car insurance

23
Dec
2020
How to cross rivers – 2024 guide

How to cross rivers – 2024 guide

River crossings are the main challenge of Icelandic F-roads. If it wasn’t for them, 95% of F-roads would be easy to pass. However, they do exist and create a significant obstacle. Improper river crossings may cause huge and expensive damages to your car. In extreme situations, even your life may be at stake. That being said – prepare thoroughly for your river crossings! Here is a detailed guide on how to cross a river in Iceland.

With river crossings, it all comes down to HOW, WHERE and WITH WHAT.

By HOW I mean general rules for a safe river fording. It’s essential to adhere to them, no matter how big your car is.

By WHERE I mean where are you crossing. What is the type of river? How big is it? What is the season? How much did it rain recently?

By WITH WHAT I mean the type of vehicle you are operating. Generally said, the bigger the better – but it’s more complicated.

How to safely cross Icelandic rivers? (HOW)

  1. Make a plan. Do you have a proper car? What types of rivers are in your way? Are you equipped sufficiently? Think before.
  2. Check the road conditions. If they say impassable, don’t even try it yourself. Isak 4×4 can help you with their Convoy driver or sit-in guide. If they say passable, read further. What does it mean passable, impassable, and no winter service? Here is the explanation of Icelandic road states.
  3. Examine the river.
    • So you arrived at the river. If you can see with your eyes that it’s a small river or even just a pond, you may usually proceed with passing. What’s a small river? Read below in “WHERE“.
    • If you can’t assess the depth with your eyes, find out physically. Go into the river. How are you supposed to do that in ice-cold water? Get inspired by how we’ve done it.
    • Alternatively, wait for someone else (ideally with a similar car) to pass.
  4. Compare the river to your car. The essential thing is, whether your air intake is high enough above the water level. But that’s not the only thing. See below in “WITH WHAT“.
  5. Stay inside yellow markers. Those mark the area allowed for crossing (and usually also shallowest). They are situated on the borders of a passable area.
  6. Go for the shallowest part.
    • If it’s a medium-sized or even a bigger river, it’s really important to cross it through the shallowest part. This is usually NOT the exact middle of the river crossing, but rather its sides.
    • This is usually NOT where the river is calm – that’s typically the deep part. Better find a part where you can see the stream of river running into pebbles and cross on that pebbles.
  7. Turn 4×4 mode on.
  8. Drive slowly.
    • First, max second gear, around 10kph to create a little “wave” around your car. Ride that wave.
    • If you drive too quickly, water will splash into your engine and your car may be dead. See below in “WITH WHAT“.
  9. Don’t stop. Don’t switch gears. If you do, you may not get the car going again. Don’t get scared by your car shaking inside the river, just go steady.
  10. Down the stream. If it’s possible, go with the stream, not against it. This will lower the chances the water will get into your engine.
  11. Stay near the rope. Sometimes there’s a rope in the river. It’s not there by coincidence. Rangers installed it there typically to indicate the shallowest part. Drive near the rope, this should be the best spot to cross the river.

Don’t want to fear paying for your drowned car? Use Lotus! Now with our 5% discount.

What types of river crossings are in Iceland? (WHERE)

The basic categorization can be made according to the depth of the river crossing.

  1. PONDS
    • Up to 20cm / 8 inches.
    • If the depth of a river crossing is this shallow, you don’t have to bother much about crossing at all. It’s doable with any car, even with a 2wd one.
  2. SMALL
    • 20 to 40cm / 8-16 inches.
    • Here some ground clearance of your car starts to make sense. I consider 40cm to be still a small river but it’s already a non-trivial crossing. If you do it wrong, you may end up like this.
  3. MEDIUM
    • 40 to 70cm / 16 to 28 inches.
    • This is already some decent river crossing. You will probably not get drowned but you may waste your car easily.
    • It’s still a manageable crossing though, even for beginners! You just have to adhere to river crossing rules strictly and drive a proper car.
    • Examples: F208 south, F235, F224, F910 
  4. BIG
    • More than 70cm / 28 inches.
    • I would avoid these at all costs if I was a river crossing beginner. Not only may you waste your car, but you could also get yourself seriously injured, if not killed.
    • You need to have a combination of a) proper car, b) adhering to river crossing rules, and c) experience
    • Examples: F233, F249, sometimes F26, F88, F210 

The depth of the river is the single most important factor when it comes to a river crossing. There are of course several other aspects influencing your fording:

  • Has it rained heavily for a few days? Add some centimeters on top of your expected river depth.
  • Is it just early summer? Glacial rivers will have substantially more water compared to the late summer.
  • What is the riverbed like? Is it stony or muddy? If it’s muddy, it will be harder for you to ford.

