Skip to content
The Life List

Travel

Drive the Ring Road all the way around Iceland

In February the sun clears the horizon around eleven and sinks again by four, so you drive most of the day through a long dusk, watching the tarmac for the sheen that means ice. Route 1 still runs its full 1,332 kilometres, but the single-lane bridges that felt playful in summer become something to take seriously, wipers losing the battle against sideways snow near the coast. Then, near Höfn, the back wheels go light for a second on black ice, and you take your foot off everything until the car settles itself. Nobody warns you how quiet that moment is.

Practical

Cost
$1,000–3,000
Best time
June to August for daylight and easier driving; possible but harder in winter
Difficulty
Moderate
Time it takes
7–10 days for a full circuit at an unhurried pace
What people get wrong
People underestimate driving distances and photo stops, arriving each night later than planned; in winter, many don't check road.is conditions and get caught out by ice or closures on single-lane bridges.
With
A group

Add to your list Already done it

Also this

  • Soak in the Blue Lagoon's milky blue water

    The steam hits you before the smell does, sulphur and wet rock, and then you're in it: water the colour of a Berocca tablet dissolving, made milky by silica that the volcanic run-off carries up from below.

    Best time:Year-round; winter adds snow and steam contrast, sometimes northern lights

  • Watch the sunset from Oia's caldera edge

    Forty minutes before sunset, the castle ruins in Oia fill in the way a stadium fills before kick-off — slowly, then all at once, everyone facing the same direction.

    Best time:April–May and September–October for clear skies and fewer crowds

  • Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok

    Every clock on board runs on Moscow time, so at what your body insists is midnight, the attendant serves breakfast and the platform outside says four in the afternoon.

    Best time:Late spring to early autumn, before the winter cold sets in

  • Hike the four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

    In January, thick with rain, you can still book a permit for August and lose it anyway if you wait past March.

    Best time:Dry season, best visibility and firmest ground

  • Drive Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica

    You start in Chicago traffic, cabs leaning on their horns, and by day four you're the only car on a two-lane road in Oklahoma with grass growing through the centreline.

    Best time:Spring or autumn, avoiding northern winter closures and desert summer heat

More in Travel.