WanderingAway.com : Winter in Iceland

Iceland · December 2017

Visiting Iceland in the winter made it a completely different experience than my summer trip the previous year. For me, the country is a more beautiful place when the hills and mountains are covered with snow. Though it is dark for almost 20 hours each day, the available daylight can turn the skies into intense hues of orange, pink, and blue.

Traveling in winter does require some detailed planning. I had one week in the country and wanted to see as much as I could of the Westfjords across to Vestrahorn on the southeast of the island. With only about 4½ hours of light each day, I scheduled my driving to arrive at planned stops for sunrise around 11 am and carefully calculated my time spent going from one place to the next before sunset around 3:30 pm.

Note that many shops and restaurants do not open until 11 am in the winter months, so getting coffee early can be a challenge. It is also extremely cold and windy in places, so you should plan on bringing plenty of warm layers. I rented a 4-wheel drive SUV, since roads can be icy in the Westfjords, but on the southern stretch of the Ring Road, you could get by with just a small car. Also, microspikes can come in handy with sidewalks and hiking areas frozen over.

Reykjavik