What car do I need to cross rivers? (WITH WHAT)

Ok now you know HOW to cross and WHERE will you be crossing. It’s time to get to WITH WHAT. A right car is essential. But how are you supposed to know what car is the right one? Of course, we are talking only about 4wd/4×4 now:

  1. The bigger the ground clearance (and wheels), the better. Because of several reasons. Firstly, your air intake will be higher (see below). Secondly, the chances you will get stuck in a river are lower. Thirdly, the chances, you will damage your undercarriage are lower.
  2. The higher the air intake, the better. Study this one carefully. The main risk with river crossings is flooding your engine with water (then the engine usually becomes dead). This happens once the water reaches an air intake of your car. The water level should be AT LEAST 10cm/4inch below your air intake!
  3. The stronger engine, the better. Inside rivers, some additional horsepower may only help. BUT – use your horsepower on the lowest/2nd lowest gear only when crossing the rivers!
  4. Snorkel is a plus. If your car has a snorkel installed, it basically deals with point number 2. It adds considerable height to your air intake. It’s not everything, though. You may have a snorkel, but with the too-low ground clearance, you could still get stuck in a bigger river.

Read our car choosing guide.

When there are only PONDS in your way, you may basically choose any car.

When there are SMALL RIVERS in your way, ideally choose any SUV or 4wd car.

When there are already MEDIUM RIVERS in your way, choose your car wisely and better opt for at least a medium-sized SUV.

When there are BIG RIVERS in your way, either avoid them at all or if you really want to, then choose the super-jeep.

We also offer you FREE discount codes for several Icelandic car rental companies.

Example of the correct river crossing

f233 correct river crossing

Correct river crossing of Sydri Ofaera river on F233

Every river crossing in Iceland is specific, and road F233 is a nice example of it. Syðri-Ófæra river crossing is the biggest obstacle of the notoriously known F-road Álftavatnskrókur or F233. Sydri Ofaera is typically a big river and also a very specific and unmarked river fording. The correct crossing is not obvious at first glance, but locals know it well.

The trick is, you should NOT ford straight. Rather, you have to drive in a U-shaped pattern. BUT – not to the east where the river is deep, but to the west, where it is shallow. OK, and why not go straight? Because there are huge boulders in the way that could easily stop even a super jeep.

Example of how NOT to cross the river

The video below from our friend Lucas is a nice example of how NOT to cross the river in Iceland. The driver has done nearly everything wrong:

  1. Drove through the deepest point (middle), instead of the shallowest parts (both sides where the ropes are)
  2. The river depth was too deep for Dacia Duster (in the middle), the car almost died and the driver was just lucky the engine started again.
  3. Blocked the road for another car, taking pictures and even being rude to them!
  4. Driving too fast through the second river crossing.

Below is a beautiful example of possibly the biggest mistake you should avoid when crossing rivers in Iceland. Never go fast! You will flood your engine this way. Exactly as the guy below flooded his engine. The car was dead within a second.



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Posted by Igor in Guide, Tips, 35 comments
04
Oct
2020
How to choose the best car for Iceland: 2024 Guide

How to choose the best car for Iceland: 2024 Guide

Type of car = Type of trip

I’ve done tons of research on how to choose the best car for Iceland. I’ve done tons of research on Icelandic car rental companies, reviewing more than 50 of them. If you are like me, and you want to do your research on your own, then Northbound.is would be a great place to start when choosing the best car rental for Iceland. The car is a really important part of any road trip in Iceland, for us, the car was the most important thing to have in many aspects. What I concluded after a thorough research was the following. Primarily, you have to decide what kind of trip do you want to do:

  1. Ring road only, no F-roads
  2. F-roads with no river crossings or only minor ponds
  3. F-roads with medium river crossings
  4. F-roads with bigger river crossings
  5. All F-roads, all rivers, all dirt tracks

Read our guide on how to choose the best car rental insurance for Iceland.

