Iceland

Iceland is a good country for hitchhiking. It is a member state of the Schengen Agreement. People are shy but are nice. There aren't many cars though. With the astronomical bus prices, hitchhiking will be a great help to your Iceland trip budget. Most of the cities and towns in Iceland are small enough that you can easily walk out to their edge to hitch. Beware of the Icelandic climate. While not very icy, it can be very miserable with cold rain and strong winds, even in August. But eventually that lift will come. If you want to hitch through the centre on a 4×4 road, make sure that the lift you get can take you the whole way. You don't want to get stuck in the middle, it's like being on the moon! There is a website where you can check the degree of traffic on any given route. It's made to keep weather/road conditions up-to-date, and is updated every few hours.

Hitching to Iceland

Ferry

From Hanstholm in Denmark there is a ferry of the faroese Smyril Line that goes every saturday via Tórshavn (on the Faroe Islands) to Seyðisfjörður in the east of Iceland.

There are tariffs for cars including two or four persons. This should mean that there is at least in theory the possibility to travel with somebody on the ferry for free, although there is an oil-surcharge of 15 Euros per person (more than four years old).

The Southern Rim: Hitching from Reykjavik to Egilsstadir

Hitching from Reykjavik to Egilsstadir, some 700 kilometers, is doable in a week or even less if you're in a hurry. Like anywhere, getting out of a major city (Reykjavik) is difficult, but many people on the road in Iceland are going long distances. People are nice and Iceland is ridiculously safe, with the exception of some dogs and cows that like to chase hitchers. Getting to Hella is easy and can be done in less than a day, but the next leg/road from Hella - Hofn is more difficult to hitch. Still, Iceland is generally a good country for hitchhiking, as mentioned above. If there is some traffic, expect to wait anywhere from the first to thirty vehicles, and several hours. The last leg, from Hofn to Egilsstadir, is the hardest route to hitch on Highway One (the highway that goes all around the Icelandic coast). For the rest of the route, there are generally five cars an hour, or less. Still, you do get lucky, and although there are fewer cars they are more likely to take pity on you if you're out in the middle of nowhere, just like anywhere else. After Hofn, there are two ways to get to Egilsstadir. You can hitch from Hofn until you get to the juncture between Highway 1 and a mountain route. This may be faster, but there is no way it is anywhere near as scenic as continuing along Highway 1 - the untouched nature between Hofn and Breiddalsvik is magnificent. From Breiddalsvik you take a road that goes through Breiddalur (a wide valley), and eventually gets you to Egilsstadir.

• Reykjavik, largest city and capital
• Akureyri