Blog Iceland
Our Iveco Daily 4x4 crossing a waterfall
Credit : Thierry Martinez
I wrote this blog to share a lot of tips and info about the less documented part of Iceland, I did not include the common spots and info about the golden circle that you can find everywhere else
I hope this will be useful for your trip to Iceland !
Traveling through Iceland was one of our biggest dreams with our van and we are so glad we did it ! Exploring the volcanic island with our Iveco Daily 4x4 has been amazing.
We booked our crossing with Smiryl Line and crossed with the Norrona in June and experienced a lot of waves but all was forgotten when we arrived near the coast of Iceland. From the very first day we were just amazed by the beauty of Iceland. We directly drove to Bakkagerdi to see the puffin colony. These little birds live on the top of the cliffs and spend their day fishing to feed their babies. They are some of the cutest birds and very easy to see if you know where the colony resides.
Puffin back from fishing
Afterward, we quickly reunited with our friends, who were also traveling with their Iveco Daily 4x4 and a Mercedes Sprinter 4x4, in Akureyri (North Iceland).
As a group, we decided to tackle the highland road F-35, marking our first adventure on Iceland’s renowned 4x4 routes. Our first night was spent in Hveravellir, where we enjoyed the serene desert silence and soaked in a wonderful hot spring.
The next day, we continued south to Kerlingarfjöll to explore its magnificent geothermal area. We camped at a lovely campground with a great common room, although it was quite pricey, even without electricity.
Our journey across Iceland then took us to Gullfoss, one of the country’s largest and most visited waterfalls. Directly after we stopped at Geysir.
Geysir
The following day, we made an unplanned stop at Gjáin—a truly magical place straight out of a fairy tale, where the barren desert gives way to an oasis bursting with flowers and waterfalls.
From there, we headed towards Landmannalaugar via the F-225, a smooth volcanic ash road flanked by red and black craters that invite exploration via smaller tracks—though a sturdy 4x4 is essential. Landmannalaugar is the most popular spot in the highlands, bustling with rental cars and buses shuttling visitors into the area. It's definitely worth a visit, but be prepared for crowds during peak season. Just 20 minutes away, you can camp at Landmannahellir in an open field.
Our convoy
The next day, we ventured onto some of the best roads of our trip: F-233 and F-232. On F-233, we faced the challenge of crossing a river with a rocky riverbed. We then took a small detour around Maelifell via F-210, navigating through a spectacular landscape shaped by glacial braided rivers.
Maeliffel
We continued along the F-232, where contrasting landscapes unfolded before us, vibrant greens colliding with deep blacks. One of the track’s highlights was the photogenic waterfall that we had to cross with our vehicle (you can see the picture at the top of the page).
Our next destination was Laki, accessed via the F-206 and F-207. Hiking up the old crater offered us stunning views eastward, toward the Vatnajökull glacier. The F-207 includes a moderately challenging river crossing before reaching the campsite, but in good conditions, even a Duster 4x4 can make it through.
To cover more points of interest, we then took the main road to Vík and later headed toward Reykjavik. During these few days, we encountered numerous waterfalls and other tourist spots, including the famous airplane crash site. However, since these are well-documented elsewhere, I won’t go into detail here.
Our journey then took us to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula and the Westfjords, where we were met with a massive storm and wind gusts reaching up to 30 m/s. Despite the harsh conditions, we were fortunate enough to spot Minke and Pilot whales. However, the weather forced us to cut our time short, and we decided to take the dirt road 608, where we had the rare opportunity to see an Arctic fox.
After that we decided to go on our longest time in the highlands by crossing again North to south but via the F-26, we started by driving the F-752, a very nice and unfrequented road with some serious uphill narrow turns, we also heard that taking the F-821 to link the F-26 is a more scenic alternate drive. We slept at Laugafell, a small camp with one of the best hot spring we went to. There we met a lot of other travelers driving Unimogs, Iveco daily and Toyota Landcruiser and even a fellow french bike-packer at the end of his trip across Iceland. It was inspiring to see different setups and level of comforts in each of their adventure rigs.
The day after we linked back on the F-26 going south but quickly left the monotonous road to take the beginning of F-910 until the closure (Snow) We crossed a small torrent and kept going until the first bridge where a small track marked as “Extreme 4x4” turn right just before the bridge. This difficult track named Gjostra leads you to a massive waterfall very similar to Gullfoss. If you keep going up the track you will find yourself in magical volcanic landscapes with fresh lava and at the end a breathtaking place, at the foot of the Valafell volcano (1193m) and Hniflar these two special mountain guide your view towards the Vatnajokull glacier, the biggest of Europe. At the end of the world with no other vehicle or souls in range we spent a incredible day. Before you could have kept driving and linked back on the F-26 but now the track isn’t open so we backtracked to Nyidalur camp where we had to cross two rivers to reach it.