Of course, you can always opt for the big, expensive, super-jeep 4×4 car which will serve you for all of the options above. You will be fine, you’re gonna just end up paying much more. What we primarily aim for in this article, is the best performance to price ratio, as many people aim for as well. If you aim for that too, here’s what I advise to do (for the trip types from above):

5% Go Car Rental promo code: epic5

Free WiFi Lava Car rental coupon code: EPICWIFI (this is on average a 10% discount!)

This website may contain affiliate links and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us cover running costs of this website.

1. Ring road only, no F-roads

small 2wd car

Small 2wd car

Basically any car, just read carefully what’s included in the insurance. We took a Hyundai i20 for our first day because it was cheaper than roundtrip from the airport to Reykjavik by bus. The company I can recommend for this kind of trip is Go Car Rental or Lava Car Rental. Mostly because they offer one of the cheapest cars in Iceland while being a reliable car rental company that doesn’t scam its customers. Lately also Lotus Car Rental went with their prices lower, so they are one of the cheapest now as well.

If you want to go for a Campervan option, I can highly recommend Go Campers or Happy Campers. They are one of the biggest and cheapest campervan companies in Iceland. You can be more than sure that your experience with them will be awesome. CampEasy is also a great choice you won’t regret.

Want to rent a Motorhome in Iceland? The best Motorhome company in Iceland is definitely McRent.

Go Campers promo code:
We offer to our readers also a 5% PROMO CODE for Go Campers rental.

2. F-roads with no river crossings or only minor ponds

small 4wd car

Small 4wd car

Basically any 4×4 car. If it wasn’t for the Icelandic law, which requires you to have 4×4 on EVERY F-road, I would say even 2wd car would be sufficient for most of the Icelandic F-roads which do not have river crossings, during good weather. They are just really bumpy with many potholes, but in 90% of cases easily passable. Bad weather may change this dramatically of course. We had the best experience with Lotus Car Rental and besides our experience, heard great feedback on Go Car Rental from many travellers as well. But, of course, if you prefer to do your own research go for sites like Northbound.is.

Looking for the best campervan in Iceland? We can highly recommend Happy Campers or Go Campers. They are the most reliable and most friendly campervan companies in Iceland. They also rent 4×4 campervans! Additionally also CampEasy is great.

Want to rent an RV or a Motorhome in Iceland? The best RV rental company in Iceland is definitely McRent.

Lotus car rental promo code:

A PROMO CODE epicicelandd5 will get you a 5% discount with Lotus and us a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

3. F-roads with medium river crossings

medium 4wd car

Medium 4wd car

4×4 car with decent ground clearance, i.e. in my opinion at least 18 centimetres and with air intake which is high enough (at least your hip height). Best performance to the price in this category is for me undoubtedly Dacia Duster 4wd, the option we firstly took after my research. Again, we had the best experience with Lotus Car Rental, but you should do well also with Go Car Rental or your own research which is easiest to start with the Icelandic search engine Northbound.is. If you feel unsure and better want to go for the safest option, take one of the big Toyota cars (Land Cruiser or Hilux). The best Toyota car rental company in Iceland is MyCar.

MyCar promo code:

A RARE PROMO CODE EPICICELAND will get you a 5% discount with MyCar and us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

4. F-roads with bigger river crossings

toyota land cruiser

Big 4wd car

The smallest option for this kind of roads is a Toyota Land Cruiser. Several companies offer Land Cruisers for rent and we had the best experience with MyCar Rental. MyCar offers exclusively Toyota cars and all of them are brand new high-quality models. Toyota Hilux is a great alternative to Land Cruiser as well. If you want to do your own research, Icelandic search engine Northbound.is is great for that.

The only Icelandic car rental company with a river crossing insurance for your Land Cruiser is again Lotus Car Rental. If you aim for even bigger car than Land Cruiser or Hilux, here comes the Land Rover Defender to the scene! The biggest and most renowned Land Rover rental company in Iceland is undoubtedly Isak 4×4 Rental.

Isak 4×4 promo code:

A RARE PROMO CODE epiciceland will get you a 10% discount with Isak 4×4 and us a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

5. All F-roads, all rivers, all dirt tracks

Icelandic Superjeep

Icelandic Superjeep

For bigger cars you need to go for the so-called super-jeep 4×4 car. You need to have really high ground clearance, strong engine, artificially modified air intake, very good tires and other things a car mechanic would describe better than me. Even in this case, crossing big rivers (like Krossá near Thórsmörk) may be dangerous. There are just a few companies which will let you rent a super-jeep, where one with the best performance to price ratio is Isak 4×4 Rental according to my research.  

