4 x 4 Highlands and Lowlands 8 days

AVAILABLE:
July 12 to September 10

DURATION:
8 days / 7 nights

CAR RENTAL DAYS:
6 Days

DEPARTURES:
Daily

TOUR ID:
BP13

• Private airport transfer on arrival day
• 7 nights accommodation, in the accommodation category of your choice.
• Breakfast daily
• Rental car of your choice for 6 days including unlimited mileage, CDW and more.
• Two authorized drivers.
• Unlimited WiFi with the rental car
• Detailed itinerary and road map of Iceland with the route and accommodations marked in.
• Private airport transfer on departure day
• 24 hour Emergency telephone service.
• Taxes and service fees.

• Fuel expense and parking fees.
• Personal travel insurance.
• Flights to and from Iceland
• Anything not specifically stated in Included.

Day 1. Arrival

Upon your arrival at Keflavik airport, you will be met by your private driver who will take you to your accommodation in Reykjavik. You will be free for the rest of the day to explore Reykjavik, visit museums, landmarks etc. Downtown Reykjavík offers excellent restaurants, cafés, bars and clubs. You might want to join an optional tour if you arrive early. You can visit one of the many Reykjavík’s excellent restaurants for dinner.

Highlights of the day:
Reykjavík

Overnight:
Reykjavík

Optional activity:
Reykjavik City Card
Reykjavik Food Tour
Whale Watching from Reykjavik Harbor

Day 2. West Iceland and Þingvellir National Park

Pick up the car in the morning and drive along Hvalfjordur fjord, surrounded by high mountains and to the Borgarfjörður District where you will visit Deildartunguhver, Europe's largest hot spring. Drive further inland to the waterfalls Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, some of Iceland's most beautiful cascades and through the Húsafell woodlands. Proceed over the mountain pass Kaldidalur, one of Icelands highest mountain roads, to Thingvellir National Park, a unique place from a geological point of view. Research has shown that Thingvellir is a natural wonder on an international scale. The faults and fissures of the area make evident the rifting of the earth's crust. Thingvellir is also the most historical place in Iceland and a place of exceptional beauty. Thingvellir were accepted as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2004.

Driving distance
230 kilometers

Highlights of the day:
Deildartunguhver
Hraunfossar
Reykholt town
Þingvellir

Overnight:
South west area

Recommended optional activity:
The Settlement Exhibition and The Egil Saga Exhibition
Krauma Baths
Snorkeling in Silfra Fissure

Day 3. The Great Golden Circle & The Beautiful South Coast

Continue to the Great Geysir area and explore the hot springs and see the famous Great Geysir and Strokkur, an active geyser that spouts every few minutes, as well as numerous other hot springs. The Geysir Service Center offers a restaurant, hotel, swimming pool, souvenir shop, snack bar, gas station, a geo-center multimedia show, horse rental, quad bike tours, and a camping area. Continue to the majestic waterfall Gullfoss one of Icelands most beautiful waterfalls. Turn around at Gullfoss and head back to the waterfall Faxi and to the volcanic crater Kerið. After a short stop at Kerið continue to the town Selfoss. From here drive east and stop at the waterfalls Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss a little further along the main road. A walk behind Seljalandsfoss is an option during the summer and can be quite a unique experience The glaciers Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull are towering above.
On March 20th 2010, a volcanic eruption started on Fimmvörðuháls, a mountain ridge between the glaciers, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull. The eruption on Fimmvörðuháls lasted a couple of weeks. After this eruption came to an end a new and bigger eruption started underneath the nearby icecap of Eyjafjallajökull Glacier. This eruption came to an end on 23. May 2010.
Make a detour to the glacier Sólheimajökull (passable only during summer) before continuing to Dyrhólaey natural reserve and a nesting colony of numerous seabirds (closed for all traffic during the nesting period until June 25th). The promontory at Dyrhólaey is a massive natural arch carved by the relentless pounding of the winds and surf. Drive to Reynishverfi, with beautiful coast, spectacular rock formations and thousands of nesting seabirds which nest in almost every crevice in summer.

Driving distance
220 kilometers

Highlights of the day:
Geysir
Gullfoss Waterfall
Faxi waterfall
Kerið
Skógafoss Waterfall
Seljalandsfoss Waterfall
Dyrhólaey Nature Reserve
Reynisfjara beach
Vík Town

Overnight:
Vík area

Recommended optional activity:
Glacier Walk
Snowmobiling on Solheimajokull Glacier
LAVA Centre
ATV Black Sand Beach and Plane Wreck
Katla Ice Cave

