skaftafell, Hofn) will have someone operating a plow, but they need to drive in both directions, and it’s at least an hour between the towns. This means the road can be very difficult to drive early in the morning as sometimes the snow clumps on the black ice and people need to take turns driving on the plowed sections. Cleaning of the roads can simply take a bit of time so make sure to plan for extra time when being on a car and winter driving in Iceland.

It’s a good idea to add at least 15-20 minutes more per hour you have to drive when planning. This way, if you’re staying in Svinafell and need to go to Jökulsárlón (40 mins), leaving 60 mins would be a reasonable amount of time to allow you to drive around 50-70km/h instead of 90km/h.