The second great super jeep rental company is a legendary Ice-Rovers with 25+ years on the market and beautiful modified Land Rovers. There’s also one “super jeep” which you may rent from MyCar (and which we took).

Ice-Rovers discount:

Just email ICE ROVERS asking for an exclusive “3% Epic Iceland discount” and you will get it right away!

It’s all about river crossings

At the end of the day, it’s all about river crossings. The size of rivers you want to cross determines what car do you need for those rivers. Apart from river crossings, there’s nothing super dangerous about Icelandic roads in the summer (well OK, sometimes they are steep, narrow and bumpy). Winter season, of course, changes this significantly and factors like how the car handles snow come into the force.

If feeling unsure, NEVER do a bigger river crossing, you may risk your life. It’s also better to wait for someone else do the river crossing first and many other rules we describe in our river crossing article. The same applies, if you don’t have enough experience, or it’s your first time crossing a river – do NOT do bigger river crossings without prior experience.

iceland river crossing

River crossing in Iceland. Taken from https://www.foodiebaker.com/day-3-iceland-travelogue/

During our first Icelandic trip I wanted to try many interesting F-roads and see the magical surreal landscapes surrounding them, so I haven’t even considered options 1 and 2. I finally opted for option 3, because you are able to see the majority of the most beautiful places in Iceland without crossing big rivers. You cannot avoid the small to medium ones, however. Secondly, a price jump from option 3 to option 4 is a bigger one, you can easily double the price of your rental car because of it being a super-jeep.

Under option 3, i.e. medium 4×4 (or 4wd is sufficient as well), the clear winner in terms of performance to price ratio has been Dacia Duster. I can confirm this after our 12 day ring road trip. We successfully drove all our planned roads without any problems, crossing around 20 rivers, including several medium-sized ones. I can highly recommend Duster under normal weather conditions even in the Highlands with smaller river crossings.

Although we didn’t experience any heavy rain during our drives on F-roads, Duster should still be capable of dealing with most of the situations, except big rivers, which, however, is not an option 3 anymore. You can read this blog further for a list of F-roads which we’ve done and also to see which rivers are considered to be small to medium-sized ones.

Dynjandi Vestfjarðavegur road 60

Road 60, or Vestfjarðavegur in Westfjords towards Dynjandi waterfall

Car rental company and insurance – 4wd

For me, this was an easy choice. I wanted to do the river crossings. That means, there is always an option that your car can get stuck in water or your engine may be damaged by water. And this may cost thousands of Euros. I definitely wanted to avoid that. And, since there is only one car rental company in Iceland which insures you even for river crossings, I’ve opted for this company – Lotus.

River crossings are part of their platinum insurance package, which costs around 40eur/day, i.e. almost the same as platinum insurance packages from other car rental companies that do NOT insure you in case of river crossings. Although a car rental via Lotus costed a bit more (around 100eur/day for 11 days) compared to some other companies, river crossing insurance was a deal-breaker for me.

lotus car rental iceland

GET 5% DISCOUNT for Lotus Car Rental with PROMO CODE: epicicelandd5

On top of that – not only Lotus insures you in case of river crossings – it also allows you to drive on ANY F-road. What does this mean? Majority of car rental companies do not allow you to drive certain roads (e.g. F249, F210, F980). What does it mean “do not allow”? Firstly, you can get fined for doing that. Secondly, in case you drive them, no insurance applies for your rental, even if you paid for the platinum one.

Read our guide on how to choose the best car rental insurance for Iceland.

Of course, with some roads, this makes sense, like the ones I mentioned above, as they may be often dangerous. However, rental companies often tend to forbid you driving even on F-roads which are not that dangerous, but the rental company has “some risk” that you may damage the car somehow, so they better forbid you to drive the road. Which makes really no sense to me – why am I borrowing a 4×4 car then, which is allowed to drive F-roads, when a rental company doesn’t allow me to drive almost half of them?

That’s why I firstly chose Lotus. They let you drive on any F-road and their insurance applies in case of ALL F-roads, which really is a great feature. Then it’s up to you to judge which routes are doable for you and which are not.

Southern part of Icelandic F208 road

F208 road from Vik towards Landmannalaugar

Our 4wd car rental experience

With Lotus, the entire rental process was really smooth, you’ve got a nice website with all info you need, you’ve got really great reviews (I would say the best among all rental companies in Iceland).

