An 11-day roadtrip around Iceland's Ring Road

A Brief Overview of our Iceland Adventure including costs, details of our campervan and basic itinerary

In early April 2024 (April 6th - 16th), my bf and I embarked on an 11-day, 10-night campervan adventure around Iceland.

This is the basic route we took (not including the activities, such as planned stops, hikes etc., that we did along the way):

• Day 1 (Apr 6): Land in Keflavik Airport, pick up campervan, with a stay at the South Central Apartments in Selfoss, in the Golden Circle.
• Day 2 (Apr 7): Drive from Selfoss to Vik, spend the night at Hotel Burfell
• Day 3 (Apr 8): Drive to our first stay at a campsite (Skaftafell Campsite) in Vatnajökull National Park.
• Day 4 (Apr 9): Drive to our stay at Stokksnes (Vestrahorn campsite).
• Day 5 (Apr 10): Drive from Stokksnes to Egilstaddir, with a stay at Egilstaddir Campsite.
• Day 6 (Apr 11): Originally, we'd planned to drive from Egilstaddir to our pre-booked stay at an AirBNB in Hjalteyri; but, due to poor driving conditions while there, we had to stay an extra night in Egilstaddir
• Day 7 (Apr 12): Drive from Egilstaddir to Hamrar campsite
• Day 8 (Apr 13): Explore Akureyri, then drive to Hvammstangi. Originally, we'd wanted to stay at Blonduous campsite, but due to the poor upkeep of the camp, we booked last minute an available room at the Hvammstangi Hill Homes
• Day 9 (Apr 14): Drive from Hvammstangi, around Snaefallesnes peninsula, to Snorrastadir campsite
• Day 10 (Apr 15): Snorrastadir back to Reykjavik, staying at the B18 apartments
• Day 11 (Apr 16): Return campervan, then fly home.

Our Campervan: CampEasy EasyFun with manual transmission, which seats 3 people. We picked a 3-seater bc my bf is 6’3” and I was worried about him having space. I highly recommend CampEasy and this vehicle in particular. It was a great home on wheels.  Definitely the most popular van we saw in Iceland – probably Happy Camper / Kuku Camper was second most frequent. Highlights included:

• It was well insulated (a must in Iceland!)
• easy to pack up and switch from the bed at night in the back to the table in the morning - where we ate many meals on,
• comfortable to sleep in,
• enough room to store items,
• durable battery,
• intuitively placed charging ports,
• well stocked,
• being manual transmission, there great road feel as my bf said, for better feedback from the road particularly in poorer weather conditions,
• and a great heating system.
• however, a flaw was maybe the heavy footed clutch, perhaps from wear or use.

The Total Cost of our trip was $5970 CAD. The Breakdowns:

• Flight: $1214 total (for 2 people) including 1 checked bag
• Campervan: $1725 + $736 (for towing (we got stuck in black sand in Stokksnes!))
• Gas: $583
• Accommodations: $1141 including $839 (4 apartments w kitchenette) + $302 (5 Campsites)
• Food - Groceries: $230, Restaurants: $181
• Miscellaneous (tolls, parking, laundry, hot springs etc): $160

Some Notes:

• Early April is shoulder season in Iceland, and we only encountered few tourists at any location we travelled to. There was no greenery – the scenery was all yellow! Yellow, brown and white. This is beautiful in its own way, but if you’re in it for the colourful pics, don’t pick early April. The low crowds made for a unique and more cozy travel experience for us.
• We wanted to conserve our spending where possible while also enjoying ourselves. We prefer hiking, exploring new towns and off the beaten path stuff, so we didn’t do any paid tours.
• Our stays included a mix of camping and apartment stays (with kitchenette)
• We had approximately 5 meals out, including 1 breakfast included in our stay. Otherwise, we cooked and ate in our van!
• Prior to flying, we’d purchased an eSim for calls and data (https://www.globalyo.com/). We started with 10GB of data but only used 4GB over 11 days, as our campervan had good WiFi connectivity, so perhaps starting with 5GB might have been better. Being able to make phone calls without roaming charges proved useful as we had to make a few calls on our trip.

Click on the links above to read more about what we did on our trip!