Day 4. Skaftafell Nationl Park & The Amazing Glacier Lagoon

Drive across the Mýrdalssandur floodplains and Eldhraun, the largest lavafield ever to flow on Earth in historical time, and to the small village Kirkjubaejarklaustur. Fjaðrárgljúfur is a narrow and beautiful canyon a few km to the west from Kirkjubæjarklaustur, worth taking a look at. At Kirkjubæjarklaustur see Kirkjugólfið (the Church Floor), a protected natural monument just east of Klaustur. Kirkjugólfið is columnar basalt, eroded and shaped by wind and water. Then continue over Skeidarársandur, vast tracts of black sandy desert washed down by torrential glacial rivers. Stop at the Skaftafell National Park, an oasis wedged between sand and glacier. Its natural beauty is a result of favourable weather conditions and the interaction of fire and ice. Beneath the Vatnajökull ice cap, towering above Skaftafell is Grímsvötn, one of Iceland’s most active volcano. In the afternoon of 21. May 2011, a sub-glacial eruption started in the Grímsvötn volcanic system underneath Vatnajökull Glacier. Later the same day, the eruption broke the ice cover of the glacier and started spewing volcanic ash into the air. The amount of ash fall was the greatest close to the village Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The eruption went on for about a week. It ceased on 28. May 2011. See the interesting Visitors Center where you can learn the history of fire and ice in the region and a video of the volcanic eruption and the catastrophic flood in the area in 1996 can also be viewed. An interesting hiking trail takes you to Svartifoss, one of Icelands most picturesque waterfall, framed in by beautiful basalt columns that surround it. In the area are many other interesting hiking trails. Continue to Jökulsarlón the Glacial Lagoon where huge icebergs, sculptures of nature, broken off the glacier float and grind together in the deep blue waters of the lagoon. A cruise among the icebergs on the Lagoon is available in summer. Make the Jökulsárlón a turnaround point and drive back to the Kirkjubæjarklaustur area.

Driving distance
320 kilometers

Highlights of the day:
Kirkjubæjarklaustur town
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
Skaftafell National Park
Svartifoss waterfall
Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon

Overnight:
Kirkjubæjarklaustur area

Recommended optional activity:
Amphibian boat Tour on Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
Glacier Lagoon Kayaking
Zodiac Boat on Glacier Lagoon

Day 5. Lakagígar craters

Drive to Lakagígar craters. A rewarding, although a bumpy drive the scenery at the end of the trail makes it worth the effort as there are few wild and rugged natural wonders that equal the beauty of the Laki area.
Lakagígar craters, named for Mt. Laki, which the 25km long eruption fissure runs through. The craters are on a roughly south-west to a north-east trending line, the general line of fissure eruptions in Iceland. About two thirds of the more than hundred craters are west of Mt. Laki, while the remainder lies south of it. The craters were created in an eruption of five months duration and from them issued the greatest volume of lava on Earth in a single eruption within historical times.
Most of the enormous lava flows are covered with a thick carpet of green moss. The whole area, scarred with colourful craters and volcanic debris has a character of grim beauty. Besides the enormous lavas that issued from the craters, about 500 million tons of gases and ash was ejected. This created clouds of ash and pumice and a haze that hung over the entire country during the eruption. These ash clouds spread with winds and rose high up in the stratosphere to encircle the globe and cause colourful sunsets in the northern hemisphere for the next year. From the craters issued molten lava, flowing down to lower ground, in two broad streams, filling and levelling hollows, small valleys and the deep canyon of the river Skaftá on their way down to lowlands, where they spread out to destroy numerous farms. The volume of lava was estimated in excess of thirty billion tons and the area of land covered is about 565 sq km.

Driving distance
120 kilometers

Highlights of the day:
Kirkjugólf Basalt Columns
Laki Craters

Overnight:
Kirkjubæjarklaustur area

Day 6. Landmannalaugar & Fjallabak mountain route

The Fjallabak route is one of the most scenic trails in the interior highlands of Iceland, perhaps the most colourful and diversified of the many interesting mountain tracks, rugged colourful landscape of unsurpassed beauty. One of the highlights of the route is Eldgjá, one of the most interesting sights in this part of the country. Here nature has created a unique spectacle splitting mountains and valleys in its course creating a gigantic 30 km long gash into the earth, in some places is up to 600m wide and up to 200m deep. The volcanic fissure is considered to be the greatest of its kind on earth. Ófærufoss, used to be one of the country´s most beautiful waterfall, framed by a natural bridge, arching over the rivers gorge that collapsed years ago.
Continue to Landmannalaugar, nesting under the high edge of an obsidian lava flow. Here is a warden station, mountain hut and a camping site. Near the hut is a warm water pool created by the confluence of natural hot water and a coldwater springs. Bathing here in the natural hot spring water is a great experience.
The scenic interest in the area is tremendous. The mountains here are perhaps the most varied and colourful in Iceland.
A hike to nearby Bláhnjúkur, where the visitor has unobstructed view of the surrounding countryside is highly recommended, also to Jökulgil, a long rugged defile with several side canyons and tributary gullies. High up on the slopes above the lava under which the hut nestles is a colourful thermal area, springs emitting sulphurous odours. Leave Landmannalaugar and pass lake Frostastaðavatn, surrounded by colourful mountains and craters. Visit Landmannahellir, a cave that runs some distance into a hillside. This mountain track known as Landmannaleið is rugged and rocky in sections. The track passes through a wide variety of canyons, valleys, over rock ridges and black lava, weird plain of lava rocks surrounded by captivating mountains. The mountain track over Landmannaleið offers some of the finest scenic views available throughout this fascinating region. Off the track there are various trails leading to the volcano Hekla, which is in view on and off to the south of the trail.