We arrived at the car rental desk, being the only customers at that time (unlike in the case of some other companies). The car was ready immediately. Kudos to Laura at the desk, who explained to us everything we needed, showed us how to operate the rooftop tent, how to use wi-fi router, gave us advice on how to drive the car the best way and other important basics. The car was in a great condition without any damage (unlike in the case of some other companies).

I asked Laura on her opinion about river crossings we were planning to do and she reassured me they all should be doable in case I drive properly, even in Dacia Duster, and that most of them she had done already and are not that hard. She told us the only river she doesn’t recommend us crossing is Krossá river on the road to Thórsmork, which reassured me even more. I was pretty sure I don’t want to cross this one, I was just afraid whether the ones we were planning (like F208, F235, F905, F910, F347) are not too dangerous as well. For example, some famous Icelandic rental companies are banning you from doing F910. Her reply reassured me that they should be fine.

Fellabær campsite

Fellabær campsite next to Egilsstaðir

I studied a lot about how the car may be damaged when crossing a river, so my last question was where the air intake of Duster is located. She replied that it’s somewhere above her hip height (i.e. some 80-100cm) which reassured me even more. I definitely was not planning crossing rivers that big (from what I’d studied, the biggest should be around 50-60cm maximum). So, empowered with my newly gained confidence from Laura’s advice, we started our journey.

Our super jeep car rental experience

Honestly, I’ve done a really exhausting research on super jeep car rental companies, when planning our highlands road trip. I also thought about buying a car or renting a car privately from someone local. Neither of those was possible, nor made sense, though. If you want to buy a car in Iceland, you need an Icelandic ID (kennitala) and a lot of time 🙂 I had none of these. And if you want to rent a car privately from the local, no insurance will ever protect you, and it’s probably also not entirely legal. Not to mention that no Icelander will rent you his super jeep toy :))

GET 5% DISCOUNT for MyCar Rental with PROMO CODE: EPICICELAND

I summarized my findings and experience with Icelandic super jeeps in our article How to rent a super jeep in Iceland. Long story short, I narrowed down the list of affordable super jeeps to just 2 super jeep rental companies – Isak 4×4 and MyCar. And we finally went for MyCar and their modified Land Cruiser with snorkel. It was a very close battle, but MyCar won it by a notch, because their Land Cruiser was slightly bigger and newer compared to the Land Rover Defender of Isak 4×4 and the price was similar. 

If we had a bigger budget, however, we would definitely go for the Land Rover Super Defender from Isak 4×4. This is the biggest super jeep you can rent in Iceland. It’s a beast. We offer a 10% discount to our readers for Isak 4×4 with the promo code: epiciceland. 

But coming back to our MyCar rental experience – it was great. They offer a free 24/7 airport shuttle to their Keflavik rental office. They also rent exclusively only brand new Toyota cars. Moreover, MyCar has a network of Toyota car repair shops all over the country. In case anything happens, this is a very useful feature. When it comes to insurance, we took only a basic option and bought full insurance (engine, undercarriage, windows, tires, …) from RentalCover. We wrote about our Highlands trip with MyCar extensively.

Our 2wd car rental experience

For our first day in Iceland, we decided to rent a cheap 2wd car due to several reasons. Firstly, we wanted to explore Reykjavik, Keflavik and their surroundings at least for a few hours, for which a 4×4 car would be useless. Secondly, we wanted to prepare for our trip doing shopping etc. for which again a 4×4 would be useless.

GET 5% DISCOUNT for Go Car Rental with PROMO CODE: epic5

Last but not least by renting a 2wd car we saved around 80Eur compared to 4×4 rental and saved even compared to a return journey from Keflavik to Reykjavik by bus, not to mention the flexibility the car gives you). So I’ve done quick research for a cheap car rental company with good reviews. Yes, you definitely don’t want a company with a bad reputation, trust me – this can cost you money and nerves on your holiday. I narrowed my search to Lotus and Go Car rental. And we finally chose Go Car rental, because they were cheaper. 

gocar rental iceland

Go Car rental, one of the best Icelandic car rentals

GoCar has a great office location, right next to the airport hotel Aurora, only 200m walking distance from the departure hall. This means, no taxi or bus needed! The rental process was quick and smooth and the rental included all the useful insurances for a 2wd car – CDW, SCDW, GP & TP (see our car rental insurance guide if you are interested in insurance details).