Then came the most extreme drive of our trip. It all started easily on the F-26 but we quickly took a smaller parallel track : Kvislavegur, going around lakes and dams this trail provides a little more adventure than the 4x4 highway aka F-26. the roads was collapsed at one point so we had to do some technical up hill but it was no trouble with our truck !
A little further south we went to see a waterfall that i marked on my map not knowing if it was worth it : Fagrifoss. What a surprise ! the waterfall drops into a massive canyon ! Once again we are grateful to have a great 4x4 truck because we get to see this places with literally no one around. To access the water fall there is a super steep uphill right after crossing a small stream. With our lowered off road tire pressure, the transfer case and lockers engaged the Iveco went up without hesitation.
We then headed up north for 8km to the following coordinates : 64.34741°N, 18.86015°W where a small and very difficult trail starts. We drove through a rough lava fields with sharps rocks which thankfully could’t harm our Michelin XZL tires. We did a little detour when we saw a sign indicating Raudholl, a small red crater with an amazing view on the volcanic wasteland. To reach it the track is pure soft ashes and you could easily get stuck without the right tires and pressure.
From Raudholl on the track became really difficult with lots of technical sections of rocks going through this maze of a lava field. We hesitated to turn around but I wanted to try to go forwards to avoid a 2h drive back. So we engaged the transfer case and my partner went outside with the walkies-talkie and we slowly navigated for an hour before seeing the end of the lava field. Eventually we reached the end and arrived on the F-229 exhausted. After stopping by one of the numerous lakes of the region we camped at Vardberg. This camp is almost only used by local fishermen who came fish hundreds of trouts.
The next day we went back to Landmannalaugar to hike and see this beatifull area once more, but now at the peak of the season the place was completely crowed.
Going south still we wanted to try a new difficult track that starts on the F-235, Skaelingar track is not for beginner ! First difficulty is to cross lake Blautulon, you have to drive through the lake for at least 200m and though not very deep along the shore the lake become dangerously deeps 5-10m off the shore. A ranger discouraged us not to go unless you have experience and an “extreme 4x4 with minimum 35” tires” which is actually our case so we decided to see what is is about and maybe turn around if impassable for us.
Crossing the lake went smoothly because I first checked by foot to find the best trajectory, something we always do when i come to crossing a dangerous body of water. After lake Blautulon the track gets really bad and steep, with even some scary incline crossing, but once again our truck made it easy. The views were as usual amazing and the adrenaline from driving our hardest trail so far made it even more memorable ! On the way down we met a Icelandic couple and had dinner with them at the Skaelingar Camp. They are both volunteer in the mountain rescue organization which we see every day in the massive trucks. We shared some travel stories and learned a lot about them and how it is to work in the of the wildest and harshest place on earth.
We decided to take the F-233 and F-232 again to reach the south. And even though we already drove these roads the beauty still amazed us. We went once more to Maelifell and got caught in a massive sand storm as well as a small glacial flood, quite typical in the afternoon since the sun melted the snow all day.
For the end of trip we went to see Askja, one of the biggest crater lake of Iceland, first we drove the 910 to the hot waterfall spring of Laugarvallalaug where we met two other French couples traveling with two Iveco Daily 4x4. After we took the F-903 and F-902 trough lava and sand to see a very quiet and unfrequented natural park : Hraundalur. Then we kept going towards Akja on the F-910 which crosses and large lava fields offering some slightly challenging trajectory. We slept at Drekaskali before hiking to Oskjuvatn to see this massive crater lake part of an actual much bigger crater, an area under great supervision since it is still quite active.
F-910, lava field
To finish our amazing trip in Iceland we went to see the puffins one last time at Hafnarholmi and we couldn’t resist the urge to drive one last F-Road : F-946, trough the fog we drove up a very steep pass to then arrive at Husavik, a little church and a beach all for ourselves ! We decided not to drive the rest of the road as the hour was getting late adn just went back to the camping. The next day we drove to Seydisfjordur to take our ferry back to Danmark.
Our time in Iceland was amazing and though really expensive we are looking forward to our next trip to the volcanic Island.