Driving distance
230 kilometers

Highlights of the day:
Eldgjá Canyon
Landmannalaugar
Mt. Hekla

Overnight:
Hella area

Day 7. A relaxing day at the Blue Lagoon

Take the main road west to the village Hveragerði, where geothermal water is used to heat greenhouses for cultivation of decorative flowers and vegetables. Cross the plateau Hellisheiði, with a lot of geothermal activity and plumes of steam rising from the ground. Numerous boreholes have been drilled on Hellisheiði in the last years for hot water and steam, some of the cleanest energy available. Continue to The Blue Lagoon and enjoy a relaxing bath at the Blue Lagoon in an otherworldly setting where lava and thermal water complement each other to prepare you for your journey home. Filled with mineral-rich waters, the Blue Lagoon has become internationally known for providing soothing, medicinal relief for sufferers of skin ailments, as well as for others simply looking for a sensational bathing experience. Soak in the refreshing and healing waters of the Blue Lagoon, and have a wonderful last unforgettable taste of Iceland, that ensures that you are fully relaxed when you leave Iceland. If you plan to take a bath at the Blue Lagoon, we strongly recommend that you book your ticket in advance. It can be booked at www.bluelagoon.com Return to Reykjavík and drop off the car.

Driving distance
180 kilometers

Highlights of the day:
Hveragerði Town
The Blue Lagoon

Overnight:
Reykjavík

Recommended optional activity:
Blue Lagoon Comfort Admission

Day 8. Departure

Private transfer from the hotel to Keflavik International Airport.

Budget

Standard rooms in guesthouses. Private room but WC facilities and shower are shared with other guests. Rooms sometimes have wash basins in the room. Breakfast is included

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Comfort

Rooms in tourist class hotels combined with quality guesthouses. Rooms have private bathroom facilities. Breakfast is included.

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Comfort PLUS

Standard rooms in superior 3 star hotels combined with superior rooms at standard 3 star hotels. Rooms have private bathroom facilities. Breakfast is included

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Quality

Standard rooms in 4 Star hotels combined with superior and deluxe rooms at quality 3 star hotels. Breakfast is included.

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Quality PLUS

Superior or Deluxe rooms in 4 star hotels. Rooms have private bathroom facilities. Breakfast is included

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13.K - Toyota Landcruiser 4WD or similar - Automatic -

Transmission: Automatic
Seats: 5
Suitcases: 4
Doors: 5

Why book your Self Drive Tour with Tour.is?

Highly competitive prices

We include more

Outstanding response time and customer care

Knowledgeable and motivated team of travel agents

Great reviews from visitors

We offer cancellation insurance

Pick up of rental car is the morning of day 2.

Drop off is in Reykjavík the day prior to your departure – day 7. An extra day will be charged if the car is returned later.

Due to road conditions routes may have to be altered without prior notice. The highland tracks of Iceland are usually not expected to be open until early June and due to road conditions some routes may temporarily not be passable without prior notice.

Types of car recommended: A 4 wheel drive car is needed for this tour.

Accommodation is according to your choice in farmhouses, guesthouses or hotels, cat. 1, 2 or 3. including breakfast. Due to limited availability of accommodation in the Icelandic countryside and a great demand for summer, we are only able to confirm specific category but not a specific hotel in each locality until booking has been made and confirmed.


Early morning arrival: Check in time at hotels is usually between 14:00 - 16:00. If you arrive early morning, you may not be able to check in immediately on arrival.
A credit card imprint will be taken at the start of all rentals for security reasons, even when a voucher covers the cost of the rental. Cash and debit card deposits will not be accepted. This credit card imprint may be used to pay all extra charges, including extra driven kilometres if applicable, extra insurance, parking fines, damages or any costs due to the car rental company as a result of the hirer's use of the car.

Self Drive tours can often be modified according to the client’s wishes. If you want to change or extend the tour, add days etc, please contact our office.

Travel Insurance: To avoid dispute in case of cancellation, we strongly recommend that our clients purchase a comprehensive travel insurance in their home country, that covers your cost should you have to cancel your tour. This kind of travel insurance is usually not expensive and it frequently covers other risks too.

Price Calculator: There are several factors that determine the price of self drive packages:

1. Time of the year.

2. Number of people traveling together

3. Type of car (we offer more than 15 different types of cars)

4. Type of accommodation (we offer 3 different categories of accommodation)

There is a special Price Calculator button at our website with every self drive tour package where you can enter your choice of type of accommodation and car, number of people and when you want to begin the tour (arrival date) and the Price Calculator will calculate and display the price of different options.

Note: Day(s) can be added before and / or after if your arrival and departure does not fit the itinerary of this tour. Additional day tours can be added for the additional day/s. If you have any questions please don´t hesitate to contact us by email to tour@tour.is and we will be more than happy to advice.