I didn’t buy any additional insurance on top of the compulsory one (CDW, TPL), because damaging the car on a way from Keflavik to Reykjavik and back was highly improbable. When returning the car the next day, the return process was smooth. There were no customers waiting and nobody bullied us with any examination of the car scratches, so it luckily took maybe 5 minutes altogether.

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Posted by Igor in Guide, Roads, 74 comments
03
Oct
2020
Best car rental insurance in Iceland: 2024 guide

Best car rental insurance in Iceland: 2024 guide

This is the preliminary version of the article. We hope to add more insurance providers in the near future, especially for our US-based friends. Share with us what you find to be the best value-for-money car rental insurance for Iceland in the comments, in our FB group, or write us an email!

Me, you, and probably 99.9% of other Icelandic visitors have already wondered, how to choose the best insurance for their car rental in Iceland. The task is not easy, because insurance options vary widely and are not unified across car rental providers. There are, however, multiple common features for every car rental insurance. The same applies to common threats. So let’s summarize all of these and then look at the available options.

This website may contain affiliate links and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us cover running costs of this website.

TLDR – tell me the best insurance!

To simplify it the most, if you prefer full coverage, I suggest the following:

Compare the price and the content of the full (a.k.a. “platinum”) insurance offered by your Icelandic car rental company to Lotus and RentalCover below and choose for yourself. Personally, we always use Lotus or RentalCover. These two offer the best level of insurance for a price (usually) comparable with anyone else:

  • Lotus car rental with their Platinum insurance covers EVERYTHING including river crossings. You can support us by using a 5% discount for Lotus with promo code: epicicelandd5
  • RentalCover, a top-notch external insurer insures you against everything except river crossings, usually for a much lower price compared to the car rental companies

Beware! Even full platinum insurance packages most of the time don’t cover water damage / river crossing (we know only of 2 companies that do – Lotus and Blue car), and even many other damage types like undercarriage or doors and windows.

For example, as of 1.6.2022, one of the most popular car rental companies in Iceland offers platinum insurance for a 7-day Dacia Duster trip for 300USD. However, their platinum insurance does NOT cover:
-undercarriage, wind, tires, windows, water damages

You can have a better level of coverage for a lower price with RentalCover. RentalCover’s 4×4 insurance (for non-US citizens) covers everything except river crossings for, in this example, 240USD / 200Eur. 

iceland car insurance

A full picture is not that easy though, there are more things to consider. Don’t want to buy full Icelandic car rental insurance? Or do you just want to understand the details? Well my friend, then read below…

What are the risks of a car rental in Iceland?

  1. Collision – damages to your car
  2. Collision – damages to someone else’s car
  3. Someone steals your car
  4. Loose gravel hits your car
  5. Sand or ash damages your car (engine or anything else)
  6. You damage the undercarriage / chassis of your car
  7. You damage the tire
  8. You damage the windows
  9. You damage the doors (e.g.: wind overthrows them)
  10. Water damages your car (engine or anything else)
  11. Animals damage your car
  12. Car can’t move and you need towing

Yes, all of this can actually happen when you drive in Iceland. Yes, all of this is usually charged separately (excluded from the basic insurance). Is it likely it will happen? Well, most of the time no, but this obviously depends on your driving skills. One thing is certain – there are more threats on Icelandic roads than on a typical American / European road (I said typical, for sure there are some more dangerous roads).

Important: How to choose the best car for Iceland?

So do we just want to scare you so that you buy our insurance? No 🙂 It’s just good to be prepared and set the expectations right so that you can choose for yourself.

What types of insurance are in Iceland?

Rule number one – always check the insurance conditions of your car rental company! Too difficult to understand? Well, obviously… But, what you can generally expect is the following:

  • What’s included in the basic price is usually only the compulsory insurance (see below)
  • For some of the damages not included in compulsory insurance, you may buy an optional insurance

Compulsory insurance

There are two types of insurance that are compulsory for every car rental company in Iceland. This basically means you will always get these two included in the basic price:

  • Collision damage waiver
  • Third-Party Liability Insurance

1. The collision damage waiver (CDW)

The CDW covers costs for case (1) – damages to your car if there’s a collision. BUT. Almost always you have to pay as well. This is called “the deductible”, “the driver’s liability” or “the excess”.  So the usual example goes like this: there’s a CDW with 300 000 ISK deductible, which means, you will pay ALL damages up to 300 000 ISK (2350 USD). If the damage is bigger, you will not pay the rest.

