I Drove Iceland's Ring Road Twice in One Month — Here's What First-Time Visitors Should Know

Last updated · 28 June 2026

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The point of these notes isn't to rank waterfalls — it's to help you avoid the planning mistakes first-time visitors often make, the same ones IcelandStart was reminded of on two back-to-back Ring Road loops this summer.

In summer, Ring Road accommodation can be genuinely hard to find a few days before arrival. The rooms that are still available tend to be expensive, badly located for the next day's drive, or both — which quietly reshapes the rest of your trip.

Where you sleep on the Ring Road shapes everything: how far you drive each day, how rushed each stop feels, and how much weather buffer you have. Decide your overnight stops first, then book the car and the tours around them — not the other way around.

It was my first time properly stopping at Dyrhólaey, and the views were excellent — both back across the black-sand coastline and along the cliffs. If you're already going to Vík, it deserves more than a quick photo stop. Build in real time for it.

Reynisfjara has changed over the years — more visitors, more rules, more signage — and it's still worth going. But it is a serious beach, not a photo backdrop. Sneaker waves on the black sand have killed people. Stay well back from the waterline, watch the warning flags, and follow the local safety guidance.

Official Reynisfjara safety information: safetravel.is/reynisfjara.

On this trip I stayed around Geirland (near Kirkjubæjarklaustur) and walked over to Stjórnarfoss. It's a quieter, gentler waterfall that a lot of visitors drive past on their way to bigger names — which is exactly why it's worth the small detour. The whole area rewards a slower pace.

Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and the icebergs on Diamond Beach are as memorable as the photos suggest — both times. They reward proper planning: don't try to combine them with too many other South Coast stops in one day, and book Southeast accommodation early. The Höfn–Skaftafell corridor is one of the tightest stretches for summer beds.

Stuðlagil in Jökuldalur is a fun, slightly off-route stop that gives the East/Northeast leg more variety than just fjord driving. The basalt columns and turquoise river feel different from anything on the South Coast — a good reason to plan a real stop in the East rather than treating it as a transit day to Mývatn.

Ásbyrgi is my favorite place in Iceland. The horseshoe-shaped canyon is impressive from the rim, but the part that stays with me is the quiet area at the bottom of the canyon by the small pond (Botnstjörn). On a still day it's about as peaceful as Iceland gets.

If you're going as far north as Mývatn or Húsavík, give yourself enough time to actually walk down into the canyon — it's worth more than a roadside stop.

Ásbyrgi sits within Vatnajökull National Park. Official information: vatnajokulsthjodgardur.is.

Before driving days, check the official Iceland resources for conditions: SafeTravel, road conditions, and weather.

The whole point of IcelandStart is to help you check the shape of your trip before you book hotels, cars or tours. If anything in these notes made you second-guess a stop or an overnight, use the free planner — or get a human Plan Check before you lock things in.