On a self-driving tour of Iceland, you get to explore the Land of Ice and Fire at your own pace. You can steer clear of the big coach tours and get Iceland’s beautiful scenery all to yourself.
Our self-drive holidays are perfect for independent travellers with a sense of adventure. But if a self-drive holiday isn’t what you had in mind, we have lots of other northern lights holidays in Iceland to choose from:
Driving around south Iceland is a joy at any time of year. But we only recommend self-driving in north Iceland in summer and early autumn. In winter, the roads in north Iceland are likely to be icy and snowy.
Of course, if seeing the northern lights is your priority, you should travel to Iceland between September and April. During these months, nights are longer so you have a good chance of seeing the aurora borealis.
Yes. All our self-drive holidays in Iceland include 4×4 car hire and insurance. Just let us know if you need any extras, like child seats or additional named drivers.
There’s just one main road around the whole of Iceland. This ring road — called Route 1 — offers access to Iceland’s most popular attractions.
Driving around the ring road is easy. There’s just a single lane in each direction and very little traffic. However, you need to stay alert to changing weather conditions, particularly in winter.
There are also more challenging mountain roads, which are marked “F” on maps. They have loose gravel surfaces and are only open in summer months. These roads are only suitable for 4×4 vehicles.
Book with Aurora Nights and we can give you the right equipment and advice for a safe self-drive tour in Iceland.
Read more: Self-driving tips for your northern lights holiday
Travel to Iceland between September and April and you have a good chance of seeing the northern lights. Of course, weather and solar conditions sometimes have other ideas. But we do everything we can to ensure you get to see nature’s most spectacular light show.
On our Iceland northern lights self-drive holidays you stay in remote hotels in dark-sky regions. You’ll get aurora wake-up calls. You can also choose to stay at Hotel Ranga, which has its own observatory, high-tech telescopes and resident astronomy experts.
But you don’t have to wait for the aurora borealis to come to you. With our experienced northern lights guides, you can embark on exciting aurora excursions each evening. Using the aurora and weather forecasts, our guides will take you to places where the northern lights are most likely to make an appearance.
What can I see and do on your self-drive tour packages?
On our self-drive holidays in Iceland, you can enjoy a mix of self-guided touring and organised excursions. Here are a couple of highlights:
On a self-drive tour of Iceland, you’ll stay in a selection of hand-picked hotels.
Boutique hotels in Reykjavik. Self-catering apartments, perfect for families. Luxurious lodges out in the wilderness. A spa retreat on the shores of the Blue Lagoon.
Whatever kind of Icelandic holiday you’re looking for, we can suggest and book the ideal accommodation. We’ll ensure that exceptional food, drink and a comfortable bed await you after each day of adventure.
Yes, absolutely. We can customise any of the tours listed above to meet your requirements. We can adapt them to combine the destinations and activities, budget and schedule you have in mind.
You can also combine an Iceland northern lights holiday with adventures in any of our other Nordic destinations:
Book your Iceland driving holiday with Aurora Nights and you can count on:
Select from the Iceland self-drive tours above. Then make an enquiry. The Aurora Nights team will get back to you soon. We’ll chat about your budget, schedule and wish list activities to create a custom tour just for you.
Don’t see a tour you like? Then just get in touch to create something completely bespoke.
Cannot thank this company enough. Our break to Iceland was the second time we’ve let them organise everything for us and once again they didn’t disappoint. Everything ran seamlessly and the organised tours were wonderful. This company knows what they are doing. If you want to experience the geysers, the volcano, the northern lights and all the other exciting things that Iceland has to offer then this is the company to use.
We had a fantastic 4 nights that included glaciers, waterfalls, geysers, the aurora borealis and more! Lovely hotels, especially Hotel Ranga. We filled every moment and felt thoroughly invigorated on our return.
Brilliant short break. Hotel Ranga was lovely, excellent food. Managed to see the Northern Lights as well! Iceland on the whole was quite expensive but a lovely place to visit, the people were very friendly.
An excellent holiday which was enjoyed by all. The super jeep ride on the second day to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano was memorable and thanks to our driver Margaret who proved to be a really good guide. We thoroughly enjoyed the facilities in the hotel Ranga. The staff were very helpful and we managed to see the Northern Lights. The Hotel Reykjavik Centrum was very nice with amazingly helpful staff. All in all, the whole holiday was brilliant.
Superb holiday to Iceland, well organised, advice regarding trips informative and far exceeded our expectations (Glaciers and ice Cave) run by South Coast. Hotel Ranga is a lovely hotel, perfect to see Northern Lights (which we did see on our 3rd night), very comfortable, food excellent, staff helpful and informative. SouthCoast Adventure tour company were excellent, guides knowledgeable, and clearly very experienced.
We enjoyed both the hotels that were arranged by weekend a la Carte Aurora nights. The Porsmork trip was very enjoyable, both guides were fantastic and informative.
The Northern Light hunt trip out of Reykjavik with Superjeep was an adventure and we got to see the lights, worth braving the cold at -6.
My daughter and I had an amazing time on our trip, we didn’t want it to end! Everything went according to plan, each excursion was well organized and everyone involved with each activity, as well as everyone at the lodge was kind, friendly, positive and happy, which makes such a difference to your whole experience. The food at The Abisko Mountain Lodge was also incredibly good. Our room was large, comfortable and well-furnished. The bathroom too was also spacious and well-equipped. The outdoor clothing provided was of very good quality which kept us warm, and the staff members are happy to change items if they are not quite the right size for you. This is my second trip with Weekend a la carte and I’m sure there will be more as I have complete trust in them. I highly recommend Aurora Nights, it was fabulous.
I appreciate the fast response to my inquiries regarding my trip. It would take decision making faster on my part, and plan my itinerary and activities being offered by the company accordingly.
Book with Aurora Nights, the Northern Lights holiday experts. We will personally plan your bucket-list Northern Lights adventure holiday to Swedish Lapland, Iceland, Norway and Finland.
