Why the campervan worked for us
We were two adults in a small van without a bathroom. That simplicity worked because we were comfortable relying on campground facilities and valued flexibility more than hotel comfort.
Our very practical comfort upgrade
Before leaving the Reykjavík area, we stopped at Costco for snacks and good-quality pillows. It sounds minor, but a good pillow makes a real difference when the van is both your transportation and bedroom.
Do not over-plan the nights—but do plan the essentials
We generally did not reserve campsites far in advance. Instead, we figured out where we were likely to finish each day and chose a legitimate campground there. That let us keep hiking or stop spontaneously without racing toward a hotel reservation.
What you cannot leave to chance is fuel and food. Parts of the Ring Road feel genuinely remote, with long stretches of very little development. Fill up before you are desperate for gas and keep basic food in the van.
The East Fjords: let the drive be the experience
The roads were slow and winding, but this was some of our favorite driving in Iceland. Almost every turn seemed to reveal another place we wanted to stop, and there were stretches where we saw almost no one else.
The stops that made the route worth it
The Ring Road was not about completing a loop. It was how we reached places that felt increasingly different from the busiest Reykjavík and South Coast attractions.