Post cruise car rental in Reykjavik

[mwhm]

Our cruise on the Silver Moon ends in Reykjavik (Skarfabakki cruise dock away from town).  The ship is scheduled to arrive at 7 am.  A hotel for the night, transfers and a flight home the next day are included.  We are trying to decide whether it would be practical to rent a car for the day we arrive in Reykjavik.  In particular, we do not know how that could work logistically.  We could wait for Silversea to take us to the hotel, check in and then rent a car assuming there is a rental agency in or close to town, but would too much of the day have passed before we could rent the car to make that practical?   Could we forgo the Silversea transfer to the hotel and go directly to a rental car agency?  If so, where would we rent the car and how would we get there?  Would there be a problem with delayed hotel check-in?  Would dropping off the rental car later in the day and getting to the hotel be practical?

 

Has anyone done anything like this?  If so, we would certainly appreciate any advice you might have.

[FlyerTalker]

First note that the dock is less than three miles from the center of town.  It's not like Civitavecchia and Rome.

 

Second, there are car rental agency locations both near the port and in downtown.

 

Third, there are taxis in Reykjavik.

 

 

[mwhm]

Thanks.

 

[jpalbny]

Yes, we have done this at least three times.

 

Once we docked at the downtown older docks and Hertz met us at the pier, drove us to their office at the DOMESTIC airport (NOT KEFLAVIK) and we picked up the rental car there. Very easy. Their office is on the far edge of town; you could walk there but it would be a hike.

 

Another time we docked at Skarfabakki, and Hertz also picked us up there nad took us to their office, so we could pick up the car. That was 2019, so not all that long ago! 

 

On another occasion we were making a cruise stop in Reykjavik (not ending the cruise there). We walked along the waterfront from Skarfabakki, a pleasant stroll, to the central bus station. From there we caught a bus to a stop near a Europcar location in town, where we picked up. Upon return they very kindly drove us back to the ship. I would NOT want to do this while carrying luggage.

 

I've also had Hertz shuttle us back to our hotel in downtown Reykjavik when we returned a car on embarkation day.

 

I think that some other agencies now have offices on the Skarfabakki pier - I vaguely remember seeing them there in 2018 but not sure which one(s) are there. But I've found that rental car companies in Iceland will generally work with you to help you get to their locations. Suggest that you reach out to a few of them and see what they can offer. Hertz's email for Iceland is simply hertz@hertz.is if you'd like to see what they could offer.

[mwhm]

Thanks.  Really appreciate you taking the time to pass this information along.

[bohaiboy]

We were on the Shadow in August 2021.  Took a taxi to the BlueCar Rental agency, about $30 if I remember correctly.  We arranged to drop the car off at KEF airport.  If you plan on staying in Rey for sightseeing, I would not recommend a car.  The bus system is very easy and there are taxis, albeit very expensive.  There is no Uber.  Driving in Iceland (we did 10 days post cruise) is very easy and the roads are in better shape than most US roads.  Also, there are a few rental companies at the port, but I found their prices very high.  I would also think higher for a single day.  Gasoline is around $8/gal there.

[Lirio]

On 2/25/2022 at 5:42 PM, bohaiboy said:

We were on the Shadow in August 2021.  Took a taxi to the BlueCar Rental agency, about $30 if I remember correctly.  We arranged to drop the car off at KEF airport.  If you plan on staying in Rey for sightseeing, I would not recommend a car.  The bus system is very easy and there are taxis, albeit very expensive.  There is no Uber.  Driving in Iceland (we did 10 days post cruise) is very easy and the roads are in better shape than most US roads.  Also, there are a few rental companies at the port, but I found their prices very high.  I would also think higher for a single day.  Gasoline is around $8/gal there.

We have 10 days after our cruise (we will be at Silver Wind Kangerlussuaq - Kangerlussuaq) to drive around Iceland. Any recommendation?

[BeeMinor]

On 3/20/2022 at 9:33 AM, Lirio said:

We have 10 days after our cruise (we will be at Silver Wind Kangerlussuaq - Kangerlussuaq) to drive around Iceland. Any recommendation?

 

I assume you are flying into Keflavik from Kangerlussuaq? Ten days is just long enough that you can circumnavigate Iceland on the Ring Road, which is a rewarding and pretty easy drive. Off the Ring Road I'd suggest planning to spend a bit of time on the Snaefellsness peninsula and driving up to Husavik for the whale watching. The sights around Myvatn (near Husavik) are particularly varied and interesting, and the Myvatn Nature Baths are my favorite of the big geothermal pools. But if you wanted to limit driving time you could spend a couple of days in Reykjavik and then travel east along the south coast to Hofn and back. There are lots of sights concentrated along that southern corridor and the pace would be more leisurely.