Secondly, the CDW will usually not cover many types of damages. Usually, all of the bullet points (3) to (12) above are not covered. To insure against them, you have to either buy optional insurance or buy completely different insurance.

2. The third-party liability insurance (TPL)

The TPL covers costs for case (2) – damages to someone else’s car if there’s a collision. You don’t pay anything in this case. These damages are covered by TPL.

car rental iceland insurance

Optional insurance

Well, we’ve covered 2 cases out of 12 so far, what about the rest? Car rental companies offer to cover SOME of those as optional insurance. The word “some” is very important here because only very few companies cover most of them and we know only of Lotus and Blue Car.

What are the typical optional insurance options in Iceland?

1. The super collision damage waiver (SCDW)

Do you remember how we talked about “the deductible”, “the driver’s liability” or “the excess”? That’s the money you may pay if you damage your rental car. The SCDW lowers this amount. If you buy this optional insurance, you will pay a lower (sometimes even zero) deductible in case of an accident.

3. The theft protection (TP)

This covers costs for case (3), i.e. someone stealing your car. Usually, there is no deductible, so you usually don’t pay anything if it happens. It’s worth mentioning, though, that car thefts are very rare in Iceland.

4. The gravel protection (GP)

If I had to take just one optional insurance in Iceland, it would be gravel protection.  Gravel is everywhere in Iceland. And most of the gravel is on F-roads. Which you should see because they are beautiful! This is the type of damage that happens almost always. So better be insured against it 🙂

5. The sand and ash protection (SAAP)

Although this sounds like insurance against volcanic ash, that is not its main purpose. There are several sand fields in Iceland, most of them in the South. They are mostly exposed to the wind after the snow thaws, i.e. in February, March, and April. Now imagine what happens if the wind blows enough sand into your engine? Nothing good 🙂 That’s where the SAAP comes in. Do you need it in summer? Usually no, but no one can rule out that sand will get into your engine in some cases.

Some car rental companies offer more optional insurance, but for the typical company, the list usually ends here. So, we’ve covered 5 out of 12 cases now! What about the rest?

Important: How to choose the best car for Iceland?

These are the less typical optional insurance options in Iceland:

6. The undercarriage / chassis insurance

Imagine driving over big rocks on some of the F-roads, for example when heading to Askja. It’s not that hard to hit the undercarriage, a.k.a. chassis of your vehicle and to damage it. Most of the insurance packages do not cover this! You have to either buy the optional undercarriage insurance or buy different insurance that will cover that.

7. The tire insurance

Unfortunately, even damage to tires is excluded from basic insurance packages most of the time. This means, should anything happen to your tire (or sometimes even a wheel), you will be fully responsible for that. Unless you buy optional insurance or different insurance which will cover all of these.

8. The window insurance

The same applies to windows. This is usually a separate “insurance item”. That means, anything happens to windows – you are fully responsible for that and will pay for that. Unless you buy optional insurance or different insurance which will cover all of these.

9. The door insurance

Even doors are usually excluded from basic insurance and even many optional insurance packages. The damage to doors is pretty common in Iceland, mostly due to strong wind and people not taking enough care when opening and closing their doors. You may insure against the door damage by buying optional insurance or different insurance which will cover all of these.

10. The water insurance

If you want to drive F-roads with river crossings, this is one of the most important points. Car rental companies don’t cover water damage, not even in their platinum packages! As of now, we know only about Lotus car rental, which does cover water damage. Recently Blue car also joined to become the second company to cover river crossings.

A PROMO CODE epicicelandd5 will get you a 5% discount with Lotus and us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

What does this mean? Well, if you cross the river on an F-road, and let’s say the water gets into your engine, your engine may die. And you may remain stuck in the water. And you will be paying for towing + new engine. How much can a new engine cost? Well, easily even 10 000 USD!

A 5% Blue car discount link will save you money on your car rental and earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you. *if it doesn’t work, please copy-paste the link into a different browser or into the private/incognito window of your browser

“So what should I do??” Well, either go for Lotus with water insurance (and, please, even in this case study carefully the river crossings!!) or take special caution and try to avoid bigger river crossings. We wrote a list of all F-roads with the size of their river crossings described (this may change in time though! always check conditions at the time of your trip).

road 63 bildudalsvegur

Road 63 Bíldudalsvegur

11. The animal encounter insurance

Yes, this doesn’t happen often, but seldom it does. During our trip, we’d actually met more sheep than tourists 🙂 And sheep often don’t act logically, some being really stubborn getting at the road at the most inconvenient time. This, in the first place, means, take special care not to harm animals in Iceland!

