Iceland
 Iceland | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Language: | Icelandic |
| Capital: | Reykjavík |
| Population: | 320,169 |
| Currency: | Icelandic króna (ISK) |
| Hitchability: | |
| Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots | |
| <map lat='65.25670649344259' lng='-20.89599609375' zoom='5' view='0' float='right' /> | |
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 so 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 a cold rain and strong winds, even in August. If you want to hitch through the middle of the country on roads where only SUV can drive, 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.
Contents
Hitching to Iceland
Ferry
In Hanstholm (Denmark), there is a ferry of the Faroese "Smyril Line" that goes every saturday to Seyðisfjörður (in the east of Iceland) via Tórshavn (Faroe Islands).
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 Reykjavík 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 Icelandic roads do drive 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 to Hofn is more difficult to hitch, although with some patience you will get your ride, too. 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, or less, per hour. That does not mean it is hopeless to hitchhike on such roads: on the contrary, it is very often the fewer cars there are, more likely the drivers will not ignore a lone hitcher in the middle of nowhere. 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 to continue along Highway 1 - the untouched nature between Hofn and Breiddalsvik is magnificent. From Breiddalsvik you take the road that goes through Breiddalur (a wide valley) and eventually gets you to Egilsstadir.
Cities
- Reykjavik, the largest city and the capital
- Akureyri
- Egilsstadir
- Hofn
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