[Lirio]

2 hours ago, BeeMinor said:

 

I assume you are flying into Keflavik from Kangerlussuaq? Ten days is just long enough that you can circumnavigate Iceland on the Ring Road, which is a rewarding and pretty easy drive. Off the Ring Road I'd suggest planning to spend a bit of time on the Snaefellsness peninsula and driving up to Husavik for the whale watching. The sights around Myvatn (near Husavik) are particularly varied and interesting, and the Myvatn Nature Baths are my favorite of the big geothermal pools. But if you wanted to limit driving time you could spend a couple of days in Reykjavik and then travel east along the south coast to Hofn and back. There are lots of sights concentrated along that southern corridor and the pace would be more leisurely.

Thank you. Silversea is providing flights to and from Kangerlussuaq to Keflavik. Snaefellsness peninsula seems a great place. We are not sure we will do the entire Ring Road. We will arrive in Reykjavik 2 days before the cruise (since it is very far from Brazil, we prefer to arrive earlier) so we will see around the city.

[jpalbny]

46 minutes ago, Lirio said:

Thank you. Silversea is providing flights to and from Kangerlussuaq to Keflavik. Snaefellsness peninsula seems a great place. We are not sure we will do the entire Ring Road. We will arrive in Reykjavik 2 days before the cruise (since it is very far from Brazil, we prefer to arrive earlier) so we will see around the city.

 

Enjoy! Iceland is one of our favorite destinations. We have gone a few times on our own and have also made a bunch of cruise stops there. 

 

Agree that 10 days would be enough to drive the Ring Road. We have done most of it, but over the course of numerous trips - just not all in one trip. 

 

In the Snaefellsness Peninsula, Stykkisholmur is a nice place to stay. 

 

There is also a lot to do in the Akureyri region. That is worth a few days.

 

And the South Coast is rugged and beautiful in its own right.

 

Reykjavik is a fairly walkable city with enough to keep you busy for a few days. And the Golden Triangle is definitely worth the hype. We've visited those sites in both winter and in summer. Beautiful in all seasons.

 

The one place we haven't really visited is the Westfjords region. Come to think of it you may need two weeks... Just make sure that you book your hotels in advance.

 

 

[BeeMinor]

Agree with everything JP suggests. I'd add that you should be sure to rent a car at minimum with all-wheel drive and maybe a bit more rugged than you might think you need. The Ring Road and the area right around Reykjavik have good roads, but there are many, many gravel roads and roads that aren't really accessible to a standard car in places you wouldn't expect, like within national parks or just off the Ring Road. 

 

One hidden gem--Kvernufoss, just off the Ring Road on the south coast, is truly beautiful and much less visited than the better-known falls around Iceland. The access point is from a museum parking lot and you have to cross over a fence using a short stepladder so it doesn't seem like you are allowed to take the trail but you are! There's a short and pretty easy walk back to the gorge where the waterfall is, and assuming this is a summertime visit you should be able to go behind the falls. Magical.

[bohaiboy]

We spent 9 or 10 days just along the south coast.  We had totally full days just to see that.  I personally think the 10 days to circumnavigate is just giving you  a whirlwind glimpse.  To fully enjoy and take your time I think 15-20 days for circumnavigating would be ideal.  We did a 10 day Silver Shadow around and it mainly stopped in the western and northern area, and a stop at Haimay Island which will take a full day on its on due to to having to use the ferry.

[cruiseej]

18 hours ago, bohaiboy said:

I personally think the 10 days to circumnavigate is just giving you  a whirlwind glimpse.  To fully enjoy and take your time I think 15-20 days for circumnavigating would be ideal.

 

It obviously depends on your travel style: if you like to do long, strenuous hikes which take a good chunk of a day, you can cover less ground than someone else who has more limited mobility and does only short walks. And it depends on your view of travel plans: if you figure this is your only visit to Iceland, then perhaps the full circle in less depth could be better than focusing on one region and never getting to see the rest of the country; if you figure you'll be back some day, then doing part of the country in-depth this time might make sense. There's no "right" answer for everyone. 

 

If you Google circumnavigating Iceland, you'll find many tour descriptions that do it in 6 or 7 days. (It's about 1,300 kilometers around, so you could do it in as little as two days… if you barely stopped! No one would recommend that.) 9-10 days is certainly enough time to do the circumnavigation if you want, and if you don't have 15-20 days. 

[Lirio]

5 hours ago, cruiseej said:

Probably we will not be back to Iceland again. We do like hiking and my husband is the only driver (I do not), so we are considering to go to some specific areas, not all the ring road.

We found a very interesting Ponant cruise of 8 days in Iceland - Reykjavik to Reykjavik. The only issue is that it departures in the same day of Silversea disembarkation and so far there is no information about the schedule of the charter flight from Kangerlussuaq. I think is too risky to start a second cruise on the same day.

[BeeMinor]

19 hours ago, Lirio said:

On 3/24/2022 at 10:01 AM, cruiseej said:

Probably we will not be back to Iceland again. We do like hiking and my husband is the only driver (I do not), so we are considering to go to some specific areas, not all the ring road.