If, in any case, an animal damages your car somehow (hopefully nothing happens to the animal, let’s rather picture a scenario of an angry sheep scratching your car), you will be fully responsible for that. Unless you buy optional insurance or different insurance which will cover all of these.

12. The towing insurance

Got stuck in the river? Stuck on the rock? Stuck in the sand? Is your engine dead? Did you collide and your car can’t move? You will need towing. And towing isn’t cheap. And is charged separately. Unless you buy optional insurance or different insurance which will cover all of these.

iceland car rental insurance

What insurance should I choose?

The most common damages

Now, if you read all of this, here’s a little reward for you 🙂 What is in our opinion the most common damage happening to rental cars in Iceland? Well, if I had to pick Top 3, it would be 1) gravel damage, 2) water damage (if you go for F-roads with river crossings), 3) classical collision of any kind.

What happens less often, but still happens are the door damage (due to wind), tire damage (of course tires are under pressure on Icelandic roads, though this isn’t that expensive damage), and damage to the undercarriage of your car (if you aren’t careful enough).

What usually does not happen are thefts, animal encounters or window damages, and sand/ash getting into your engine outside of spring. 

Trip scenarios

Reykjavik and south 

Going just around Reykjavik, golden circle, and the south? Well, then you don’t need the water damage insurance. Also, gravel hitting your car, you damaging the undercarriage, or animals damaging your car are not very likely. Of course, anything may happen, though.

This means that usually, just basic compulsory insurance is enough. For peace of mind, you may take Gravel protection, Sand and Ash protection, and/or Super collision damage waiver if you feel unsure. Look at RentalCover how much they charge for insurance – it may be cheaper than buying insurance from your car rental company and cover you better.

Usually cheaper RentalCover will cover everything except water damage.

Ring road or winter trip

The ring road is long and winter is more dangerous, so I would generally recommend slightly better insurance. It’s better to have Gravel protection, Sand and Ash protection, and Super collision damage waiver. Some other options like Tire insurance, Window insurance, Door insurance or Towing insurance may be viable for your peace of mind as well, not necessary though. If you are not going for F-roads, water insurance is unnecessary.

Highlands with simple F-roads 

Going for highlands, F-roads, and gravel roads with no or just small river crossings? Well, then you probably need to be insured against everything mentioned in the article, except river crossings (water damage).

I suggest you first read well full/platinum insurance conditions of your car rental company. If they include all of the damages I mentioned in the article (usually they don’t), then compare their price against RentalCover. This external provider covers everything except water damage for a very good price.

Want to have covered everything, including water damage? Lotus car rental will cover it with their platinum insurance!

Highlands with more difficult F-roads

Going for highlands, F-roads, and gravel roads with medium river crossings? Get all available insurance, especially the one for water damage, undercarriage, and gravel!

There’s only 1 car rental company which we know about, that covers you against everything mentioned in this article, including river crossing. That is Lotus car rental. You can have a 5% discount for booking with them with our promo code: “epicicelandd5“

Alternatively, you may take special caution, avoid big river crossings and go for an insurance package without water insurance. In that case, I suggest you first read well full/platinum insurance conditions of your car rental company. If they include all of the damages I mentioned in the article (usually they don’t), then compare their price against RentalCover. This external provider covers everything except water damage for a very good price.

How to find out which roads have difficult river crossings? We’ve made a list of F-roads for you!

How does RentalCover work?

RentalCover is, in our opinion, the best 3rd party insurance provider for car rentals around the world, who will insure your Icelandic car rental. 

You need to buy insurance any day BEFORE the trip. If any accident or damage happens during your trip, this is the procedure to follow:

  1. Create documentation of the accident (photos, notes)
  2. Notify your car rental company immediately
  3. Pay for the damages to your car rental company – require confirmation for that!
  4. Send the documentation (photos, notes, your written communication with car rental company, confirmation of your payment) to RentalCover
  5. RentalCover will pay you for the damage

The main advantage of a third-party provider like RentalCover is most of the time the better price and better insurance coverage. 

The main disadvantage is that you have to pay for the damage first, and you will get the money back afterward. 

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Posted by Igor in Guide, Roads, Tips, 52 comments