We found a very interesting Ponant cruise of 8 days in Iceland - Reykjavik to Reykjavik. The only issue is that it departures in the same day of Silversea disembarkation and so far there is no information about the schedule of the charter flight from Kangerlussuaq. I think is too risky to start a second cruise on the same day.

 

I think I found that general itinerary. It looks great for a repeat visit to Iceland, but it doesn't allow for visits to some of the iconic/impressive sights I think you'd want to visit on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, like Detifoss or the black sand beaches near Vik. But if you are not interested in doing the full Ring Road, it's hard to see all those things on one trip anyway because they're on opposite sides of the island and you can't cut through the middle!

 

You might do something like this, which shouldn't leave you with more than 2-3 hours of driving each day. Nothing is close together in Iceland.

Day 1: Arrive

Day 2-4: Drive up to the Snaefellsness Peninsula, spend a couple days touring the sights, return to Reykjavik. If you'd like a good, challenging hike, you could stop at Glymur waterfall along the way.

Day 5-7: Drive east along the south coast as far as Hofn at your own pace. You might spend a day along the Golden Circle and stay in Selfoss, then stop at various sights on the way to a night in Vik, and then travel onward toward Skaftafell and the glacier lagoons. Have a langoustine dinner at Pakkhus in Hofn.

Day 8-9: Travel back toward Reykjavik and see whatever you think you missed when you drove by before! Vik is about the halfway point of that drive, and you can visit ice caves year-round on tours from Vik which is a nice excursion. 

Day 10: Depart

 

Another possibility with less driving is to fly from Reykjavik to Akureyri, rent a car there, and spend several days seeing sights around Akureyri, Myvatn, Husavik, etc. Those are all fairly close together and there is a lot to do. Then fly back to Reykjavik and just tour the Golden Circle area.

 

[OlsSalt]

We did a self-drive Iceland Ring Road a number of years ago - on a flight-hotel-car package. Luckily we rented a small Yaris because at that time gas in Iceland was $7 a gallon, and the smaller car was just the right size for smaller roads and parking ease. 

 

My memory is travel services are easy to obtain since Iceland welcomes tourism - they make things easy for you and even their largest city is "small" by our standards, and the rest of the country  is very rural, petite and very accessible. Day and night when you find still touring at 11pm is like 4pm in the afternoon if you are their during their "white nights".

 

Best thing we did was buy the Iceland Auto Club Road Atlas when we picked up the car and learned about many intriguing side roads and info tips along the way. It is written to be used in a clockwise route around the country, and we were on a counterclockwise wise travel hotel voucher plan, so that was fun trying to read the book backwards.

 

Highlights included the Lake Mytan area and their large mineral water baths -much more rustic, local and scenic than the better known Blue Lagoon. Tracking the area of the "Beserkers" myth in the north and finding where they do sell fermented shark with free samples.

 

Just a magical experience, everywhere. $80-100 lunch stops got to be the new "normal" even for the simplest fare. And this was over 15 years ago. 

[jpalbny]

24 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

Just a magical experience, everywhere. $80-100 lunch stops got to be the new "normal" even for the simplest fare. And this was over 15 years ago. 

 

Yes! Food is crazy expensive there. The best food "bargains" are found in the gas station cafeterias. It's much better than it sounds.

[Lirio]

Thank you all. I will let you know our plans soon. 

[IamHungry]

On 2/23/2022 at 6:19 PM, jpalbny said:

Yes, we have done this at least three times.

 

Once we docked at the downtown older docks and Hertz met us at the pier, drove us to their office at the DOMESTIC airport (NOT KEFLAVIK) and we picked up the rental car there. Very easy. Their office is on the far edge of town; you could walk there but it would be a hike.

 

Another time we docked at Skarfabakki, and Hertz also picked us up there nad took us to their office, so we could pick up the car. That was 2019, so not all that long ago! 

 

On another occasion we were making a cruise stop in Reykjavik (not ending the cruise there). We walked along the waterfront from Skarfabakki, a pleasant stroll, to the central bus station. From there we caught a bus to a stop near a Europcar location in town, where we picked up. Upon return they very kindly drove us back to the ship. I would NOT want to do this while carrying luggage.

 

I've also had Hertz shuttle us back to our hotel in downtown Reykjavik when we returned a car on embarkation day.

 

I think that some other agencies now have offices on the Skarfabakki pier - I vaguely remember seeing them there in 2018 but not sure which one(s) are there. But I've found that rental car companies in Iceland will generally work with you to help you get to their locations. Suggest that you reach out to a few of them and see what they can offer. Hertz's email for Iceland is simply hertz@hertz.is if you'd like to see what they could offer.

How do you arrange for hertz pick up?

[jpalbny]

1 hour ago, IamHungry said:

How do you arrange for hertz pick up?

 

I just emailed them, after I'd made the reservation. 

 

It was hertz@hertz.is I think. Double check on their Iceland website.

 

 

[Kathiem1954]

They just emailed me they don’t pick up. I need a car for a day. Can you post if you find any other options?